New Nissan Trucks Are Coming! | Ep. 327

0:00The new week OV Pill is now available through Weight Watchers. Powerful GLP1 results in a simple pill at the lowest price available. And with Weight Watchers, you can get doctor support and personalized nutrition programs. See if you qualify at WeightWatchers.com. Add not reviewed or approved by Novo Nordisk. Spring weekends are my favorite. The art is full of blooms. The grill is fired up and the family gathers around the patio table. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local, total wine and more to pick up a few bottles of wine. Usually a cabernet I already love and sometimes a new fine to share. Find what you love and love what you find only at total wine and more. Visit totalwine.com to learn more. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly B-21. This episode of TFL Talking Trucks Podcast is heavy duty. It's bigger than usual because we're talking quite a bit about semi-trucks, which we're excited about.

1:00But there's also really big news. Huge news. And when I say heavy duty, I mean the heaviest of duties. Yeah. I mean big rigs. And also, there's huge news coming out of Japan. Roman actually flew to Japan and he was there, speaking with a lot of people from Nissan. And the exteriors coming back, dude. Exactly. That's been the talk of the town Nissan is in the news now for good reasons, which is encouraging because they've put out some teasers of the new exterra that they've been talking about that they were working on for a while. So a new exterra coming out is a huge deal. Yeah. And why are we talking about there's on a pickup truck podcast? Well, it's because it's body on frame and here there's a short clip. This is official. This is not even AI, dude. This is Nissan giving us a sneak peek at what the exteriors are going to look like. And they said this body on frame architecture that they'll be using for the exterra

2:05will spawn a total of five vehicles. Which is cool. So they're putting quite a bit of investment and R&D into more body on frame vehicles. Some of which are going to be very rugged. Obviously, the talk about this exterra has been at least a version of it with 35s, which is big deal. Yeah, it is. So this is not just going to be kind of a half-assed attempt. They're going to go for it turning this exterra into a real Bronco Wrangler forerunner competitor from the sound of it. Yeah. And of course, Frontier is going to be part of this because Frontier is still here. I mean, it's still actually, it had a good month. Sounds sad when you say it that way. Well, Frontier. Still, it's still around. Well, Frontier's been coming up. Okay, maybe that wasn't the perfect choice of words, but it had a great Q1. I mean, it's been doing quite well in the sales. Just a super honest vehicle, really honest pickup truck,

3:05that just does a lot of work. I mean, we've used it on the IGODlet several times. It's been amazing. So the exterra, of course, the Frontier has to stay. Yes, I mean, there's the makes perfect sense. But what do you think the other three vehicles would be? Because we have exterra, Frontier, and Nissan and Infinity said that they will have some vehicles as well. Yeah, possibly a version of the exterra on their own, which could be interesting because obviously, Infinity is a more luxury brand. So if they make a version of the exterra, then that one will be more nicely equipped, something along the lines of like a GX. Dude, wouldn't be awesome to do a Lexus GX versus Infinity. I don't know what they would call it, QX60 maybe? I mean, there's already a QX60, but QX something. QX Terra. QX Terra. But the other cool thing that Nissan has talked about with this exterra

4:06is that it sounds like they're targeting this to undercut in price its competitors. So it sounds like they want to be less expensive than Wrangler, less expensive than Forerunner, and Bronco. Dude, that would be huge. Which would be great. And the current Frontier undercuts some of the versions of the Tacoma for sure. I mean, so this could be really, really interesting. And also, another vehicle could be a body-on-frame pathfinder, because in the past, and by the way, the styling of the new exterra reminds me of the hard body, the three lights. Yeah, the three lights. It does. It's got a little bit of hard body DNA into it. Yeah. Now, some of these are renderings. This is my rendering. Yeah, this is not an official image, but from what we're told, it sounds like the finished product should look a lot like what we're seeing here. Yeah, and so the pathfinder also kind of evolved via a body-on-frame chassis.

5:12And then it went unibody and then body-on-frame. Yes, it was first and third gen were body-on-frame, right? Yes. So they've kind of gone back and forth a little bit. I think the pathfinder could benefit from going back to body-on-frame and maybe making things a little bit more rugged, because the pathfinder rock creek doesn't quite fit in the build. No, it's a little bit more of a badge kind of light off-roader. Yeah. It would be really cool if the three-row pathfinder would be a little bit more off-road-ready. But they have other vehicles to like if you want something more efficient, there's the rogue. I mean, there's a lot of other vehicles. And they're moving to e-power on a lot of their machines, so electrified power trains that use electric motors to drive the wheel, and then a gas engine to supply power and electricity to those electric motors, which is a cool system. So yeah, like you said, they've got more economy-focused cars. They covered that, but there's huge sales in this category of vehicle.

6:13Obviously, Bronco, Wrangler, Foreutter, sell a massive amount. So if they can target some of that with this X-Tera, I think it's going to be a big benefit to Nissan as far as sales are concerned. But it's also going to be a benefit to us as consumers to have another option out there on the market, more competition. And especially if they're targeting a lower price, maybe that's going to put some pressure on a few other manufacturers to have to either make their vehicles that much better or bring their prices down as well. Yeah, and if we continue with some news along these lines, if we go to, well, there's also news of GMC Jimmy returning as a true off-roader, but it's just a rumor right now. So I mean, people have asked me what have I heard, what do GMC tell me, and GMC has said nothing. Yeah, and this has been a rumor for a while, and I've seen a lot of AI kind of renderings that are showing basically a modern square body

7:13that I think is a design that's maybe a little more extreme toward the end of a neo-retro kind of design than what I figured GM would actually do. I don't think they're going to make a modern square body. But that would be awesome. It would be cool. But I don't know if I agree with you. I don't know if they're going. I don't know if they're going to design a perfect brick like the square body was back in the day with just LED lights and a new motor. Yeah. So unlikely, but it is very plausible that they are going to be working on a vehicle in this category, because again, the proof is there. The sales figures on machines like these are pretty fantastic. So I cannot fathom why GM wouldn't want to get in on that. And obviously, they brought back the blazer name in a way that people weren't so excited about. So they kind of tarnished that a little bit in recent history. Yeah. So maybe Jimmy is a better name to... It's kind of cool, I think.

8:14To dig up, to make a vehicle like this. Yeah. I think it's still a cool name. Yeah, I like Jimmy. And so, Cole, if you go back to TFLTruck.com homepage, we have several other... Because several stories... Let's go down a little bit and start from like a week ago, a little bit more... Yes. Kia. So in New York, Cole and I were there. We saw the Hyundai Boulder concept, which is a body-on-frame SUV. Once again, same exterior competitor. And then just a few days later, Kia said, oh, by the way, we're also going to have a body-on-frame pickup truck in the United States. And we're showing images of the Tasman. But I don't think the Tasman will come to the US. No. So to speak? For a couple reasons, because so far, Hyundai and Kia, they've dipped their toe into the water a little bit with pickup trucks with the Santa Cruz. Yes. And Santa Cruz hasn't been a total failure,

9:16but compared to the Maverick, it hasn't sold nearly as many minutes. And now they're discontinuing the Santa Cruz. So I think they've figured out that if you're going to go for it, in the United States, if you're going to make a pickup truck, you got to really commit. Dive in head first. You can't just dip your toe in the water. And the reception for the Tasman has obviously not been... Well, incredible. Well, because it's a lot controversial, and it looks in the looks department. But here's where the Tasman is. I think the Tasman could be a great high-lox competitor overseas. Sure. There's other markets where the Tasman could be really interesting. It has a lot of payload in those markets. Maybe even a diesel engine. But coming into the US, they probably will redesign it somehow to be a little bit more in line with some of the styling and also the size of the truck in the US. I think they realize that that would be something they would need to do to bring that vehicle here to the States,

10:18because if it's already got mixed reception overseas, and people in the US are pretty particular about trucks, they're going to already have an uphill battle. They're facing, so they're definitely not... If they just bring the Tasman here to the States as is, I don't really think it's going to work. But it would be cool if they redesign the truck or create a whole new truck to bring here to the States and bring something new to the table. Because if you're kind of the new kid on the block, you've got a lot of work to do to establish yourself. So if they could do something like bring a diesel mid-sized truck, which at the moment here in the States. It could be unlikely, though. I mean, it would be interesting, but unlikely. It would be interesting. Or some kind of plug-and-honey. I may be, or something different. I'm sensing like a range extender, too. By the way, Nissan said V6 power for the Exterra or the V6 hybrid. So they're still staying with larger displacement V6 engines

11:19for the Exterra for the unforeseeable future. Kia, I don't see them going to a V6 when they come here. And they said by around 2029 a pickup truck would arrive, so by the end of the decade. So I see them leaning into their electrification a little bit more. Maybe like a range extender or like a hybrid. Yeah, that's what I see. Yeah, so one way or another, they're going to have a lot of work to do to prove themselves as a truck brand when they come to the States, because that's not an easy thing to do. But also, Hyundai said their pickup truck is coming, so they'll be a pair. And also, like you said, they're jumping in with both feet. I mean, completely, because they said it's going to be U.S. made with U.S. steel. So, I mean, they're really are looking into this really heavily. And they're projecting humongous sales. So they're being very aggressive with these little pickup trucks.

12:22They'll have to be to make it work. But still, this is several years in the future. Yeah, this is not going to be next week. So this is not next year. The Exterra is supposed to come at the end of 2028, which is unfortunate because it needs to be out right now. Right? So, and these Kia and Hyundai pickup trucks are also couple three years away. So this is not going to happen immediately. All right, let's move on to some other news. If we can go back to our homepage, because several things were going on, let's keep moving up. Well, yeah, we'll talk about Volvo semi-trucks in a second, because you have an interview with an expert, right? Yeah, exactly. We talked a little bit to the Volvo team about some of the engineering behind the truck, how crazy the powertrain is on that vehicle, which is all pretty cool stuff. But I wanted to ask you about this heavy duty ram. I wanted to get your impressions of this. Yeah, so tell me about it. Yeah, so ram is introducing something they call

13:24pursuit capable vehicle. Basically, I'm calling it a cup truck. This is a heavy duty, 2,500, and they did something interesting. So first of all, this is not a comments. This is a, this is a heavy six point four leader that they have another ram heavy duties. But they did something quite interesting. It's a tradesman, but they put a rear axle out of a power wagon into this. So it's got an aggressive four 10 to one rear axle ratio. Is it four wheel drive? It is four wheel drive. It's going to have a lot of accessories that police departments and government agencies can put on this. And it's a crew cab. Only will come as a crew cab with a standard bed. So basically six foot four inch bed. An interior is very basic, vinyl, everything, rubber floors. It's supposed to be affordable. We don't know how much it costs because it's kind of a fleet vehicle that they will sell to agencies. But yeah, what do you think?

14:26A heavy duty pursuit truck? Yeah, well, that's interesting if being a pursuit truck in particular. Because a lot of our viewers are saying, what are you pursuing? Yeah, we know from driving them, especially with the Hemi, can be a little bit anemic as far as any of the gas V8 options go in a modern HD truck. It's not to say that the six four Hemi's necessarily way down on power, but it is the smallest displacement. But still four hundred and five horsepower? Yeah, yeah, which is not too bad. We've seen trucks like this used for other purposes out in California. We were working a little bit with California Highway Patrol and we saw a truck that they had that was equipped for basically enforcing laws around semi-trucks. Yeah, basically a truck that was carrying a lot of like weight scale like mobile scales, all kind of gear for them all kind of gear. Yeah, to make sure that all those regulations and things are being followed,

15:27this is kind of a different use case. Yeah, but look at this. If you scroll down a little bit, Michigan State Police tested it at 0 to 60, 0 to 80 miles an hour, 0 to 100 miles an hour. You know, that's kind of what police departments test for. I mean, there's several different. And look, it did an 8.4, 1 second, 0 to 60, which is not going to break in your records. But hey, there is nothing faster than the police radio. Yeah, well, and ultimately, I mean, neither of us are police officers, but I would imagine there is more to pursuit vehicles than just being fast and catching up the cars, right? It's about collaboration, right? Speaking with other vehicles. And I'm sure there's plenty of situations where a heavy vehicle like this is useful. So yeah, it's pretty interesting. Also, Border Patrol, I think, uses power wagons sometimes, and also raptors. Yeah. So, I mean, there's different vehicles

16:28for different use cases, definitely. My name's Mackenzie, and I started to go find me for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal, autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com.

17:28This podcast is supported by GoFundMe. Spring weekends are all about family, sunshine, and enjoying the season together. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local total line and more to grab a great bottle. Maybe a favorite we already know and love are something new to try with the meal. With so many bottles to choose from, it's easy to discover something amazing. And the lowest prices make it easy to grab an extra bottle for everyone. Find what you love and love what you find only a total wine and more. Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas, visit totalwind.com to learn more. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina and drink responsibly B-21. All right, let's keep going. Let's keep firing some news items here. We have a few to get through. So if we can go back to the, we spoke about this. Oh, Jeep is doing this thing where every month they're unveiling something new for the Wrangler and war gladiator. And this week or this month, I should say, it was this kind of retro themed gladiator. Yeah, it's a super retro color scheme.

18:30Most of these drops, these things that they've been releasing. They've been dropping it on us. Every month have been appearance packages. Although some of them have been pretty cool. Like the Moab 392 and the Willis 392. Yeah, so more affordable 392, yeah. Which I'm happy about because I love V8s. But this is not a V8 gladiator, unfortunately. No, this is just an appearance package. Yeah, but a cool one at that. So it's pretty interesting. It's very bright. It's very purple. I say that wearing a purple and green hoodie. Actually, you're matching kind of with this gladiator. Yeah, yeah, I would do pretty well. I'll stay there next to that. So yeah, no, I think it's pretty cool. It's the rewind. Yeah, so they're calling it rewind. It's kind of 80s, 80s cool. Jeep is kind of the master of special editions and color schemes. Speaking of Moab, speaking of Utah, I wanted to ask you a little bit preview of what you did this week because you were traveling for like three days.

19:30Yeah, so Tommy and I partnered with Moab. I mean, TFL really partnered with Moab. Not partnered with Moab. We partnered with Onyx. You partnered with Moab. That's crazy exciting. No, we partnered with Onyx to do a trip out to Moab. Yes, it's called a rugged adventure. They've got video series under the same name that they've done with several different people on YouTube. And the most recent is going to be us. So can you give us a taste? Some pictures maybe. What vehicles, by the way, you brought? Yeah, so I have some photos. We did a trip out to Moab. Checked out some trails that are maybe a little less traveled than some others. And we brought our 100 series Land Cruiser. And we brought Tommy's LR3. Both of those vehicles are from St. Marra. The Land Cruiser is in L5 and his LR3 is in L6. And we ended up in some really pretty places. Both of these vehicles are very close to stock. It's primarily just tires that are changed on them.

20:31So the trails that we went in ran and places that we saw, were all places you could go in a pretty much stock vehicle. Now at one point, Tommy put a trail-rated jeep bad on the side of the Land Cruiser as a prank. What? And I didn't bring any props to prank him with because I wasn't planning for that. So while he wasn't paying attention, I went in and drew Ford Explorer on the back of his LR3 because Ford owned Land Rover when this LR3 was made. They oversaw the final development of the LR3 and his LR3 has a four-liter V6 from a Ford Explorer. So there's a lot of people that think admittedly and correctly that the LR3 is just a different body on a Ford Explorer. Vehicles are very different. But if you want to upset an LR3 owner, especially Tommy, tell him that his Land Rover is just a Ford Explorer. Yeah, Tommy's not here. Obviously right now with us in the studio. But if he was, he'll be interesting to hear what he would say.

21:33Although putting a Jeep badge on the Land Cruiser, that's also will ruffle many feathers. For sure. Well, and once I started calling his LR3 a Ford Explorer, he started calling the Land Cruiser a Sequoia. Yeah. So a little bit of a rivalry going on there. But we ended up on some fantastic trails, some really cool obstacles. And it's all stuff that you could do in most factory four by fours that are decently rugged and have a good set of tires. Can I do it in my Subaru Outback? No. Okay. But I could follow what you did because you left breadcrumbs on the app. Yes. And everything. You took pictures. So anybody could follow this on Onyx Offroad app. And also the video is coming out your full trip. And it's a cool route that he planned because it avoids a lot of the really high traffic areas. So at one point we were on Fins and Things, which is probably one of the more frequent trails

22:38that were along the whole journey. But most of what we were doing was designed so that you could go there even during peak season and still avoid a lot of the chaos. And probably check out some trails that you've never been on before. So it will also take a little bit of extra time because you're traveling further off the beaten path. But not, you know, not a ridiculous amount of time because we left Colorado on Tuesday, went and ran a few things, spent the night in Moab Tuesday night, and then drove more trails on Wednesday, camped Wednesday night, and then got back here to Colorado at about 4.30 on Thursday. Okay. So even including the drive from Denver area and filming out there and back and stopping the film, we were able to do all of that in basically three days. That's really cool. Yeah, that's really cool. Okay, cool. What else do we have on our news item? We have a couple more things going on on the website,

23:40at least. Oh, yes, I did this this week. While you were gone, I decided to do a couple of different reviews. So I was at our local friends, Johnson Auto Plaza, and I saw not one, but two brand new Ram 1500 DC 650 supercharged 5.7 liter heavy trucks. Which is cool. So it's a mean street truck. It's lowered. It's got a pretty aggressive little splitter underneath the front bumper, some cool decals, and obviously supercharged, which is always good. So I did a full kind of a walk around review first drive because this was indeed my first experience with this package. You saw something similar because you saw like a concept vehicle in Michigan, right? When you and Tommy were there, you saw one of those supercharged engines. It was an early version of this vehicle essentially, and that was out at Roadkill Nights in Detroit. Nice. Yeah, but now it's real.

24:41Actually, so it's a collaboration between Ram and also Fox Factory. So Fox Factory actually does the conversion. They lowered the rear end of the truck by four inches. They lowered the front end by two inches. So it's really is sitting quite nicely, I mean, for a street truck, right? Yeah, it looks good. It also is pricey. It's not sugar. Yeah, supercharged anything is not cheap. But when Cole was with me, we were doing a towing test, gas versus diesel towing test at Johnson Auto Plaza. He was eyeing this truck. He kind of wanted to buy it. Yeah, I could see Cole for his long commute from Denver to Boulder and back every day, benefiting from a 650 horsepower car. Only, only premium fuel. Yeah, right? So you have to put 91 octane at least into this. And also, it costs about $91,000. You could take out a mortgage to buy and operate this truck.

25:42Well, maybe Cole, you know, when this podcast flies off, you know, it accelerates into the room. He's going to get a huge bonus. A huge bonus and he is going to go out and he's going to buy one of these. Buy a house, buy a truck, buy a plane, all of that. So yeah, it is a very cool truck. But, well, there's a video out. But I wasn't able to drag race it because it wasn't broken in. Yeah. And you don't want to break one of these trucks because like we said, it's expensive. Yeah, replacing one. Well, the dealer told me our friends at the dealership told me that if I break it, I buy it. I basically have bought it. And that does not come Andre's wife approved? No, I don't think my wife would appreciate that. Okay, like that's what? Surprise, we've bought a $90,000 truck. It's a little broken. But I could fix it. Yeah, with more money. With more money. Okay. And then you and I did one of our most popular stories

26:44from this week, actually the most popular story from this week, is you and I did gas versus diesel Chevy, Denver 100 MPG loop, with a 6.6 liter versus 6.6 DRIMax. Yeah. And people have told us, first of all, people appreciated that they watched it. But people told us that we should have been towing. Sure, I mean, they told us we should have been doing a lot of things. Ultimately, the video was meant to be an MPG comparison and cost of feeling it. Everyone was saying, well, what about the long-term maintenance on the diesel and everything? That's kind of a hard thing to calculate because you don't know until you run them for 10 years. Yeah. And we're not going to go do that 100 mile loop around Denver for the next 10 years to figure out which truck is more expensive to run. Yeah, that'd be hard. There's plenty of things that you could factor into it, because yeah, a diesel in the long run is very likely going to be more expensive to maintain. But on the flip side, if you buy a gas powered HD truck,

27:44there's also the cost of therapy because your dad won't return your phone calls. Ooh. Because you didn't buy the diesel. So there's, I mean, there's a lot to factor into it. It's not really the point of the video was more just about fuel economy. But here's the thing, that diesel fuel is currently and actually in the past, too, has been quite a bit more expensive than gasoline. True, yeah. And partially, it's because, I mean, I'm not a chemist or an economist. But you know, ultra low sulfur content, diesel that we have at our pumps, it takes a little bit more to refine it, right, actually, to make it so. And it sucks because diesel engines are great at efficiency, towing trailers. So what we did yesterday was ZAC and Cole and Ian. And I'm sorry, you missed it. But we did a commons versus Hemi while towing. Yeah. So that's coming next week. Yeah, that's what we did is coming next week.

28:45And we did the same actually long loop. We went 123 miles. And we're going to find out what happens. Yeah, which will be interesting because it is a valid point. It's a valid thing to bring up in the comments that a big reason you might buy a diesel over a gas or is for towing efficiency. So we want to cover that as well. Exactly. That being said, there are plenty of times when people are driving around an HD truck not pulling a trailer. So I think it's useful to have both pieces of information. I agree, I agree. But I would say I'm actually wondering is a diesel now worth buying because the fuel is so expensive. So I would say if you're not using your diesel truck as it's intended for towing, for going long distance, why buy it? Yeah, fair enough. Sorry, I think we might get into a fight right now. We live here in the mountains

29:46where a lot of gas-powered HD trucks already feel a little anemic. Yeah, because of elevation. Even at sea level, they don't feel fast. Ouch. I don't think anyone would mistake it for a hot rod. Okay. Here at altitude, it gets that much worse. And especially on the downhill with modern diesels, having that exhaust brake, that makes a massive difference. That is nice. Ultimately, I think you just, you just gotta look inside, look in yourself to decide which truck do you want the most, which one makes the most sense for you to spend your money on. And then, you know, spend your money on it. Or don't. But did you know that the diesel option? Right, bicycle, for all I care. But did you know that the diesel engine costs about 10 grand to option? Not in my 12-auth. Okay. My 12-auth cost date. My whole truck costs less than... Okay, that's fair. That's fair. The mirror max option.

30:46I used a use truck. Okay. If we had a bell, I would bring the bell right now, because Carish podcast is back. Yes. And the tens of people that watch it and miss it are really excited about it. It is a fun podcast if you haven't checked it out. So it was even Cole pointed out. Who is not necessarily enthusiastic about having to be present for every podcast we do at this company. He said if more people gave it a try, they might find that they would like. Cole. I appreciate that, Cole. That's very kind. And I think, so I'm not on Carish podcast, I'm an outsider just listening to it. We can have you as a guest. I'm not asking for that. But I am saying is, I listened to it yesterday. And I genuinely was laughing. It was really fun. I'm not just saying it, because you know, I'm part of the overall TFL team. It was a lot of fun to listen to Carish. And more people should listen and watch Carish.

31:49Nice. I'm just saying. Thank you. That's a good plug. Okay. Now, our one of our viewers, Jorge. Yes. Sent us several images I wanted to show. Before we go, finally, to the semi-truck story. Jorge was in his neighborhood and he saw this wonderful Ram 1200. With a manual transmission. With a manual transmission nonetheless. Bench seat. Look at this. It's got three pedals and a six-speed manual. And he said, why isn't this truck in the US? I mean, that's a great question, isn't it? Where's it manufactured? Oh, where's Ram 1200 manufactured? I don't know. Can you google that really quick? Because I'm asking Cole. That might be a good answer to the question. Well, also. It is a cool truck, though. Also, it's a mid-sized truck, right? That's available in Mexico and some other markets. And we're still, you and I are still waiting for the Cora truck. Giant. It's manufactured in China.

32:50Oh, no. Well, that answers that. Okay. So Jorge, we're not going to see this in the United States. Sadly. But cool. Ram said that the Cora is coming, right? True. So eventually, we'll see some mid-sized truck. But this truck, look at this. It's got a flatbed. It's a two-door six-speed manual. It's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a cool truck. Especially having the manual transmission, the bench seat and everything. I think it's pretty neat. But like yourself, I am really excited to see what the Dakota brings to the table. Because currently, I think the cheapest, most affordable Ram truck, because you have to buy a 1,500, right? It's like 40-something thousand. So a mid-sized truck like this would bring that down. So that's all I have to say. Yeah. Fair enough. Should we talk a little bit about semi-trucks? You almost bought a semi-truck. How can we say it? I almost exactly.

33:50I almost bought a Peter built. Yeah. Which sounds like, obviously, it could have been very cool. It also could have been a huge investment. I'm not sure if my wife would have appreciated that. Roll home in a semi-truck. In a semi-truck? Also, I couldn't park this in my driveway, if I wanted to. That's also Kenworth. I'm sorry. Did I say Peter built? Yeah. That's how much I know about semi-trucks. Okay. So there's this donated car auction, right? That we frequent because we sometimes find interesting cars. But this week, last week, this semi-truck was there. And look at the paint. We're just showing a little clip here during our podcast. Dude, the paint looks great. Well, the miles weren't that crazy. Well, it was like 420,000 miles, which for a semi-truck is kind of a light use. Yeah. Had new tires, right? New tires. It had like 250 gallons of diesel,

34:51which is not cheap in this truck. And I thought it was going to be like under five grand or under eight grand at this donated car auction that I could buy it and maybe resell it, right? Sure. Or buy it and cab swap it. It's a mold school truck cab. Put on. Maybe have David build me a bed, like a nice flat bed with a camper on. On top of it. The big hitch. That would have been sweet. But it was too expensive. Colin, I, well, actually, I was watching it and Colin, Ian and everybody was excited, right? Because I almost was hitting the bid button, right? But it went for after fees for 14,000 bucks, which I couldn't kind of gamble because it had a DEF error message on it. Yeah, which could end up being expensive. Could be expensive and also registering something like this could be expensive.

35:52So I didn't end up buying it. But I was so close, I almost bought it. Fair enough. Yeah, it would be, it would be cool. It would be fun. But you could also be getting into a lot of headaches. So it's probably for the best. I'm sure your wife appreciates that you passed it up. Yeah. But I talk to our friend, Dan Atkinson. I talk to my wife's cousin who does the transport business. He runs some semi-trucks. I talk to him. I talk to Mike. He gave me a lot of valuable information because he used to have a Kenworth T680 like this truck. But not to be. But what if you wanted a new truck? What would you do? Well, you might look into a Volvo VNR. Which I say because I just drove one. Okay. Yeah, which I drove a couple of them actually. So it was pretty cool. So the VNR is their regional truck. It's not a long haul truck like the VNL.

36:53Much like this Kenworth I was trying to buy. Yeah, so slightly more compact. Especially one of the trucks that I drove was a day cab with a little 28 foot. I think it was a box trailer. Oh, yeah, but the shorter one. Yeah, I think it was maybe a reaper. Well, we have a video called, can we look it up on the truck channel? Very compact that one. I also got to drive a VNR. Let's see, which was it maybe a 640 or a 440? Can't remember which, but it was hooked up to a tank. Dude, trailer. A tanker. Dude, I was surprised you were driving a tanker. Because the center of gravity is higher, right? Something is sloshing. I don't know what liquid you were carrying. Yeah, they didn't specify, but that was interesting to drive because that truck and trailer combo grossed out and I think they said about 83,000 pounds.

37:56Which is a little bit more than like 80,000 that allowed usually on the highway. So you were pulling really heavy with this truck. And the crazy thing about doing it is that it drives like a car. It steers and stops and does everything so well even with that amount of weight behind you. Admittedly, there was one point that they had us stop on a hill and mat the throttle. And you know, it gets the truck and trailer the whole thing combo moving, but you can tell when you're starting from a stop is training on a grade. Yeah, it's, there's a lot of weight. That's when you feel it. And you're also looking at this VNR is a 660, it has a sleeper cab also. Which is kind of interesting because it's a little bit more regional truck, not a long haul. But you could still spend a night or two in it. Yeah, which is, I think my wife would appreciate that if it was a camper also. Exactly. Not just a truck, but also a camper.

38:57Yeah, and then all of the, all the toys of boat and the side by side. It could be behind it. It could be behind it. Yes. That's a good split of living space to stuff that you're bringing with you. That can work if I was looking at it, did not have a sleeper, unfortunately. But I want to learn more about this truck. Yeah, so the nice thing here is that I have an interview with one of the main guys at Volvo's team who can talk in detail about the truck itself, but also about the powertrain. Because that's one of the really interesting aspects of that. So, let's check that out now. Grown-ups, try to see what I see. You see a rain cloud. I see an elephant in the sky. You see a motorcycle. I see a superhero on his way to save the day. Even if you can't tell he's a superhero like I can, you can see he's a person. So be patient and give him space. Keep your eyes out for motorcycles.

39:58A message from the Virginia DMV. Now we've got the opportunity to do a little bit of a deep dive into something that's not what we're typically looking at every day because we're here in Dublin, Virginia for the first driving event for the Volvo VNR series of Class A trucks. And I have Dwayne here. Dwayne, tell me a little bit about what you do with Volvo trucks. So, my role is the powertrain product marketing manager for Volvo trucks. So I work with our dealers. I work with our customers. I work with engineering to kind of package powertrains together for different applications. So that's kind of my role here at Volvo trucks. And what I find really interesting about this is these trucks and especially these powertrains are very different from what we deal with in passenger cars and the regular everyday pickup trucks that you go to your local dealer and buy to have as your own personal vehicle to haul around a trailer. And we've actually got some pretty cool displays over here where we can look at some of the inner workings

41:01of what's going on with these powertrains. So all of this is essentially built around this D13 engine, right? It is and it starts with the truck that we were just standing in front of with some of the aerodynamic features. When we look at powertrain, a lot of our customers don't think about how aerodynamic features affect the overall powertrain. And what I mean by that is is by reducing parasitic loss. Well, as it cuts through the air just a little bit better, that's less power that the engine has to produce. So that allows us to use fast rear axle ratios that typically weren't ever thought of before. This is our D13 turbo compounding engine. This is available in a 405-1750 torque all the way up to a 500 horsepower 1950 torque. It makes torque peak torque at 900 RPM. Really? Yeah, it's impressive. Let's see, I don't set that. Idle is right at 600 RPM. So we're having clutch engagement happen at 800 RPM.

42:03And then it's almost over at 900. Yeah. What that allows us to do is drive again fast rear axle ratios that slow down the pumping loss inside the engine. The loss that we look at when it takes a piston to go up and down or revolve the camshaft or the crank. All those components take energy to revolve inside of the engine. So the lower we can run those as far as RPM and increase the torque, we're able to reduce what we call pumping loss, which is that inefficiency inside of an engine. And as far as you'll have to excuse my ignorance, but the axle ratio that you guys are running on these trucks, what is the number on that? So most of them we're going to run anywhere from as low as a 205. OK, wow. Yeah, all the way up to a 352 for most situations. Yes, so it's not the 410s and 373s that we're used to. Yeah, I mean, they're still available, but not used very often. The majority of our customers are in the low twos. So it's 65 miles an hour. This engine's running at below 1,000 RPM.

43:07It's just sipping fuel. And then the nice thing as you see over here, you've got the iShift transmission, which is a fully integrated manual transmission with the engine. Now, that is a constant mesh transmission, and it is automated. So it engages and disengages the clutch automatically. A torque converter, if you're familiar with that, uses a little bit of energy, creates heat, but it shifts the gears automatically. This has a clutch, but no clutch pedal in it. Yeah, so it's fundamentally very different from the automatic transmissions that people typically think of, because to your point, it's not a regular torque converter automatic. It's an automated manual transmission. Correct. So it seems and looking inside the internals and everything structurally, the way that it's designed it seems to have more in common with a regular manual transmission than the typical automatic that you would think of. It does. It has a lot in common with that. The advantage that this new version transmission

44:08shifts 30% faster than our previous one. What that allows that engine to do is stay in the sweet spot just a little bit longer. When we stay in that sweet spot, when I mean sweet spot is where it burns the best fuel. So that saves fuel for a long haul tractor. So that allows us to shift a little bit faster, and with the high torque that the turbo compounding engine does, it definitely gives us a nice fuel economy mix. This particular engine recaptures energy that is pulled through the exhaust stream. So we have a standard fixed geometry turbo here. Just normal we've had for decades. Because there is also a VGT version of this engine, right? So you can also get a variable geometry turbo, which is kind of similar to what we see in a lot of the trucks that we're testing, and they even do their exhaust breaks using that variability in the turbo. This is a very different system though, and it's interesting to see a little bit of how this is structured. This is one of the questions that I had for you. So this is essentially using what would have been

45:09otherwise wasted energy, and actually using the secondary turbine to apply, basically some extra power directly to the crank. Right, that's correct. That's essentially how it works. So fixed geometry turbo with a wastegate. Extra energy is going to come across these fins. These are fixed. This will go ahead and it's directs the air over the fins, turns the fins, which turns a series of gears, and then this is a hydraulic coupler right here. Okay, so it can decouple. It kind of looks like a torque converter in there. Just simply two little fan blades, and they're filled with engine oil, and as you mentioned, it decouples it, so if the driver takes his foot off the throttle, it doesn't backfeed into the turbo. So now those gears go back down into the crank shaft, which you can see here and here, and then unloads the revolving assembly. Yeah, and this is something that you guys have been doing for a little while, but now in the most recent iteration, it's more efficient than it was in the past, right?

46:10It is. We've done some improvements on the internals of the engine. We went from a sixth wave piston to a seven wave piston, so the injectors focused on the center of the cup of the piston, and into seven little small cups, lowering the surface temperature of the piston, reducing knocks, reducing soot. We've also lengthened the connecting rod in this engine and shortened the piston height a little bit. What that does is it reduces a side thrust on the side of the liner, and that reduces friction, and reduced friction increases fuel economy. Yeah. We've also put a variable displacement oil pump in this as well, so giving you the right amount of fuel at the right time. So, you know, idling, we're at 15 pounds of oil pressure. Right. And then we'll go up to 50 when we engage the exhaust brake. And we've talked a bit now about some of the really interesting specific details on this engine, but for folks who don't know, kind of a broad overview,

47:10this is essentially a 13 liter, six-cylinder inline diesel. So that's kind of the basics of the engine architecture, right? Yes, it's a 13 liter, six-cylinder inline. And I was seeing just from researching some of the specs on these that they weigh anywhere in the neighborhood of 2600 pounds when they're dressed up and in the truck, is that right? Yeah, depending on the different components on there. Yeah, it's a little over 2,000, 2,000, 2,000, 2,000. It's a lot of motor. Yeah, it's a sizable, sizable engine. I've met some people that are shorter than the distance from the bottom of this oil pan to the top of this engine entirely put together. Do you know offhand, I'd throw one at you, out of left feet a little bit here, but run about what the oil capacity on this engine is? 34 quarts. Okay, yeah. So again, it's the funny thing coming from our world where everything by comparison is downsized by quite a bit

48:10into this, all of the numbers and figures that you're dealing with are pretty massive. The other impressive thing about these engines is the kind of miles that they have to cover. And that's one of the reasons that efficiency is so important. But I'm sure you're seeing some feedback from customer's drivers, how many miles they're bringing their trucks up to. What would you say is an average distance that you would see on a truck before it's typically retired? I'm sure there's a record. So the first life cycle of a truck, most drivers are going to be between, in a long haul application, between 100 and 120,000 miles a year. Yeah. You know, in the first life cycle, they'll typically keep them five years. You know, so you're close to 600,000 miles in that first cycle. And then they'll be traded in and sold off to a next customer. It's not uncommon to have this engine run a million miles. Yeah, yeah. Which again, whenever a regular everyday pickup truck like the Rams or the Ford's or Chevy's that we buy gets over a million miles, it's worthy of a story. People like to show it, show it off because it's a big deal. In this world, it's not a huge deal.

49:11It happens quite frequently, yes. So it's a different game. And you talked a little bit about the long haul trucks of VNLs, but what we're here for specifically is the VNR. So we have some of these regional trucks in front of us. And in general, the goal with these is that they're going to be doing shorter distances. One of the numbers that was quoted to us was in the realm of maybe 600 miles a day as an example of a use case for one of these regional trucks. Yeah, typically. I mean, and the miles on an annual basis are going to be a little bit less. Yeah. You know, you might be anywhere from 60 to 80,000 miles on a regional haul application, depending on whether it's doing pickup and delivery in a city environment or regional applications where it goes 250 miles out and then 250 miles back. You know, the nice feature that you've had the opportunity to experience with the VNR is the hood is significantly shorter. So the bumper to back a cab gives you a lot better maneuverability with this tractor. Yeah, and some improved visibility as well, because obviously there's been a lot of changes

50:12with these trucks. It's an all-new generation of the trucks. It is. And one of the other numbers quoted to us in the spec sheet was 17% better visibility, potentially, out of the front of the truck, which again, especially for a regional vehicle like this that's going to be in the city a lot. Like you guys have pointed out that visibility is hugely important being able to spot pedestrians and any other obstacles that you're coming up on. But even for some of these regional trucks that aren't necessarily the long haul specific vehicles, you've still got options for sleeper cabs so you could spend a night in it if you wanted to. Yeah, almost definitely, you know, depending on how often you're going to be out of, away from home, we'll depend on the sleeper that you're looking at. You know, we offer it in a 42 and a 62 in sleeper, both in a mid roof and a high roof sleeper. So again, it depends on how far you're going to be away. But these work great for a regional truck. And it's funny because the truck that we actually have in front of us right now is a VNR 660. So this is the bigger of the VNR options.

51:12You can get a pretty compact day cab, even one that's four by two. So instead of three axles, it would be two. And a pretty compact truck, one that we got to drive a little bit earlier and the maneuverability is surprising. I think actually some regular everyday pickup trucks like what we're doing with that work, with a car hauler, that's a bumper pull. I'd be surprised, I don't think we can make the same tight turns in our RAM 2500 with a flatbed car hauler that you could make in some of these regional trucks, just the amount of steering angle that you're able to get. And obviously these trucks not being bumper pulls. It's a completely different world and really cool thing to experience. Yeah, we're at a 50 degree wheel cut with these trucks. So yeah, they can turn rather tight. Yeah. And then like you were mentioning when we were talking a little bit about powertrain, obviously aerodynamics is a huge deal on these trucks. And that's one of the things that you notice looking at the exterior of this vehicle. It's been updated quite a bit.

52:14And it's very smooth and there are a lot of vents on the hood on the front end. But none of this is for show. This is all very intentional. Yeah, it's purpose driven. I mean, the radiator is significantly or grill, I should say, is significantly larger. And that helps out with fuel economy as well. We don't have to engage the cooling fan as often. Cooling fan can consume a lot of energy. Any time we consume energy, we consume fuel. So that's one of the features that we look at. Obviously we've got hood vents there to help with the cooling as well. It's strategically placed. So we're not interfering with aerodynamics of the overall truck itself. Yeah, and there are several different configurations even within the specific models. So there's the 300, that's the day cam. There's the 440 and the 640, which are different mid-roof options. And then this 660, that's a high roof. So a lot of differences there, but also differences in the way that you expect these trucks. Because if we walk along the side, there's a lot of aerodynamics here as well, including in between and behind the wheels

53:14and on the wheel covers themselves. So it's not only the front of the cab that's very streamlined, but all the way back. What we're trying to do is keep the air attached to the truck and have it transition into that trailer. So anytime we get a break there, it's going to cause some disturbance. And then again, it's going to consume fuel. Yeah. And there's going to be a lot of different use cases. I mean, some of these aerodynamic parts are options when you're configuring the truck. But there's also a lot of different options. You can do not only in the cabs themselves, but in the chassis and the axle configuration. So there's the 6x4 options and 6x2 as well, which in the 6x2, you can lift up that middle axle, right? Yes, you can lift up the front axle. And what that's going to do is if we talk about parasitic load, it lifts this axle up. So you're not driving that. It's more of a dummy type axle. This is not, this is a 6x4. But anytime we get that off the ground, it reduces the load on the engine. Again, reducing overall fuel consumption. And over time, obviously that has a massive impact

54:18on how much you spend because when these trucks are doing the kind of miles they're doing, it adds up rather quickly, especially with fuel prices being what they are like you guys were mentioning earlier. Fuel's not getting cheaper right now. So any efficiency that you can chase is a huge deal. And it sounds like a lot of these V&Rs, another one of the numbers being quoted is there as much as 7.5% more efficient with fuel than previous trucks. That is correct, yes. Yeah, which again, over time 7.5% adds up rather quickly. That's going to make a pretty big difference. The other cool thing is as many different configurations as there are on these trucks, they're all being built on the same assembly line, which is an impressive process to watch come together because we got to tour the factory here in Virginia, which is one of the reasons that we're at this location. And you're seeing every different type of truck be built one after another. It's not batches of all very similar things. So I've got to imagine that process for manufacturing is a challenge. The logistics is truly a dance.

55:18I mean, you're talking anything from tank sizes to different hose configurations that attach to the trailer. So there are multiple different variations. These trucks are completely custom built to the customer's application and their desire. Which is the funny thing, because there's a lot of different things that you could change and spec on any regular car that you go to your local dealer and buy. But there's maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. I don't know of combinations that you could pick between these trucks. There is. There is multiple. How many there are? I haven't done that calculation. Yeah. There's thousands of variations, yes. Yeah. And then we might as well show a little bit of the inside of this truck as well, because it's one of the neat things about these, and especially being a sleeper cab, it's got a lot of amenities inside. Now, I know ingress and egress is also a pretty important thing with these trucks, too, right? Yeah. We've got some safety handles right here. We want to make sure that we're grabbing on both handles. They're coming up. So it's the safety feature there.

56:20Some of the first things that I notice in this particular truck is the camera monitoring systems. Yeah. So these are pretty interesting, because it gives you a really good view of the trailer behind you. So even if you're like me, I don't have a CDL, I'm not a semi-truck driver. But we drive a lot of trucks and trailers at work, and we're always talking about how good are the mirrors on one truck versus another, because there's a lot of variation. This system, though, is another level, because it gives you a really good idea of where your trailer is at behind you. There's even some lines that can mark where the end of the trailer is. A lot of pretty impressive technology. These are also surprisingly easy trucks to get into and drive and haul the trailer with. I would say to some degree, you guys have kind of idiot-proofed the truck, because I was able to get in, drive it with relative ease. And there's some cool features like if you're putting your truck in neutral and getting out of it,

57:21your brakes will come on automatically when you either open the door or take off seat belt, right? Yes. So there's a few areas like that where they make sure they've got you covered. And then obviously a lot of electronics and driver assistance that goes into these as well. Yeah, you get your cell phone charger down here. There's an infotainment just like you'd see in today's vehicles. The position, perfect steering wheel. So we can put this anywhere that we want. We can tilt it this way. We can bring it up towards us. So in and out of the vehicle, very easy to, as you mentioned, egress and ingress out of the vehicle. Yeah, and then as far as some of the other technology that's in it, you've got lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring. There's a system where if the truck detects an accident, it can automatically call emergency services. Yep. Turn up in here. So is. Yeah, as well as driver airbag and even side curtain airbags. Yes. So there's a lot of built-in safety technology

58:23with these trucks. And then here in the back, because this is a sleeper cab, we've obviously got a bed here. Another one, lofted up top and some basic amenities, like a microwave, small television. You've got your own climate controls next to the bed so you don't have to get up and do that. A little table that folds out from the bed. So relative to some of the other options, it's not maybe the place that you would be spending a week, but everything from curtains to get you some extra privacy to your own little cockpit where you can relax and spend the night if you need to. Nice little home away from home. Yeah, and the mattress is not bad. No, it's very comfortable. So it's really cool to see all of the different options for these trucks. Again, this is a little bit of a special kind of field trip for us, because we get to test a lot of the regular everyday pickup trucks that we see on the road. But any opportunity where I get to get into something as substantial as these trucks and drive them

59:26and test them out, it makes it kind of a bucket list. Work trip, because not a lot of people get the opportunity to step into a truck like this with a trailer that's loaded up and your entire gross weight from the bumper is over 80,000 pounds. That's a unique opportunity. So we really appreciate you guys having us out. And thanks again, Dwayne, for walking us through our train. Appreciate it. Everything going on here. Very cool. Unfortunately, I was in New York at the Auto Show while you were in Virginia. I figured you were probably a little bit bummed out that you missed out. I wanted to join you at this event. Because it's not super often that we get to go on the semi truck event, but it is really cool whenever we get the opportunity. It's obviously a little bit outside of our typical day because we're not semi truck specialists. You do have a CDL. Yeah, with air brake endorsements. So I could drive the credentials. Well, I don't drive a semi, obviously, frequently.

1:00:28Which, I mean, if you want to do something, you've got to be kind of practiced up to date on it. So I wish we could do more. And maybe we will. I mean, maybe we will do some semi truck testing because efficiency is really important, right? Yeah. We can do that. We can do it in a gauntlet. Ultimately, a lot of folks that I think watch our videos are interested in these trucks, even if they're not necessarily semi truck drivers because they are interesting machines. Inherently, they're just huge, unbelievably powerful. And it's crazy just how much tech is making their way into some of these new trucks like these Volvo's. I've realized that there's obviously a lot of people that and truck drivers, especially that don't want all of that technology. But a lot of it works pretty well. It's impressive to see just how advanced they are, how well they drive, and how easy it is really to operate some of these new trucks in a lot of conditions. And also, like you were saying, it has like adaptive cruise control system.

1:01:31And most of them, they have multiple levels of exhaust brake or engine braking. Yeah, they've got automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, all kinds of things. A bunch of camera systems, which is really nice to your visibility of where your trailer is at and what's around you is pretty top notch. So some really cool stuff that they put together and put into these trucks, they're pretty cutting edge. Yeah, and we do get some emails and comments about how you guys are going to do more with semis. And we're always open to it, especially as electrification is also starts to creep in into a semi truck market, like Tesla semi, they're finally almost ready to ramp up their production with their latest iteration of the Tesla semi. So that could be interesting too. How does that compare to the traditional diesel trucks? Ultimately, more or less, if it's got wheels,

1:02:31yeah, we're interested, even some stuff that doesn't have wheels, you've done boat reviews. Exactly, we've done a couple of boat reviews. And you do motorcycle reviews, those have wheels and so two wheels, four wheels, sometimes three wheels, or 18 wheels, sometimes. Yeah, everywhere from two to 18, I've reviewed. I haven't tested anything with, I haven't reviewed anything with one wheel to my knowledge. Hopefully we won't. I mean, we could. Yeah, a unicycle, would you review that? Or a one wheel, that is a thing. Yeah, it is a little fun to talk about. I've seen those dudes on that single wheel. Yeah, some of them get ripping. And they have full gear like helmets and really me looking gear on them, wow.

1:03:32No offense, it is hard to look tough on one of those. But I appreciate it because if you're on an actual street or road with vehicles around you, I'm sure it's easy to fall off of them. That's pretty hardcore. Yeah, anyway. Anyway, where are we going with this? I think we're closing it up. We're done. It's the last thing on the list. Well, so hopefully you guys enjoyed this, but I think truly, I mean, we had a lot going on. Yeah, this week and some really heavy duty stuff. So yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Hopefully we'll get another opportunity to get behind the wheel of some more semis before too long. Yeah, we have a Jeep Gladiator video coming up next week. We have a Honda Ridge Line video coming up because our long-time Ridge Line, the new one, not the old one. Yeah, the new one, the 2026 model, but we returned it. That's how you know we're truck channels. We got two Ridge lines. Not one, not one, two.

1:04:34It's okay to be jealous. Okay, there you go. All right, so that's all coming. And so thanks for joining us. And we'll see you next week on this podcast as well. Yeah. Yeah. Spring weekends are my favorite. The artistful blooms, the grill is fired up and the family gathers around the patio table. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local total wine and more to pick up a few bottles of wine. Usually a cabernet I already love and sometimes a new fine to share. Find what you love and love what you find only at Total Wine and More. Visit TotalWine.com to learn more. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly B-21. Spring weekends are all about family. Sunshine and enjoying the season together. Before everyone arrives, I stop by my local total wine and more to grab a great bottle. Maybe a favorite we already know and love are something new to try with the meal. With so many bottles to choose from, it's easy to discover something amazing. And the lowest prices make it easy to grab an extra bottle

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