"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneverybody Welcome to talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom muchler I'm Gabe shanar and I'm Jake fiser we've got a couple new cars in the consumer reports garage new additions to the test Fleet One like the one behind us one of them sparked behind us the Kia Sportage yeah the Kia Sportage I mean it's a kind of a it retains the the look of the previous generation with this trademark uh no third side window it does in the back the front does not look like the last generation car I think it looks better actually I might be a minority opinion but I think it has a real face no thanks I have my own but uh anyway um more importantly though uh styling is in the eye of Beholder of course but uh in terms of Powertrain we uh on the heels of testing the Hyundai Tucson which is a sister vehicle of the Sportage right same platform right uh we weren't all that enthusiastic about either one of the powertrains the 2 L uh with the regular transmission was a little slow and the uh 1.6 turbo was nice but the transmission the automated manual wasn't all that great in low at low speeds and here you have a regular normally aspirated 2.4 lit normal transmission and it feels oh my god it feels so normal right it kind of plays into you've talked about this before is the trend of comparing how Hyundai develops cars and then Kia develops them later sure yeah I mean you know Hyundai almost has it's more of a household term right I mean a lot more people know Hyundai they're familiar with Hyundai we're getting over the fact that they're not you know Hyundai excels from you know you know 1986 right right exactly so I mean he's gotten his reputation and Kia you know that's not the first car that people are thinking of but we've said it before we've looked at I we've got a couple years now reliability information showing that KIA tend to be more reliable than Hyundai we also have a lot of ratings of cars showing that the Kia tend to score better than the Hyundai and here's another example and and gabes Zak right I mean we we went out and actually got two Hyundai tucsons we tried both powertrain combinations and we said it then we said well it' be great if you had a normal engine with a normal transmission and too bad they don't make that and now we got a normal transmission a normal engine and you get the bones of that that that Hyundai and um it's a pretty nice package I mean it's interesting the way it looks I mean I actually agree with you I like the way I I'm so I'm happy to have a small SUV that looks different I mean there's so I mean small SUVs I mean that's where the where the market is right I mean that is the new family sedan there's so many entries here and finally you're in something that looks a little bit different and that's kind of cool I don't think ugly's good though I mean ugly is different and ugly is not good I look I I really like this car I drove this the other night you know I actually like it to the Tucson it has a bit more of an edge to it you know the interior the seats are a bit firmer there's a little bit more touch more heft to the steering a little subtleties very there there's a couple subties that make me prefer this I mean other than the drivetrain which is a big difference right uh but man the way I couldn't get over how this looks I actually love the fact that you've tuned into Consumer Reports we're talking about a small Kia SUV we're talking about styling the entire time I what has what has this come to actually but what it's come to is what a lot of people buy cars based on is what they look like I mean just uh put the things more in perspective I mean we tested the Kia Optima recently before that we tested the Kia sento I mean Kia are becoming really completely legitimate competitors that are total Challengers to The Establishment to The Hondas and Toyotas and what have you right I mean there's also there are some big improvements uh in the Sportage just like the Tucson improved over its last generation there's some big improvements here the old one was horrible in the IHS small overlap test this one it's come such a long way I mean you know a couple Generations ago I mean they just were really lousy vehicles of Sportage and it's and you're right you look at the Hyundai Santa Fe right and people bu the Hyundai Santa Fe it's almost like they're like on the inside right I mean they they they figured out something that everyone who buys their Honda Honda Pilots and their Toyota Highlanders haven't figured out right it's like ah there's another thing on the side here that's actually really good and a good value and this is kind of like you know the next step it's like you know not a lot of people doesn't come to mind keep but but they're making yeah the the sento the I mean they're making some really nice nice cars and they're surprising the light here you know I mean it's like it's not just like they're just following the mold I mean you get in here there's like oh that's kind of a neat feature that they you get in the car and the wheels are turned and it reminds you that hey your wheels are turned you know when you hit the gas wi are on this at this level you know yes yes there's a lot of like really kind of neat features that you know and sure you used do it if you get a luxury vehicle but you don't expect that in a small SUV that's a value small right and I mean also going back to the Optima I drove it the other day we did a video on it I'll drive that Optima any day yeah I more than happy to take that car there's a lot of cars in the fleet I don't I'm kind of done with I'm I really enjoy that car yeah and looks good too same with the serrento back to no actually well that's actually that's kind of an interesting point um this seems discordant to me it seems like it doesn't follow into the Optima and the sento the Optima and srto to me are both understated Elegance this is just kind of goofy I think gives us a little bit more of a youthful character all right sure let's talk about a brand that is not been Associated i' buy this car for my for my kids well that's nice of you that's good uh I'd buy the Mazda CX-5 so then maybe I would get to drive it sometimes myself so when you have to fuel it up yeah which is how it would work if I had kids um let's talk about a brand that doesn't have a whole lot of youthful appeal what that might be yeah this is a horrible segue but I'm going to I'm insistent on making it work Jaguar we have we have a Jaguar XF sure you're pronouncing it right Jaguar there you go mhm yeah more syllables better uh yeah um you know Jaguar was bought by Tata in 2008 and we're starting to see the mainstream products that were developed completely under Tata money yeah so I mean this this is a big change and it's actually very analogous to what's going on with um Volvo right now right so Volvo was soldiering on and you know and suddenly it got bought by Chinese ownership and suddenly people writing checks to them right I mean it wasn't like oh what can we produce for this cost it's like okay what can we do so the xt90 got really I mean completely new um so these are the first Vehicles off new platforms um with with you know nobody nobody knows what Tata is but you know it's a Indian manufa massive huge company but I mean now they have the funds to do these cars rides and we have a first chance to take a look at these vehicles and and I think you know looking the X Stu I mean it's not as big of a departure as what we've seen with Volvo I mean the XC90 everything is like wow totally totally new um it's more of a you know they they've gone less but but I still think it's an impressive vehicle so driving the XF I mean it it rides nicely it handles nicely it's nicely finished inside um yeah uh I mean in terms of chassis development Jaguar has been doing an awesome job I mean both the XE and the XF I mean these cars are lightweight they feel light on their feet very Nimble and yet they also ride in a very kind of supple and and respectable way and uh I mean going back to the um the corporate picture there I mean no one's going to consider Jaguar as an Indian car but with Tata I mean all of a sudden Jaguar here you need all-wheel drive here's the money you need uh smaller supercharged engines here's the money right ex so anything you need for development to make the cars competitive here's the money the same thing happened which wasn't the case with Ford right the same thing happened to Volvo and we have to say a lot of people watching this will know this but some won't both both jaguar and Volvo were owned by Ford and they were both Cast Away and they both went off to have other suitors and now we're sort of seeing what those big infusions of money I mean uh gy put big money inol sure sure billions and billions of dollars into Volvo I I mean you know what's interesting about Volvo is like I mean just everything is new in nxt90 right I mean everything top down and you know maybe they needed to do more I mean I think the chassis development of Volvo really needed some help um maybe Jaguar I mean Jaguar is pretty nice driving vehicles to start with um so it's almost more of an incremental move with with uh with jagar you know and and just look at the line out I mean basically they have a new CH chassis it's going to be what the the E the the the E the F the fpace the SUV so I mean there's three new vehicles um off of this new chassis and it's it's seems like a very highly developed chassis um they still need some work I mean the infotainment is still you know you hit the button and you wait and you wait but that's coming there there's a new infotainment system we'll have to see if it's more responsive and a little more modern but they're they're getting there and I think you know one big concern of course with Jaguar is going to be reliability so part of me is kind of happy that they didn't go and just like flip the switch like Volvo did and put everything brand new in just a huge departure from the past right yeah uh but you know some some things are right for Jaguar some things are right for Volvo you know Jaguar has a lineage it has a history it has a tradition that has to maintain history of of races and being a true Sports British racing green yeah right oh we of course we got the British race very Happ we did very happy about that you know the thing is is i' I've said this before I I I Adore Jaguars I've really have the last couple Jaguars we've tested over the years I've been here uh that the Jag or XK uh from the late 2000s was one of my favorite cars I've ever tested here that's a nice car I I love that car this car just it leaves me cold clinically everything's right you're right it's a great chassis uh you know it's more accommodating than the old XF used to be slightly um I know what you're saying exactly there's something there's just some visceral feeling here that's not there and I think part of the problem also is that you've got other companies companies now that are out doing Jaguar Audi Audi is a better Jaguar than Jaguar you know an A7 I'd take an A7 any day of the week well you can yeah maybe Mercedes i' would say I mean Audi is uh I mean and to me Audi is still a front-wheel drive based car whereas Jaguar is a real Thoroughbred re whe Drive based car that's can be considered a real Sports at end but I I know what you're saying in terms of interior the Jaguar is not exciting in terms of the infotainment it's behind the time so there are some real let Downs with a car yeah yeah I mean it's it's true I mean I actually the night before I drove that I drove our GLC Mercedes-Benz uh SUV and that steer is really nice and that's quiet and that rides ni and it's an SUV but I mean you know to just just do that you almost cclass right cclass SUV yeah it's a cclass SUV right and going back to the C-Class which is a phenomenally you know done car and traditionally it's very unreliable true but I mean the interior of the C-Class you get in there it's like who this is just gorgeous more opulent it's arguably more opulent than our XF yeah yeah yeah I think that's true so yeah I mean it's it's a very accomplished car I mean the other thing that's really getting to me is I drove that car and I thought Cadillacs drive like this and that's a crazy thought so back in 2000 Cadillacs didn't drive like that now Cadillacs Drive incredibly incredibly well yeah and I think that's a good point both jaguar and cadalac are the lightweight and the the ones that put the sport back in sports it in whereas BMW Mercedes kind of like moved away and became like put the emphasis more on high-tech and refinement and and such I think Mercedes is getting back quicker than BMW is I would assume BMW will try to come back to it but then again BMW is selling lots of cars so maybe they'll just be happy with where they're going that's going to wrap it up for this episode of talking cars as always we thank you for listening we'll see you next timeeverybody Welcome to talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom muchler I'm Gabe shanar and I'm Jake fiser we've got a couple new cars in the consumer reports garage new additions to the test Fleet One like the one behind us one of them sparked behind us the Kia Sportage yeah the Kia Sportage I mean it's a kind of a it retains the the look of the previous generation with this trademark uh no third side window it does in the back the front does not look like the last generation car I think it looks better actually I might be a minority opinion but I think it has a real face no thanks I have my own but uh anyway um more importantly though uh styling is in the eye of Beholder of course but uh in terms of Powertrain we uh on the heels of testing the Hyundai Tucson which is a sister vehicle of the Sportage right same platform right uh we weren't all that enthusiastic about either one of the powertrains the 2 L uh with the regular transmission was a little slow and the uh 1.6 turbo was nice but the transmission the automated manual wasn't all that great in low at low speeds and here you have a regular normally aspirated 2.4 lit normal transmission and it feels oh my god it feels so normal right it kind of plays into you've talked about this before is the trend of comparing how Hyundai develops cars and then Kia develops them later sure yeah I mean you know Hyundai almost has it's more of a household term right I mean a lot more people know Hyundai they're familiar with Hyundai we're getting over the fact that they're not you know Hyundai excels from you know you know 1986 right right exactly so I mean he's gotten his reputation and Kia you know that's not the first car that people are thinking of but we've said it before we've looked at I we've got a couple years now reliability information showing that KIA tend to be more reliable than Hyundai we also have a lot of ratings of cars showing that the Kia tend to score better than the Hyundai and here's another example and and gabes Zak right I mean we we went out and actually got two Hyundai tucsons we tried both powertrain combinations and we said it then we said well it' be great if you had a normal engine with a normal transmission and too bad they don't make that and now we got a normal transmission a normal engine and you get the bones of that that that Hyundai and um it's a pretty nice package I mean it's interesting the way it looks I mean I actually agree with you I like the way I I'm so I'm happy to have a small SUV that looks different I mean there's so I mean small SUVs I mean that's where the where the market is right I mean that is the new family sedan there's so many entries here and finally you're in something that looks a little bit different and that's kind of cool I don't think ugly's good though I mean ugly is different and ugly is not good I look I I really like this car I drove this the other night you know I actually like it to the Tucson it has a bit more of an edge to it you know the interior the seats are a bit firmer there's a little bit more touch more heft to the steering a little subtleties very there there's a couple subties that make me prefer this I mean other than the drivetrain which is a big difference right uh but man the way I couldn't get over how this looks I actually love the fact that you've tuned into Consumer Reports we're talking about a small Kia SUV we're talking about styling the entire time I what has what has this come to actually but what it's come to is what a lot of people buy cars based on is what they look like I mean just uh put the things more in perspective I mean we tested the Kia Optima recently before that we tested the Kia sento I mean Kia are becoming really completely legitimate competitors that are total Challengers to The Establishment to The Hondas and Toyotas and what have you right I mean there's also there are some big improvements uh in the Sportage just like the Tucson improved over its last generation there's some big improvements here the old one was horrible in the IHS small overlap test this one it's come such a long way I mean you know a couple Generations ago I mean they just were really lousy vehicles of Sportage and it's and you're right you look at the Hyundai Santa Fe right and people bu the Hyundai Santa Fe it's almost like they're like on the inside right I mean they they they figured out something that everyone who buys their Honda Honda Pilots and their Toyota Highlanders haven't figured out right it's like ah there's another thing on the side here that's actually really good and a good value and this is kind of like you know the next step it's like you know not a lot of people doesn't come to mind keep but but they're making yeah the the sento the I mean they're making some really nice nice cars and they're surprising the light here you know I mean it's like it's not just like they're just following the mold I mean you get in here there's like oh that's kind of a neat feature that they you get in the car and the wheels are turned and it reminds you that hey your wheels are turned you know when you hit the gas wi are on this at this level you know yes yes there's a lot of like really kind of neat features that you know and sure you used do it if you get a luxury vehicle but you don't expect that in a small SUV that's a value small right and I mean also going back to the Optima I drove it the other day we did a video on it I'll drive that Optima any day yeah I more than happy to take that car there's a lot of cars in the fleet I don't I'm kind of done with I'm I really enjoy that car yeah and looks good too same with the serrento back to no actually well that's actually that's kind of an interesting point um this seems discordant to me it seems like it doesn't follow into the Optima and the sento the Optima and srto to me are both understated Elegance this is just kind of goofy I think gives us a little bit more of a youthful character all right sure let's talk about a brand that is not been Associated i' buy this car for my for my kids well that's nice of you that's good uh I'd buy the Mazda CX-5 so then maybe I would get to drive it sometimes myself so when you have to fuel it up yeah which is how it would work if I had kids um let's talk about a brand that doesn't have a whole lot of youthful appeal what that might be yeah this is a horrible segue but I'm going to I'm insistent on making it work Jaguar we have we have a Jaguar XF sure you're pronouncing it right Jaguar there you go mhm yeah more syllables better uh yeah um you know Jaguar was bought by Tata in 2008 and we're starting to see the mainstream products that were developed completely under Tata money yeah so I mean this this is a big change and it's actually very analogous to what's going on with um Volvo right now right so Volvo was soldiering on and you know and suddenly it got bought by Chinese ownership and suddenly people writing checks to them right I mean it wasn't like oh what can we produce for this cost it's like okay what can we do so the xt90 got really I mean completely new um so these are the first Vehicles off new platforms um with with you know nobody nobody knows what Tata is but you know it's a Indian manufa massive huge company but I mean now they have the funds to do these cars rides and we have a first chance to take a look at these vehicles and and I think you know looking the X Stu I mean it's not as big of a departure as what we've seen with Volvo I mean the XC90 everything is like wow totally totally new um it's more of a you know they they've gone less but but I still think it's an impressive vehicle so driving the XF I mean it it rides nicely it handles nicely it's nicely finished inside um yeah uh I mean in terms of chassis development Jaguar has been doing an awesome job I mean both the XE and the XF I mean these cars are lightweight they feel light on their feet very Nimble and yet they also ride in a very kind of supple and and respectable way and uh I mean going back to the um the corporate picture there I mean no one's going to consider Jaguar as an Indian car but with Tata I mean all of a sudden Jaguar here you need all-wheel drive here's the money you need uh smaller supercharged engines here's the money right ex so anything you need for development to make the cars competitive here's the money the same thing happened which wasn't the case with Ford right the same thing happened to Volvo and we have to say a lot of people watching this will know this but some won't both both jaguar and Volvo were owned by Ford and they were both Cast Away and they both went off to have other suitors and now we're sort of seeing what those big infusions of money I mean uh gy put big money inol sure sure billions and billions of dollars into Volvo I I mean you know what's interesting about Volvo is like I mean just everything is new in nxt90 right I mean everything top down and you know maybe they needed to do more I mean I think the chassis development of Volvo really needed some help um maybe Jaguar I mean Jaguar is pretty nice driving vehicles to start with um so it's almost more of an incremental move with with uh with jagar you know and and just look at the line out I mean basically they have a new CH chassis it's going to be what the the E the the the E the F the fpace the SUV so I mean there's three new vehicles um off of this new chassis and it's it's seems like a very highly developed chassis um they still need some work I mean the infotainment is still you know you hit the button and you wait and you wait but that's coming there there's a new infotainment system we'll have to see if it's more responsive and a little more modern but they're they're getting there and I think you know one big concern of course with Jaguar is going to be reliability so part of me is kind of happy that they didn't go and just like flip the switch like Volvo did and put everything brand new in just a huge departure from the past right yeah uh but you know some some things are right for Jaguar some things are right for Volvo you know Jaguar has a lineage it has a history it has a tradition that has to maintain history of of races and being a true Sports British racing green yeah right oh we of course we got the British race very Happ we did very happy about that you know the thing is is i' I've said this before I I I Adore Jaguars I've really have the last couple Jaguars we've tested over the years I've been here uh that the Jag or XK uh from the late 2000s was one of my favorite cars I've ever tested here that's a nice car I I love that car this car just it leaves me cold clinically everything's right you're right it's a great chassis uh you know it's more accommodating than the old XF used to be slightly um I know what you're saying exactly there's something there's just some visceral feeling here that's not there and I think part of the problem also is that you've got other companies companies now that are out doing Jaguar Audi Audi is a better Jaguar than Jaguar you know an A7 I'd take an A7 any day of the week well you can yeah maybe Mercedes i' would say I mean Audi is uh I mean and to me Audi is still a front-wheel drive based car whereas Jaguar is a real Thoroughbred re whe Drive based car that's can be considered a real Sports at end but I I know what you're saying in terms of interior the Jaguar is not exciting in terms of the infotainment it's behind the time so there are some real let Downs with a car yeah yeah I mean it's it's true I mean I actually the night before I drove that I drove our GLC Mercedes-Benz uh SUV and that steer is really nice and that's quiet and that rides ni and it's an SUV but I mean you know to just just do that you almost cclass right cclass SUV yeah it's a cclass SUV right and going back to the C-Class which is a phenomenally you know done car and traditionally it's very unreliable true but I mean the interior of the C-Class you get in there it's like who this is just gorgeous more opulent it's arguably more opulent than our XF yeah yeah yeah I think that's true so yeah I mean it's it's a very accomplished car I mean the other thing that's really getting to me is I drove that car and I thought Cadillacs drive like this and that's a crazy thought so back in 2000 Cadillacs didn't drive like that now Cadillacs Drive incredibly incredibly well yeah and I think that's a good point both jaguar and cadalac are the lightweight and the the ones that put the sport back in sports it in whereas BMW Mercedes kind of like moved away and became like put the emphasis more on high-tech and refinement and and such I think Mercedes is getting back quicker than BMW is I would assume BMW will try to come back to it but then again BMW is selling lots of cars so maybe they'll just be happy with where they're going that's going to wrap it up for this episode of talking cars as always we thank you for listening we'll see you next time\n"