The Fun to Drive: Exploring Convertibles and Powertrains

When it comes to convertibles, fun to drive is often at the top of the list for many car enthusiasts. The thrill of driving with the wind in your hair, the sun on your face, and the rush of adrenaline as you navigate twisty roads is a unique experience that few other vehicles can match. In this article, we'll delve into some of the most exciting convertibles on the market, exploring their features, performance, and what makes them so enjoyable to drive.

One of the standout convertibles in the class is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertible. With its sleek design and powerful engine options, it's a compelling choice for those looking for a luxurious driving experience. However, some models in this class are equipped with air ride suspensions, which provide a smooth ride but also make them quite different from other vehicles in the same class. When considering an E-Class convertible, it's essential to take these differences into account and test drive several models to get a feel for their handling and performance.

Another exciting option is the Mini Cooper S convertible. With its manual transmission and agile handling, it's a joy to drive on twisty roads. However, with the announcement that Mini Cooper will be phasing out manual transmissions in the coming year, buyers have limited time to experience this driving delight before it disappears from the lineup.

The Toyota Grand Highlander is another vehicle that caught our attention. With its impressive powertrain options and advanced features like a hybrid battery of 1.44 kilowatt hour, it's an attractive choice for those looking for a reliable and capable SUV. One question on everyone's mind is how the powertrain performs when the battery is depleted, particularly in situations where the vehicle is heavily loaded or driving uphill at high speeds.

Our team of experts dug into this question to provide some clarity. While Toyota has not yet addressed this issue directly, it's worth noting that the max powertrain with its hybrid battery combo makes an additional 97 horsepower and 90 pound-feet of torque compared to the 4T engine. In a scenario where a vehicle is fully laden and driving uphill at high speed, it's likely that the internal combustion engine will still be more than adequate to handle the task, even if the electric motor is depleted.

One thing is certain: Toyota has taken steps to ensure their powertrains are reliable and capable, with extensive testing and iteration to address potential issues. By understanding how these systems work together, buyers can have confidence in their choice of vehicle and enjoy a safe and enjoyable driving experience on the road.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign owski and I'm Jennifer stockberger so on today's episode of talking cars it's a very special episode in that we get to answer your questions for the entire time we love getting your questions text 30 second videos send them all to talkingcars icloud.com that's talking cars at icloud.com and we're going to get right into it starting with yes leading off is Connor who writes I said yes that's a baseball thing um Conor writes I just started listening to your podcast and really enjoying it I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what it'll be like to own a gas powered vehicle once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion engine ownership will there be range anxiety due to disappearing gas stations will filling up with gas be extremely affordable so this almost to me sounds like a seek equal to Mad Max which is maybe a little bit extremist but but you know so that's Water World yeah I mean yeah I'm mixing up my crazy movies yeah um so uh yes the the the the the the podcast is called talking movies um so so let me throw this out to you guys do you see a scenario in the near or even distant future where we are out of petroleum well I first of all I think it'll be a while so where till we see that like decades before we are even close to that and this question made me think of other things that were the norm that now are the exception and and it's little things it could be you know I think we said VHS tapes turntables uh landlines I thought of charcoal grills right and I thought you know new technology be it gas grills or cell phones or whatever surpassed what was at one time the norm the answer is as long as enough people still have them we will accommodate them in our infrastructure I think of the station you'll pull into it may be a bunch of EV Chargers in a row but over here somewhere will be a a gas pump and maybe even a diesel pump and diesel pumps are another you go to a gas station they'll have 20 gas pumps but they'll have one diesel right mainly for pickup trucks we don't have a lot of diesel cars in the US but it's there and I think when he says will gasp be extremely affordable I actually think the opposite will be true it'll now be the exception gas will be more expensive right not only because it will be the exception but they'll want to continue if indeed EVS proved to be the benefit of the environment they'll want to push the ice internal combustion cars further and further out and they will become the classics and I think of the way we sometimes return to the classics charcoal now is way better than a gas-fired Staker so all those things I have a turntable you have a turntable you have vinyl with a turntable I I I used to but but in terms of of like a landline some some of the work I do here at Consumer Reports is is Media work and I'm doing I'm doing uh radio interviews right and a landline has better Clarity than a wireless phone right and and so it is this situation where what's old is New Again that old expression that your parents might have said to you is certainly from the case but one of the things Ryan and I'm interested your thoughts about this is is Conor's question says once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion so that's a ship yeah that's where I have a hard time with I guess um and I think to Jen's point it's gonna be a long time decades um I don't think the Battery Technology is where it needs to be for people to be comfortable to um completely shift over to that to and um you know away from internal combustion engine um so I I like to think I won't see this in my lifetime but um I'm a Gearhead so I like I still like my internal combustions every now and again um yeah I do think it'll probably it will it'll it should start to dwindle I guess or you'll see less of it and more electric stuff more Chargers um it's going to take a long time I think and um I hope gasoline cars don't fully go away um right and and in terms of of internal combustion or or uh uh we're also you can bring in the argument about you know biodiesel because that was kind of a thing for a while yeah I think there's always going to be a need for us even if it's a specialty thing for an internal combustion engine somewhere um right and they're going to they're going to learn and they're going to figure out ways to make fuels uh differently and do things um the technology is going to spread I think it's not just going to be uh uh battery powered cars I don't think I think it's going to spread I think we're going to see other things um and some technologies come out of nowhere um to help facilitate refining different conditions controls that can make it work right yeah for the needs like Ryan says where it's necessary and and so I think you'll see an integration not an elimination right and and onto that that thought of integration in the short run we're seeing the migration to hybrids and plug-in hybrids for people who are a little reluctant to get into a pure electric vehicle and here at Consumer Reports we're certainly doing a big push buying a number of these plug-in models which will will be reporting on in the in the near future as well but it is it is a an interesting question there's a lot going on here whether or not that the the the market is going to decide is the government going to influence or is it you know fully the automakers are going to gamble they're going to bet they're going to say we're gonna we're all going to go this way and and maybe they're right or maybe they're not uh and and everything so so it'll be interesting to see how that how that pans out but I like your guys answers because I'm not ready to give up an internal combustion either so so you know hopefully In Our Lifetime we won't have that issue but uh we'll see what happens to our children's future but that being said let's move on to our next question which is Alan from Chapel Hill North Carolina we have a Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive which we love but one issue I've noticed is that the tires seem to wear out about twice as fast as you would expect to see given the rated wear life we are not aggressive drivers and are about to get our third set of tires on the car despite having driven at less than 60 000 miles does Consumer Reports have any special tests for Ev tires given the range and rolling resistance consideration well Alan your lucky day because it's just a wicked coincidence can you imagine right beslinkowski is here our resident hire expert one of our resident Tire experts and to talk about um what um EV drivers should consider going forward sure um to answer his question right off the bat um we don't do anything special right at the moment um I think the fact of the matter is um EVS the EV Vehicles they have four tires on them just like um internal combustion engine car the tires still have the same responsibilities they need to carry a load um they need to handle they need to grip the surface um it's all the same stuff EVS are heavier in some cases 10 20 30 percent heavier than what would be maybe their equivalent counterpart or competitor right um as an internal combustion car and um they're heavier they have more torque that wears tires out unfortunately um that's out of your hands I mean you can drive a little bit more carefully to not wear these tires out faster but they're going to wear out faster no matter what you're not going to get around it um at the way these cars are today they're heavy the batteries are heavy um and then all the safety stuff that's in them and the size of these vehicles they just wear they wear out tires um this is a real thing we were watching it um lots of complaints and concerns coming through and um it's you know that's it's just part of the the this new world of EVS so um going forward we will be testing um replacement car replacement EV tires um there's not a ton of them out there um yet but we will we will be venturing down that road and um rolling resistance we do currently do um on all tires and simply just measuring the the force required for the tire to roll down around the road so a tire with low rolling resistance is more fuel efficient or energy efficient um so we do that as we do that now we will do that certainly do that with the EV tires that's going to be a a big thing because that pretty much tells you right there you know how much the range you might lose or gain on your UV so um it is coming and it's um it's just it's lagging a little behind with the replacement Market because that's always a bit behind the oil say OE tires that come on your EV from the factory um so OE meaning original equation yes and you you go to Tire symposiums and conferences you have your finger on the pulse of the tire industry I'm assuming that the tire industry is working on this planning on this coming up with a whole line of specific tires now do you think that these tires are going to be more expensive on average to replace on an EV compared to you know a mainstream model yeah as of right now they are certainly um and a lot of that's a lot of that's due to the size um because I mean if you look in the parking lot we have quite a few EVS they all have these big 20 inch wheels um low you know low profile sidewalls and they don't make a ton of these tires so the demands uh you know supply and demand they're just expensive um the technology is going to make them more expensive as well um if they're putting you know they're trying to make them low rolling resistance but they need to make them wear and they have to still grip snow uh there's you know there's a tire is a compromise so you have to you're pulling from all these different areas trying to make the tire do everything perfectly and it just can't so um the more technology you put in it the more expensive it gets it's going to be a trade-off of range versus this wear and performance thing because like right says even you take a more mainstreamable or ionic five or something they got a ton of torque yeah right if you didn't have all of that grip you'd be spinning tires all day long as you take off all that instant power so it's gonna be a balance for sure and it's going to take some time for the models to come in and again it's something that EV owners need to be aware of um I think Jeff Bartlett one of our editors said he had a friend with a model three he was on set three with like forty two thousand yeah so he was right where Allen is yeah what Alan's saying is is um just strikingly similar to everything I've heard uh in the past now um and the replacement tires depending on how you go if you don't go with a very dedicated Eevee what will that do to your range I do think we would look at that we are we are going to yeah a little a little background Jen stockberg came to Consumer Reports after working at Pirelli Tire um so that definitely is well versed still well versed in tires um and and one more follow-up question to you Ryan when you when you mentioned that most of our EVS here at the track have like these 20-inch tires now do you think is that more because of of styling or or function um so a lot of it's functioning you have to carry the load so it's these vehicles are heavy and you really you want to narrow a taller and narrow not something much taller but a narrower tire but you need you still need the volume of air to hold the vehicle up off the ground um so they're making these wider squattier tires and they also need to grip the ropes they're heavier right so there's this trade-off this awkward trade-off of like ideally a a good long low rolling resistance tire is a lightweight um a thin carcass tire that has nothing I mean think of it think of a road bike tire okay road bike tire high pressure very very narrow yeah right um but you're only hauling yourself down the road so um it's a different application so um that's kind of why we're I think we're why we're seeing that um all these you know and tires like that tend to wear out faster as well anyway because they have a performance for Edge too exactly for sure exactly well we can go round and round on tires but we have to move on to the next question here it's not alone for sure okay next up is Steve who writes over the years I've thought about how simple it would be for manufacturers to add a simple safety feature a light out indicator for the driver to know if a tail light running light or headlight is not working from my experience most cars do not show that a bulb or LED needs replacing what have you all heard in the industry about this given that more expensive blind spot warning Lane keep assist and other more advanced safety features do have these alerts so um this was a great question Steve and we all spent some time uh digging into it but I'm going to start with Jen and what do you have for Steve so Steve you are preaching to my personal choir um really I have a bit of a soapbox here at consumer reports about other things along this line in that we spend a lot of time on new technologies but we haven't quite gotten a handle on the basics and you know one of those I talk about all the time is we're talking about automated driving or partially automated driving and we don't all put our seat belts on yet you know in terms of safety Etc so we spend a lot of work we're there we're getting there now with rear belt minders and things that are Incorporated in our rear seat safety but this is one of them you know we obviously do a lot of work rating headlights looking at get different headlight Technologies to his point we have a warning that says hey your automatic emergency braking camera or radar is obscured don't expect that to work right now but nothing tells us when we're a padiddle do you remember that padiddle was a game you played on the highway where you yelled padiddle when there was a car with one headlight out and you got points for that it was like punch bug which was the Volkswagen you had a padiddle Volkswagen yes that was extra that was like bonus but anyway there is nothing very rare that Steve says you got a headlight or a tail laid out I will counter that now with the fact that you don't see a lot of politicals anymore right that new headlight Technologies particularly HIDs which we kind of jumped over high intensity discharge or now LEDs light emitting diode headlights they don't have a physical wire filament that breaks that breaks with vibration that breaks with a pothole that just degrades over time life of the newer headlight Technologies is way longer so your chances of losing a headlight and most tail lights are now LEDs as well is rare unless you've been in a fender bender or something like that I do say get to know your car you know there's some great checks if you're ever curious pull up to a garage or a wall make sure you got both of them protect you particularly if you're perceiving that they're dimmer back up to a wall you can test your blinkers you don't necessarily need to make it a two-person job but it's also good to do that you know I think I told you my husband's spending a ton of time in Vermont now they have a state inspection you don't want to go a year knowing that you don't have that light before the cop pulls you over yeah for it but it's always the case always the case that the cop pulls over and says hey you gotta you know you got a headlight or a tail light out but yeah pay attention if someone flashes you sometimes that's a good indication that something's off right um the other one too same thing people will go around with their daytime running lights on they don't know that their headlights aren't fully on right and they think they've got headlights and they don't so Steve I don't know what else to say other than I completely agree grab the basics of making sure we have some lighting before we're relying on cameras though the cameras are helpful and and what I I had fun looking into this question also because Steve was kind of ahead of the game because back in um the early days of the C3 Corvette and C3 means that the third generation Corvette say around 1968 1969 these cars had these analog tail light out indicators on the center console there's also a warning light to let you know that your license plate plate light was out as well so so it's it's interesting that that he was kind of yes Steve is definitely on The Cutting Edge on this one and talking to Master Tech uh Mike crosson who used to work at Mercedes dealers around the 2000 model year Mercedes had warnings in the instrument panel to tell the driver when a front or rear light is out and it even told you which side so some manufacturers are dealing with this but to your point Jen it's getting rarer and rarer as as time goes on it makes me wonder how many of the C3 tail lights failed and well why they felt the need to put that correct it's still an error though after that like why wouldn't why weren't they doing it that's just I think relatively Simple Technology right from Purdue um well yeah yeah right um but to your point yeah the bulbs are better now they're not in the same issues I do Ford F-150 um does have a tail light on your trailer or trailer light um thing that tells you if you have a signal out on the trailer which I think is genius yes that's a really good thing so and yeah and certainly any any headlight question is is great we have what a great a bright idea that we have a gen gear because she is one of our uh our headlight experts okay moving on we're going to hear from Joanna from Maryland who says what do you think about advocating for the return of head restraints which move forward in a rear end crash to provide better neck protection since covid it's all too common to see drivers tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic in fact my spouse and I were recently rear-ended by an SUV going a hundred miles an hour we did not suffer any neck injuries and I think it might be because our car was equipped with these types of head restraints so Jen I'm also going to ask you to weigh in on this and and talk about restraints yeah first of all Johanna that's a serious rear impact like I'm so glad you did not suffer any injury holy cow um but I was curious about uh johanna's use of the word return earn because there are many vehicles that have active head restraints and these are mechanical for anybody who doesn't know mechanical response so as you're hit from the back now so your body moves towards the crash when your torso goes into the seat back it drives the head restraint forward and what that's doing is reducing the amount of what they call back set which is the the gap between your head and the head restraint because in whiplash injury it's the the back and then the corresponding forward motion that injures your your neck and your vertebrae so years ago um good well there was an update to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standard called 202a which said they have to be taller and they have to be closer to the point where some of our drivers here particularly shorter drivers found they were pushing their heads forward too much because they were kind of tucked under them they were probably great for you great for me great for you but that has reduced the back set and the Assurance Institute for Highway Safety also rates them four backsend um in the front seat so a good head restraint Joanna doesn't need to be active if that back set and height are adequate you know again I'll go back to what Emily's doing on rear seat safety there are still rear seat positions that don't have any right head restraint at all because it's not required because it's not required particularly in the center you know truthfully front head restraints are really good and probably don't need to be active though many are out there um but we do need to do some work for the rear seat because there's a lot of people riding you think of again we say Ubers and lifts and all that we're in the rear seats much more often than we were and adults are there too as families you know bring a grandmother or you know I get used to get put in the back a lot with my kids so anyway um good question um rear impacts not the most common but are one of the most injury causing not fatality but the most common injury causing type of Crash because of whiplash so great question so the next question we're going to go International this is Kevin from Nice France and it must be nice to be in France how do you say hello what is that goodbye Kevin Kevin asks his question he says I sent a question to talking cars about five years ago when I needed some guidance buying a new car and with your help purchased a 2015 Audi A3 convertible which I still enjoy every day but with driver assistance Tech progressing I'd like to upgrade to a newer car I was thinking about a new A4 or a Mercedes but both will not be available with airmatic suspension anymore people tell me that an air suspension makes a big difference especially on longer trips is no air suspension a deal breaker What would be a smart choice for a four-seater convertible BMW is not an option too much testosterone oh boy well that's maybe the first time I've read a talking cars question that brought up testosterone but anyway um uh so so really the part of this this answer is do you have to have an air suspension to get a good ride and certainly in consumer reports experience of testing hundreds and thousands of cars the answer is absolutely not you do not have to have an air suspension there are a lot of great setups with with normal uh suspension components that provide an excellent ride and I would also caution about the air suspension systems needing replacement can be very very expensive um so I would say try a bunch of cars Kevin try them on bumpy roads even without the air suspension you will likely find that um I guess more modern cars I mean you're starting from a 2015 model so now we're jumping forward to 2023 a lot of cars provide excellent rides and um and with that in mind though this is kind of one of my favorite parts of our podcast is we're all going to give you a suggestion we're going to take a pic for a four-seat convertible and Ryan I'm going to start with you what do you think Kevin should buy um so I I know you know he struck down BMW which hurts your heart but still it's okay um I forgive him um I so if I mean he had he had the the A3 Audi A3 I'm assuming he liked um he still yeah says he still enjoyed it um uh I I if I was him I would go with an A4 um or an A even an A5 if he doesn't mind the the back seat and that's still Fair uh my parents actually had one and um they loved it um I think it rides pretty well um I will say the A3 is a smaller car yeah that class of cars and very nice car but the cars are a little firmer riding if you jump up inside as you jump up in size you generally get a little bit better riding off the bat right off the bat so longer wheelbase yeah absolutely longer wheelbase helps um I I will say that Mercedes probably owns ride um Quality on this level but um sorry jumping ahead but um I would argue A3 or A4 would be more fun to drive and he has a pretty fun car to drive already the A3 so um that's kind of where I would go and Jen when we were talking about this question you mentioned you know a four passenger convertible is just inherently compromising can you can you expand on that yeah so so this is the Assumption I made Kevin and I hope it's a good one one that when you asked for a four-seater convertible that you actually wanted to use that rear seat and that's one of the compromises there are very few four-seater convertibles where that rear seat is actually functional right functional which is why my pick I even went I said okay ride and a functional rear seat I went with a Mercedes-Benz E-class Cabriolet and I wrote in my notes nobody has mastered ride like Mercedes to get to his aromatic question like I think you'll be super happy with how an E-class rides I think you'll get a rear seat that's functional and big enough for someone to actually be good in even an adult you may not get to Ryan's point the sporty driving that you've certainly enjoyed in this A3 now I will say in our ratings of day three very high for road test we love how it drives very high for owner satisfaction reliability is not its strong point it might not be quite as reliable as the Audi so worth a drive for sure okay just to touch on his um air um air ride comment um people you know had told him that it's um it can be you know air ride better um I think the perception of that is sometimes some very high-end vehicles um large Mercedes uh s-classes uh Range Rovers The a lot of them are equipped with these air ride suspensions and yes they ride very nicely but they're also totally different animals um in the the class of convertibles that you're talking about so um you know I I'm not even sure um you know some of those cars aren't even available with an air ride some of these you know convertibles and stuff so um I think to your point like you mentioned getting some of these cars and drive them right and take them down some rough roads and um you might be pleasantly surprised and I think the only difference you know it may not be that you're going to have an easy time finding an E-class convertible either right no so you may need to drive the E-class yeah I think the only thing to be aware of is probably noise but that's a nice power I was watching some videos that's it uh convertible but it is out it's a beautiful car yeah so I I'm gonna hop on the the Ryan bandwagon and go with the fun to drive answer and um I I did sort of neglect to bring up in my thought process a really nice ride because I'm going with a Mini Cooper S convertible yeah all right I'm going fun to drive I'm going manual transmission because I'm a psychopath but um and and I know they're going away in fact Mini Cooper just announced that this will be the last model year that they will be offering manual transmissions so that's that's too bad uh but with a few options I priced out a Mini Cooper S about 40 Grand yes the back seat is absolutely tiny um there's definitely compromises here if if you if you don't mind sort of the the tighter confines of an A3 I figure you may give the Mini Cooper a try and I've enjoyed driving just about every single Mini Cooper that we've ever touched I mean it's probably the most the most fun to drive right so so so Kevin uh I'm glad you're a regular uh listener and and Watcher of the podcast and we'd love for you to follow up and let us know what you what you finally chose and hopefully we gave you something to work with uh so next up and our final question we'll continue the baseball theme you know you know batting cleanup is uh Francesco or Francesco I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly after watching your recent episode on the different Powertrain trains for the Toyota Grand Highlander I got curious about the way Toyota rates the power of their vehicles from what I can tell the max powertrains have a hybrid battery of 1.44 kilowatt hour which is not really that big this battery and electric motor combo makes an additional 97 horsepower and 90 pound-feet of torque compared to the 4T engine imagining a scenario where a vehicle is loaded with people and bags going over prolonged Hill at high speed what happens when the battery is depleted I haven't seen any auto journalist addressing this boost rating on the max powertrains yet so um interesting question and and again furthering this theme of of this podcast about new automotive technology uh Jen what what kind of answer did you find in your research so um certainly that that scenario that Francesco talks about the fully laden vehicle high-speed long grade is kind of a perfect storm for a battery and probably very unlikely is what we heard and Toyota is super cautious in terms of iterating and expecting what could go wrong which is why their reliability is so good I can't imagine that they didn't test really high battery load scenarios to counter this exact problem we had similar questions I don't know if you remember about the all-wheel drives that were driven only by the electric mode right what happens when my electric motors dip my battery's depleted so I only have a two-wheel drive vehicle I don't think we've realized even those scenarios so the answer Francesco was I wouldn't worry about it but I even with even say that happens if you look at those numbers the max Engine with its 362 horsepower even if its battery is depleted it becomes the regular engine that we bought the 265 horsepower 2.4 liter 4 Turbo that we have in the test vehicle right it's probably still a great powertrain right even without the Boost of that match the internal combustion engine is still more powerful than than the electric right that's plenty adequate to get you up that hill even without the Boost in that situation yes right uh so so we'll we'll kind of keep that answer short and sweet because we got to wrap up this awesome podcast with your questions uh really fabulous as always check the show notes for more information on the vehicles and topics that we discussed and reminder keep your questions coming talking cars at icloud.com and this episode was produced by of course super producer days Dave Abrams and edited by Andrew I still play hockey Belize and Anatoly the great shumsky thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you next weekforeign owski and I'm Jennifer stockberger so on today's episode of talking cars it's a very special episode in that we get to answer your questions for the entire time we love getting your questions text 30 second videos send them all to talkingcars icloud.com that's talking cars at icloud.com and we're going to get right into it starting with yes leading off is Connor who writes I said yes that's a baseball thing um Conor writes I just started listening to your podcast and really enjoying it I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what it'll be like to own a gas powered vehicle once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion engine ownership will there be range anxiety due to disappearing gas stations will filling up with gas be extremely affordable so this almost to me sounds like a seek equal to Mad Max which is maybe a little bit extremist but but you know so that's Water World yeah I mean yeah I'm mixing up my crazy movies yeah um so uh yes the the the the the the podcast is called talking movies um so so let me throw this out to you guys do you see a scenario in the near or even distant future where we are out of petroleum well I first of all I think it'll be a while so where till we see that like decades before we are even close to that and this question made me think of other things that were the norm that now are the exception and and it's little things it could be you know I think we said VHS tapes turntables uh landlines I thought of charcoal grills right and I thought you know new technology be it gas grills or cell phones or whatever surpassed what was at one time the norm the answer is as long as enough people still have them we will accommodate them in our infrastructure I think of the station you'll pull into it may be a bunch of EV Chargers in a row but over here somewhere will be a a gas pump and maybe even a diesel pump and diesel pumps are another you go to a gas station they'll have 20 gas pumps but they'll have one diesel right mainly for pickup trucks we don't have a lot of diesel cars in the US but it's there and I think when he says will gasp be extremely affordable I actually think the opposite will be true it'll now be the exception gas will be more expensive right not only because it will be the exception but they'll want to continue if indeed EVS proved to be the benefit of the environment they'll want to push the ice internal combustion cars further and further out and they will become the classics and I think of the way we sometimes return to the classics charcoal now is way better than a gas-fired Staker so all those things I have a turntable you have a turntable you have vinyl with a turntable I I I used to but but in terms of of like a landline some some of the work I do here at Consumer Reports is is Media work and I'm doing I'm doing uh radio interviews right and a landline has better Clarity than a wireless phone right and and so it is this situation where what's old is New Again that old expression that your parents might have said to you is certainly from the case but one of the things Ryan and I'm interested your thoughts about this is is Conor's question says once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion so that's a ship yeah that's where I have a hard time with I guess um and I think to Jen's point it's gonna be a long time decades um I don't think the Battery Technology is where it needs to be for people to be comfortable to um completely shift over to that to and um you know away from internal combustion engine um so I I like to think I won't see this in my lifetime but um I'm a Gearhead so I like I still like my internal combustions every now and again um yeah I do think it'll probably it will it'll it should start to dwindle I guess or you'll see less of it and more electric stuff more Chargers um it's going to take a long time I think and um I hope gasoline cars don't fully go away um right and and in terms of of internal combustion or or uh uh we're also you can bring in the argument about you know biodiesel because that was kind of a thing for a while yeah I think there's always going to be a need for us even if it's a specialty thing for an internal combustion engine somewhere um right and they're going to they're going to learn and they're going to figure out ways to make fuels uh differently and do things um the technology is going to spread I think it's not just going to be uh uh battery powered cars I don't think I think it's going to spread I think we're going to see other things um and some technologies come out of nowhere um to help facilitate refining different conditions controls that can make it work right yeah for the needs like Ryan says where it's necessary and and so I think you'll see an integration not an elimination right and and onto that that thought of integration in the short run we're seeing the migration to hybrids and plug-in hybrids for people who are a little reluctant to get into a pure electric vehicle and here at Consumer Reports we're certainly doing a big push buying a number of these plug-in models which will will be reporting on in the in the near future as well but it is it is a an interesting question there's a lot going on here whether or not that the the the market is going to decide is the government going to influence or is it you know fully the automakers are going to gamble they're going to bet they're going to say we're gonna we're all going to go this way and and maybe they're right or maybe they're not uh and and everything so so it'll be interesting to see how that how that pans out but I like your guys answers because I'm not ready to give up an internal combustion either so so you know hopefully In Our Lifetime we won't have that issue but uh we'll see what happens to our children's future but that being said let's move on to our next question which is Alan from Chapel Hill North Carolina we have a Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive which we love but one issue I've noticed is that the tires seem to wear out about twice as fast as you would expect to see given the rated wear life we are not aggressive drivers and are about to get our third set of tires on the car despite having driven at less than 60 000 miles does Consumer Reports have any special tests for Ev tires given the range and rolling resistance consideration well Alan your lucky day because it's just a wicked coincidence can you imagine right beslinkowski is here our resident hire expert one of our resident Tire experts and to talk about um what um EV drivers should consider going forward sure um to answer his question right off the bat um we don't do anything special right at the moment um I think the fact of the matter is um EVS the EV Vehicles they have four tires on them just like um internal combustion engine car the tires still have the same responsibilities they need to carry a load um they need to handle they need to grip the surface um it's all the same stuff EVS are heavier in some cases 10 20 30 percent heavier than what would be maybe their equivalent counterpart or competitor right um as an internal combustion car and um they're heavier they have more torque that wears tires out unfortunately um that's out of your hands I mean you can drive a little bit more carefully to not wear these tires out faster but they're going to wear out faster no matter what you're not going to get around it um at the way these cars are today they're heavy the batteries are heavy um and then all the safety stuff that's in them and the size of these vehicles they just wear they wear out tires um this is a real thing we were watching it um lots of complaints and concerns coming through and um it's you know that's it's just part of the the this new world of EVS so um going forward we will be testing um replacement car replacement EV tires um there's not a ton of them out there um yet but we will we will be venturing down that road and um rolling resistance we do currently do um on all tires and simply just measuring the the force required for the tire to roll down around the road so a tire with low rolling resistance is more fuel efficient or energy efficient um so we do that as we do that now we will do that certainly do that with the EV tires that's going to be a a big thing because that pretty much tells you right there you know how much the range you might lose or gain on your UV so um it is coming and it's um it's just it's lagging a little behind with the replacement Market because that's always a bit behind the oil say OE tires that come on your EV from the factory um so OE meaning original equation yes and you you go to Tire symposiums and conferences you have your finger on the pulse of the tire industry I'm assuming that the tire industry is working on this planning on this coming up with a whole line of specific tires now do you think that these tires are going to be more expensive on average to replace on an EV compared to you know a mainstream model yeah as of right now they are certainly um and a lot of that's a lot of that's due to the size um because I mean if you look in the parking lot we have quite a few EVS they all have these big 20 inch wheels um low you know low profile sidewalls and they don't make a ton of these tires so the demands uh you know supply and demand they're just expensive um the technology is going to make them more expensive as well um if they're putting you know they're trying to make them low rolling resistance but they need to make them wear and they have to still grip snow uh there's you know there's a tire is a compromise so you have to you're pulling from all these different areas trying to make the tire do everything perfectly and it just can't so um the more technology you put in it the more expensive it gets it's going to be a trade-off of range versus this wear and performance thing because like right says even you take a more mainstreamable or ionic five or something they got a ton of torque yeah right if you didn't have all of that grip you'd be spinning tires all day long as you take off all that instant power so it's gonna be a balance for sure and it's going to take some time for the models to come in and again it's something that EV owners need to be aware of um I think Jeff Bartlett one of our editors said he had a friend with a model three he was on set three with like forty two thousand yeah so he was right where Allen is yeah what Alan's saying is is um just strikingly similar to everything I've heard uh in the past now um and the replacement tires depending on how you go if you don't go with a very dedicated Eevee what will that do to your range I do think we would look at that we are we are going to yeah a little a little background Jen stockberg came to Consumer Reports after working at Pirelli Tire um so that definitely is well versed still well versed in tires um and and one more follow-up question to you Ryan when you when you mentioned that most of our EVS here at the track have like these 20-inch tires now do you think is that more because of of styling or or function um so a lot of it's functioning you have to carry the load so it's these vehicles are heavy and you really you want to narrow a taller and narrow not something much taller but a narrower tire but you need you still need the volume of air to hold the vehicle up off the ground um so they're making these wider squattier tires and they also need to grip the ropes they're heavier right so there's this trade-off this awkward trade-off of like ideally a a good long low rolling resistance tire is a lightweight um a thin carcass tire that has nothing I mean think of it think of a road bike tire okay road bike tire high pressure very very narrow yeah right um but you're only hauling yourself down the road so um it's a different application so um that's kind of why we're I think we're why we're seeing that um all these you know and tires like that tend to wear out faster as well anyway because they have a performance for Edge too exactly for sure exactly well we can go round and round on tires but we have to move on to the next question here it's not alone for sure okay next up is Steve who writes over the years I've thought about how simple it would be for manufacturers to add a simple safety feature a light out indicator for the driver to know if a tail light running light or headlight is not working from my experience most cars do not show that a bulb or LED needs replacing what have you all heard in the industry about this given that more expensive blind spot warning Lane keep assist and other more advanced safety features do have these alerts so um this was a great question Steve and we all spent some time uh digging into it but I'm going to start with Jen and what do you have for Steve so Steve you are preaching to my personal choir um really I have a bit of a soapbox here at consumer reports about other things along this line in that we spend a lot of time on new technologies but we haven't quite gotten a handle on the basics and you know one of those I talk about all the time is we're talking about automated driving or partially automated driving and we don't all put our seat belts on yet you know in terms of safety Etc so we spend a lot of work we're there we're getting there now with rear belt minders and things that are Incorporated in our rear seat safety but this is one of them you know we obviously do a lot of work rating headlights looking at get different headlight Technologies to his point we have a warning that says hey your automatic emergency braking camera or radar is obscured don't expect that to work right now but nothing tells us when we're a padiddle do you remember that padiddle was a game you played on the highway where you yelled padiddle when there was a car with one headlight out and you got points for that it was like punch bug which was the Volkswagen you had a padiddle Volkswagen yes that was extra that was like bonus but anyway there is nothing very rare that Steve says you got a headlight or a tail laid out I will counter that now with the fact that you don't see a lot of politicals anymore right that new headlight Technologies particularly HIDs which we kind of jumped over high intensity discharge or now LEDs light emitting diode headlights they don't have a physical wire filament that breaks that breaks with vibration that breaks with a pothole that just degrades over time life of the newer headlight Technologies is way longer so your chances of losing a headlight and most tail lights are now LEDs as well is rare unless you've been in a fender bender or something like that I do say get to know your car you know there's some great checks if you're ever curious pull up to a garage or a wall make sure you got both of them protect you particularly if you're perceiving that they're dimmer back up to a wall you can test your blinkers you don't necessarily need to make it a two-person job but it's also good to do that you know I think I told you my husband's spending a ton of time in Vermont now they have a state inspection you don't want to go a year knowing that you don't have that light before the cop pulls you over yeah for it but it's always the case always the case that the cop pulls over and says hey you gotta you know you got a headlight or a tail light out but yeah pay attention if someone flashes you sometimes that's a good indication that something's off right um the other one too same thing people will go around with their daytime running lights on they don't know that their headlights aren't fully on right and they think they've got headlights and they don't so Steve I don't know what else to say other than I completely agree grab the basics of making sure we have some lighting before we're relying on cameras though the cameras are helpful and and what I I had fun looking into this question also because Steve was kind of ahead of the game because back in um the early days of the C3 Corvette and C3 means that the third generation Corvette say around 1968 1969 these cars had these analog tail light out indicators on the center console there's also a warning light to let you know that your license plate plate light was out as well so so it's it's interesting that that he was kind of yes Steve is definitely on The Cutting Edge on this one and talking to Master Tech uh Mike crosson who used to work at Mercedes dealers around the 2000 model year Mercedes had warnings in the instrument panel to tell the driver when a front or rear light is out and it even told you which side so some manufacturers are dealing with this but to your point Jen it's getting rarer and rarer as as time goes on it makes me wonder how many of the C3 tail lights failed and well why they felt the need to put that correct it's still an error though after that like why wouldn't why weren't they doing it that's just I think relatively Simple Technology right from Purdue um well yeah yeah right um but to your point yeah the bulbs are better now they're not in the same issues I do Ford F-150 um does have a tail light on your trailer or trailer light um thing that tells you if you have a signal out on the trailer which I think is genius yes that's a really good thing so and yeah and certainly any any headlight question is is great we have what a great a bright idea that we have a gen gear because she is one of our uh our headlight experts okay moving on we're going to hear from Joanna from Maryland who says what do you think about advocating for the return of head restraints which move forward in a rear end crash to provide better neck protection since covid it's all too common to see drivers tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic in fact my spouse and I were recently rear-ended by an SUV going a hundred miles an hour we did not suffer any neck injuries and I think it might be because our car was equipped with these types of head restraints so Jen I'm also going to ask you to weigh in on this and and talk about restraints yeah first of all Johanna that's a serious rear impact like I'm so glad you did not suffer any injury holy cow um but I was curious about uh johanna's use of the word return earn because there are many vehicles that have active head restraints and these are mechanical for anybody who doesn't know mechanical response so as you're hit from the back now so your body moves towards the crash when your torso goes into the seat back it drives the head restraint forward and what that's doing is reducing the amount of what they call back set which is the the gap between your head and the head restraint because in whiplash injury it's the the back and then the corresponding forward motion that injures your your neck and your vertebrae so years ago um good well there was an update to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standard called 202a which said they have to be taller and they have to be closer to the point where some of our drivers here particularly shorter drivers found they were pushing their heads forward too much because they were kind of tucked under them they were probably great for you great for me great for you but that has reduced the back set and the Assurance Institute for Highway Safety also rates them four backsend um in the front seat so a good head restraint Joanna doesn't need to be active if that back set and height are adequate you know again I'll go back to what Emily's doing on rear seat safety there are still rear seat positions that don't have any right head restraint at all because it's not required because it's not required particularly in the center you know truthfully front head restraints are really good and probably don't need to be active though many are out there um but we do need to do some work for the rear seat because there's a lot of people riding you think of again we say Ubers and lifts and all that we're in the rear seats much more often than we were and adults are there too as families you know bring a grandmother or you know I get used to get put in the back a lot with my kids so anyway um good question um rear impacts not the most common but are one of the most injury causing not fatality but the most common injury causing type of Crash because of whiplash so great question so the next question we're going to go International this is Kevin from Nice France and it must be nice to be in France how do you say hello what is that goodbye Kevin Kevin asks his question he says I sent a question to talking cars about five years ago when I needed some guidance buying a new car and with your help purchased a 2015 Audi A3 convertible which I still enjoy every day but with driver assistance Tech progressing I'd like to upgrade to a newer car I was thinking about a new A4 or a Mercedes but both will not be available with airmatic suspension anymore people tell me that an air suspension makes a big difference especially on longer trips is no air suspension a deal breaker What would be a smart choice for a four-seater convertible BMW is not an option too much testosterone oh boy well that's maybe the first time I've read a talking cars question that brought up testosterone but anyway um uh so so really the part of this this answer is do you have to have an air suspension to get a good ride and certainly in consumer reports experience of testing hundreds and thousands of cars the answer is absolutely not you do not have to have an air suspension there are a lot of great setups with with normal uh suspension components that provide an excellent ride and I would also caution about the air suspension systems needing replacement can be very very expensive um so I would say try a bunch of cars Kevin try them on bumpy roads even without the air suspension you will likely find that um I guess more modern cars I mean you're starting from a 2015 model so now we're jumping forward to 2023 a lot of cars provide excellent rides and um and with that in mind though this is kind of one of my favorite parts of our podcast is we're all going to give you a suggestion we're going to take a pic for a four-seat convertible and Ryan I'm going to start with you what do you think Kevin should buy um so I I know you know he struck down BMW which hurts your heart but still it's okay um I forgive him um I so if I mean he had he had the the A3 Audi A3 I'm assuming he liked um he still yeah says he still enjoyed it um uh I I if I was him I would go with an A4 um or an A even an A5 if he doesn't mind the the back seat and that's still Fair uh my parents actually had one and um they loved it um I think it rides pretty well um I will say the A3 is a smaller car yeah that class of cars and very nice car but the cars are a little firmer riding if you jump up inside as you jump up in size you generally get a little bit better riding off the bat right off the bat so longer wheelbase yeah absolutely longer wheelbase helps um I I will say that Mercedes probably owns ride um Quality on this level but um sorry jumping ahead but um I would argue A3 or A4 would be more fun to drive and he has a pretty fun car to drive already the A3 so um that's kind of where I would go and Jen when we were talking about this question you mentioned you know a four passenger convertible is just inherently compromising can you can you expand on that yeah so so this is the Assumption I made Kevin and I hope it's a good one one that when you asked for a four-seater convertible that you actually wanted to use that rear seat and that's one of the compromises there are very few four-seater convertibles where that rear seat is actually functional right functional which is why my pick I even went I said okay ride and a functional rear seat I went with a Mercedes-Benz E-class Cabriolet and I wrote in my notes nobody has mastered ride like Mercedes to get to his aromatic question like I think you'll be super happy with how an E-class rides I think you'll get a rear seat that's functional and big enough for someone to actually be good in even an adult you may not get to Ryan's point the sporty driving that you've certainly enjoyed in this A3 now I will say in our ratings of day three very high for road test we love how it drives very high for owner satisfaction reliability is not its strong point it might not be quite as reliable as the Audi so worth a drive for sure okay just to touch on his um air um air ride comment um people you know had told him that it's um it can be you know air ride better um I think the perception of that is sometimes some very high-end vehicles um large Mercedes uh s-classes uh Range Rovers The a lot of them are equipped with these air ride suspensions and yes they ride very nicely but they're also totally different animals um in the the class of convertibles that you're talking about so um you know I I'm not even sure um you know some of those cars aren't even available with an air ride some of these you know convertibles and stuff so um I think to your point like you mentioned getting some of these cars and drive them right and take them down some rough roads and um you might be pleasantly surprised and I think the only difference you know it may not be that you're going to have an easy time finding an E-class convertible either right no so you may need to drive the E-class yeah I think the only thing to be aware of is probably noise but that's a nice power I was watching some videos that's it uh convertible but it is out it's a beautiful car yeah so I I'm gonna hop on the the Ryan bandwagon and go with the fun to drive answer and um I I did sort of neglect to bring up in my thought process a really nice ride because I'm going with a Mini Cooper S convertible yeah all right I'm going fun to drive I'm going manual transmission because I'm a psychopath but um and and I know they're going away in fact Mini Cooper just announced that this will be the last model year that they will be offering manual transmissions so that's that's too bad uh but with a few options I priced out a Mini Cooper S about 40 Grand yes the back seat is absolutely tiny um there's definitely compromises here if if you if you don't mind sort of the the tighter confines of an A3 I figure you may give the Mini Cooper a try and I've enjoyed driving just about every single Mini Cooper that we've ever touched I mean it's probably the most the most fun to drive right so so so Kevin uh I'm glad you're a regular uh listener and and Watcher of the podcast and we'd love for you to follow up and let us know what you what you finally chose and hopefully we gave you something to work with uh so next up and our final question we'll continue the baseball theme you know you know batting cleanup is uh Francesco or Francesco I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly after watching your recent episode on the different Powertrain trains for the Toyota Grand Highlander I got curious about the way Toyota rates the power of their vehicles from what I can tell the max powertrains have a hybrid battery of 1.44 kilowatt hour which is not really that big this battery and electric motor combo makes an additional 97 horsepower and 90 pound-feet of torque compared to the 4T engine imagining a scenario where a vehicle is loaded with people and bags going over prolonged Hill at high speed what happens when the battery is depleted I haven't seen any auto journalist addressing this boost rating on the max powertrains yet so um interesting question and and again furthering this theme of of this podcast about new automotive technology uh Jen what what kind of answer did you find in your research so um certainly that that scenario that Francesco talks about the fully laden vehicle high-speed long grade is kind of a perfect storm for a battery and probably very unlikely is what we heard and Toyota is super cautious in terms of iterating and expecting what could go wrong which is why their reliability is so good I can't imagine that they didn't test really high battery load scenarios to counter this exact problem we had similar questions I don't know if you remember about the all-wheel drives that were driven only by the electric mode right what happens when my electric motors dip my battery's depleted so I only have a two-wheel drive vehicle I don't think we've realized even those scenarios so the answer Francesco was I wouldn't worry about it but I even with even say that happens if you look at those numbers the max Engine with its 362 horsepower even if its battery is depleted it becomes the regular engine that we bought the 265 horsepower 2.4 liter 4 Turbo that we have in the test vehicle right it's probably still a great powertrain right even without the Boost of that match the internal combustion engine is still more powerful than than the electric right that's plenty adequate to get you up that hill even without the Boost in that situation yes right uh so so we'll we'll kind of keep that answer short and sweet because we got to wrap up this awesome podcast with your questions uh really fabulous as always check the show notes for more information on the vehicles and topics that we discussed and reminder keep your questions coming talking cars at icloud.com and this episode was produced by of course super producer days Dave Abrams and edited by Andrew I still play hockey Belize and Anatoly the great shumsky thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you next weekforeign owski and I'm Jennifer stockberger so on today's episode of talking cars it's a very special episode in that we get to answer your questions for the entire time we love getting your questions text 30 second videos send them all to talkingcars icloud.com that's talking cars at icloud.com and we're going to get right into it starting with yes leading off is Connor who writes I said yes that's a baseball thing um Conor writes I just started listening to your podcast and really enjoying it I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what it'll be like to own a gas powered vehicle once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion engine ownership will there be range anxiety due to disappearing gas stations will filling up with gas be extremely affordable so this almost to me sounds like a seek equal to Mad Max which is maybe a little bit extremist but but you know so that's Water World yeah I mean yeah I'm mixing up my crazy movies yeah um so uh yes the the the the the the podcast is called talking movies um so so let me throw this out to you guys do you see a scenario in the near or even distant future where we are out of petroleum well I first of all I think it'll be a while so where till we see that like decades before we are even close to that and this question made me think of other things that were the norm that now are the exception and and it's little things it could be you know I think we said VHS tapes turntables uh landlines I thought of charcoal grills right and I thought you know new technology be it gas grills or cell phones or whatever surpassed what was at one time the norm the answer is as long as enough people still have them we will accommodate them in our infrastructure I think of the station you'll pull into it may be a bunch of EV Chargers in a row but over here somewhere will be a a gas pump and maybe even a diesel pump and diesel pumps are another you go to a gas station they'll have 20 gas pumps but they'll have one diesel right mainly for pickup trucks we don't have a lot of diesel cars in the US but it's there and I think when he says will gasp be extremely affordable I actually think the opposite will be true it'll now be the exception gas will be more expensive right not only because it will be the exception but they'll want to continue if indeed EVS proved to be the benefit of the environment they'll want to push the ice internal combustion cars further and further out and they will become the classics and I think of the way we sometimes return to the classics charcoal now is way better than a gas-fired Staker so all those things I have a turntable you have a turntable you have vinyl with a turntable I I I used to but but in terms of of like a landline some some of the work I do here at Consumer Reports is is Media work and I'm doing I'm doing uh radio interviews right and a landline has better Clarity than a wireless phone right and and so it is this situation where what's old is New Again that old expression that your parents might have said to you is certainly from the case but one of the things Ryan and I'm interested your thoughts about this is is Conor's question says once EV ownership surpasses internal combustion so that's a ship yeah that's where I have a hard time with I guess um and I think to Jen's point it's gonna be a long time decades um I don't think the Battery Technology is where it needs to be for people to be comfortable to um completely shift over to that to and um you know away from internal combustion engine um so I I like to think I won't see this in my lifetime but um I'm a Gearhead so I like I still like my internal combustions every now and again um yeah I do think it'll probably it will it'll it should start to dwindle I guess or you'll see less of it and more electric stuff more Chargers um it's going to take a long time I think and um I hope gasoline cars don't fully go away um right and and in terms of of internal combustion or or uh uh we're also you can bring in the argument about you know biodiesel because that was kind of a thing for a while yeah I think there's always going to be a need for us even if it's a specialty thing for an internal combustion engine somewhere um right and they're going to they're going to learn and they're going to figure out ways to make fuels uh differently and do things um the technology is going to spread I think it's not just going to be uh uh battery powered cars I don't think I think it's going to spread I think we're going to see other things um and some technologies come out of nowhere um to help facilitate refining different conditions controls that can make it work right yeah for the needs like Ryan says where it's necessary and and so I think you'll see an integration not an elimination right and and onto that that thought of integration in the short run we're seeing the migration to hybrids and plug-in hybrids for people who are a little reluctant to get into a pure electric vehicle and here at Consumer Reports we're certainly doing a big push buying a number of these plug-in models which will will be reporting on in the in the near future as well but it is it is a an interesting question there's a lot going on here whether or not that the the the market is going to decide is the government going to influence or is it you know fully the automakers are going to gamble they're going to bet they're going to say we're gonna we're all going to go this way and and maybe they're right or maybe they're not uh and and everything so so it'll be interesting to see how that how that pans out but I like your guys answers because I'm not ready to give up an internal combustion either so so you know hopefully In Our Lifetime we won't have that issue but uh we'll see what happens to our children's future but that being said let's move on to our next question which is Alan from Chapel Hill North Carolina we have a Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive which we love but one issue I've noticed is that the tires seem to wear out about twice as fast as you would expect to see given the rated wear life we are not aggressive drivers and are about to get our third set of tires on the car despite having driven at less than 60 000 miles does Consumer Reports have any special tests for Ev tires given the range and rolling resistance consideration well Alan your lucky day because it's just a wicked coincidence can you imagine right beslinkowski is here our resident hire expert one of our resident Tire experts and to talk about um what um EV drivers should consider going forward sure um to answer his question right off the bat um we don't do anything special right at the moment um I think the fact of the matter is um EVS the EV Vehicles they have four tires on them just like um internal combustion engine car the tires still have the same responsibilities they need to carry a load um they need to handle they need to grip the surface um it's all the same stuff EVS are heavier in some cases 10 20 30 percent heavier than what would be maybe their equivalent counterpart or competitor right um as an internal combustion car and um they're heavier they have more torque that wears tires out unfortunately um that's out of your hands I mean you can drive a little bit more carefully to not wear these tires out faster but they're going to wear out faster no matter what you're not going to get around it um at the way these cars are today they're heavy the batteries are heavy um and then all the safety stuff that's in them and the size of these vehicles they just wear they wear out tires um this is a real thing we were watching it um lots of complaints and concerns coming through and um it's you know that's it's just part of the the this new world of EVS so um going forward we will be testing um replacement car replacement EV tires um there's not a ton of them out there um yet but we will we will be venturing down that road and um rolling resistance we do currently do um on all tires and simply just measuring the the force required for the tire to roll down around the road so a tire with low rolling resistance is more fuel efficient or energy efficient um so we do that as we do that now we will do that certainly do that with the EV tires that's going to be a a big thing because that pretty much tells you right there you know how much the range you might lose or gain on your UV so um it is coming and it's um it's just it's lagging a little behind with the replacement Market because that's always a bit behind the oil say OE tires that come on your EV from the factory um so OE meaning original equation yes and you you go to Tire symposiums and conferences you have your finger on the pulse of the tire industry I'm assuming that the tire industry is working on this planning on this coming up with a whole line of specific tires now do you think that these tires are going to be more expensive on average to replace on an EV compared to you know a mainstream model yeah as of right now they are certainly um and a lot of that's a lot of that's due to the size um because I mean if you look in the parking lot we have quite a few EVS they all have these big 20 inch wheels um low you know low profile sidewalls and they don't make a ton of these tires so the demands uh you know supply and demand they're just expensive um the technology is going to make them more expensive as well um if they're putting you know they're trying to make them low rolling resistance but they need to make them wear and they have to still grip snow uh there's you know there's a tire is a compromise so you have to you're pulling from all these different areas trying to make the tire do everything perfectly and it just can't so um the more technology you put in it the more expensive it gets it's going to be a trade-off of range versus this wear and performance thing because like right says even you take a more mainstreamable or ionic five or something they got a ton of torque yeah right if you didn't have all of that grip you'd be spinning tires all day long as you take off all that instant power so it's gonna be a balance for sure and it's going to take some time for the models to come in and again it's something that EV owners need to be aware of um I think Jeff Bartlett one of our editors said he had a friend with a model three he was on set three with like forty two thousand yeah so he was right where Allen is yeah what Alan's saying is is um just strikingly similar to everything I've heard uh in the past now um and the replacement tires depending on how you go if you don't go with a very dedicated Eevee what will that do to your range I do think we would look at that we are we are going to yeah a little a little background Jen stockberg came to Consumer Reports after working at Pirelli Tire um so that definitely is well versed still well versed in tires um and and one more follow-up question to you Ryan when you when you mentioned that most of our EVS here at the track have like these 20-inch tires now do you think is that more because of of styling or or function um so a lot of it's functioning you have to carry the load so it's these vehicles are heavy and you really you want to narrow a taller and narrow not something much taller but a narrower tire but you need you still need the volume of air to hold the vehicle up off the ground um so they're making these wider squattier tires and they also need to grip the ropes they're heavier right so there's this trade-off this awkward trade-off of like ideally a a good long low rolling resistance tire is a lightweight um a thin carcass tire that has nothing I mean think of it think of a road bike tire okay road bike tire high pressure very very narrow yeah right um but you're only hauling yourself down the road so um it's a different application so um that's kind of why we're I think we're why we're seeing that um all these you know and tires like that tend to wear out faster as well anyway because they have a performance for Edge too exactly for sure exactly well we can go round and round on tires but we have to move on to the next question here it's not alone for sure okay next up is Steve who writes over the years I've thought about how simple it would be for manufacturers to add a simple safety feature a light out indicator for the driver to know if a tail light running light or headlight is not working from my experience most cars do not show that a bulb or LED needs replacing what have you all heard in the industry about this given that more expensive blind spot warning Lane keep assist and other more advanced safety features do have these alerts so um this was a great question Steve and we all spent some time uh digging into it but I'm going to start with Jen and what do you have for Steve so Steve you are preaching to my personal choir um really I have a bit of a soapbox here at consumer reports about other things along this line in that we spend a lot of time on new technologies but we haven't quite gotten a handle on the basics and you know one of those I talk about all the time is we're talking about automated driving or partially automated driving and we don't all put our seat belts on yet you know in terms of safety Etc so we spend a lot of work we're there we're getting there now with rear belt minders and things that are Incorporated in our rear seat safety but this is one of them you know we obviously do a lot of work rating headlights looking at get different headlight Technologies to his point we have a warning that says hey your automatic emergency braking camera or radar is obscured don't expect that to work right now but nothing tells us when we're a padiddle do you remember that padiddle was a game you played on the highway where you yelled padiddle when there was a car with one headlight out and you got points for that it was like punch bug which was the Volkswagen you had a padiddle Volkswagen yes that was extra that was like bonus but anyway there is nothing very rare that Steve says you got a headlight or a tail laid out I will counter that now with the fact that you don't see a lot of politicals anymore right that new headlight Technologies particularly HIDs which we kind of jumped over high intensity discharge or now LEDs light emitting diode headlights they don't have a physical wire filament that breaks that breaks with vibration that breaks with a pothole that just degrades over time life of the newer headlight Technologies is way longer so your chances of losing a headlight and most tail lights are now LEDs as well is rare unless you've been in a fender bender or something like that I do say get to know your car you know there's some great checks if you're ever curious pull up to a garage or a wall make sure you got both of them protect you particularly if you're perceiving that they're dimmer back up to a wall you can test your blinkers you don't necessarily need to make it a two-person job but it's also good to do that you know I think I told you my husband's spending a ton of time in Vermont now they have a state inspection you don't want to go a year knowing that you don't have that light before the cop pulls you over yeah for it but it's always the case always the case that the cop pulls over and says hey you gotta you know you got a headlight or a tail light out but yeah pay attention if someone flashes you sometimes that's a good indication that something's off right um the other one too same thing people will go around with their daytime running lights on they don't know that their headlights aren't fully on right and they think they've got headlights and they don't so Steve I don't know what else to say other than I completely agree grab the basics of making sure we have some lighting before we're relying on cameras though the cameras are helpful and and what I I had fun looking into this question also because Steve was kind of ahead of the game because back in um the early days of the C3 Corvette and C3 means that the third generation Corvette say around 1968 1969 these cars had these analog tail light out indicators on the center console there's also a warning light to let you know that your license plate plate light was out as well so so it's it's interesting that that he was kind of yes Steve is definitely on The Cutting Edge on this one and talking to Master Tech uh Mike crosson who used to work at Mercedes dealers around the 2000 model year Mercedes had warnings in the instrument panel to tell the driver when a front or rear light is out and it even told you which side so some manufacturers are dealing with this but to your point Jen it's getting rarer and rarer as as time goes on it makes me wonder how many of the C3 tail lights failed and well why they felt the need to put that correct it's still an error though after that like why wouldn't why weren't they doing it that's just I think relatively Simple Technology right from Purdue um well yeah yeah right um but to your point yeah the bulbs are better now they're not in the same issues I do Ford F-150 um does have a tail light on your trailer or trailer light um thing that tells you if you have a signal out on the trailer which I think is genius yes that's a really good thing so and yeah and certainly any any headlight question is is great we have what a great a bright idea that we have a gen gear because she is one of our uh our headlight experts okay moving on we're going to hear from Joanna from Maryland who says what do you think about advocating for the return of head restraints which move forward in a rear end crash to provide better neck protection since covid it's all too common to see drivers tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic in fact my spouse and I were recently rear-ended by an SUV going a hundred miles an hour we did not suffer any neck injuries and I think it might be because our car was equipped with these types of head restraints so Jen I'm also going to ask you to weigh in on this and and talk about restraints yeah first of all Johanna that's a serious rear impact like I'm so glad you did not suffer any injury holy cow um but I was curious about uh johanna's use of the word return earn because there are many vehicles that have active head restraints and these are mechanical for anybody who doesn't know mechanical response so as you're hit from the back now so your body moves towards the crash when your torso goes into the seat back it drives the head restraint forward and what that's doing is reducing the amount of what they call back set which is the the gap between your head and the head restraint because in whiplash injury it's the the back and then the corresponding forward motion that injures your your neck and your vertebrae so years ago um good well there was an update to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standard called 202a which said they have to be taller and they have to be closer to the point where some of our drivers here particularly shorter drivers found they were pushing their heads forward too much because they were kind of tucked under them they were probably great for you great for me great for you but that has reduced the back set and the Assurance Institute for Highway Safety also rates them four backsend um in the front seat so a good head restraint Joanna doesn't need to be active if that back set and height are adequate you know again I'll go back to what Emily's doing on rear seat safety there are still rear seat positions that don't have any right head restraint at all because it's not required because it's not required particularly in the center you know truthfully front head restraints are really good and probably don't need to be active though many are out there um but we do need to do some work for the rear seat because there's a lot of people riding you think of again we say Ubers and lifts and all that we're in the rear seats much more often than we were and adults are there too as families you know bring a grandmother or you know I get used to get put in the back a lot with my kids so anyway um good question um rear impacts not the most common but are one of the most injury causing not fatality but the most common injury causing type of Crash because of whiplash so great question so the next question we're going to go International this is Kevin from Nice France and it must be nice to be in France how do you say hello what is that goodbye Kevin Kevin asks his question he says I sent a question to talking cars about five years ago when I needed some guidance buying a new car and with your help purchased a 2015 Audi A3 convertible which I still enjoy every day but with driver assistance Tech progressing I'd like to upgrade to a newer car I was thinking about a new A4 or a Mercedes but both will not be available with airmatic suspension anymore people tell me that an air suspension makes a big difference especially on longer trips is no air suspension a deal breaker What would be a smart choice for a four-seater convertible BMW is not an option too much testosterone oh boy well that's maybe the first time I've read a talking cars question that brought up testosterone but anyway um uh so so really the part of this this answer is do you have to have an air suspension to get a good ride and certainly in consumer reports experience of testing hundreds and thousands of cars the answer is absolutely not you do not have to have an air suspension there are a lot of great setups with with normal uh suspension components that provide an excellent ride and I would also caution about the air suspension systems needing replacement can be very very expensive um so I would say try a bunch of cars Kevin try them on bumpy roads even without the air suspension you will likely find that um I guess more modern cars I mean you're starting from a 2015 model so now we're jumping forward to 2023 a lot of cars provide excellent rides and um and with that in mind though this is kind of one of my favorite parts of our podcast is we're all going to give you a suggestion we're going to take a pic for a four-seat convertible and Ryan I'm going to start with you what do you think Kevin should buy um so I I know you know he struck down BMW which hurts your heart but still it's okay um I forgive him um I so if I mean he had he had the the A3 Audi A3 I'm assuming he liked um he still yeah says he still enjoyed it um uh I I if I was him I would go with an A4 um or an A even an A5 if he doesn't mind the the back seat and that's still Fair uh my parents actually had one and um they loved it um I think it rides pretty well um I will say the A3 is a smaller car yeah that class of cars and very nice car but the cars are a little firmer riding if you jump up inside as you jump up in size you generally get a little bit better riding off the bat right off the bat so longer wheelbase yeah absolutely longer wheelbase helps um I I will say that Mercedes probably owns ride um Quality on this level but um sorry jumping ahead but um I would argue A3 or A4 would be more fun to drive and he has a pretty fun car to drive already the A3 so um that's kind of where I would go and Jen when we were talking about this question you mentioned you know a four passenger convertible is just inherently compromising can you can you expand on that yeah so so this is the Assumption I made Kevin and I hope it's a good one one that when you asked for a four-seater convertible that you actually wanted to use that rear seat and that's one of the compromises there are very few four-seater convertibles where that rear seat is actually functional right functional which is why my pick I even went I said okay ride and a functional rear seat I went with a Mercedes-Benz E-class Cabriolet and I wrote in my notes nobody has mastered ride like Mercedes to get to his aromatic question like I think you'll be super happy with how an E-class rides I think you'll get a rear seat that's functional and big enough for someone to actually be good in even an adult you may not get to Ryan's point the sporty driving that you've certainly enjoyed in this A3 now I will say in our ratings of day three very high for road test we love how it drives very high for owner satisfaction reliability is not its strong point it might not be quite as reliable as the Audi so worth a drive for sure okay just to touch on his um air um air ride comment um people you know had told him that it's um it can be you know air ride better um I think the perception of that is sometimes some very high-end vehicles um large Mercedes uh s-classes uh Range Rovers The a lot of them are equipped with these air ride suspensions and yes they ride very nicely but they're also totally different animals um in the the class of convertibles that you're talking about so um you know I I'm not even sure um you know some of those cars aren't even available with an air ride some of these you know convertibles and stuff so um I think to your point like you mentioned getting some of these cars and drive them right and take them down some rough roads and um you might be pleasantly surprised and I think the only difference you know it may not be that you're going to have an easy time finding an E-class convertible either right no so you may need to drive the E-class yeah I think the only thing to be aware of is probably noise but that's a nice power I was watching some videos that's it uh convertible but it is out it's a beautiful car yeah so I I'm gonna hop on the the Ryan bandwagon and go with the fun to drive answer and um I I did sort of neglect to bring up in my thought process a really nice ride because I'm going with a Mini Cooper S convertible yeah all right I'm going fun to drive I'm going manual transmission because I'm a psychopath but um and and I know they're going away in fact Mini Cooper just announced that this will be the last model year that they will be offering manual transmissions so that's that's too bad uh but with a few options I priced out a Mini Cooper S about 40 Grand yes the back seat is absolutely tiny um there's definitely compromises here if if you if you don't mind sort of the the tighter confines of an A3 I figure you may give the Mini Cooper a try and I've enjoyed driving just about every single Mini Cooper that we've ever touched I mean it's probably the most the most fun to drive right so so so Kevin uh I'm glad you're a regular uh listener and and Watcher of the podcast and we'd love for you to follow up and let us know what you what you finally chose and hopefully we gave you something to work with uh so next up and our final question we'll continue the baseball theme you know you know batting cleanup is uh Francesco or Francesco I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly after watching your recent episode on the different Powertrain trains for the Toyota Grand Highlander I got curious about the way Toyota rates the power of their vehicles from what I can tell the max powertrains have a hybrid battery of 1.44 kilowatt hour which is not really that big this battery and electric motor combo makes an additional 97 horsepower and 90 pound-feet of torque compared to the 4T engine imagining a scenario where a vehicle is loaded with people and bags going over prolonged Hill at high speed what happens when the battery is depleted I haven't seen any auto journalist addressing this boost rating on the max powertrains yet so um interesting question and and again furthering this theme of of this podcast about new automotive technology uh Jen what what kind of answer did you find in your research so um certainly that that scenario that Francesco talks about the fully laden vehicle high-speed long grade is kind of a perfect storm for a battery and probably very unlikely is what we heard and Toyota is super cautious in terms of iterating and expecting what could go wrong which is why their reliability is so good I can't imagine that they didn't test really high battery load scenarios to counter this exact problem we had similar questions I don't know if you remember about the all-wheel drives that were driven only by the electric mode right what happens when my electric motors dip my battery's depleted so I only have a two-wheel drive vehicle I don't think we've realized even those scenarios so the answer Francesco was I wouldn't worry about it but I even with even say that happens if you look at those numbers the max Engine with its 362 horsepower even if its battery is depleted it becomes the regular engine that we bought the 265 horsepower 2.4 liter 4 Turbo that we have in the test vehicle right it's probably still a great powertrain right even without the Boost of that match the internal combustion engine is still more powerful than than the electric right that's plenty adequate to get you up that hill even without the Boost in that situation yes right uh so so we'll we'll kind of keep that answer short and sweet because we got to wrap up this awesome podcast with your questions uh really fabulous as always check the show notes for more information on the vehicles and topics that we discussed and reminder keep your questions coming talking cars at icloud.com and this episode was produced by of course super producer days Dave Abrams and edited by Andrew I still play hockey Belize and Anatoly the great shumsky thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you next week\n"