What makes a car engaging drive? // QCC #217
Welcome to the Motormouth YouTube channel. I’m Zach. I’m Andrea. And this is questions, coffee, and cars number 217. So, guys at home watching this, woman, too, and they’re thinking, I’d like to take part. How would they do that? Follow along on Instagram at motormouth_andrea. Every Sunday, I put a post out asking for questions. Once we gather them, the post is deleted and we start the show. Time now for questions, coffee, and cars. Your questions from Instagram. I ordered a 2026 Kia Sarrento Hybrid in August. However, once it arrived on the lot, it sat there for 3 weeks before they would lease it to me due to Kia Canada not releasing lease pricing until October 2nd. Very annoying, frustrating as Hyundai had their 2026 Santa Fe hybrid pricing long beforehand. Is it normal for dealers to get vehicles on lots almost a month before pricing is announced? Yeah, because uh what happens is um cars are delivered to the dealership and then they have a release date where they say they’re going to release them to the public. Uh for example, this past weekend, uh we did the Volkswagen Tig Turbo. Yeah. And we were told at the launch event that every dealer in the country had re received a couple of them and then they have a release date where they release the hounds and you’re allowed to buy it. So, the good news is when that release date comes, at least you know the car’s there. Yeah, for sure. Now, I did reach out to Kia Canada. And when it comes to leasing, sometimes they don’t have the least price yet available. Um, and that was sounds like the case with you. Uh, but if you had actually paid cash for it or maybe like a third-p partyy loan, then you could have move forward with it. So what the car companies do is they say, “Okay, we have a Sarrento 2026.” They set the residual value of the lease with guides from companies like ALG and Blackbook and so on. So what they might have been waiting for also is the number uh the numbers of residual retained value on a vehicle after 36 or 48 months and maybe ALG or Blackbook or whoever they use hadn’t given them the number yet. So that we’re waiting on that. So it’s a couple of things. The car officially being released, it sounds like it has. So my first scenario isn’t true, but the uh the residual value one is probably the case. Yeah. And it can change from model to model. It would just happen to be the Sarrento for you and that hybrid. I’m really interested in the 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid. I’ve heard mixed opinions about the Mitsubishi Outlander and its reliability. What’s your opinion? Well, if you go on to Facebook forums, people are really happy with their purchase of the Outlander plug-in hybrid. It has great range. They like the driving dynamics of it and they actually get better range than the EPA numbers. Um there was only one incident when it was really cold and it had to yeah it had to do with the 12vt battery and I would say that it was like -20 Celsius -4 Fahrenheit and colder that this issue was at play where the 12volt battery went dead and people couldn’t start their Outlander plug-in hybrid. We actually had it that week and it was cold here as well overnight to -5 C, but we had no problems. Okay, so if you look at anything that you want to buy, you want to look at a brand who’s been doing something a long time. The longer they’ve been doing it, the better. Typically, the reliability and the bugs have been worked out and so on. So, a couple of things going on here. Mitsubishi has been at the plug-in hybrid game uh pretty much the longest of mainline car companies. I think the only one that does it longer is Volvo, which is a luxury brand. They’ve been at it a long time. So, the good thing is that they’re kind of on their almost they’re getting towards their third generation of this. And uh if you’re not in a rush, wait for the 26. The 26 is going to have even more plug-in range and it’s going to get the updated infotainment screen. It’s going to get the updated stereo. So, pump the unless there’s such a good deal on a 25. I’ve heard there’s a good deal. So, there might be a good deal on the 25, but you can play this game a little bit longer. The new one’s supposed to come in the new year and then the 25s will then be a model year old and they might have even better discounts to get them off the lot or just wait for the new one. And it makes sense that it’s going to have more range because you look at the new RAV 4 2026 model. It’s now got 80 kilometers, 50 miles of range. So Mitsubishi wants to go up from that 60 uh kilome that or 61 km between friends. Andrea, maybe it makes a difference for some people. But anyway, I think that it’s great to hear that they’re going to increase the range. I think it’s a big player. The only suggestion I have is make sure that you have a Mitsubishi uh dealership in your area because if you don’t and you run into problems or there’s a recall or something is going on, you don’t want to have to travel a great distance to get it fixed. It can be a real pain. Just want to jump in last on that. People who are watching this from the US, they’re like, Mitsubishi, is that really a thing? In Canada, Mitsubishi is a is a becoming a bigger and bigger player each and every year. It’s not the case in the US and it’s mostly because of dealers and they offer so many trims so you can get into a plug-in hybrid that may cost a little less than some of uh the competitors. Andrea, can you expand on what you mean when you say you prefer an engaging drive? What is it about the driving experience that makes it engaging? Is it the instep power, the tougher steering, the way the car moves and turns? Harder suspension? Would love to know. Okay. Don’t answer. I’m going to I’m going to guess for you. Okay. Okay. Because we never really talked about this. Andrea say she doesn’t likes the engaging drive. I think it’s a heavier steering for Andrea. She likes to feel like there’s some weight with the steering. She likes to feel the road and doesn’t want it to be floaty boaty. Yeah. And she likes a snappy engine. Am I right? You’re right. You’re right. Like I really like that precise and sharp steering. Something a little bit heavier. As Zach said, a little bit of a firmer suspension. Not to say that I want to feel every bump in the road, but I wanted to feel planted when I take those corners. I want to be able to feel the road. It’s interesting. Want to be connected. Andrea’s Little Ruby, her beloved MX5. Uh it’s quite interesting because it has sort of like um uh it’s got, you know, you feel you want to be able to feel the road through the steering wheel. It’s got that and you can definitely feel the road through the chassis, but it isn’t firm. It’s actually it’s quite smooth, but you just feel that you feel connected to the road. That’s I think that’s what you’re looking for. Absolutely. And also, I have to say that even though the suspension isn’t super firm, I’m not sure you would want it with the MX5 because it is loud. You’ve got the roof down, but what I love about it is just the way that it takes corners so easily and it doesn’t have a ton of power, but I always feel like I’m speeding. You feel like you’re going a million miles an hour. Okay. One thing that’s really quite interesting about uh connected driving and suspension. Most people think, oh, you’ve got to have a really firm suspension to feel the road. That is not true. What you really need is a very rigid platform. And the MX5 has that. So, it’s very small and therefore they can make the platform rigid even though it’s a convertible. And I’m going to use an example which is the Golf R. So, the Golf R is a small compact hatchback and it’s got a very rigid platform and because it has that they can actually let the suspension be a little bit softer and so you can get it in the corners and it doesn’t bounce. It does it just you let the suspension work more with a rigid platform gives you a more engaging drive. So, firm doesn’t always mean better. And I have to say, I personally actually prefer the way the Golf R handles over the GTI because the beauty of the GTI is that it’s a nice blend of performance and power and comfort. And I think that that appeals to maybe more people as a daily driver rather than the Golf R, but I prefer the way the Golf R feels. It just makes me super happy. Yeah, it’s more powerful. I want to give an example of one. The BMW Z4 has tons of power. It had the manual transmission, the one that we reviewed, but it’s tuned for comfort. So, although it handles incredibly well, the suspension is a little bit softer. Um, and I didn’t like it as much as the feel of the Miata. Yeah, it was even on its sportiest setting, we found it was it was quite soft. Great touring car. like if you’re going to put miles on it. Anyway, it it’s very individual to the specific model, but that’s a general overview. If you’re a driving instructor, which car would you use for teaching? Ascent, Ascent, Palisade, Palisade, QX60, and Highlander V6. Oldie Highlander. Which one is most reliable if all are used? Okay, so excuse me. This is for driving school. Is that what it says? just say as if you are a driving instructure instructor. So I wouldn’t choose any of those. They’re all far too big. Like people who are learning to drive that’s a little all of them are a bit overwhelming. They’re all kind of big. So if if those are the only ones that you’re saying I think we should answer the question. There are two that I would pick. I agree. What are they again? The Ascent. Ascent Palisad QX60 and Highlander V6. Okay. I I’ve got my I’ve got my two. Okay. So, I just want to say that I agree with Zach that for example, the Palisade and the QX60 way too big, especially if you’re mostly doing city driving. I’ll use our boys as an example. On our street, you park on both sides and the streets in the city are quite tight and they get overwhelmed by a wide vehicle, especially um as a new driver. Yeah. But when you’re parallel parking, the front of the vehicle swings out to the car on the opposite side of the street. So you got to know what you’re doing. I would choose ascent for outward visibility. Same. Mhm. And so outward visibility. It is a big vehicle, but it doesn’t drive like a big vehicle. Like you don’t feel um like it’s too wide. You sit up and over the dash. You’ve got that greenhouse effect. That’s the one I would pick as well. Okay. There’s a reason why driving schools go with the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla because um they’re small enough and maneuverable enough and certainly reliable enough that you can use them regularly. Honestly, I’m just giving you my honest feedback. I wouldn’t choose any of those from driving school. No, I wouldn’t. Uh but if you wanted an SUV, how about a cross track? Just something that’s small. Like if you didn’t want to go with a sedan. I’m reading between the lines. Andria, this is a person that wants a three row SUV and also wants to do double duty. Maybe so. So, I think that maybe just get a good used Civic. What are some safe, inexpensive first cars for teens, used or not? Well, we can speak to that right away. We own a Civic. We bought a Civic when our boys learned to drive. You could go with a Corolla. We just went with the Civic because it looks a little bit sportier than the Cora. The number one reason was this was 5 years ago. It’s amazing how time goes by. Um, we bought a three-year-old off lease Civic, and that’s a good thing. You can go into a Honda store and say, “Hey, have you got any cars coming in off lease?” And they’ll know. And the guy who sold us the car knew that this car was coming in, and it only had low, low miles on it. Someone had just driven it around the city. And it was like brand new. Um, and the reason why we chose the Civic and maybe the Corolla is it was the first year it had the forward forward collision warning system. Yeah. So, if you have a new driver, young driver, and they’re learning how to drive, they get distracted and that forward collision warning thing, that’s the beep beep beep when you’re coming up behind something saves their ass and it has the autonomous braking. So, that’s why we chose a 2017 Honda Civic because it was the first year that had that on the trim we wanted. And we talked to Toyota actually about the Corolla and they said, “Yeah, it it has it too for 2017.” We actually think they came out. No, they I I clarified with them because we actually chose the Civic because we thought the Corolla didn’t have it and then when we told Toyota Canada, they go, “Yeah, but 2017 does, but what they didn’t tell you is it wasn’t standard. It was only on select trims.” There you go. So, that’s the thing. Uh what was the other end? And then I would do um I mentioned this already before, cross track. I think you could pick up a used Cross Track. There isn’t too much power. We find with the Civic, with the boys, just enough power. Okay. So, one thing is if you’re looking for used is um because they don’t they’re much cheaper new. It’s a Jetta and a Jetta has all that stuff too. So, that’s something to consider. Now, we did recently buy a Bolt EUV, a used one cuz uh for say I just want to say something, Andrea. So, in our last questions coffee and cars, we we put a title up that said we bought another car and a lot of I can’t believe how many people are interested in the cars we bought. I know. I know. We had that one went crazy. It got like 100,000 views in a couple of days. It was crazy. That was the best questions coffee and cars that has ever gone out to 16. I yelled up the stairs cuz I’m downstairs looking at the computer and this was like a day later. I said, “It’s God already got 65,000 views.” And I said to Andrew, “We should just buy cars.” I know. We were when we put that out, we were actually on a plane coming home or we were going to Detroit. We were on the plane. I think we were going to Detroit to drive the news. No, it was on Thursday. We came back Thursday. We came back Thursday, so we were on our way home and uh we were That’s right. We were going back from Detroit to Toronto and then Toronto Vancouver. Anyway, Zach and I were like, “Wow, it’s gone number one.” Excellent. Uh I also want to point out for Jack, cuz he is a new driver, that Bolt with all of its driver assist features, like forward collision warning, it’s really great because it it’s a bit it’s a bit nanny nanny nanny. Yeah. And you know what? That’s not a bad thing for a new driver is because I know what I was like when I was 16 or 18 and you would be like playing with the radio or looking for your sunglasses. I used to be a courier. I would be eating a Big Mac and fries driving along and then I’d look up and then all of a sudden it was all it was all red lights. Yeah. But if I had a system that went beep beep, it would give you that extra few seconds warning. Uh so anyway, what were you going to say? You were going to say about the Bolt? Yeah, I was just I was just gonna say about that that the safety is just so good on it for Jack. Like I I I took him out in it and I said to him like, “Jack, you have all of this driver assist technology available to you cuz he’s still like I don’t know how close I am to the car. Look at your camera. It shows you right there.” Got cameras all the way around. Anyway, I think for price, um, safety, economy, reliability, and resale value, Civic and Corolla all day. Currently driving a 2015 Lexus RX 350 F-S Sport. Approximately 112,000 kilometers. Oh, sorry, miles. 112,000 miles. Doesn’t say what year it is. 2015. That’s 10 years old. Okay. Thinking about my next buy. What is my best step? Top priorities, reliability, looks, comfort, and smooth ride. Crown Signia, although the droning and my current V6, this person loves, which I get. Newer RX. What else should I look at? I go right back to the Lexus store and get the new NX. And if you don’t want a hybrid, try it. You’ll be surprised how good it is. Uh, get the 350, which is the Turbo 4. Yeah. Um, that the Crown is great, too. I just find the Crown um it’s it’s kind of expensive and I think the the NX is I don’t know you decide. If you don’t need the larger space of the RX, go for the NX, but you will find that the RX is more refined. You know, it’s just smoother, cabin’s a little bit quieter, but there’s lots of options within the Lexus lineup. I would just stay with Lexus and they’ll be happy to have you back and they should treat you well. And uh there you go. Considering buying a Cayenne hybrid or SE hybrid given you own two Cayens, have you heard of any major issues with the Porsche PHEV platforms? Okay, I’m going to answer this one. Um, certainly have. Yes. If it isn’t if it isn’t the newest one that’s just come out, I would steer clear. I um we’re getting the new one, by the way. It’s coming in a few weeks, which we’re looking forward to driving. We are sitting in a Porsche Cayenne. Um, if you’re looking and you’re looking at Cayenne’s used, you will see that the hybrids are cheaper. They are also the most problematic. And I heard this from a little birdie in my ear from the dealership said, “We don’t really see much in the way of the regular ones. We get more issues with the plugins.” So, I would I would say sure, try it out, but I personally wouldn’t buy one. I personally wouldn’t buy one for a a few reasons. Um, first off, I just want to say that owners who have the e-hybrid love the way it looks, like they love the styling and they like the way that it handles. I wouldn’t buy it for a few reasons. First off, it’s pricey. It doesn’t offer that much range. I don’t know why you would go for an e-hybrid over just the gas model. Um, I I don’t I just don’t think that the difference in price is going to make it up with gas. Like they just seem silly. It sounds to me like they’re looking used because they’re talking about an SE hybrid and an E-Hybrid. So, the older ones were called SE hybrid. Okay. And then they went to E-Hybrid and now I can’t remember what the current one is. We’re going to get it in a few weeks. So, there’s lots of reported issues um with the E-Hybrid. check engine light going on, software issues, PCM module replaced, electrical system fault message. A Porsche tech had posted on a Facebook forum. Um, this was 5 months ago he wrote this and he said there’s known issues with the fuel tank isolation valve on hybrids. At the time of the post, he said they still didn’t really have a fix for it and he’s not fond of the hybrid himself. Um, and then I I just think it’s a pricey option. So, if you’re looking in the used market, the car we’re sitting in here is called a 958, which was last sold in 2018 as a V6 and was last sold in the car we’re in uh diesel in 2016. Now, you go shopping looking for low mileage uh 2016 or 2015 Porsche Cayenne diesels, which get killer fuel economy and have amazing torque and amazing towing capacity. They’re worth probably 10 to 20,000 more than the hybrids because people know that this power plant will run for hundreds of thousands of miles and um yeah, there’s just and it’s reliable. So, yeah, I I’m just giving you the honest answer. I would spend your money on something else. I would too. Super happy with my RAV 4 Prime full tech pack and thinking about expanding the family. I don’t see many options for large plug-in hybrids. For example, the Grand Highlander doesn’t have a PHEV option. Okay, I’m forced to evaluate the X550. It’s more expensive, but worth every dollar in my opinion. Oh, okay. This person’s right. If you’re thinking about getting a plug-in hybrid, look at the newer BMWs because the newer ones have much better range. Also, the GLE plug-in hybrid from Mercedes-Benz. We really liked that one a lot, but only the newer one. The the original ones were terrible for range. Yes, I think they only had 18 km of range, something terrible like that. So, the the X5 and the GLE, only the ones that came out in the last couple of years. Then, of course, there’s also Volvo, who’s been making plug-in hybrids a long time with the XC90, but um I don’t know, reliability with Volvo isn’t always there. It’s hit and miss. Uh some buyers say, “I’ve had no problems.” Others say, “Oh, yeah, I’ve had issues.” So, um you’re right, there aren’t a lot of options, so you’ll just have to drill down. I really like the X5 uh plug-in hybrid. I think BMW did a really nice job with that. What are you most looking forward to when driving the allnew sixth generation RAV 4 hybrid? Wait a second, Andrea. This has this Okay, we we we have driven it. This video is coming out before the embargo, so we can’t really say how we like it. We can’t really say, but before we we had said that uh we wanted to know how quiet it was. Is there better insulation in the cabin? Um, that was a really that was a big one, wasn’t it? Okay. So, so we can’t say Andrea and I have driven uh the Woodland. We drove the Woodland and we drove the Limited. Yeah. And both of them hybrid. They didn’t have the plug in there, unfortunately, for us to drive, but that’s not a big chunk of the market anyway. The hybrid’s going to be the big one. Um, and we did a review and we talked about the outside, we talked about the inside. We spent a lot of time talking about the noise. Yeah. Or or lack of noise or the noise level. That’s what I mean by noise level. And um we had a day much like this. It was raining. So it’s uh it’s going to be coming out. I believe it’s the 22nd of October or 23rd of October the embargo lifts. And your internet feed is going to be plugged up with RAV 4. It’s going to blow up on everything. There is this embargo. There were no pictures allowed. So, I couldn’t even put anything out on Instagram. Took some good pictures. You’ll see the pictures when the embargo lifts. You’ll see the great pictures. Oh, we also got a tour of the Woodstock plant which has two RAV 4 lines going. Do you know that they make a RAV 4 every 58 seconds? They’re still producing the 2025 model. They won’t be doing the 2026 until the beginning of 2026. Yeah. So the factory in Woodstock is uh does the bulk of the lifting for RAV 4 for North America. So the plant they have in the United States uh produces only about 50 to 100,000 RAV 4s a year. The Canadian facility which includes Woodstock which is about 300,000 units and then you add in Cambridge which is another 100 or 200,000. So, they’re making a massive well, pretty much most of the RAV 4s that you will buy will be made in Canada, and they’re very proud of it because um the Canadian Toyota facility is the number two ranked factory in the world for quality behind uh main Lexus factory in Japan. Anyway, it was a super interesting tour of Woodstock. We both really enjoyed it. Woodstock is going to be making the panoramic sunroof. Remember the RAV 4 hybrid never got a panoramic sunroof. So Cambridge isn’t going to make the ones with the pano roof. They do the NX with the pano roof, but Woodstock will be making the RAV 4s with the panoramic sunroof. So anyway, it’s only about well, it’s about a week to go and then all the RAV 4 videos are going to be coming out. But this is the channel you should watch and guess where we’ll be when the RAV 4 video comes out. Oh, Japan. We’ll be in Japan. Um, getting set for the mobility show. Yeah, going to the mobility show. So, we look forward to sharing all of that with you. And we’re going to try and uh cover like a huge variety of vehicles at the mobility show. So, keep an eye out for that, too. I think I think we’ll go and do a wander around some of the Chinese EVs. I think that would be kind of fun because we don’t have access to them regularly. So, we’ll do a little look and see what we can find there. Yeah, I’d like to do BYD. Uh, they look pretty if they if Neo is there, you should see Neo because Neo I think is pretty funky. Anyway, um that’s all the time we have. Andrea, so if I’m a guy at home or a girl at home and I’m watching this and I’m thinking, you know, I’d like to get a question in for that. How would I do that? Follow along on Instagram at motormouth_andrea. Every Sunday I put a post out asking for questions. Once we gather them, the post is deleted and we start the show. Before we end this, I just want to say somebody had comment. I know I run cold. I run cold. Yeah. Um, warm heart, cold hands. Anyway, uh, somebody wrote and said, you know, you’re on over 200 episodes of QCC. I don’t think that you need to say where they can get a question in. Believe it or not, I am asked that all the time. How do I get a question in? Okay, a little pro tip for you YouTube users. You can just skip forward. You don’t have to listen to that part. I watch all these people. There’s I have a watch guy I watch I I have a watch guy I watch regularly, Feder Rico. Um and his little Q&A that he does, he does the sametick at the beginning, too. I just go skip and then you can pick up where all the goodness starts. By the way, we’ve been watching Clarkson’s uh farm with Jeremy and uh I’m loving it. It’s so good. Funny. And I love Lisa, too. She’s so great. I love Gerald. Um, but anyway, it’s funny because Andrew and I were looking at each other going, “Oh, there’s nothing new on Netflix we want to watch.” And I said to Andrea, “Have you do you want to watch Clarkson’s Farm?” And so we went right back to season one. I had watched the first three seasons. And I watching them all again. And you know what? He is such a good storyteller. He’s so good and, you know, empathetic, you know, with the animals are in trouble or whatever. He’s uh he’s Anyway, it’s it’s a it’s such a good show. And the other thing is maybe maybe for little kids wouldn’t like it because of the their animals, but anyway, it’s it’s it’s a show that kids could watch with you. We just finished watching um the mushroom episode and he’s like they they’ve just produced so many mushrooms and he says to Lisa, “You better get selling.” And she’s just rolling her eyes. Anyway, it’s really a lot of fun. It’s on Amazon Prime. It’s worth watching. So, there it is. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you guys next time.
This is a Motormouth couple car video answering your questions from Instagram, like:
0:00 Intro
0:27 Kia not releasing pricing?
2:37 Thoughts on Outlander PHEV?
5:43 What makes an engaging drive?
9:06 SUV for driving school?
11:19 Inexpensive 1st car?
15:26 Replacing Lexus RX?
16:37 Thoughts on Cayenne hybrid?
19:39 Luxury PHEV?
20:49 What are we looking forward to with new RAV4?
Andrea Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_andrea/
Zack Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_auto/
