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Nissan Leaf boss interview, Iceland with Ford Ranger & we get gatecrashed!
264 Plays6 days ago
This week on Driver’s Republic: We’re recording from the all-new Toyota Land Cruiser! Paddy’s back from a UK classic car auction, Mark just returned from Iceland testing the Ford Ranger PHEV, and a surprise listener gatecrashes the show.
Plus, we chat with Giovanny Arroba, VP of Nissan Design Europe, about the bold new 2025 Nissan Leaf and how it’s ready to compete with the best in the EV world.
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Transcript
Introduction to Drivers Public Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Drivers Public podcast brought to you in association with our friends at Dundeele Motors, where more Irish drivers find their next car from a trusted dealership than anywhere else. Why? Because Dundeele's Trusted Dealer programme means verified dealerships and the kind of backup that matters, like warranties and history checks, giving you confidence from your very first click.
00:00:20
Speaker
And welcome from the north side of Dublin, where we're sitting in a passenger version of the new Toyota Land Cruiser. Paddy, your initial thoughts on it? Well, it's very comfortable. I'm um very, very pleased to have chilled seats.
00:00:37
Speaker
I'm a big fan of chilled seats. Yeah, they're good for this time of year. They're good for lots of things. What do you mean lots of things? Well, i you know. What? bit of ventilation is lovely. As a man. but That's what I thought you meant. Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. I don't think ladies will kind of understand what we're, yeah.
00:00:53
Speaker
Well, maybe they would, but well somewhere and... The only thing is, sometimes if you've never tried air-cooled seeds, sometimes it does feel almost like you've wet yourself. But it's the ah if the latter stages because it's now cold.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. We're probably losing people
Toyota Land Cruiser Review
00:01:07
Speaker
already. But but yeah, it is it is a fabulous thing and it's a good place to start this week because you're the first it's the first one I've seen and you're the first person I've seen driving one in the wild.
00:01:16
Speaker
The new Land Cruiser, passenger version as well, which will be a rare beast, I suspect. As it drove towards you, what like it's it's quite an imposing vehicle. What did you... it's its It's got a lovely sort of retro vibe. um It's square, Tonka toy-like.
00:01:31
Speaker
yeah um Nice colour as well. It's is a sort of a gunmetal grey colour. Although someone with better views of colour would probably describe it something else. But it's ah it's an imposing vehicle. It's a big vehicle, but not obnoxiously big. I think. It looks utilitarian. Yeah. and that You can't get, by the way, the commercial version in that kind of sand colour that you would have seen as the launch car. can only get that in this. Now, this car in Ireland with a 2.8 diesel engine, which barely has 200 brake horsepower, but a wheel tow three and a half ton, we need to say, ah is about 140,000 euro before we put an extra it. I was not expecting that. a lot. thought you were going to say early one hundred thousand Now, there is a Lexus PHEV engine that they have that they could put into this vehicle. Now, it probably won't tow as much, but that would bring the cost significantly down.
00:02:23
Speaker
And it's they haven't looked at putting that in yet. It's just around. not at the moment. It it does exist. and There's probably a reason as to why. But I'm just thinking, you know, who is your target customer now for a commercial? Now, look, it was never a big seller in Ireland. Toyota, Ireland said they used to sell maybe six passenger versions a year.
00:02:40
Speaker
Right. So, commercial version, do we know the price on that? It's about 75. Excluding the VAT? No, that's all in. All in, okay. And we were, before this new model anyway at least, we were the biggest market in Europe for commercial Land Cruiser in Ireland.
00:02:56
Speaker
I mean, where I live, they're everywhere because farmers swear by them. They're great for getting in at fields. They pull tractors out of trouble at times because they are exactly what you need if you're going to drive yourself into trouble. I was lucky enough to be at the drive of this vehicle in Morocco. So I i ah first-hand experience of what this thing can do. And it is unbelievable. Like it is wasted sitting in a car park here in Port Marnock.
00:03:21
Speaker
you know yeah exactly incidentally my first time ever in Port Marnock in my life is it yeah I don't know why that is the case ever go to the beach did you ever go to Tamango's well I mean I had Betty's town and Laytown beside me so the beach no and I was never into mango or to mango's I've never been to mango's either I have thought you'd DJ there at some stage. I was asked to DJ there once because the DJs and the bar staff and the night staff went on strike.
00:03:44
Speaker
And I was asked would I go up and be the DJ while they were all striking outside. And I said, so you want me to cross a picket line of my fellow DJ peers? And they were like, yeah, what's the problem? was like, no So I never Don't want to be scab. never... Oh, I'm not going to be a scab.
00:04:00
Speaker
and But my point anyway on the Morocco versus the tarmac here is all these, not all of them, but all these, most of these drive modes here are gone on the commercial. What I am seeing, and I know we're not on video, is a lot of buttons, physical buttons. Yeah.
00:04:14
Speaker
And that's quite a good thing. is. Because there's a mixture of the screen, which is not obnoxiously big, but there's physical buttons. So all of the select modes to activate the four-wheel drive and the various drive modes are all physical buttons. The air conditioning are all physical buttons.
00:04:30
Speaker
Mode select. There's three USB-C charging ports. There's a HDMI input. And what does one do with the HDMI input? him I'd imagine if you're... Could one put an Xbox in there?
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, or if you're a vet trying to show someone ah a PDF of an X-ray. I don't know. actually don't know.
Longevity and Reliability of Land Cruisers
00:04:49
Speaker
um I'm currently playing with the camera. and By the way, the camera. So when you're driving over terrain, you can have a chassis view of just your wheels.
00:04:57
Speaker
It's not exclusive to this vehicle, ah but it's impressive, isn't it? It's impressive. It is. So look, 140,000 euro, you're in, are you in Range Rover territory anymore? Oh, you're getting very close to it. i mean, you're beyond Range Rover Sport, but you know, this thing will work, never die. And not break down. But equally, it's a very agricultural sounding 2.8 diesel engine.
00:05:18
Speaker
It's all about the torque for for towing. It's not about speed. It's clattery. And you could also keep it for 15 years. Yeah, apparently, Toyota say a lot of Landcruiser owners don't actually sell them. They pass them down into the family.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, I could see that. I could see that. Because it's so it's not something that's going to give you too many headaches, I suspect. there's There's a mixture of electronics, but there's some good old-fashioned mechanicals in there as well.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, I have had comments on YouTube about on on the video of this car about rust in certain markets, and not this model, but where we are, Toyota are bulletproof.
00:05:53
Speaker
So, yeah, as you say, this is going to be in small numbers, and but yeah showing you the capabilities, and and the commercial one will be the big seller. Yeah, well, again, you know, it is expensive. A neighbour of mine has always had Land Cruisers and the company works for has always had Land Cruisers. I think they have like, they have double digits of them in a fleet and they're not getting the new one because of the cost.
00:06:11
Speaker
video of this will be next week. Yeah, probably. i do have the one in Morocco which to be honest with you, I'm not going to be able to better that because that is Atlas Mountains. Right, okay. No roads left. But this is, the Irish impressions will similar but not without the extreme off-roading. This might be the Chelsea tractor review version. Port Marnik version. Port Marnik of.
00:06:32
Speaker
Just want to trace our steps backwards a little bit from from last week where we had talked in Circles about the LROC RS pricing, etc. But now we can talk about the driving impressions. I did watch your YouTube video and i on Navion Cars.
00:06:46
Speaker
and Talk us through the things you couldn't talk about at the time last week. So the the ah how it drives and and and its road manners. I suppose how it drives is it's very, very grippy, but it's it's very predictable grippy. You know, and I kind of mentioned this a video, we're now starting to see Alpine's, Ioniq 5N's.
00:07:05
Speaker
you do they You can make an EV fun, you know, it's not beyond the reams of possibility. and What I found about the Elrock was it was very predictable. It was very kind of samey, if that is a word. I mean, it's it's just a faster, grippier version of an Elrock.
00:07:21
Speaker
that's a Yeah, I mean, I got that impression from watching the video and that that you think that maybe there's a level that's going to need to go to to either A, justify the badge yeah or create a new, maybe more hard-edged version that yeah that is worthy of a rival to hyonic version.
00:07:39
Speaker
give me some Give me some gear changes. Give me some fake engine sounds, a lap timer, just something to kind of... Fabio Monte Carlo probably has a lap timer in it. I just think, you know, they need to just do a little bit more now and bring it on a bit. And, you know...
00:07:56
Speaker
I felt that with the Enyak RS. I felt they really missed a trick. I felt that I was ah you know, I really wanted to like it. But when I got into it, it was just, all right, okay. just a quicker Enyak. Yeah. yeah and And, you know, I think people who are would be buying that version would expect, as you said, expect a little bit more. and those lit That little special sauce, which it doesn't really have. And it's in danger of becoming a trim line.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of is a trim line, honest with you. It's not a bad trim line because it comes with pretty much everything. Well, that's what you said. You said that you know, you would actually probably just have it instead of the Sportline because you're getting, you're right, you're paying a small bit more, but you're getting so much more in terms of spec that it's it's ah it's nearly just a a better trim line to go for. think like Matrix headlights and stuff like that as a standard, yeah. So... um Look, ah it's it's it is what it is. It's a bright-coloured car, but I think if you think of it as a trim more than anything else, now, it does have a dynamic chassis control in Ireland as standard as well. So that in the Matrix headlights alone are probably worth three, four grand.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, and if it is a good-looking vehicle, and and, you know, from having just driven the Sportline, it is a capable thing to drive. But, you know, that's going to be the question, people going in, where are they going to go right? do I want the, do I want the sort of garish colours? And I presume you can get it in slightly tamer colours if you want rather than the mamba.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, you can. That grey colour which you described really well in the video, and it it's it looks good but there's so many things activated in terms of tax that it suddenly becomes a very expensive colour. You've got to get a pack with it that that pushes it beyond the threshold and yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, it's it's ah's a funny one. I think it's a bit of a watch this space from Skoda. It would be an interesting thing to ask them what their plans are with RS because, you know, in effect, they brought you to show you the heritage of RS, which was a much, but much more driver focused.
00:09:42
Speaker
history yes and to be fair to them they are doing that trip in Wales in July i can't do I have something else on but it's all the heritage vehicles it's the Enyaq RS and the Elrock RS and ah on Raleigh roads in Wales wow what ah what a spin so they're kind of they're they're holding their keeping their powders right for that i suspect but ah yeah of course I can't make that one So look, I suppose to round up the Elrock, if you were going in with your few quid, you're thinking of your monthly payment, what Elrock are you having
00:10:15
Speaker
I think either go for the, o not quite the smallest battery, but maybe the the next one up. Get that lounge pack, whatever it's called. You get the kind of grey interior with the orange seatbelts. It's only 700 quid. I think it's quite reasonable.
00:10:30
Speaker
I couldn't talk my father into doing it, but do that or get an ORS. I mean, yeah, the Sportline is still a little bit cheaper, but it's it's marginal and you're getting so much more and have a look at the monthly repayments and all that stuff. that They probably are close.
00:10:44
Speaker
I want to talk to you briefly about where I went
Car Auction Experience in England
00:10:46
Speaker
last weekend. Yeah, you you arrived here with magazines. Now, car magazines, yeah well I should Well, I was in England, so I actually bought some car magazines because they don't cost 40 quid each.
00:10:55
Speaker
So i did have the the usual car and Evo and all those. But what I have here in front of me is an auction catalogue from where I was last weekend. Anglia Car Auctions, which if you remember your Top Gear history, they and they have it on the wall. The three lads in the original series went and bought a classic car each.
00:11:13
Speaker
at Anglia car auctions and it was it was something that I went to last weekend with two friends of mine and and it's something I would encourage any anyone to do if they just are a bit of a loose end over a weekend. So you're jumping around there sometimes you come back on the same day is that right?
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, I've done that before. Newcastle was the last one I went to, but this was Stansted. Flights were 30, we booked them a while ago, 35 quid each, I think they were. um So in and out of Stansted, and this was in, um it's it's in, it's not too far from Norwich.
00:11:44
Speaker
This is about an hour and a half away from Stansted. Rented a car, ended up winning the rental car lottery by getting a Volvo XC90. How much was that? Well, yeah, I didn't book it, but ah we that's between the three of us, that's what we landed on, which was nice.
00:11:57
Speaker
um But ah yeah, so look, classic car auctions for anyone who hasn't been at them, is are third especially in the UK, are just a wonderful thing because you have an incredibly eclectic mix. These aren't necessarily, you know, your Model T Fords. These are tend to be in and around the 1960s or 70s upwards, much more in terms of the of the retro cars, if you like.
00:12:19
Speaker
and but properly interesting vehicles. and And, you know, there is the real potential to pick up a bargain and if you had your wits about you. and And some of the cars that were on display here were really, really excellent. I mean, in particular, some of the Bentleys. There were two Bentleys there, 1996 Turbo Orr and then a 1990 Turbo Orr. And they went for, ah both of them went for under €10,000. In particular,
00:12:45
Speaker
and The 1991, which I think i think i can show you here, and was really good. it was It was an incredibly good car. and No, it's not there. So do you have to say, oh, look at the Saab 9000 Turbo. The Saab 9000. That was 1991 Carlsen Turbo. Now, Carlsen, named after Swedish rally driver Erik Carlsen, who lended his name to what was... 225 horsepower of Saab 9000 which at the time was quite a bit of power going through the front wheels that car was I think it went for 8 grand in the end um now do you have to sit on your hands and be totally still or like if you move have you bought a car Well, you have to put down your £500 deposit to get your pick it in to get your number. No, to get in is fine. It's free. it There's no charge at all even to get in.
00:13:35
Speaker
and You buy your brochure for a tenner or whatever it is. and You put down your £500 deposit on your credit card and that would give you a number which allows you to bid. So, you know, you're not you're not going to be in a position of scratching your nose and i really want having bought a car. I really want that Saab.
00:13:52
Speaker
Did it sell? It sold, yeah, it sold. There was two Saabs. One was and a 9000 Aero which was a car which had been produced by Saab with official parts, if you like. and So they had to put some put that up to about 330 horsepower in that car.
00:14:11
Speaker
um That was no reserve on that. Again, it went for about £7,000 or £8,000. But then the Carlson was a really nice one because it was a proper factory produced car. A little taddy, but, you know, huge, huge potential on that one.
00:14:24
Speaker
That went for, I think, £8,900, which was... Before you skip on the note, the 1994 Escort RS Turbo, 7 sterling, 7.7. 7.7, yeah. Now, the Ford stuff is going for big money. Any of the Ford stuff at the moment is going big. And also, uniquely enough for the UK, any the Rover, MG, Austin stuff goes for a lot more money than you would find in other markets.
00:14:49
Speaker
Quirky buyers. Surprising prices. this There was a Volkswagen Beetle, a yellow one. which was absolutely beautiful, 1974. It's a very Ted Bundy colour now, Farrisbody. Yeah, it is went for Went for, I think that went for about £4,500, £5,000.
00:15:04
Speaker
and but like so what But some of the stuff is you know the particularly banal and mainstream models, you know things like Ford Granada 2.9, Ford Granada. was really nice as well.
00:15:15
Speaker
and This 1990 Bentley, though, was really special. that was ah ah was a It had proper service history. it had a bit of an issue with the rear brakes, but less than 50,000 miles.
00:15:27
Speaker
That would have been a car which would have been huge, huge money. was on personal plates, um and that went for £9,000. And the sense of occasion about that car... and really good ammot history and and the thing about going there is you can look up the MOT site in the in the UK and the MOT gives incredible detail nothing like our reasonably half-assed NCT at times yeah but the MOT gives incredible detail on fails passes and and that showed a huge string of passes as well so that love his well i mean I know we're in the age of just you could do all this online but just having the physical magazine in your hand look at the taking your own time doing it
00:16:05
Speaker
Well, if you go onto that car site, so www.angliacaractions.co.uk, you can look back at the catalogue as well and see what they went for. and Often that doesn't happen in a lot of the yeah auction sites. You can can go back and and look at it and see and what they went for. so and That is a nice feature as well. So that ran over two days. So there was a Saturday and a Sunday.
00:16:28
Speaker
But yeah, some of the some of the models, i did what we only stayed for the Saturday. But you know, a little quirky stuff. 1992 Volkswagen Polo bread fan. I think that was £2,000. Mark IV Golf GTI. This one would have still had the Recaro seats stitching on them at that point.
00:16:46
Speaker
The reserve of, or sorry, guide product, £2,500 to £3,000. Yeah, this Porsche Boxster, which I'd put up on on Instagram in the day when for um nine thousand pounds on the day, the day, but an absolutely beautiful example of and of a very early Boxster. So really, really clean car, hadn't been tampered with at all, and but a lovely thing. The car I really liked as well was this...
00:17:10
Speaker
2000 Alfa Romeo 145 Cloverleaf. Beautiful, beautiful example. and And I think it went for tiny money. What's tiny like? Like under €2,000. Oh my God. Or €2,000.
00:17:22
Speaker
So can you stay can you stay there for the whole day? Can you eat there? can you Yeah, I mean, you're... your heart and won't won't be won't thank you afterwards it's it's Bacon Buddies and the likes this would have been a a place that years ago would have been a sea of smoke and but even standing there inhaling the fumes from some of these cars you're probably taking a few days off your life and and do you ah so is it a mixture of trailers at this and everybody or yeah a mixture of trailers it is it's it's a great day out and that's That's, I suppose, is the point I'd like to get across. is it's for If you look ahead, the next one of these, I think, is in and late August.
00:17:59
Speaker
I think it's just before and September, it' like August 27th or 8th. So, yeah, if you plan ahead, just book a flight. You could do this in a day, 100%. But it it also, if you wanted to get the two days and get the full experience, because some of the cars obviously and were on the Sunday and then ah they would also have a huge motorbike and day as well. Now, i didn't I wasn't there for the Sunday for some of these, but there's a 1995 Jaguar XJR, so 30 years old now.
00:18:28
Speaker
and Fabulous engine. um in pretty good condition. There was another Boxster and then there was a 911 as well, that's that the convertible which went for £8,900. The problem with Porsches in Ireland now is the VRT calculator and things like Honda S2000, you know, stuff you'd want to buy quite a few years ago now at this stage, they they took all the calculators off for those cars. you've no idea until you rock up and you've you've bought the car. You do have 30 days or something to return to the country, but like...
00:18:57
Speaker
that's not very practical and ah yeah my own experience was once doing it with a Mazda MX-5 and the lady tried to tell me that it wasn't on the system and I was like Computer said no i so I didn't want to be that mansplaining guy I said would you mind just checking see if there's another variant because ah it's definitely there and she did find it in fairness but the ah alternative was revenue were going to come back to me with a price Oh, which is worse. yeah So look, i think for I think if you're doing it, I think it's safer to be going for stuff that's over 30 years of age because at least you have some certainty on what the price is going to be. yeah It is a bit of a lottery if you're going for cars that are 15, 20 years old, and despite the fact that the prices on them are very attractive. but ah
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, one to risk for. I'd find i'd finish off on a car, which is a very rare thing, which is a 1991 Volkswagen Astra GTE. There are very, very few left. Vauxhall Astra GTE, you mean? You said Volkswagen. Oh, my God. Vauxhall Astra. No such thing. Vauxhall Astra GTE. Of course, an Opel Astra.
00:19:53
Speaker
and Also, they had an opal an actual Opel Monza GTE there. But someone had put some ridiculous paint on it. That Astra GT, actually, I had a black one of them in a toy car version as a kid. hope they're all sitting in the box in the attic somewhere because GTIs, Golf GTIs, all kind of things. Well, that's a different kind of day out, you know? And interestingly enough, I know I can find it here, but there was a Ford Escort that went, Ford Escort Mexico, think it was, that was in absolute heap.
00:20:26
Speaker
Like, as a ah needed falling apart in pieces, and went for £17,000. And I mean, it was and was in be bits. but um And it's funny, because I'm just back from a Ford press strip, literally landed from Iceland a couple of hours ago, and we were chatting last night on the bar about...
00:20:42
Speaker
Oh, guys, would you not think of Scotland for a a press trip? And we just got chatting about it. I said, and bring some Ford heritage vehicles. And it was just a straight. No. And I think that was because you're going to remind people of the good old days or something. I don't know. But I did exactly that years ago, um would be be quite a number of years ago before. Mondello Park, Ford did an event where we drove RS200s, Capri 2.8 injections. They had all of the old stuff and to drive on a circuit.
00:21:15
Speaker
And I think, I think if I'm right here, the second dealership in the UK ever for Ford was in Scotland. And there's some connection with some version of a Model T. And as a result, is a bronze statue of somebody in Scotland to do a Ford.
00:21:27
Speaker
Look it up. I mean, you'll get more sense out than what I've just said. and But yeah, Iceland. Do you want to know some fun facts about Iceland? So at the moment, it doesn't get dark. Yeah, I've been to Iceland. It was obviously two hours of darkness during during the wintertime. and for the are Icelandic people are 40% Irish.
00:21:43
Speaker
Are they? Yeah. I didn't know that part. That is true.
Icelandic Culture and Myths
00:21:46
Speaker
And a friend of mine who used to work for an airline there p told me, he lived there for quite a while, he told me that and to water down the gene pool, the government of Iceland give you €65,000 if you settle down and marry one of their beautiful women and have children with them.
00:22:03
Speaker
I thought this was, i was like, what? Like, where's the cat? She said, i don't know. And then some months later, I was interviewing Darrow Breen for a radio show and he said, oh, actually, lads, I'm off next week to do a couple of gigs in Iceland. I said, oh, Darrow, wait till you hear this. And he looked at me as the intelligent, large man that he is.
00:22:20
Speaker
He said, are sure that's right? i was like, well, there this guy who lives there, he was Irish Tommy. And he goes, I need to check that out. That's that's too good to be true. 65,000 and you married, and anyway, turns out it wasn't true.
00:22:32
Speaker
But there's only 400,000 people there. So they do have an app. So if you have an encounter with someone in a bar, and let's say the night's gone really, really well, and you're like, look, I'd love to see you again, whatever it is. They have an app that they can check to see if you're talking to your cousin, who you don't know is your cousin. Oh, okay. Or technically your sister. a lot that I mean, obviously you'd know if they were your sister or your brother.
00:22:53
Speaker
But yeah, they have they have an app. Okay, so tell us why you were in... So it Iceland because the Ford Ranger is now a plug-in hybrid and they wanted to show you ah how it gets on in the rugged terrain of volcanoes dormant, thankfully the moment, and fjords and all those things. It was a Ford and a Fjord.
00:23:13
Speaker
yeah So essentially the plug-in hybrid can do everything, kind of, that the diesel one can. So it can still tow three and a half ton. ah It's got 697 newton of torque. It's the 2.3 EcoBoost engine, 10 speed.
00:23:29
Speaker
ah Payload is actually 940 kilos, so it's not actually a ton, even though they kind of said it was a ton. Wow, and I mean that's, is is it tax wise is more efficient for us than well the diesel? Well, had a look at the Ford website when was finishing off my video so the cheapest version of this PHGV is 67, well sorry the Wildtrak is 67,000 and then the Stormtrak is nearly another 12 twelve of grand So I thought, yeah, you know, OK, well, at least the benefit, because obviously you can't claim the VAT back on petrol here.
00:24:01
Speaker
um So i I don't know why. he Is it aimed more at the leisure buyer now because they do certainly exist? Like it's only 43 kilometre range. So now for it again, say 50% of your ranger audience, that's enough for them in in a day.
00:24:17
Speaker
You can also charge up to seven kilowatt off the back of it. So you can use power tools, you can go camping, for you can camp off grid, you can power fridge. Very expensive power bank. Yeah, that's another way of looking at yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
And so talk us through the drive, what was involved. Obviously, Iceland is a very, it's an incredibly scenic place. So the guys who did all the B-roll, that is the the nice footage that they give us when we land of drone shots and shots of the waterfalls, they were able to do the whole lot twice. 20 minutes from Reykjavik city centre.
00:24:48
Speaker
and That's how close everything is. You very quickly just go from, you know, not massively tall buildings, but, oh, there's a fjord. um So ah they they did a mix of off-road stuff. We went through rivers, wading through rivers, eight hundred and eight hundred millimeter wading on us did ridiculous climbs up and down used hill descent control put it through its paces that it will never get to do on a building site or anything else like it and in ireland so you know i can verify that it it can do all that stuff um but the couple of things so that like that the 43 kilometer range is before you put anything on the back of it or put other people in it um and then when that battery's gone you are using a 2.3 petrol engine versus diesel
00:25:32
Speaker
if I don't like being cynical but sometimes I can't help it is this an exercise in tax efficiency as much as ah an exercise in for Ford or for the use the end user yeah for the end user or both well yeah I think like Ford or you know and every car company is is you know having to do this is to lower their emissions and I think that's They get it lower emissions. As the consumer you buy it, you pay a little bit less in VRT and your annual motor taxes less. Less. You can charge and run it for less.
00:26:02
Speaker
But realistically... At that sort of range, yeah, I suppose, look, if you're a if you're a private user and you just like the look of the thing and there's plenty of personal trainers who have them and, you know, have their kettlebells and logo on the side of it.
00:26:16
Speaker
Well, I haven't published the video yet, but I literally said at the end, maybe if you don't need the full capabilities, you just like this kind of vehicle, you're the perfect drive Well, that's what I'm thinking with this, yeah. um So, yeah, and look, it actually still rides very well. Perhaps rides better than your typical pickup truck because there's a little bit of weight on the back all the time with the battery.
00:26:34
Speaker
Are Ford surprised by this new trend towards them in in a European and an an Irish and UK context? If they are, they wouldn't tell you. They don't really give the impression that there's... I wouldn't say anything wrong, but equally I was at a Nissan event last week and Nissan financially aren't exactly the great place and it was business as usual, you know, so...
00:26:58
Speaker
You remember the sort of early 2000s when Mitsubishi L200s and Nissan Pathfinders and Navarres were reasonably popular for a time. Tax... Outlander was a huge thing. Yeah, tax outlanders or tax him changes made that more difficult.
00:27:14
Speaker
But it seems like they've sort of started to creep back in and I'm not sure when that... that started but we're now seeing um you know we're now seeing Rangers and Raptors in particular and they're much more frequent and being used by a variety of people and who don't necessarily care about the open back or No, and but another point that was made to us at the presentation was the beauty of the Ranger and vehicles like it is, especially if it's a double cab, you know, it can do the school run. It can be the family vehicle at the weekend and equally you can use it as as a tool then during the week.
00:27:45
Speaker
And actually, you know, if you are using that as a business tool, same as the Grenadier or Quartermaster, you know, yeah, the prices are very expensive. But if you're using that as an assistance to your job, it's actually not that much.
00:27:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And look, from a safety point of view, I don't love them because wouldn't... Yeah, if you get hit, but I'm very conscious of this thing that we're in, the Land Cruiser. You know, you don't want Like, this has every safety feature under the sun, but you don't want to be by one of these vehicles. also sitting, you know, as we look over the end bonnet of this, it's about the height of a four or five-year-old. You wouldn't see a small... If a small child was in front of this now where we're sitting, you wouldn't see Yeah.
00:28:21
Speaker
And so, I mean, there that that would be my concern for the and you know proliferation of those on streets, but um but hopefully people will buy them if yeah if they really, really need them more so than just for fun. Yeah, but, ah you know, the main markets for these vehicles, like, obviously, with America, it's too small. they' they They'd laugh at that being a pickup truck. But markets-wise in Europe, they're number one absolutely everywhere. UK, Ireland, um all the main European markets, Australia.
00:28:46
Speaker
And you're talking, like, their number one market share and and vehicle for, like, 10, 12 years. So, you know... We're a bit of an afterthought in this. Yeah. as it As a continent, even, as much as a country... But, you know, there's no doubt it's it's a vehicle that will help Ford's bottom line because people buy them and need them.
00:29:04
Speaker
We'll take a quick break, but after the break, we're going to be talking all things Nissan Leaf. Welcome back to the Drivers Republic podcast, which is brought to you by Dundeele Motors, home of the trusted dealer program, helping you buy with confidence from verified dealerships. So, Mark, the Nissan Leaf is back.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yes, it is. And back with a much better shape and a much better... array of numbers from watching your your video on this yesterday. I watched it um i watched it it sitting in a Circle K with a cup of coffee and if anyone needs to learn about the Nissan Leaf, a great video by Mark on Navion Cars on YouTube. but But um people have an image of the Nissan Leaf.
00:29:41
Speaker
they And it's been it was a it was obviously the OG mass-produced electric vehicle. The first one was a bit awkward. i I do like alerting people the fact that I was the first Irish person to drive a Nissan Leaf. Oh yeah, you were. You were. Around a car park in Japan. now What was the range then? oh Oh, 120, 160 on good day. Car park in Japan? Yeah, I flew to Japan.
00:30:03
Speaker
I am drove around car park and flew home and had all the jet lag. Did you get business class on the flight? Yeah, business class. I stayed one night, had the funny toilets and all those things where you press the buttons and play music and spray jets.
00:30:19
Speaker
and But yeah, flew home the next morning. and So yeah, the first generation Nissan. It was incredibly radical at the time. you know, this was yeah groundbreaking stuff. 700,000 of them they've ah they've sold. Yeah, huge numbers. um And then the that the Mark II was obviously a bit more worthy and still groundbreaking insofar as we were at a time of of range on other cars, which wasn't brilliant. But it just seems like everything else has caught up and accelerated past the Leaf.
00:30:46
Speaker
The Shadow Mode charging became a bit of an issue. and see Watcha Leaf there, taxi drive past us there. Oh, yes, yes, yes. They were... They became a little bit antiquated very quickly, but Nissan looked like they're back now with them quite a radical change to the design. Yeah, well, yeah like you hit the nail on the head there. You know, they they were the only i' show option really for such a long time. And i think obviously Nissan know better than anybody that they needed to come back with something that could at least by 2025 and 26 and maybe even 27 standards still stand up like a reference point for me is still that kia ev6 it's out five years still a very relevant car if you can create an ev in today's modern world that can be relevant for five six years i think that's a really big part of how successful your car is going to be so uh the larger battery officially now it's 604 kilometer kilometer range
00:31:41
Speaker
Now, one thing I will say is I learned that the Nissan Leaf trip, the WLTP figures that you hear quoted for all cars, you know, around the world, is based on a speed of 46 kilometres an hour and an ambient temperature of about 13 degrees Celsius.
00:31:56
Speaker
So if you're not doing those things, and no wonder when you pull your EV onto a ah motorway, it doesn't do what it said it did in the brochure. What I found was very interesting, and I'm sorry if I cut you off, but you had said in your video about the fact that they give figures for motorway speeds. Yes, so they basically worked that you'll have about two and a half hours of range on a motorway. So when you're driving to Cork, you could definitely do that. And official figure quoted... I see it here, 330 kilometers, 330 kilometers at 130 kilometers per hour from your video.
00:32:30
Speaker
Which, yeah, so you're you're getting in, for me, that's getting in It's a car in Dublin driving it yeah well slightly above the speed limit on a motorway yeah and and getting there with 30km of range left Yeah, and as you say, you can't even do 130 in this country. And then you have fast, decent speed charging. So if you get the larger battery, it's It's 105 kilowatts for smaller battery. I think memory, it's 150. you can recover up to 417 kilometers. Look, these are Nissan figures in 30 minutes.
00:33:01
Speaker
so you can recover up to four hundred and seventeen kilometers look these are new sun figures in just thirty minutes And so what, 174 horsepower or 214 horsepower in terms of power outputs.
00:33:12
Speaker
yeah and The tire size thing was interesting. had said in your video that they have either 195, 200 or 235. So yeah different tire sizes depending. Different tire width. Widths depending on the model.
00:33:23
Speaker
52 kilowatt hour battery or 75 kilowatt hour battery. So yeah, interesting. seventy five kilowatt hour batteryies so yeah interesting McPherson front suspension, multi-link on the rear, so should be pretty good to drive.
00:33:35
Speaker
ah If for anyone has ever been in a Tesla, the games you can play, you know, the buggy racing. Yeah, I saw that. My kids, when I have a Tesla for a week, my kids will go to school earlier because when we pull up outside, they can play that game.
00:33:47
Speaker
Now, Nissan have the exact, so it's the exact same. I actually thought that game that game's company was was Tesla. It's not. it It's a third party. But the only difference is in a Tesla, you use the steering wheel and the brake to drive these cars. In the Nissan, it's on the screen. I think you don't get to use the wheel. That's the only thing. So car is shorter itself, but it has, what, 50 litre bigger boot space, droppable floors. Yeah, it's a little bit wider. It's actually not as tall as the outgoing Nissan Leaf. There's only like a third of an inch in it or something, but it's still a fact.
00:34:15
Speaker
um So yeah, decent boot, droppable floor, vehicle to load, ah battery management. So one of the big things with the Nissan Leaf was there was a thing called rapid gate. Basically, if you had Nissan Leaf, it didn't like being fast charged twice in one day.
00:34:30
Speaker
Oh, you know what happened? It just wouldn't charge at the speed it should. So it's now liquid cooled, thermal management. You can get a heat pump on the larger battery, but it still does clever stuff. Like it will use excess heat from the radiator and stuff that to heat the cabin, even if you don't have a heat pump.
00:34:45
Speaker
How would you describe it in terms of the styling? I mean, obviously, go and have a look at Mark's video on Navien cars, but for me, i really like the rear. I see what they've done there. Yeah, they've done a but little bit of Datsun there. and it's I just think it's it's quite a pretty car now. so we're going to hear from the designer in a few minutes and he'll explain the inspiration for it.
00:35:04
Speaker
But yeah, he basically said it was, you know, from 90s games and stuff like that. where where So maybe if you're playing Gran Turismo in the late 90s, you'll see a bit of that in the car. One point you'd said about the warranty, three years, 100,000 kilometers in the car, wasn't huge, is it? bit low, isn't it? So so there's there's three different tiers for the warranty. They've got the three year for the, you know, everything in the car. Then they've got five years for electric components like the inverter, the DC charger, all that stuff.
00:35:29
Speaker
And then you've got the usual eight year. But I did think it was a bit low. Yeah. Yeah. Battery wise, eight years, 160,000 kilometers. 160,000 kilometers bit for me isn't isn't huge either.
00:35:41
Speaker
No. Like I know that the eight years is right. Okay. People think eight years, but lots of people do way more than that in eight years. That's it. And, um you know, I think maybe as time goes on, with people will extend them when when the brands themselves say that, actually, no, your batteries are doing okay. I've had quite a lot of comments this week from other from older Leaf owners who've had them for a while saying, I'm still on my car. It's six, seven years old, 93% state health.
00:36:05
Speaker
As we I'm looking at a Nissan Aria drive past us here, and and I'm wondering, how does that compare? So it's based on the Nissan Aria platform. It's also shared with the Megane Right, okay. Is that what it's still called? Or E-Tech? E-Tech. So you've driven that car, that should give us an idea of what the leaf will be.
Nissan Leaf Design Discussion
00:36:22
Speaker
Now, I have an Aria in our house as our family car, so I've driven that.
00:36:26
Speaker
It's actually all right. It's ah it's more comfortable in the front than it is in the back, to be honest with you. I find it a bit choppy. ah But same platform. So, you know, that's quite a large car. So they've managed to make something a little bit more sleek on the same same underpinnings, I suppose. um Yeah, it's it's yet to drive it. That's going to the be the big test, obviously.
00:36:48
Speaker
But I think on paper, all the bits they've done to it, it kind of stands up. Would you agree? Yeah, I mean, for for me looking at it it, it looks really good. I wasn't expecting it to be as pretty. I thought it would be another iteration of what was a fairly tired design, but it looks like they've torn the rulebook up and touches of retro in it, which I really like.
00:37:11
Speaker
and and it's And it's still quite car-based. It's not another... you know, jelly mould crossover. It's just the still touch the car. And even sort of watching the video, know why it's why it's so important, I was sort of using the reference of you walking around it to sort of get an idea of what it, you know, what it looks like in terms of size and dimensions. So um a lovely looking thing, really. And, and,
00:37:32
Speaker
i What's it like in other colours? Did you see it in other colours? Only had it in that teal colour. It's a traditional leaf colour, really, isn't it? Yes, it's it's kind of like a... It's teal, it's greeny blue, but I liked it. it A lot of these colours you've got to see in the flesh. And again, we say it every week, I think, nearly, you know, with all the blacks and the greys the silvers.
00:37:49
Speaker
ah Be brave. You can get this kind of beige colour inside the car and the higher trim. um One thing they did notice, so the tops of the doors of which you're touching the Land Cruiser now, Paddy, are fabric.
00:38:00
Speaker
and i yeah I saw that you were suggesting that people would spray some sort of a Scotchgard or something to avoid. Grubby fingers, fake tan. you're getting one, yeah. And especially if hey if you are a taxi driver and you're going to get one, you you know better than anybody. you need so yeah So you won't be able to essentially wipe them. They're not you know plastic, leather, hard plastic, whatever. it's It's comfortable resting your elbow on it. But yeah, it's not going to be the most durable, especially in that kind of beige colour.
00:38:23
Speaker
Nissan need a win. Yes. They really need a win. I mean, their numbers internationally and and their financials don't make pretty reading. They're entering now ah segment where they used to have it, obviously, and all to themselves.
00:38:37
Speaker
They've fallen away because rivals were better and and massively better. The price point as well, Leaf has laterally become quite a cheap entry point because... Yeah, it's currently about 20%. 122 isn't it for the last one so they're suddenly going to come out with a model where it's got to be late 30s right that's why they have four different trims essentially so they want to not alienate the 700,000 that's a nice customer base to be able to go back and go hey, we've got a new leaf, would you like to buy one?
00:39:08
Speaker
um But equally, if you've bought a leaf even in the last two years and you want to change into the new one, if the jump is, let's say you paid even 25 grand, if the highest spec is 40, that's going to be a 15 jump. I know everything's gone up, Bryce. And it also, you know, it has to undercut the area, I suppose, as well, even though there are definitely bits of this that will, you know, will outperform the area in terms of technology and stuff.
00:39:32
Speaker
I don't know if it came up at all. but Has the shadow mode conversation been been raised at all as in what will happen? You know, because obviously the charging points here can't keep producing shadow mode cables, especially as the newer ones come on stream. So what will the future be for those leaf owners who are trying to get around the country? Well, I'm constantly getting spam emails from ah agencies asking would I like to advertise a Chathamo adapter on my channel. So they can be bought.
00:39:58
Speaker
They do exist and they do exist. I believe they work. I've never actually tried one because I always think these things are scams when people are trying to touch you or talk to you. But yeah, we won't.
00:40:09
Speaker
Like how long are those? Any new stuff going in, they don't have them. Because there it was Renault for a while as well, but now and like the only literally the only cars you see trying to use them are Nissan Leafs, of which there are quite a few still driving around. But I think the maximum they can charge that is a D50.
00:40:26
Speaker
yeah So not only are they sitting in a spot, but they're also going to be there for a while. Well what drives me mad is when there's a few chargers together and someone in a leaf and yeah know someone's going to well how'd you know they weren't it wasn't free when they if if the newer chargers that do up to 150 connect to your leaf it's costing you more to use them people don't realise this use the slower I know doesn't look as shiny but your leaf can't do that speed anyway and you're paying more Yeah true People don't realise Well look you while you were there you caught up with Nissan's designer what's his name?
00:40:59
Speaker
His name is Giovanni, as in Trapatoni. Ah, very good. Now, he's from California, but he's based in London. And we jumped into the new leaf and sat side by side. bit like we are now, Paddy.
00:41:11
Speaker
Well, we've all heard of comedians in cars drinking coffee. This is now car designers in cars drinking coffee. Giovanni Arroba from Nissan. You are the vice president of design.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yes, ah nice to meet you all. I'm Vice President of Nissan Design here in the UK in London. Yes. um I just came from Japan. I was seven years in Japan as a senior design director and I was very fortunate to work on many cars like the Aria, but also the Leaf from its inception.
00:41:45
Speaker
You gave me lots of questions in my head when you mentioned Japan. So you spent seven years there. you also You were four years in London previously. Previously, spent four years in London when we were working on third generation Kashkai and the Juke.
00:42:00
Speaker
um And actually, we penned the Aria here in London in the studio. And then I moved to Japan to to follow it through to production amongst a few other cars. I have an Ari at home, by the way. It's our family car.
00:42:13
Speaker
Good car. Thanks for designing it. How far ahead is is Japan? In an automotive sense, I suppose, but also even, you you you mentioned there, are convenience stores. How different a world is it away from Western Europe?
00:42:26
Speaker
It's just a different planet. i mean, they Japan, you know, they they take global influences, but then they turn it into their... They they tailor it to themselves, and it then it becomes a whole new thing.
00:42:40
Speaker
Like the convenience store. So, you know, spending seven years in Japan, ah really love the convenience of the convenience store. They're on every corner. You just pop in. You get a you can get anything. You can get a beer. You can get a hot dog. You can get...
00:42:53
Speaker
You can get clean t-shirts, um but there's something about that. And then actually, that's an American invention, the 7-Eleven convenience store, but Japan just transformed it into something else.
00:43:05
Speaker
And we were kind kind of inspired by that because of the ah the efficiency and convenience, but it's also kind of, there's a pop culture element to it. so um and we We thought when we launched this car, we would love to have a little pop-up convenience store um because it's very relevant. I mean, ever since COVID, after COVID, ah Japan has seen the most amount of international tourism ever.
00:43:30
Speaker
And that's, i mean, clearly people are coming to Japan and absorbing that culture um and and and taking them back with them. So, When we designed this car, we wanted to bring in some of this Japanese DNA. We wanted to bring in some of this kind of vibrant culture that's going on. So, i mean, that was that was that was the instance. But, um you know, as Nissan is a Japanese brand, um we thought, why not celebrate the Japanese DNA as a Japanese brand? So...
00:44:02
Speaker
So even let's say Nissan in Japanese, Ni is 2, San is 3. So you that's why maybe you'll see some cars like our GTR race cars have the numbered 23, number 23.
00:44:15
Speaker
So when we were designing the LEAF, especially the tail lamps, you know lots of crossovers, there lots of EVs out there, have these just linear horizontal light blades across the back.
00:44:28
Speaker
It's become very popular, but almost there's a sea of of that now. So how do we make it more distinctive? How do we make something stand out and be more impactful? So we created a graphic for the number for two and for three.
00:44:43
Speaker
And this actually is now a holograph on the rear. And it actually pixelated holographs. So it almost has an 8-bit video game quality, which gives it, ah and again, another bit of a gaming charm to it. But...
00:44:56
Speaker
You did mention in your presentation as well, there's a lot of inspiration. You grew up in the 90s. What game and console were you at, Giovanni, in the 90s? Actually, I think I was i was on ah a Nintendo. I thought you might have said Sega.
00:45:12
Speaker
I was a Super Mario guy. Okay, well, it's that's no bad thing. and Of all the cars people ask you a about when you say you work at Nissan, is it the GTR people get really passionate about it or equally an EV like this that has kind of changed? We've been working working for Nissan for a long time, and what keeps me excited about working at Nissan is its breadth of cars that we can work on. As a designer, in Japan, i was you get to work on a GT-R on one hand,
00:45:39
Speaker
And on the other hand, we have little tiny k cars, these tiny little mini city cars. Or you can work on full-size American D-segment trucks, um cars like the Patrol.
00:45:52
Speaker
um and each car has its you know its heritage and its personality. and So for us, Nissan has an element of charm, an element of performance, an element of adventure.
00:46:06
Speaker
so it's you know as a designer um it's quite exciting. If ah location, location, location is so important in property when it comes to EVs it's probably aerodynamics, aerodynamics, aerodynamics. yes and This car has no wiper. Can you just explain to people who this does come up in rainy Ireland and probably the UK.
00:46:27
Speaker
What from a designer point of view and a drag coefficient point of view how beneficial is it to not have a wiper on a modern EV? Well, in the case of this car, I think you you know you're degrading the car by, i can't give you the certain amount of miles, but the range drops.
00:46:44
Speaker
So I know that as we're going through this tipping point of parity to ice and electrification as far as um you know, price point and range.
00:46:55
Speaker
It was very important to us with this platform and this battery pack to get the most mileage out for the customers to avoid rain anxiety and, ah you know, to to bring buyers in confidently that are not just in the city environment, but, you know commuting between longer longer distances. But, you In the case of the this car, it's, I think, sleek enough that the rain will fall off.
00:47:26
Speaker
What are the key differences or are the key differences between designing an ICE car and an EV? Or is there a lot of there's a lot of crossover? Well, I mean, there's obviously a lot of crossover, but I mean, and EV has a pretty thick battery pack until maybe, you know, 2028, we'll start seeing um ass b which is a thinner ah battery with more range, maybe then proportions will change again.
00:47:52
Speaker
But right now, you know, packaging the flat the flat battery pack obviously raises the H point up.
00:48:02
Speaker
But also, you know, batteries are not cheap, so aerodynamics plays a big part to get the range higher. I mean, we could put a big, big, big battery, but then it would be a much more expensive car. And then, you know, you can compromise some of the aerodynamics because you have a huge battery.
00:48:18
Speaker
But again, then the car price of the car would go up. So in the case of this one, as we're trying to hit that you know Goldilocks zone where you've got price, style, and range all within this sweet spot. So...
00:48:34
Speaker
It was always a balance and working, obviously, together with R&D and how to shape the car optimally with some impactful style. Yeah, and and there is lots of impactful stuff. Hopefully, by the time you listen to the podcast...
00:48:49
Speaker
the video will be out. there I mean, it is a car that has surprised me in in lots of ways today. for Even, for example, in the glass roof, it says LEAF. I don't think I've seen that in a production car before. I've seen these these different ah opacity, all right, but not a model name.
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the electro-dimming roof really changes the experience and the atmosphere and in the car because unlike the rolling shade, You know, the you can you can open up the back two row passengers to let light in and keep the front open or vice versa. So it ah it it increases the functionality of it. But also just the movement of opaque to not opaque.
00:49:31
Speaker
um We wanted to design, you know, something attractive and compelling. so And again, going back to the Japanese DNA that we were playing with in Japan,
00:49:43
Speaker
you know they They do beautiful abstractions of nature, and beautiful kind of, even though it's maybe a very classical art, because it's abstractive, it it looks so modern.
00:49:54
Speaker
So there's this art form called kasumimonyo, which is basically an abstraction of a cloud. And it's got very beautiful radiused edges in a kind of asymmetrical fashion that it reminded us of the way we're trying to treat the graphics on the tail lamps or on the front lamps or even the machined wheels.
00:50:13
Speaker
They have this really nice little looped machine kind of racetracked radius. um And again, we brought that into the shape of of the the way the electrodimming roof works.
00:50:27
Speaker
graphic is shown and then we've also brought it in other places like the the little rubber mat where you have the wireless phone charger has the kasumi moniographic it's quite subtle but if you know it's there you you can't unsee us yeah there's also a story to tell and and and something to resonate i think um what we're trying to craft is a sense of nissan-ness and bring some charm to the design so Well, if I may say so, you've taken a car that has sold extremely well, but you've also kind of turned it on its head, which some would say maybe is a brave move. You you look at a lot of models, famous, iconic models throughout the years.
00:51:06
Speaker
It's evolution rather than revolution. there It's fair to say there's a bit of revolution in this car. Is is that fair? Yeah. thing Thank you for saying that. I hope I'm glad you you felt that because, yeah, it's a revolution. It's a reimagining of Leaf. We really, we called it a reimagining of Leaf. I mean,
00:51:23
Speaker
ah achieving that that range with that aerodynamic efficiency and keeping all the roominess, keeping the headroom, keeping the luggage space, or expanding on the luggage space. So it's a smaller footprint, more agile, but actually more interior space and and just overall more efficient.
00:51:41
Speaker
And, you know, hopefully, you know, and people can we reflect and and and and see that the design has also evolved and become a little bit more chic, more urban, more sleek and more sexy. so And you've you've made a car not as long as the previous version when everyone else is making cars bigger and bigger and bigger. So even that is is quite unique, I think.
00:52:04
Speaker
and It sounds like ah your career with Japan in terms of physically being there is not over. I'll be working for Nissan. and It's a Japanese company. And my wife's Japanese, so I'll be going back. You'll be back. I go back and forth to Japan often, yes.
00:52:19
Speaker
Amazing. Okay, Giovanni, thank you very much for talking to us. Good luck with car. I'm sure it'll do very well. And we'll see you in another 700,000 units down the road. I hope so. It was a pleasure. Thank you very much.
00:52:31
Speaker
Welcome back to the Drivers Republic podcast brought to you in association with Dundee Motors where more Irish drivers find their next car from a trusted dealership than anywhere else. Why? Because Dundee's trusted dealer programme means verified dealerships and the kind of backup that matters like warranties and history checks giving you confidence from your very first click. I'm i'm stopping you there Mark as I see a beautiful Oh my god. Beautiful Renault 5 GT Turbo. He's looking at us we're looking at him. Driving into the car park exactly yeah. Let me just go over an interview. Hopefully he pulls up in between us here.
00:53:01
Speaker
Can we get a, can we, give it a rev there! Hang on a second, we
00:53:11
Speaker
Have you? We're looking at your car. We're looking at your car, give us an L blip there. a g t turbo as she sure Is Right, what's your name? Kevin. Okay, but Kevin has just walked into the podcast.
00:53:22
Speaker
Oh, jeez. No, you're okay. So, what's the story with that car? Where did you get it? How much did you pay? brought it in from the UK, yeah, two years ago. Right. 19 sterling. Wow. Wow.
00:53:35
Speaker
nineteener wow We've literally been talking about car auctions in the UK earlier on. So what were you able to... that's I think it was off this site. We spotted it.
00:53:46
Speaker
Me and me friend. I had one when I was 22. Hence, I'm having the midlife crisis now. Yeah, yeah. We can relate. And obviously you didn't have, so classic VRT, so you weren't getting any nasty surprises when you... There was a nasty surprise, yeah. Was there?
00:54:02
Speaker
Yeah. There was a nasty surprise. They were looking for it. Right. It's 35 years old now. They came looking for it, yeah. So you had to, you wanted the car, you were happy enough to anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:54:13
Speaker
So what's it like owning a car like that? It's great, yeah. We get a ah fair fair few looks, all right, yeah. People haven't seen them in a long time, mean yeah. So there's very few. I think there's only, that's the Raider edition. It's a special edition.
00:54:25
Speaker
So there's very little of them left around. And we have to ask the question, this man is obsessed with the new Renault 5. Yes. What do you think of I think they've done a good job, yeah. They've done a good job. It looks well.
00:54:35
Speaker
They kept the style a bit, yeah. Yeah. But, yeah. I feel like Kevin has also gone with the Cleo Williams colours. there it Yes, yeah I've got the bronze wheels on it. I did, that's what, when I picked them out, I bought them up in the north.
00:54:53
Speaker
I thought it'd be a nice look to it, yeah. The Reynolds look, the route where Williams look, yeah. and Well, you can get quite a similar colour and there is the gold strip around the top of the Renault 5. and So, you have a passenger Land Cruiser ordered? I have and they're coming in... ah you You know how much it is, don't you? They're 56 without vat.
00:55:11
Speaker
Oh, that's a commercial one. Commercial, yeah. Okay, sorry, I thought you meant this. These are 150 I believe. Correct. Correct. And my friend Mark Cassidy works in Dennis Matneys. He's getting a deal, is he?
00:55:22
Speaker
Well, no, it's a commercial vehicle but I ordered it in October and they said January but... No sign yet. No sign yet. but Have you got a vehicle like that now? I had a Land Cruiser, Toyota Land Cruiser, yeah.
00:55:34
Speaker
Have you still got the tow bar off? Because the tow bar on the new one is a thousand extra. And we asked at the time, could you put your old tow bar from the last gen Land Cruiser on the new one?
00:55:44
Speaker
And they were like, I need to come back and check. We'll we let you know. I still don't know the answer. really so So there's a little back pocket trick for you. So what do you think of this new one? I really like the look of it, the style is very good.
00:55:57
Speaker
but yeah The price was a bit of a thing. So for someone who you know had to incur that jump in price, now it is a more sophisticated vehicle, were you kind of shocked by the jump having had the last?
00:56:09
Speaker
Well everything has gone up I wasn't really shocked and I knew it was coming but I really, I had to i had the 151 Land Cruiser.
00:56:21
Speaker
Office unit like this. Yeah. This with the seats in the back. Right. And I had changed around a few vehicles just to sort out. So and when I got that, when I got my little toy here, I don't need that in the week. I didn't need the Jeep on the week. I only need it for work now. Right.
00:56:37
Speaker
So that's why I've decided to go with the commercial vehicle. Don't need the seats. I didn't need the seats with a family and all. They can bring the kids around in the back and they're in all. It's fine. What colour did you go for? and this ah oh No, Black Midnight. It's a kind of a midnight black. or right There's a special name to a Black, but all black. yeah you know So you haven't even... you You're effectively buying a car off the plans here, have you? Yes. Driven one?
00:56:57
Speaker
Yeah, bought it off the plans. You haven't been able to drive it even? I haven't even drove no. Wow. Isn't that mad? You kind of know what you're getting with a TO, aren't you? You know what you're getting with a TO. oh Yeah, you know what you're getting. yeah That is true. Well, I've driven this in Morocco last year and there's nothing I can't do.
00:57:12
Speaker
But there's also nothing the last one. I asked the guys there when were doing the the Atlas Mountains because they had the last model kind of following us. And I said, is there anything that car can't do that this one now can? And they were like, are we recording? And I was like, no. And they were no.
00:57:26
Speaker
No. at The exact same. No, I'm really looking forward to it. been waiting a while i've heard they're coming in next month the first of well you might as well wait now for the but that's the thing about the reg i was a bit of like i'm wondering about now i'm gonna have a one or two a two five two reg yeah instead of having a new reg which i thought i was getting like you know right so okay so that but what would you how would you feel about that like Ah, it's just as easy. I mean, you can't, it's out of your control, I suppose, in sense. You can't wait till 261. It's still a new reg.
00:58:01
Speaker
It's only a number. Plus, it's the Land Cruiser, which has one of the best resale values of any car, any time. Yeah, exactly. So, someone that a few lads have been saying to me, it still holds us value. I know lads that bought a Land Cruiser last year, and they're selling it for more now.
00:58:15
Speaker
A lad up the road there. Landcruiser, an investment, who knew? and He's getting more money done he got than he he actually paid for it. so He's driven it for six months. We have to ask you, ke him what do you do that you need a Landcruiser?
00:58:26
Speaker
I'm electrical contractor. So I'll be on building sites and I do carry a bit of stuff around the back. I could be into ah an empty field at times, setting up compounds and sites. and Could be very mucky and down a dirt track.
00:58:42
Speaker
And was there any other vehicles that you would look at, consider? No, I've only driven Land Cruisers. Wow. Because they're only saying last week, people just, if you buy a Toyota, you're probably not going to leave. I've had O2, I've had an O5 short wheel, but they were both short wheels.
00:58:55
Speaker
And then I had the long wheelbase, 151. And ah now i'm this is my first ever brand new Jeep. Any problems with them? Never. Wow. Never. There you go, Ty. Good an endorsement, as you can ask for, isn't it?
00:59:07
Speaker
And she's took a few dings as well. But you weren't driving at the time. All right, Kevin. Go on, Lance. Thanks for your imp impromptu appearance on the podcast. Yeah, it's funny. I've seen this pop down. It's like, oh, my God, there's my new Jeep. Yeah. or There you go.
00:59:23
Speaker
We can have that. I'm sure let us know. Go and buy another toy. Right. Take it easy. Thanks very much.
00:59:31
Speaker
ah that was very nice of Kevin. We don't even have a surname for dropping in. Kevin would be a great regular, actually, yeah on the podcast. And yeah, gor ah great to get an actual customer of the car that you're sitting in yeah in real time. But all his Renault 5 GT Turbo was gorgeous. yeah Painted in a sort of a Cleo Williams homage, navy with a gold wheels as well. So really, really stunning car. But yeah, nice to meet a proper petrolhead.
00:59:57
Speaker
And what a day for driving a car like that. But it wasn't an interesting to see, like that guy, so you have one when he's 22, and the Renault 5, he didn't have a bad word about it to say. No, well, he is an electrician as well, so it's ah it's good that he is because that car would have required a small bit of work. So hopefully he ah saves himself a few pounds by um but doing it himself. Yeah, well, if if you'd also like to do an impront appearance in the Drivers Public Podcast, you should email us, driverspublicpodcast at gmail.com. Next week on the podcast, ah we'll have been driving some more cars. You can tell us about the Honda Jazz.
01:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'll try and get excited about the Honda Jazz. um I am in the facelifted Kodiak, which I know is a car you've driven already, but I'll give you my Dublin to Cork and back several times next week impressions.
01:00:45
Speaker
That's always good to know about. Because, you know, that is that's a good route to be able to compare no matter what kind of car it is, but any any kind of EV is what I mean. Exactly. And the Dacia Bigster we can have marks 800th impressions. Yes, it's it's been quite a while. I did ask, I asked actually, did they have the camping pack? have you ever camped in one of them?
01:01:04
Speaker
No, and but it would be interesting to do so. Have they got, i know it's on an optional extra on it, but I mean, it's going to be wise for them to do that. We were trying to find out, did they have one for the Bigster or was it just the duster one that fits in the Bigster? So ben if essentially, it's it's a bed you can use to camp um on the back of your car.
01:01:21
Speaker
ah The only thing about camping in cars, you know, the roof is very close to your face. Yeah, it is. and it And it also can get a bit sweaty and a bit stinky. Yes. And if you had a nightmare and you sat up, you might break your nose.
01:01:32
Speaker
I did sleep in the Volkswagen Caddy, California. So, yeah. Did you sleep in that? No, I just... Yeah, that was... Put the windows... Milesly unpleasant. and I think your camper van needs to be a certain size.
01:01:45
Speaker
But I think with it with the Dossie ones, ah certainly with the jogger one, it's really a tent as well. that's There's the option of a tent that comes out the back. So that is and plenty more space. And you are seeing more of them like roof boxes, even on the Ford Ranger trip. I was just back from in Iceland. They had one of those tents on top of that.
01:02:01
Speaker
Because most these cars can, it's only 75 kilos though. So how do they take like a fully grown man? That's the only thing I don't understand. Well, it wouldn't take me then in that case. No. But we have learned a lot about you on this episode. Yes, exactly. Between air-cooled seats and sleeping in bands. I need to leave some behind.
01:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, all right. Look, thanks very much for listening. You might share the podcast with someone who's also into motoring and might enjoy it. And thank you as always to Dundee, our fantastic sponsors. We'll see you next week.