Cars Yeah! Again!
I was excited when Mark Greene called me to do another podcast on Cars Yeah! I’m a fan, and have been since Mark started Cars Yeah! almost a decade ago. This was my third recording, having been one of his early guests with the others talking about Exotics at Redmond Town Center in 2013 or 14.
Since that time, Mark and I often chat about a range of topics that stem from my Substack, and he recently read my article about my experience with the BMW iX and thought it would be a great topic for his show. As usual, we had a lot of fun with the interview, and the time flew by. There was so much more to cover too. It could have been a two-part series because we never got into charging stations or how Elon addressed convenience while the others missed it entirely.
Mark has now interviewed more than 2,400 guests since 2014, and the show is very well known among true car enthusiasts and the hardcore Monterey and collector show crowd. I’ve listened to Mark evolve over the years, and he has become a real master at the art. If you love cars, it’s worth poking around Cars Yeah because you will learn so much about the automotive world and all the enthusiasts who make up the car community. It’s a true behind-the-scenes look at the people who are core to this giant world of the automotive industry. I can’t think of Monterey car week and not think of Mark and regard him as a real expert in all things industry-related.
I write a lot about business on Quora and have since 2017; however, nothing is as spirited as the discussion about cars. I could write about the most controversial topics in management, and it won’t spark debate like people arguing about the reliability of automotive brands or what makes a better choice for road trips. Those automotive arguments will go on for days. The difference between entrepreneurship readership and car readership is about five hundred to one. In fact, I don’t think there are other topics outside of politics that are more debated where people feel a stronger passion, and there are many who see EVs as downright evil, just as some see ICEs.
One of the hot topics over the years has been electric cars, and people tend to fall on one side or the other in the great EV/ICE debate, and I look at these things from a purely pragmatic point of view, outside of the emotional decision to buy something fun to drive. The iX is not a little fun either. It’s exciting-want-to-keep-going-fun because when you mash that pedal, there is this endless band of torque that just keeps pulling. It restores the grin on my face, especially cornering with such a low center of gravity because of the heavy battery location. I can have just as much fun driving the iX as I did driving my old Lamborghini LP670-4SV, which is now old technology in all respects.
I don’t like to talk about driving at the limits, other than to say that safety has always been a big deal to me. I have driven very fast where risks are minimal, but the point is, the iX won me over because it was fun to drive at the corners of performance and not because it was an EV. The majority of performance car accidents occur with new owners and borrowed cars, and so I never forget that when I’m onto something new for the first few thousand miles. But even keeping the car well within its limits, it’s fun to drive. A Lamborghini is always trying to kill you, and you are the one who says not today. The iX on the other hand says, “Let's have fun, and I promise not to kill you.”
Besides, the arguments about which technology is the future, I’ll try a vehicle once, and I was due for something entirely EV, so I know what I’m talking about in real-world use. What surprises me most is that this is a topic that angers both sides, yet I see the differences a series of tradeoffs. I point them out, and I’m not emotionally attached to the argument. I get why Tesla owners love their cars, but that’s such a different story entirely. I’ll write more about this topic as I gain more experience.