**The Great Debate: Seven-Passenger SUVs**

When it comes to choosing a seven-passenger SUV, several factors come into play. The three main contenders are the Durango, Highland, and Sequoia, with the new Tahoe also making an appearance due to Chevy's recent resurgence in producing quality vehicles. In this article, we'll dive into each of these options and explore which one would be the best fit for your needs.

**Durango vs. Highland**

While both the Durango and Highland offer ample space for seven passengers, the Highland takes a more traditional approach with its front-wheel drive layout. However, the lack of all-wheel drive in this market is a significant drawback, making it difficult to compete with other options that prioritize traction and safety. The Durango, on the other hand, has managed to maintain its reputation as a reliable choice despite some issues in the past. Nevertheless, the chances of a diesel-powered Durango are extremely low, given Dodge's recent struggles with their own vehicles.

**The Chevrolet Traverse: A Better Bet**

If you're looking for a seven-passenger SUV that prioritizes comfort and practicality over raw performance, the Chevrolet Traverse is an excellent choice. With its spacious interior and seating capacity, it's well-suited for families or groups who need to travel in style. While the Durango may offer more room in the back, the Traverse's reliability and versatility make it a more attractive option.

**Maserati: The Unexpected Contender**

In a surprising move, Maserati has entered the seven-passenger SUV market with their Ghibli. Based on the Chrysler 300, this Italian stallion boasts an impressive Ferrari engine under the hood. With a lower price point than expected, the Ghibli offers an affordable alternative to traditional luxury vehicles. However, the challenges of driving these high-performance cars in harsh winter conditions are a significant concern.

**The Waiting Game**

Volvo's new V60 wagon is generating buzz due to its unique design and all-wheel-drive capabilities. While it's exciting to see Volvo embracing their heritage, the timing of the car's release has raised some eyebrows. The powertrain options are still limited, with only a turbocharged four-cylinder engine available in the base model. As someone who's spent time driving an all-wheel-drive system, I'm eager to test the V60 against more established models like the Audi Allroad or BMW X5 xDrive.

**A Maserati for the Ages**

In a bold move, we recently purchased a Maserati Ghibli, which has become our latest project car. As a nod to their iconic heritage, Maserati is now advertising in the Super Bowl, bringing this esteemed brand into the American psyche. With its impressive performance capabilities and sleek design, the Ghibli offers an unparalleled driving experience. However, the challenges of winter weather have forced us to opt for summer tires, limiting our ability to truly appreciate this exceptional vehicle.

As we wrap up this article, it's clear that each of these seven-passenger SUVs brings unique strengths and weaknesses to the table. Whether you prioritize reliability, performance, or practicality, there's a model out there that should suit your needs. With careful consideration and thorough research, you'll be well-equipped to make an informed decision when selecting your next vehicle.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everybody it's time again for talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom mler I'm Gabe shenhar and I'm Jake Fisher on this episode uh to go along with our April Auto issue we're going to talk about this year's 2014's top picks Jake what does it take for a car to be a top pick to be a top pick I mean it really has to be the best in it segment so we test a lot of cars out here um there's a lot of good choices but really when it comes down to what's if someone's going to go and they're looking for a midside sedan if looking for a sporty car looking for a truck what's the one to get that's the top pick in order to do it you got to have a car that's reliable so that's a lot of people look at our top picks and they're a little confused they like how come this car you know isn't here but a lot of that has to be we want to make sure that that car is going to hold together MH so sometimes it's not always the the brand new car that just hit the market because until it has a you know it's been out there on the market and we know that things are going to hold together we're not going to have it as a top pick we also make sure it's safe too the crash test if it doesn't do well in crash test it's not going to be a top pick either all righty so uh I think we're going to start the list there's 10 of them we're going to start the list with the more common cars and then we'll kind of work our way into the nichy stuff so Gabe uh what's our pick this year for the top midsize sedan it's the Honda Accord this one parked right here and uh that car is you don't have to buy just that one you can go to a dealer exactly only that one um but um it is this one because you want to avoid the EXL because that radio that complicated radio has reliability problems and it doesn't work as well as the regular radio um the Accord in general is is a very well-rounded car I mean it really hits a sweet spot in as a family sedan it's uh it's quick enough it's uh fuel extremely fuel efficient it's roomy enough it rides well it enough it handles nimbly it's a a very well-rounded capable car that uh can suit a wide range of audience one thing I want to clarify though is that when you look at our uh stack of ratings in midsize sedans you're going to see the the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Toyota Camry V6 and uh among this score higher than right they score higher than the Honda Accord and in this segment 90% of these cars are bought as four-cylinder cars for 23 $25,000 uh as opposed to the $30,000 high-end hybrid or V6 so our top pick in that segment is always going to be that mainstream four-cylinder car who makes the best four cylinder mainstream version exactly yeah I I agree you know I often think about if if I had to leave here and buy a car what would I get and if I had 25 grand um not that I'm planning to leave any any something you need to tell me uh one of the cars that always comes up on the list to me would be an Accord Sport I think that's that's a really nice car it's a little stiffer than than the other cars but you know for 25 Grand it's a lot of car yeah it's really interesting if you look at the the small car market I mean they they've kind of raised up in price and equipment and now your basic small car I mean they're 20,000 21,000 22,000 you're just hitting where these cars are so for 23 Grand you can get a whole lot of car and you don't even lose the fuel efficiency too I mean we got 30 miles per gallon in our testing I mean that for a small car is good let alone something that's big and quiet and room like this you it's got to be said that the Accord this is a very competitive segment there's a whole bunch of stuff right on the accord's heels you know there's the Camry there's the Sonata there's the Malibu there's the fusion I mean the Accord is it is the winner but it's not it's not a runaway um but actually you mentioned smaller cars compact cars what if you wanted something smaller what's our top pick for compact sedan top pick for compact sedan well the super impressive has always been a really good choice I this is a car that but it's not exactly something that I would expect I would expect you know a Civic or so the impress is really a funny car because you know for the one it's not a giant seller in fact it's really popular in the Northeast because it's got all-wheel drive standard and for a while you look at Subarus and they were almost you know segregated just for those markets because you wind up giving up a lot for the oow drive you never had the fuel economy that you would get and like a Civic or a Corolla but somehow they've worked it out because now it's a very fuel efficient car it rides nice it's it's Rel to the room it's got a good size back seat and you're not paying a whole lot more or losing the fuel economy for for the lwh drive so really no matter where you are it's a pretty nice choice yeah I mean I've been driving our um you know we we currently have an XV cross Trek hybrid which we've talked about in a previous episode but you know the packaging is so good you know subar is really good at making cars you can see out of well the controls are simple um you know there there's good room in the back seat they are extremely practical cars and I think that's where the empreza exactly I mean it's a very honest and unpretentious kind of a car it it's targeted to what people want it gives you the room the fuel efficiency the all-wheel drive the affordability and uh that's what makes it so um affordability with standard all-wheel drive right and 27 MP gallon with standard all-wheel drive which is a pretty impressive now we are talking about you know the great things about that Pi but I'm kind of on the other side of it you know I mean I just wanted to be known and and and we talk about this a lot just because the car is a top pick doesn't mean it's the best car for everybody and you look at the empreza one of the things that you know wild does all these things really well one thing where subar really is kind of Fallen back is in infotainments and electronics and to a lot of people who that's really important to them you might not want to look at an impress I mean you look at something like like an Elantra like a Hyundai launcher you look at AIA Forte they're packing a lot of equipment or even look at what what they're doing the Dodge Dart now oh yeah Chrysler's you connect system is terrific it's the best in the business and they're putting that in the Dodge Dart so if that's important to you maybe you don't want to look at the empreza but for really the stuff that it does the driving and all that it it's it's the best yeah two things one is uh they recently unveiled the new Subaru Legacy and that does show Subaru is continuing to try to improve their their infotainment let's say they going from the double den to the triple Den or they got they got more knobs or couple more buttons they worked in the real real tape player really nicely is that right two it's got It's got highp speed dubbing from uh from cassettes it's amazing autoever Auto reverse awesome the other thing is like you said it's an extraordinarily competitive market segment compact sad um the the Hyundai Elantra the kiaforte are right on the heels of this car in our ratings the Mazda 3 which we talked about a couple shows ago is a terrific car just isn't quite didn't quite score at this level uh there is another Subaru in our top 10 picks yes there is and that's the Forester also uh playing in a in an extremely important Market segment small SUVs and uh the Forester is uh is so extremely functional it's uh fuel efficient it's roomy you can see out of it it handles uh well it uh it has simple easy controls and uh and that's why it uh it wins here and again I mean it's almost like a rerun of the same thing with a connectivity it may not be your particular choice if that's really important to you right the Forester actually does have a pretty clear margin in in our scoring it does beat the the Mazda CX5 and the Rav 4 and the other and the CR Honda CRV by a pretty good margin but no it's not the greatest car connectivity but the thing is so practical we still own our 2014 Forester it does not sit a day overnight in this parking lot it is always out on the road yeah I mean one of the things you look immediately when you look at the Forester it's really you know you look at so many cars that are really you know form first and function later I mean the Forester is function first I mean it is a very square box it's got lots of glass area around doesn't have the giant blind spots that we're seeing and almost everything now um it's just it's nice to drive you can just see out of it it's quiet comfy yeah I mean and people love it you mean my sister is on our second one already wow I mean it's also so far they've been very very reliable it's I believe our most reliable car of 2014 yeah the most most reliable car yeah so there's a lot going for it in the Forester moving up a little bit in SUVs what if I want a midsize SUV what do I do what do you do well the Hyundai Santa Fe um is which is new to the list which is new to the list and that that's a it's a great choice you know it's funny I mean you know you still get a lot of people saying Hyundai I don't want to buy a Hyundai or Ika I mean they they are you know it's not 1985 anymore it's not with the you know the $5,000 the Exel it's not the cloth seats I mean I had a friend of mine actually I was driving our uh our Hyundai Santa Fe and he was like I want a Hyundai I want you know with this car with that car I'm like just just look inside you know you look inside what they've done in terms of you know the interior quality everything about it the room the the Comfort the luxury of it I mean it's really impressive and it's it's a very serious choice in that market you named it is one of your favorite cars of last year exactly in a previous episode I did and uh that was a a big bombshell uh because I don't utter these words very uh often uh and and rightly so I mean Hyundai have uh usually I mean they they give you a lot of content for the money but typically ride handling everything has to do with chassis and suspension was really left behind and the exception was with this Santa Fe they really nailed it uh straight out of the box with nice ride quiet interior um um good handling completely uh unfl flappable and uh it's an extremely functional yet stylish vehicle and uh you get a three row SUV but without the bulk in the that's typical in the fuel economy typically goes uh as part of the that package M this is another extremely competitive segment in fact to the point where the Dodge Durango did outscore the Santa Fe uh couple things going on the Durango is kind of between a midsize and a large SUV so it kind of hovers back and forth there the other thing is we have no idea you this updated Durango don't know if it's going to be reliable again it's one of those things where a car can score high but if we don't know its reliability we're not going to make it a top pick we're a little worried about the Durango given that the Grand Cherokee had a really bad first year with the 2014 update right there's also a ton of um competition in this segment uh you know the the car that speed out I believe is a Chevy Traverse which they continue to get more reliable you know it's a very nice very pleasant vehicle to drive there's also the new Toyota Highlander which we talked about in the last podcast and I bet when that thing's done scoring it's going to give the Santa Fe a run for its money yep that's very I mean we expect that yeah well it's bound to happen what if I what if I'm a family guy and I want something a little bit more practical than a Sant what would I go for in a minivan then you'd go for Honda Odyssey it's a no-brainer I mean that it's probably also one of the best Hondas uh it's um in terms of ride handling quietness uh the thing is the most functional vehicle that ever hit the planet and uh yet it's uh as far as minivans I don't even think it's a it's an embarrassment to be seen in an odyssey I mean it's it's styled uh pretty nicely and and the interior has got all kinds of neat smart cever little things like a vacuum cleaner if you spend $46,000 very expensive which by the way maybe you want to spend 35 and get a $20 plugin that that's just throwing the idea there you what's really cool is that it has a cool box which uh you can put your drinks in they'll they'll keep them refrigerated uh no it's it's it's the best family car you can buy I mean if you don't need all-wheel drive and actually someone picked up on that in an earlier episode is we were talking about the Odyssey and I said if you don't need all-wheel drive a lot of people don't need all-wheel drive you know and this is a terrific choice not this winter yeah this has been a pretty bad winter and actually if you do need all-wheel drive in a minivan you've got one choice it's a Toyota Sienna the only game in town and it's the Sienna though is not as pleasant to drive as a Honda Odyssey it just kind of falls behind yeah um talking about more prct rality um we always pick a green car of the year you know something that that that you know is out there a shining example fuel economy what's what's our pick this year uh every year again every year it's that Toyota Prius I mean the Toyota Prius when it comes down to you know fuel efficiency and practicality I mean it's it's pretty good it does a lot of things really well I me you look at the value look at the resale value of the car you look at the reliability of it it's kind of like I need a trans Transportation device that's very very efficient it does what it does what you want it to do very very well Enthusiast love to poop on the P it is not a car for enthusiast it is not a car that you know that's really engaging to drive absolutely if you're looking for something that's fun to drive get something else he's not even calling it a car it's a transportation device exactly but for a lot of people that's all they need you're lucky it's not a texting device right or a coffee drinking device and it's the most cost effective Transportation device out there I mean in terms of fuel economy depreciation and it's functional too now I can make an argument though about if you're really going for green car why not a volt why why not a Chevy Volt why not a Nissan Leaf right I mean that's it's a good argument I mean I'd make argument myself yeah and uh I mean the vault is is a lot more expensive it's uh I mean it it gets you the 35 mies uh on electric power and then it it uh and then it's gas and then it get 32 m per gallon so um it's uh if if it fits a certain driving pattern it works but it doesn't have the uh the all round always doing the same consistent thing like the Prius I mean I could even make a case for a Nissan Leaf which is completely uh pure electric uh car and uh but at at this point the electric the pure electric still comes with the with its limitations of limited range and the um the long charging times yeah I mean one way to think about it in terms of the green car is this the very greenest car no I mean probably my bicycle is probably greener than that but that's not a car you have a four-wheel bisy I I do I don't want to talk about it they'll waste time in the podcast but um you should take the training wheels off that's my problem that's why I keep on losing the races shoot um no but but the way to think about this is that of the green Vehicles out there which is the which car is going to be very green it's really going to suit the most people what's be most practical which going to be the best choice and for a lot of people yes a leaf doesn't you know emit carbon emissions and all that stuff but it's it's such a tiny sliver that that's really going to to suit because yes I'm going to I can't quite make it all the way home you know when I'm driving the car so um a Prius where you're selling 120 140,000 a year is that about where it's at yeah it's making a whole that's a lot of green it's it's making a big impact on the environment that's there's no question about that yeah so that that that explains that pick um going perhaps to the polar opposite something that's not so green but still extraordinarily useful our top pick pickup truck and that's the Dodge Ram which in a previous Dodge silent I mean the okay the Dodge silent right Ram 1500 that's right it's not called the Dodge Ram it's the Ram 1500 right good luck with that and uh as we said in the previous podcast the Chevy Silverado may be the better truck but the RAM is a better car but that's only part of the story uh we at this point we the Silverado is too new for us to have gathered enough reliability data from our readers thank you for filling out those questioners but uh uh we'll see what happens next year for now it's the Ram 1500 for now is is is is the point Well for now is a big point for now is a big point and and yes not to take anyone of the ram that is a nice truck to drive but yes we got we got the Silverado which I heard there's some other new truck that someone they might have redesigned with some crazy metal there there there's there's certain things going on yes um I mean to get there we have right we got the Silverado that does well we're waiting for reliability information the Dodge Ram they are going to have a diesel coming out very soon um that's very exciting so very fuel efficient and yes the uh the aluminum truck the aluminum truck so the beer cam truck so there's Ford F1 F-150s whe they have the titanium or platinum and now they're all aluminum that's right so I don't know I'm trying to figure out the the metal that you're using that is huge yeah and I I actually you know talking to some manufacturers they expect that to be a game changer they expect that to just blow past everything else well we'll see I mean I think it's a game changer for the automotive industry MH we might find in 10 years we're going to be like what this car still made a steal that's crazy they're behind the times so that'll be interesting yeah yeah the pickup truck that's going to be a very that Field's going to keep on moving uh we do have a field though where um you know we we've picked this car a couple years in a row our top pick Sports sedan the BMW 3 Series and uh every generation of the three series becomes uh although it becomes a little less sporty it becomes a better car all around and uh it scores higher in our in our system and uh F phrase and that uh the 320 I is I mean there's it's hard to argue against it it's still is the most fun to drive out of that whole segment it's uh roomier than it used to be well no I mean the Cadillac ATS is more fun to drive okay but it's not as well-rounded it's no I just need to argue sorry okay no that's we're getting too far through a podcast without an argument it's hard to AR about that yeah so we agree with ourselves but let's argue okay anyway it's extremely fuel efficient it's rier than it's ever been uh the controls are a little complicated but not awful like in the ATS so uh yeah I'll give you I'll give you that one right so uh it's a it's a top pick and it's available as an all-wheel drive it's also available with a diesel the car behind is our all-wheel drive diesel test car we've got now M and it's available as a 320i as well you're not going to miss much if you spend $5,000 less and you get the less powerful version yeah they call that to J Jalopnik Edition because you know you got no options stick shift sport pack you know it is the almost the closest thing to it you know a true distilled BMW in fact Jake and I were talking we were talking with a BMW owner earlier today about about her um about her 99 323i and how that car it feels so sharp it feels so alive and the new cars don't do that but they do have a big back seat and they they are extremely fuel efficient 28 m per down with a 328I with 0 to 60 times you know under 7 Seconds well I mean this car right here and this three series it's basically a five series of a few years ago I mean they really grown up and you know so it it is a very nice driving car it is very I mean but there was a four series now so this is a three and a half series and the four series is confusing too because it was only going to be the two doors but now there's the four series is stunning The Grand coupe's gorgeous um again uh there is a touch the controversy with this car in that the infinti G37 scores higher but we picked the three series why game why because the Infiniti uh G37 is uh is a temporary kind of a car it's uh not going to be available for a whole lot longer it's another Nissan zombie it is it's just like the come back from the dead you think it's gone uh the car has been redesigned I mean the replacement of the G37 is the Q50 and the G37 is still lingering out there uh in uh for rental fleets and for a lower price point with the reduced options so it uh it may not be the same G37 that we tested a few years ago we also looked at I mean there aren't many of them at the dealerships um you know they're still making it but theoretically it's almost like a leftover model and and by the way if you see like a leftover 20025 series that would be a great Sports so I just want to to throw that out there too yeah that that would dice uh another terrific Sports sedan is um actually our pick for luxury sedan what's that for luxury sedans um oh Jake do you not remember our pick for luxury sedan I well I know what my pick is but our pick is the Audi A6 that would be a nice luxury sedan um yeah I mean the A6 is a really nice uh nice luxurious car and one thing about those those the big Audi is it handles really nice steer nice it's roomy it's fuel efficient we tested at an A7 as well which is kind of uh very similar but a little more swoopy styling had the diesel and you get that same diesel on the A6 very fuel efficient um the A7 we don't have the reliability data especially on that diesel yet and that probably would have been the the car well no actually it wouldn't the the yeah the A6 is a fantastic car um the Mercedes Ben's E250 did outscore that because that's our second scoring car behind our last toot pick which we'll get to in a moment diesel diesel uh yeah another high-scoring diesel um we don't know if that diesel is going to be reliable yet Mercedes um it's a new diesel it's a different than previous diesels and uh so but the regular eClass the E350 is reliable it's recommended I mean it doesn't score as well as the uh the gas A6 and therefore the A6 gets a top pick uh and U I mean I uh which is no shame no shame at all yeah I mean that car is is a lovely car it's just a a handsome car it's a it's roomy it drives beautifully and uh I wouldn't mind commuting every day in that car you probably wouldn't mind commuting every day either in our last top pick our last top pick and what I'm betting is Jake's favorite luxury car that's actually just be to be clear on it it's my favorite luxury car it's my favorite green car and it's the best car we've we've tested and what is that car the Tesla Model S it's pretty gutsy though to be naming that car to our top 10 list I mean it's not a manufacturer it's been out very long and yeah it's a man it's a car that we have reliability data on and it has been reliable we have hundreds of customers who have told us 600s yeah 600 vehicles and we have data on the car um we put it through our our testing and it does it works really really well it's roomy it's comfortable it's fuel efficient it's green it's got the the best technology we've seen in in anything so it's uh it's pretty amazing car it is I mean I mean speaking of Game Changer that is a game changer that that car is a is such a remarkable car it uh it really works I mean it drives beautifully it looks nice it uh and uh you are almost uh at a point that you eliminated all the barriers of electric cars with the long longest range for an electric car with uh ways to charge the car quickly uh those superchargers are sprouting up all over the place so it's uh there is is a very very little compromise here yeah I mean it doesn't look like a golf cart I wish it was cheaper but you know as you typically do with electric items wish it had more active safety stuff wish it had Ford Collision warning or blind spot or stuff like that but otherwise you know it's a it's a very very good car and it's to the point where other people are you know I mentioned Tesla is a new brand but the brand perception we just did a brand perception study it's I believe in the top five yeah yeah I mean this is a this is a vehicle manufacture that really nobody heard of just a few years ago and now it's almost the top of among Brands like Chevy and Ford brands that have been around since before the wheel was round yeah it's pretty amazing how it's I me you look at some other autom manufacturers that try to get into there and it's like you know I don't know de wo was around for 6 years before anyone noticed um but yeah they hit the ground running and it's it's it's quite amazing it's made a huge impact on the industry and they've been doing a pretty good job of keep keeping themselves in the headlines yeah t Tesla always if Elon Musk isn't starting a Twitter war with someone they're on the news somewhere or another some of that news has not been good stuff too no they the fires and I mean it's also you know you have a top pick here of a car with a big expensive battery that sometimes seems to catch fire you don't know how long it's going to last or we have over 600 uh customers who have given us data on their car we're not seeing a bunch of problems with this car at all in fact this car has been reliable not a single problem with the electric drivetrain or the battery at all so there have been some cases where the thing's been impaled with something off the highway um looks like in that case there's a small a slow uh ination of the vehicle um that is good be investigated so we're going to have to see what goes on with that but um the car has been reliable on its own so we are recommending and making a top pick I mean it it is a very impressive car you know you can also argue things like gasoline cars catch fire too well I mean probably hundreds of thousands of Camas have caught in Fire and um we're not going to stop recommending them based on that so we're going to have to really see what goes on down the road and see if there's there's an issue and it was really interesting with the the recall that wasn't a recall so our car was actually raised in in you know overnight and they actually brought the car a little higher off the ground to stop some of these issues going on so right I mean the car has air suspension so it lowers itself at high speeds and that's pretty much where these incidents have occurred uh on a highway when some foreign object penetrated the battery yeah know those batteries also um especially when you get you know an 85 kilowatt car like ours they have a very long warranty don't they batter battery warranty is 8 years unlimited miles or something like that I think it is yeah I mean so you know there's there's a lot of effort going into this you know but but like you said there there'll be more you know they'll they'll research why those fires are happening otherwise though you know they are rare and it's a very impressive car uh that's that wraps up our list um there is a car where I'm sure someone's going to ask where is it on this list and that's a Chevy Impala MH where is it gab what did you do with the impella um well um I have been with the impella for a week now and I can uh reaffirm did you get out of all the Range Rovers is that what happened and I can reaffirm that it's a really really nice car and um I mean it's it's it's quiet it drives just like a luxury car um the thing is uh the category where it's at uh that segment is not really a huge segment in the market large sedans is not a huge segment and we don't have a category that we assigned the top pick in that category we also don't know if it's going to be reliable yet right first year car so uh if it becomes reliable hopefully it does become reliable we'll see what happens next year you know the these categories change and shift a bit from year to year got to make it interesting that's that's right have something to talk about in next year's podcast um what I also want to do is I want to ask I want to answer a couple questions we got from Talking Cars 23 um just I want to get to those actually you know what before I get to those is there a car in this list that you wish is there a car you wish made the list that isn't on it car that we wish made the list you personally me personally yeah what car do you wish was on this top 10 list it's come on it's the FRS yeah it's the FRS I was thinking my MR2 actually I think the MR2 would be really nice there but then I have to wish they actually made one um no I don't know I mean I think uh what the f FRS n i mean it would be nice to have a sports car on the list and um you know quite honestly the boxer really could be the on the list if we wanted to have the uh the top picks of uh 11 or so um you know that's a fun car and that really does score really high how about you Gabe yeah I would have no problem putting the boxer on that list uh it has a of course limited appeal it's rather expensive at uh $60,000 uh but uh as a sports car it just uh is a phenomenal kind of a car the car I wish was on the list and has been on the list for years and years and years is the MOs Miata just a terrific car it is fun and reliable and practical which is a combination you don't usually so here's my question about the M Miata do people actually buy new ones or they just kind of hand them around the old ones because the thing about the Miata is it's been so good for so long and if you're just looking for a car for so many days why would you go and buy a new one why don't you buy a three-year-old one that's $12,000 you don't even need to buy I went through this you know well they're more than that but you don't need to buy you're absolutely right there's so many of them out there that people only drove in the summer they took care of it you know it was like another pet of theirs you know it's if Maz is listening right now they should do time share time share of Mi kind like oh it's my week ship it you ship it North in the in the summer let me get this right you ship it North in the summer you ship it south in the winter yeah that'd be terrific yeah I mean zip car should buy a bunch of those or cars to go you know build them all with brown leather please because that I'll moving on moving on the other car I wish was on the list was the Jeep Grand Cherokee I think the jeep jeep is a very pleasant very nice car um again not quite scoring high enough and also really not quite reliable enough but otherwise I think it's it's a it's a vehicle that hits on a lot of of notes um some questions we got still enjoying this great show I think I'm all caught up with all the episodes now wow thank you for that I have a next family car dilemma Hyundai Genesis the 2012 integration versus a Toyota Sienna in Minnesota would Genesis with blizzxx and winter be a suitable four-person family hauler the kids are two and four years old other Alternatives a 2012 Sonata GLS please let me know your expert CR our opinion Gabe oh go with a Sienna no question about it I mean may not be the most exciting car but nor is a Genesis didn't I hear a Sienna there yeah you did but I'm saying compared to his alternative yeah right yeah okay so in Minnesota with the kids Sienna and if you really want the Genesis wait for the next redesigned Genesis the V6 is going to be available with all-wheel drive and uh anecdotally we've heard that Genesis and the snow the current Genesis is really not a good mix pretty H personally do people do people still get dictionaries because if you if you looked in a PR Genesis is the Bible not the dictionary yes nicely done if you if you look in the dictionary under sled is a picture of a Genesis in the winter it's not to be fair you know if you're in Minnesota rebow Drive uhuh uh you got to get front well front whe drive would be fine too um but but yeah rewh drive and that was kind of the big problem with the Genesis I mean in that market to not have all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive just you can't even be on the map really yeah this person mentions a Sonata as an alternative it it's not really comparable go go with an all-wheel drive Sienna in this case oh next and you should U know that I spent the winter in Wisconsin winter it's pretty similar to Minnesota so take our advice there we go next question hi guys great show make it longer please well we'll see how long this one going question which seven passenger SUV would you select Durango Highland or sequoia or wait for the new Tahoe because Chevy's making good products now also do you think Durango will be offered in diesel anytime soon Towing not major requirement but hauling seven passengers is so the third row is important we just talked about a really good seven passenger SUV if I remember right I believe if you need to sit in the third row it's not a good choice well if you need to sit in it often enough then uh probably Chevy Traverse is a better choice yeah Traverse is a better choice the Durango has more room in the back but like we've talked about we don't know if it's going to be reliable uh I think the chances of a diesa Durango are extremely low that um Dodger doesn't know what they're doing with the Durango because it's they ought to have a three- roow Jeep basically and that's what the Durango is doing uh so yeah I think a Traverse is probably your pick you get a minivan too a minivan that's true they they didn't mention needing all-wheel drive so I mean if you if you really or yeah that's right if you um if you really need three rows and minivans the way to go last question and then a little tip any idea when you guys will be looking at the new 2015 Volvo V60 I know that's new to the US but all the first looks seem to focus on the T5 Drive dve front-wheel drive I'm sure that's what Volvo is pushing on everyone because they're proud of their new two ler but that does not compared with all-wheel drive yet what are we doing Gabe right what are we doing yeah we're stuck in this situation we're stuck I mean uh the V 60 is an interesting wagon it's basically a wagon's version of the S60 but uh Volvo's timing is a little uh peculiar here because first the car comes then the power train comes you do get an engine if if you get allhe Drive they are giving you an engine get an old engine that's going to last until the fall in the fall uh it gets the uh the all-wheel drive gets the the 2 L Turbo with the 8-speed automatic and uh that's the interesting powertrain uh Volvo is moving away from their five and six cylinders and they're just going to have a turbocharged four-cylinder engines one of them is going to be uh 240 horsepower the other is 300 which is interesting because it has a turbo and supercharger at the same time W yeah what what could go wrong but we're going to wait for that we're going to wait because uh we want to test an all-wheel drive car compared to our Allroad compared to you know that sort of stuff so right we're going to wait for the the newer engines uh one thing we didn't wait for and the last thing I want to leave this podcast with is uh we bought ourselves a Maserati gibli we did mhm we did we um uh now for the first time Maserati is advertising in the Super Bowl so it's kind of Mak weird hell ad what the hell was that making it way into the American psyche and uh and finally they have a car that's uh lower priced uh it's in the 80 somethings instead of the 120 something Pocket Change it's based on the Chrysler 300 uh with Ferrari engine with a Ferrari engine so it should be interesting um why not yeah the thing that sucks is lousy smch weather means that uh we've got this Maserati on summer Tires we can't drive we've got this uh 9911 we can't drive we've got this Corvette we can't drive we have this Chevy SS that we haven't been able to resist driving but we shouldn't be driving um we've been driving them but very carefully very carefully we're not driving the way with these cars really want to be driven and that's too bad which is a shame because we really want to really want to drive these cars so that's going to wrap it up for this episode of talking cars as always we appreciate you listening and we'll see you next timehi everybody it's time again for talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom mler I'm Gabe shenhar and I'm Jake Fisher on this episode uh to go along with our April Auto issue we're going to talk about this year's 2014's top picks Jake what does it take for a car to be a top pick to be a top pick I mean it really has to be the best in it segment so we test a lot of cars out here um there's a lot of good choices but really when it comes down to what's if someone's going to go and they're looking for a midside sedan if looking for a sporty car looking for a truck what's the one to get that's the top pick in order to do it you got to have a car that's reliable so that's a lot of people look at our top picks and they're a little confused they like how come this car you know isn't here but a lot of that has to be we want to make sure that that car is going to hold together MH so sometimes it's not always the the brand new car that just hit the market because until it has a you know it's been out there on the market and we know that things are going to hold together we're not going to have it as a top pick we also make sure it's safe too the crash test if it doesn't do well in crash test it's not going to be a top pick either all righty so uh I think we're going to start the list there's 10 of them we're going to start the list with the more common cars and then we'll kind of work our way into the nichy stuff so Gabe uh what's our pick this year for the top midsize sedan it's the Honda Accord this one parked right here and uh that car is you don't have to buy just that one you can go to a dealer exactly only that one um but um it is this one because you want to avoid the EXL because that radio that complicated radio has reliability problems and it doesn't work as well as the regular radio um the Accord in general is is a very well-rounded car I mean it really hits a sweet spot in as a family sedan it's uh it's quick enough it's uh fuel extremely fuel efficient it's roomy enough it rides well it enough it handles nimbly it's a a very well-rounded capable car that uh can suit a wide range of audience one thing I want to clarify though is that when you look at our uh stack of ratings in midsize sedans you're going to see the the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Toyota Camry V6 and uh among this score higher than right they score higher than the Honda Accord and in this segment 90% of these cars are bought as four-cylinder cars for 23 $25,000 uh as opposed to the $30,000 high-end hybrid or V6 so our top pick in that segment is always going to be that mainstream four-cylinder car who makes the best four cylinder mainstream version exactly yeah I I agree you know I often think about if if I had to leave here and buy a car what would I get and if I had 25 grand um not that I'm planning to leave any any something you need to tell me uh one of the cars that always comes up on the list to me would be an Accord Sport I think that's that's a really nice car it's a little stiffer than than the other cars but you know for 25 Grand it's a lot of car yeah it's really interesting if you look at the the small car market I mean they they've kind of raised up in price and equipment and now your basic small car I mean they're 20,000 21,000 22,000 you're just hitting where these cars are so for 23 Grand you can get a whole lot of car and you don't even lose the fuel efficiency too I mean we got 30 miles per gallon in our testing I mean that for a small car is good let alone something that's big and quiet and room like this you it's got to be said that the Accord this is a very competitive segment there's a whole bunch of stuff right on the accord's heels you know there's the Camry there's the Sonata there's the Malibu there's the fusion I mean the Accord is it is the winner but it's not it's not a runaway um but actually you mentioned smaller cars compact cars what if you wanted something smaller what's our top pick for compact sedan top pick for compact sedan well the super impressive has always been a really good choice I this is a car that but it's not exactly something that I would expect I would expect you know a Civic or so the impress is really a funny car because you know for the one it's not a giant seller in fact it's really popular in the Northeast because it's got all-wheel drive standard and for a while you look at Subarus and they were almost you know segregated just for those markets because you wind up giving up a lot for the oow drive you never had the fuel economy that you would get and like a Civic or a Corolla but somehow they've worked it out because now it's a very fuel efficient car it rides nice it's it's Rel to the room it's got a good size back seat and you're not paying a whole lot more or losing the fuel economy for for the lwh drive so really no matter where you are it's a pretty nice choice yeah I mean I've been driving our um you know we we currently have an XV cross Trek hybrid which we've talked about in a previous episode but you know the packaging is so good you know subar is really good at making cars you can see out of well the controls are simple um you know there there's good room in the back seat they are extremely practical cars and I think that's where the empreza exactly I mean it's a very honest and unpretentious kind of a car it it's targeted to what people want it gives you the room the fuel efficiency the all-wheel drive the affordability and uh that's what makes it so um affordability with standard all-wheel drive right and 27 MP gallon with standard all-wheel drive which is a pretty impressive now we are talking about you know the great things about that Pi but I'm kind of on the other side of it you know I mean I just wanted to be known and and and we talk about this a lot just because the car is a top pick doesn't mean it's the best car for everybody and you look at the empreza one of the things that you know wild does all these things really well one thing where subar really is kind of Fallen back is in infotainments and electronics and to a lot of people who that's really important to them you might not want to look at an impress I mean you look at something like like an Elantra like a Hyundai launcher you look at AIA Forte they're packing a lot of equipment or even look at what what they're doing the Dodge Dart now oh yeah Chrysler's you connect system is terrific it's the best in the business and they're putting that in the Dodge Dart so if that's important to you maybe you don't want to look at the empreza but for really the stuff that it does the driving and all that it it's it's the best yeah two things one is uh they recently unveiled the new Subaru Legacy and that does show Subaru is continuing to try to improve their their infotainment let's say they going from the double den to the triple Den or they got they got more knobs or couple more buttons they worked in the real real tape player really nicely is that right two it's got It's got highp speed dubbing from uh from cassettes it's amazing autoever Auto reverse awesome the other thing is like you said it's an extraordinarily competitive market segment compact sad um the the Hyundai Elantra the kiaforte are right on the heels of this car in our ratings the Mazda 3 which we talked about a couple shows ago is a terrific car just isn't quite didn't quite score at this level uh there is another Subaru in our top 10 picks yes there is and that's the Forester also uh playing in a in an extremely important Market segment small SUVs and uh the Forester is uh is so extremely functional it's uh fuel efficient it's roomy you can see out of it it handles uh well it uh it has simple easy controls and uh and that's why it uh it wins here and again I mean it's almost like a rerun of the same thing with a connectivity it may not be your particular choice if that's really important to you right the Forester actually does have a pretty clear margin in in our scoring it does beat the the Mazda CX5 and the Rav 4 and the other and the CR Honda CRV by a pretty good margin but no it's not the greatest car connectivity but the thing is so practical we still own our 2014 Forester it does not sit a day overnight in this parking lot it is always out on the road yeah I mean one of the things you look immediately when you look at the Forester it's really you know you look at so many cars that are really you know form first and function later I mean the Forester is function first I mean it is a very square box it's got lots of glass area around doesn't have the giant blind spots that we're seeing and almost everything now um it's just it's nice to drive you can just see out of it it's quiet comfy yeah I mean and people love it you mean my sister is on our second one already wow I mean it's also so far they've been very very reliable it's I believe our most reliable car of 2014 yeah the most most reliable car yeah so there's a lot going for it in the Forester moving up a little bit in SUVs what if I want a midsize SUV what do I do what do you do well the Hyundai Santa Fe um is which is new to the list which is new to the list and that that's a it's a great choice you know it's funny I mean you know you still get a lot of people saying Hyundai I don't want to buy a Hyundai or Ika I mean they they are you know it's not 1985 anymore it's not with the you know the $5,000 the Exel it's not the cloth seats I mean I had a friend of mine actually I was driving our uh our Hyundai Santa Fe and he was like I want a Hyundai I want you know with this car with that car I'm like just just look inside you know you look inside what they've done in terms of you know the interior quality everything about it the room the the Comfort the luxury of it I mean it's really impressive and it's it's a very serious choice in that market you named it is one of your favorite cars of last year exactly in a previous episode I did and uh that was a a big bombshell uh because I don't utter these words very uh often uh and and rightly so I mean Hyundai have uh usually I mean they they give you a lot of content for the money but typically ride handling everything has to do with chassis and suspension was really left behind and the exception was with this Santa Fe they really nailed it uh straight out of the box with nice ride quiet interior um um good handling completely uh unfl flappable and uh it's an extremely functional yet stylish vehicle and uh you get a three row SUV but without the bulk in the that's typical in the fuel economy typically goes uh as part of the that package M this is another extremely competitive segment in fact to the point where the Dodge Durango did outscore the Santa Fe uh couple things going on the Durango is kind of between a midsize and a large SUV so it kind of hovers back and forth there the other thing is we have no idea you this updated Durango don't know if it's going to be reliable again it's one of those things where a car can score high but if we don't know its reliability we're not going to make it a top pick we're a little worried about the Durango given that the Grand Cherokee had a really bad first year with the 2014 update right there's also a ton of um competition in this segment uh you know the the car that speed out I believe is a Chevy Traverse which they continue to get more reliable you know it's a very nice very pleasant vehicle to drive there's also the new Toyota Highlander which we talked about in the last podcast and I bet when that thing's done scoring it's going to give the Santa Fe a run for its money yep that's very I mean we expect that yeah well it's bound to happen what if I what if I'm a family guy and I want something a little bit more practical than a Sant what would I go for in a minivan then you'd go for Honda Odyssey it's a no-brainer I mean that it's probably also one of the best Hondas uh it's um in terms of ride handling quietness uh the thing is the most functional vehicle that ever hit the planet and uh yet it's uh as far as minivans I don't even think it's a it's an embarrassment to be seen in an odyssey I mean it's it's styled uh pretty nicely and and the interior has got all kinds of neat smart cever little things like a vacuum cleaner if you spend $46,000 very expensive which by the way maybe you want to spend 35 and get a $20 plugin that that's just throwing the idea there you what's really cool is that it has a cool box which uh you can put your drinks in they'll they'll keep them refrigerated uh no it's it's it's the best family car you can buy I mean if you don't need all-wheel drive and actually someone picked up on that in an earlier episode is we were talking about the Odyssey and I said if you don't need all-wheel drive a lot of people don't need all-wheel drive you know and this is a terrific choice not this winter yeah this has been a pretty bad winter and actually if you do need all-wheel drive in a minivan you've got one choice it's a Toyota Sienna the only game in town and it's the Sienna though is not as pleasant to drive as a Honda Odyssey it just kind of falls behind yeah um talking about more prct rality um we always pick a green car of the year you know something that that that you know is out there a shining example fuel economy what's what's our pick this year uh every year again every year it's that Toyota Prius I mean the Toyota Prius when it comes down to you know fuel efficiency and practicality I mean it's it's pretty good it does a lot of things really well I me you look at the value look at the resale value of the car you look at the reliability of it it's kind of like I need a trans Transportation device that's very very efficient it does what it does what you want it to do very very well Enthusiast love to poop on the P it is not a car for enthusiast it is not a car that you know that's really engaging to drive absolutely if you're looking for something that's fun to drive get something else he's not even calling it a car it's a transportation device exactly but for a lot of people that's all they need you're lucky it's not a texting device right or a coffee drinking device and it's the most cost effective Transportation device out there I mean in terms of fuel economy depreciation and it's functional too now I can make an argument though about if you're really going for green car why not a volt why why not a Chevy Volt why not a Nissan Leaf right I mean that's it's a good argument I mean I'd make argument myself yeah and uh I mean the vault is is a lot more expensive it's uh I mean it it gets you the 35 mies uh on electric power and then it it uh and then it's gas and then it get 32 m per gallon so um it's uh if if it fits a certain driving pattern it works but it doesn't have the uh the all round always doing the same consistent thing like the Prius I mean I could even make a case for a Nissan Leaf which is completely uh pure electric uh car and uh but at at this point the electric the pure electric still comes with the with its limitations of limited range and the um the long charging times yeah I mean one way to think about it in terms of the green car is this the very greenest car no I mean probably my bicycle is probably greener than that but that's not a car you have a four-wheel bisy I I do I don't want to talk about it they'll waste time in the podcast but um you should take the training wheels off that's my problem that's why I keep on losing the races shoot um no but but the way to think about this is that of the green Vehicles out there which is the which car is going to be very green it's really going to suit the most people what's be most practical which going to be the best choice and for a lot of people yes a leaf doesn't you know emit carbon emissions and all that stuff but it's it's such a tiny sliver that that's really going to to suit because yes I'm going to I can't quite make it all the way home you know when I'm driving the car so um a Prius where you're selling 120 140,000 a year is that about where it's at yeah it's making a whole that's a lot of green it's it's making a big impact on the environment that's there's no question about that yeah so that that that explains that pick um going perhaps to the polar opposite something that's not so green but still extraordinarily useful our top pick pickup truck and that's the Dodge Ram which in a previous Dodge silent I mean the okay the Dodge silent right Ram 1500 that's right it's not called the Dodge Ram it's the Ram 1500 right good luck with that and uh as we said in the previous podcast the Chevy Silverado may be the better truck but the RAM is a better car but that's only part of the story uh we at this point we the Silverado is too new for us to have gathered enough reliability data from our readers thank you for filling out those questioners but uh uh we'll see what happens next year for now it's the Ram 1500 for now is is is is the point Well for now is a big point for now is a big point and and yes not to take anyone of the ram that is a nice truck to drive but yes we got we got the Silverado which I heard there's some other new truck that someone they might have redesigned with some crazy metal there there there's there's certain things going on yes um I mean to get there we have right we got the Silverado that does well we're waiting for reliability information the Dodge Ram they are going to have a diesel coming out very soon um that's very exciting so very fuel efficient and yes the uh the aluminum truck the aluminum truck so the beer cam truck so there's Ford F1 F-150s whe they have the titanium or platinum and now they're all aluminum that's right so I don't know I'm trying to figure out the the metal that you're using that is huge yeah and I I actually you know talking to some manufacturers they expect that to be a game changer they expect that to just blow past everything else well we'll see I mean I think it's a game changer for the automotive industry MH we might find in 10 years we're going to be like what this car still made a steal that's crazy they're behind the times so that'll be interesting yeah yeah the pickup truck that's going to be a very that Field's going to keep on moving uh we do have a field though where um you know we we've picked this car a couple years in a row our top pick Sports sedan the BMW 3 Series and uh every generation of the three series becomes uh although it becomes a little less sporty it becomes a better car all around and uh it scores higher in our in our system and uh F phrase and that uh the 320 I is I mean there's it's hard to argue against it it's still is the most fun to drive out of that whole segment it's uh roomier than it used to be well no I mean the Cadillac ATS is more fun to drive okay but it's not as well-rounded it's no I just need to argue sorry okay no that's we're getting too far through a podcast without an argument it's hard to AR about that yeah so we agree with ourselves but let's argue okay anyway it's extremely fuel efficient it's rier than it's ever been uh the controls are a little complicated but not awful like in the ATS so uh yeah I'll give you I'll give you that one right so uh it's a it's a top pick and it's available as an all-wheel drive it's also available with a diesel the car behind is our all-wheel drive diesel test car we've got now M and it's available as a 320i as well you're not going to miss much if you spend $5,000 less and you get the less powerful version yeah they call that to J Jalopnik Edition because you know you got no options stick shift sport pack you know it is the almost the closest thing to it you know a true distilled BMW in fact Jake and I were talking we were talking with a BMW owner earlier today about about her um about her 99 323i and how that car it feels so sharp it feels so alive and the new cars don't do that but they do have a big back seat and they they are extremely fuel efficient 28 m per down with a 328I with 0 to 60 times you know under 7 Seconds well I mean this car right here and this three series it's basically a five series of a few years ago I mean they really grown up and you know so it it is a very nice driving car it is very I mean but there was a four series now so this is a three and a half series and the four series is confusing too because it was only going to be the two doors but now there's the four series is stunning The Grand coupe's gorgeous um again uh there is a touch the controversy with this car in that the infinti G37 scores higher but we picked the three series why game why because the Infiniti uh G37 is uh is a temporary kind of a car it's uh not going to be available for a whole lot longer it's another Nissan zombie it is it's just like the come back from the dead you think it's gone uh the car has been redesigned I mean the replacement of the G37 is the Q50 and the G37 is still lingering out there uh in uh for rental fleets and for a lower price point with the reduced options so it uh it may not be the same G37 that we tested a few years ago we also looked at I mean there aren't many of them at the dealerships um you know they're still making it but theoretically it's almost like a leftover model and and by the way if you see like a leftover 20025 series that would be a great Sports so I just want to to throw that out there too yeah that that would dice uh another terrific Sports sedan is um actually our pick for luxury sedan what's that for luxury sedans um oh Jake do you not remember our pick for luxury sedan I well I know what my pick is but our pick is the Audi A6 that would be a nice luxury sedan um yeah I mean the A6 is a really nice uh nice luxurious car and one thing about those those the big Audi is it handles really nice steer nice it's roomy it's fuel efficient we tested at an A7 as well which is kind of uh very similar but a little more swoopy styling had the diesel and you get that same diesel on the A6 very fuel efficient um the A7 we don't have the reliability data especially on that diesel yet and that probably would have been the the car well no actually it wouldn't the the yeah the A6 is a fantastic car um the Mercedes Ben's E250 did outscore that because that's our second scoring car behind our last toot pick which we'll get to in a moment diesel diesel uh yeah another high-scoring diesel um we don't know if that diesel is going to be reliable yet Mercedes um it's a new diesel it's a different than previous diesels and uh so but the regular eClass the E350 is reliable it's recommended I mean it doesn't score as well as the uh the gas A6 and therefore the A6 gets a top pick uh and U I mean I uh which is no shame no shame at all yeah I mean that car is is a lovely car it's just a a handsome car it's a it's roomy it drives beautifully and uh I wouldn't mind commuting every day in that car you probably wouldn't mind commuting every day either in our last top pick our last top pick and what I'm betting is Jake's favorite luxury car that's actually just be to be clear on it it's my favorite luxury car it's my favorite green car and it's the best car we've we've tested and what is that car the Tesla Model S it's pretty gutsy though to be naming that car to our top 10 list I mean it's not a manufacturer it's been out very long and yeah it's a man it's a car that we have reliability data on and it has been reliable we have hundreds of customers who have told us 600s yeah 600 vehicles and we have data on the car um we put it through our our testing and it does it works really really well it's roomy it's comfortable it's fuel efficient it's green it's got the the best technology we've seen in in anything so it's uh it's pretty amazing car it is I mean I mean speaking of Game Changer that is a game changer that that car is a is such a remarkable car it uh it really works I mean it drives beautifully it looks nice it uh and uh you are almost uh at a point that you eliminated all the barriers of electric cars with the long longest range for an electric car with uh ways to charge the car quickly uh those superchargers are sprouting up all over the place so it's uh there is is a very very little compromise here yeah I mean it doesn't look like a golf cart I wish it was cheaper but you know as you typically do with electric items wish it had more active safety stuff wish it had Ford Collision warning or blind spot or stuff like that but otherwise you know it's a it's a very very good car and it's to the point where other people are you know I mentioned Tesla is a new brand but the brand perception we just did a brand perception study it's I believe in the top five yeah yeah I mean this is a this is a vehicle manufacture that really nobody heard of just a few years ago and now it's almost the top of among Brands like Chevy and Ford brands that have been around since before the wheel was round yeah it's pretty amazing how it's I me you look at some other autom manufacturers that try to get into there and it's like you know I don't know de wo was around for 6 years before anyone noticed um but yeah they hit the ground running and it's it's it's quite amazing it's made a huge impact on the industry and they've been doing a pretty good job of keep keeping themselves in the headlines yeah t Tesla always if Elon Musk isn't starting a Twitter war with someone they're on the news somewhere or another some of that news has not been good stuff too no they the fires and I mean it's also you know you have a top pick here of a car with a big expensive battery that sometimes seems to catch fire you don't know how long it's going to last or we have over 600 uh customers who have given us data on their car we're not seeing a bunch of problems with this car at all in fact this car has been reliable not a single problem with the electric drivetrain or the battery at all so there have been some cases where the thing's been impaled with something off the highway um looks like in that case there's a small a slow uh ination of the vehicle um that is good be investigated so we're going to have to see what goes on with that but um the car has been reliable on its own so we are recommending and making a top pick I mean it it is a very impressive car you know you can also argue things like gasoline cars catch fire too well I mean probably hundreds of thousands of Camas have caught in Fire and um we're not going to stop recommending them based on that so we're going to have to really see what goes on down the road and see if there's there's an issue and it was really interesting with the the recall that wasn't a recall so our car was actually raised in in you know overnight and they actually brought the car a little higher off the ground to stop some of these issues going on so right I mean the car has air suspension so it lowers itself at high speeds and that's pretty much where these incidents have occurred uh on a highway when some foreign object penetrated the battery yeah know those batteries also um especially when you get you know an 85 kilowatt car like ours they have a very long warranty don't they batter battery warranty is 8 years unlimited miles or something like that I think it is yeah I mean so you know there's there's a lot of effort going into this you know but but like you said there there'll be more you know they'll they'll research why those fires are happening otherwise though you know they are rare and it's a very impressive car uh that's that wraps up our list um there is a car where I'm sure someone's going to ask where is it on this list and that's a Chevy Impala MH where is it gab what did you do with the impella um well um I have been with the impella for a week now and I can uh reaffirm did you get out of all the Range Rovers is that what happened and I can reaffirm that it's a really really nice car and um I mean it's it's it's quiet it drives just like a luxury car um the thing is uh the category where it's at uh that segment is not really a huge segment in the market large sedans is not a huge segment and we don't have a category that we assigned the top pick in that category we also don't know if it's going to be reliable yet right first year car so uh if it becomes reliable hopefully it does become reliable we'll see what happens next year you know the these categories change and shift a bit from year to year got to make it interesting that's that's right have something to talk about in next year's podcast um what I also want to do is I want to ask I want to answer a couple questions we got from Talking Cars 23 um just I want to get to those actually you know what before I get to those is there a car in this list that you wish is there a car you wish made the list that isn't on it car that we wish made the list you personally me personally yeah what car do you wish was on this top 10 list it's come on it's the FRS yeah it's the FRS I was thinking my MR2 actually I think the MR2 would be really nice there but then I have to wish they actually made one um no I don't know I mean I think uh what the f FRS n i mean it would be nice to have a sports car on the list and um you know quite honestly the boxer really could be the on the list if we wanted to have the uh the top picks of uh 11 or so um you know that's a fun car and that really does score really high how about you Gabe yeah I would have no problem putting the boxer on that list uh it has a of course limited appeal it's rather expensive at uh $60,000 uh but uh as a sports car it just uh is a phenomenal kind of a car the car I wish was on the list and has been on the list for years and years and years is the MOs Miata just a terrific car it is fun and reliable and practical which is a combination you don't usually so here's my question about the M Miata do people actually buy new ones or they just kind of hand them around the old ones because the thing about the Miata is it's been so good for so long and if you're just looking for a car for so many days why would you go and buy a new one why don't you buy a three-year-old one that's $12,000 you don't even need to buy I went through this you know well they're more than that but you don't need to buy you're absolutely right there's so many of them out there that people only drove in the summer they took care of it you know it was like another pet of theirs you know it's if Maz is listening right now they should do time share time share of Mi kind like oh it's my week ship it you ship it North in the in the summer let me get this right you ship it North in the summer you ship it south in the winter yeah that'd be terrific yeah I mean zip car should buy a bunch of those or cars to go you know build them all with brown leather please because that I'll moving on moving on the other car I wish was on the list was the Jeep Grand Cherokee I think the jeep jeep is a very pleasant very nice car um again not quite scoring high enough and also really not quite reliable enough but otherwise I think it's it's a it's a vehicle that hits on a lot of of notes um some questions we got still enjoying this great show I think I'm all caught up with all the episodes now wow thank you for that I have a next family car dilemma Hyundai Genesis the 2012 integration versus a Toyota Sienna in Minnesota would Genesis with blizzxx and winter be a suitable four-person family hauler the kids are two and four years old other Alternatives a 2012 Sonata GLS please let me know your expert CR our opinion Gabe oh go with a Sienna no question about it I mean may not be the most exciting car but nor is a Genesis didn't I hear a Sienna there yeah you did but I'm saying compared to his alternative yeah right yeah okay so in Minnesota with the kids Sienna and if you really want the Genesis wait for the next redesigned Genesis the V6 is going to be available with all-wheel drive and uh anecdotally we've heard that Genesis and the snow the current Genesis is really not a good mix pretty H personally do people do people still get dictionaries because if you if you looked in a PR Genesis is the Bible not the dictionary yes nicely done if you if you look in the dictionary under sled is a picture of a Genesis in the winter it's not to be fair you know if you're in Minnesota rebow Drive uhuh uh you got to get front well front whe drive would be fine too um but but yeah rewh drive and that was kind of the big problem with the Genesis I mean in that market to not have all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive just you can't even be on the map really yeah this person mentions a Sonata as an alternative it it's not really comparable go go with an all-wheel drive Sienna in this case oh next and you should U know that I spent the winter in Wisconsin winter it's pretty similar to Minnesota so take our advice there we go next question hi guys great show make it longer please well we'll see how long this one going question which seven passenger SUV would you select Durango Highland or sequoia or wait for the new Tahoe because Chevy's making good products now also do you think Durango will be offered in diesel anytime soon Towing not major requirement but hauling seven passengers is so the third row is important we just talked about a really good seven passenger SUV if I remember right I believe if you need to sit in the third row it's not a good choice well if you need to sit in it often enough then uh probably Chevy Traverse is a better choice yeah Traverse is a better choice the Durango has more room in the back but like we've talked about we don't know if it's going to be reliable uh I think the chances of a diesa Durango are extremely low that um Dodger doesn't know what they're doing with the Durango because it's they ought to have a three- roow Jeep basically and that's what the Durango is doing uh so yeah I think a Traverse is probably your pick you get a minivan too a minivan that's true they they didn't mention needing all-wheel drive so I mean if you if you really or yeah that's right if you um if you really need three rows and minivans the way to go last question and then a little tip any idea when you guys will be looking at the new 2015 Volvo V60 I know that's new to the US but all the first looks seem to focus on the T5 Drive dve front-wheel drive I'm sure that's what Volvo is pushing on everyone because they're proud of their new two ler but that does not compared with all-wheel drive yet what are we doing Gabe right what are we doing yeah we're stuck in this situation we're stuck I mean uh the V 60 is an interesting wagon it's basically a wagon's version of the S60 but uh Volvo's timing is a little uh peculiar here because first the car comes then the power train comes you do get an engine if if you get allhe Drive they are giving you an engine get an old engine that's going to last until the fall in the fall uh it gets the uh the all-wheel drive gets the the 2 L Turbo with the 8-speed automatic and uh that's the interesting powertrain uh Volvo is moving away from their five and six cylinders and they're just going to have a turbocharged four-cylinder engines one of them is going to be uh 240 horsepower the other is 300 which is interesting because it has a turbo and supercharger at the same time W yeah what what could go wrong but we're going to wait for that we're going to wait because uh we want to test an all-wheel drive car compared to our Allroad compared to you know that sort of stuff so right we're going to wait for the the newer engines uh one thing we didn't wait for and the last thing I want to leave this podcast with is uh we bought ourselves a Maserati gibli we did mhm we did we um uh now for the first time Maserati is advertising in the Super Bowl so it's kind of Mak weird hell ad what the hell was that making it way into the American psyche and uh and finally they have a car that's uh lower priced uh it's in the 80 somethings instead of the 120 something Pocket Change it's based on the Chrysler 300 uh with Ferrari engine with a Ferrari engine so it should be interesting um why not yeah the thing that sucks is lousy smch weather means that uh we've got this Maserati on summer Tires we can't drive we've got this uh 9911 we can't drive we've got this Corvette we can't drive we have this Chevy SS that we haven't been able to resist driving but we shouldn't be driving um we've been driving them but very carefully very carefully we're not driving the way with these cars really want to be driven and that's too bad which is a shame because we really want to really want to drive these cars so that's going to wrap it up for this episode of talking cars as always we appreciate you listening and we'll see you next time\n"