Unnamed Automotive Podcast

It's great to be back behind the wheel for this week's episode, which stars a 2020 Ram 1500 Rebel EcoDiesel full-size pickup, and a 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S. Who drove which? Did Benjamin haul tires? Will Sami ever get over the lack of 'wow' factor inherent in the 911's design? Join us for our first pair of car reviews in nearly 90 days.

Sometimes, a Car of the Year contender doesn't live up to its title when seen through the lens of hindsight. Benjamin and Sami identify four of the worst Car of the Year choices from the past 60 years, before speculating what modern award winners won't look so good after a decade has passed. Sami then gets excited about all the car stuff you can do in a car that isn't actually driving, which surprisingly, includes meteors and starscapes.

Was there a pair of vehicles in the 1990s that did a better job of predicting the future of the supercar than the Dodge Stealth and its Mitsubishi 3000GT sibling? Benjamin and Sami get deep on the ways these lightning quick grand tourers trounced the competition in terms of technology and innovation. Next up is a look at the best movie Mopars and on-screen Chevrolets of all time following by recent news about the 2021 Acura TLX luxury sedan.

Which classic 4x4s deserve to be brought back for a second chance? Benjamin and Chad have some ideas, but Sami thinks the past should be the past. The trio then discuss Nissan's new product announcement, which will completely revise its line-up over the next few years - including an updated Z car.

Dyson might be better known for building vacuum cleaners, but it turns out to have spent $610 million on an EV super SUV that...is way too good to be believable to anyone with a critical eye. Benjamin and Sami tear apart Dyson's decision to not build its fake SUV, before discussing the redesigned 2021 Toyota Sienna Hybrid and Toyota Venza Hybrid. The pair wrap things up by asking if you would ever buy a used supercar from a rental company - specifically, a Chevrolet Corvette Z06.

Why did sport trucks die out? Sami makes a passionate case that the off-road pickups we have today are a better match for truck fans, before both he and Benjamin try to build a sport truck from every major pickup manufacturer. The pair then discuss 'what might have been' concept cars and the sad production models we got instead, tying in automakers from Nissan to Cadillac to BMW, before a listener update focused on cars designed by musicians.

If you're good at one thing, you're obviously the best at everything else, too, and nowhere is this more true than in the world of musician-designed cars. Benjamin and Sami hit highlights like the Cizeta-Moroder V16T and the LincVolt before veering off to discuss Pierce Brosnan's fight with Aston Martin for some oversized movie swag, and of course Porsche's latest mega-bucks coffee machine.Links: 4 cars you didn’t know were designed by musicians — We’ve been confronted with actors trying to sing, singers trying to act, and comedians doing both, so why not musicians trying to design, engineer, and produce their own cars? Yello - Oh Yeah — Here's the Yello song Benjamin talks about in the podcast.

The car that tries the hardest to be cool is often the car no one wants to own. Benjamin and Sami take a look at 11 modern automobiles that will never be classics no matter how much 'effort' their designers and engineers put in at the time. After dissecting these victims of circumstance, the pair also discuss Rolls-Royce joining the automotive apiary with its new line of honey, before trying to understand why Hyundai's chief designer just quit. Finally, it's time for listener questions about trunk design.Links: These Modern Cars Will Never Be Collectible Classics — Once viewed as at least somewhat special, these models will forever just be used cars.

Is it cooler to drive Bigfoot through a car dealership or escape tornados in a brand-new Dodge Ram? Could you really pull a house off of its foundations with a GMC dually? And what, exactly, were Tango & Cash actually driving in that weird climactic scene? Benjamin and Sami dive into the best movie trucks of all time, with Sami displaying a shocking lack of interest in the world of monster trucks no matter how many times Benjamin decides to bring up the history of Bigfoot, Bigfoot Shuttle, or Bigfoot 7. The pair also touch on the upcoming Hyundai Santa Cruz, which would be the Korean brand's first foray into the world of pickups.Links: 10 Best Movie Trucks and Pickups To Come Out Of Hollywood — Car chases might get all the glory, but trucks have enjoyed their share of screen time in Hollywood, too. In fact, there are a number of movies where pickups and SUVs have played a key role in either advancing the plot, saving the day, or just injecting some much-needed adrenaline into a movie's sagging second act.

Even with the market primed and ready, there are still cars and trucks out there that completely whiffed on finding an audience. Benjamin and Sami take a look at 8 vehicles that found a way to fail despite the best possible chances of success. The pair also discuss Mazda's strange decision to court luxury customers with an upscale, rear-wheel drive version of the Mazda 6, as well as Cadillac's orphan Blackwing V8, which can't even find a home in a pair of cars with Blackwing written on the badge.Links: These Cars Were Set Up to Succeed But Failed Anyway — On paper, these eight cars should have been winners. They were not.

What cars were better the second time around? Benjamin dives into automotive sequels that outshone the originals. Speaking of sequels, Sami laughs it up about the terrible list of car movies that came out after the success of The Fast And The Furious. The pair also answer listener questions, before wrapping things up with news about the redesigned 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee.Links: The Lost and the Furious: Films that Tried (and Failed) to Ride the Fast & Furious Wave — It seems "The Fast and Furious, but with X" remains a losing formula. The inherent laziness of that idea is why none of these knock-offs could ever hope to reach the same heights it has. But bless their hearts for trying. Second Chances: 10 Vehicles Where the Sequel Topped the Original — There are more than a few examples of cars that didn't get it right the first time finding their footing in their second generation—or vehicles that made the leap from "good" to "great" as they built on a strong foundation.

Is the 2020 Jeep Cherokee still relevant in the hyper-competitive compact SUV segment? Benjamin spends a week behind the wheel to find out. Sami dives deep into both the 2021 Hyundai Elantra and the 2021 Genesis G80, while Benjamin wraps things up by sharing his teenage memories of renting the world's sketchiest Dodge Viper from a local gas station.

Does the 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon succeed because it's one of the few SUVs left on the market that wasn't built by committee? Benjamin has some strong words about the two-door Wrangler and it's place in the world, as well as how it compares to the Gladiator Rubicon pickup. Sami keeps things green by sliding through the week on a carpet of electrons, comparing the 2020 Chevrolet Bolt and the 2020 Hyundai Kona electric vehicles back-to-back.

It's time to TRD all the things, and with the Camry and the Avalon out of the way it was only logical that the 2020 Toyota RAV4 be next. Benjamin samples the TRD Off-Road version of this very on-road focused crossover and comes back with a surprisingly nuanced point of view on its place in the world. Sami spends a week at the opposite end of the size spectrum in the 2020 Toyota Highlander, and SUV that makes a lot of sense for 3-row shoppers.

What's it like to drive the 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo at speeds of up to 160 mph on a race track? Sami has all of the details after piloting the Italian supercar at Road Atlanta. Benjamin has a confusing time with a more down-to-earth performance vehicle, the plug-in hybrid 2020 Volvo XC60 T8 Polestar Engineered, which can't decide what it wants to be (yet is comfortable charging you a huge amount of money while it tries to figure it out). Guest William Clavey of Clavey's Corner also stops by to talk about driving the just-released 2020 Kia Seltos SUV.