2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, Nissan Frontier and a little Z06 preview | Autoblog Podcast #698

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. This week they talk about cars they've been driving including the 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, 2022 Nissan Frontier, 2021 Jaguar XF P300 and the 2022 Mini JCW Convertible. They also discuss the photo reveal of the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. They cap things off by helping someone spend their money on a new car.

Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com.

Video Transcript

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GREG MIGLIORE: Welcome back to the "Autoblog Podcast." I'm Greg Migliore. Joining me today on this beautiful Monday afternoon is "Road Test" editor Zac Palmer. What's going on, man?

ZAC PALMER: Oh, just the sounds of trains in the air in the distance, because I am podcasting from a new location. I actually left my Ann Arbor bureau headquarters here and gone to a different part of Michigan. So seeing a different part of the world right now. How's it going with you?

GREG MIGLIORE: It's going well. It's going well. We have lawn crews and street sweepers and dogs barking out here. A little bit north of where you are, but we'll leave our locations to be determined. They're anonymous, if you will.

ZAC PALMER: Yes.

GREG MIGLIORE: But yeah, it's a good Monday. We're recording this a little earlier in the week, because we've just actually been driving a lot of cool cars, and we ended up having a nice bit of news this morning with a picture of the new Z06. So plenty to talk about.

We'll get this out. So, hey. You know, this weekend, coming to you from the past or the future or whatever this is, your grilling, your on your patio, you're walking the dog. Maybe you're sipping a nice glass of fall beer, and you need your "Autoblog Podcast." Hey, we have it for you. Delivered a little early, with some extra vehicles. But let's jump right in.

We've got a great show for you today. I just got out of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Zac just got out of the Nissan Frontier. He fairly recently got out of the Jaguar XF, and he also has been driving the smallest car of this entire line up, the Mini Cooper John Cooper Works convertible. Lots of fun. Like I said, Z06 news this morning. We'll get into that. We've got a couple of entries on the Mailbag, and we will spend your money.

So let's kick things off with the Grand Wagoneer. Before I get into my whole weekend of this thing, I'm just curious. What are your initial impressions? Somebody was like, Grand Wagoneer is back. What did you think, Zac? Were you fired up? Were you like, this thing's an albatross? I don't even know. Social media's been all over the place. So I mean, you haven't driven it, so I'm just kind of curious to throw it to a neutral person. What do you think?

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. So when I heard the Grand Wagoneer name was coming back, I was psyched, because we see a good number of these motoring around southeast Michigan. Probably one of my favorite classic SUVs, up there with the Bronco and old Blazers. They look really, really good. I've known a couple of guys who owned some pretty nice old ones and got to poke around.

It lives up to whatever legendary Grand Wagoneer name that you might be thinking of. When I saw the new one, I thought, OK, this is interesting. It looks a little awkward in photos. It's sort of this big, ungainly, a bit boxy vehicle. Now, I haven't seen much of them up close and personal. So that's sort of what I'm curious to see what you think of the whole thing, after spending a whole week poking around and driving in it here.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Well, first of all, it is a very large SUV. This is the Grand Wagoneer. So basically what you're talking about is this is competing against the Suburban, the Escalade. It's a really large vehicle. I drove the Grand Cherokee L just a couple of weeks ago. So it was kind of interesting to digest the difference in the size and the features you can get between them. Actually, a fair amount of overlap, as you would expect. I mean, it's massive in appearance and just everything you get on it.

The level of decadence is really something. I was testing out a series three, which is among one of the highest trims you can get. It had everything. It had beautiful flat screens in the second row-- or I guess it's technically the first row, but for the second row headrests. Everything on there. I took my son for a drive Saturday, sort of in between football games. You know, just beautiful fall Saturday.

Went up there to get some Culver's chicken tenders and fries and burgers, stuff like that. I just figured, hey, it's an easy drive-thru thing. Don't even have to leave the car. And it was perfect. The drive-thru took a while, but he was sitting back there watching-- I don't know. There was something already on there. But if you want to load up your Hulu, your Fire Stick, your YouTube TV, whatever, it's got it. Crystal clear, by the way.

He was in the back doing that. I'm in the front getting a massage, which is a feature available on some of the other Jeeps as well. But I mean, it's a nice feature. Let me put it that way. And I mean, just to have these enormous, leather, just recliner of chairs that you sink into. Beautiful wood going across, bisecting the dash. Spelled out Grand Wagoneer right over the-- essentially, where the passenger would sit. So I'm taking it all of this in while I get my-- I forget which one it was, the rock climbing massage or something. It was just a very relaxing experience, about as relaxing as you could get, sitting at a crowded drive-thru.

And to me, that really underscored just the opulence of this vehicle. I kept thinking things like, this is reminds me almost of the level of to look at cruise ships from the early 20th century, to go way back, where it was like, travel in first class. And these things were just so a part of travel. And to me, they're trying to almost bring that aesthetic to vehicles, obviously. And there have been plenty of-- you know, the Escalade is really loaded down. The BMW X7. The Lincoln Navigator and Aviator. These are loaded up vehicles.

Obviously, the Germans have very loaded up SUVs as well. The GLS. But honestly, in some ways, I think because it's a Jeep, I wasn't quite ready for this level of decadence. And you might say to yourself, what were you expecting? I don't have the price in front of me, but these things are not cheap. You pay this much. Wouldn't you expect it, regardless of the branding? And you know, Wagoneer, Grand Wagoneer has often been a very upscale Jeep.

But I mean, I would say this. They really deliver on this. It's not half-hearted. It's not like, well, they tried. It's like, this is a pretty beautiful vehicle. So to me, I may even write something on this. The Grand Wagoneer, I think, really showcases how Jeep can be a luxury good. It really can. For a long time we've had Grand Cherokee summits, and unlimiteds, limiteds, all the different expensive trims. But they've basically been dressed up versions of mid-size SUVs or like really nice, capable, expensive Wranglers with some nice leather stuff on them.

This really is like, load this thing up and face it off against you tell me, German or American luxury large SUV, and this thing is there. It's ready for the fight. Obviously, I like the interior. Outside, it's a little more divisive. I think the grill actually is awesome. I really like that. It's in your face. It's brash. It's Jeep. And I think that's a good thing. You go a little farther back, and I think it's just because this is such a large Jeep, it's kind of hard to hang it all together, like stem to stern.

Frankly, it wasn't even until this morning, when I did kind of a mini little social and photo shoot at this park, and I was like, oh, that does look good. Like, the three box sort of silhouette set up-- OK, that does look good. Is it a little big? Is it a little even almost awkward? Yes. But I mean, it's a large seven, eight passenger SUV. The Tahoe isn't exactly a gazelle. Let's put it that way. So I sort of become more forgiving on some of the aesthetic, the exterior aesthetics, than I was when we first saw this, which was almost a year ago now.

I think it's brilliant to use the Wagoneer and the Grand Wagoneer name. I've yet to see someone-- to sort of hit at your point there, Zac-- especially around here. But I mean, it's really a transcendent name. A lot of my-- I'm in contact with a lot of journalists, east, west coast. They know what a Jeep Grand Wagoneer is. Everybody knows what it is. Or at least they have an idea. So it's definitely a smarter move than I think saying, hey, let's dust off the Commander name or something, which was the last large SUV from Jeep that you might recall.

And I think this will do much better. I think they're going to get a lot of the things right, like the interior that frankly, they fell short of with the Commander.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah.

GREG MIGLIORE: You know, the one thing I would say, I was getting about 12.6 miles per gallon. I have the 6.4 liter heavy V8. Yeah, not great, Bob. West Coast editor James Riswick did a piece of this, I think it was maybe a month or so ago, talking about how the GM SUVs, you could get, like, 19, 20. And if you get the diesel, I mean, you're talking mid 20s, for a very large vehicle. So I feel like there's maybe a little bit of, like, they need to work on that. I'm not saying get rid of the big Hemis, but this is pretty rough fuel economy figures, even for a vehicle this size. So that's my only real complaint, I think.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. I would have loved to see them come out right away with a 4xe variant of this vehicle, in sort of the same way I wish they would have done that with the Grand Cherokee L, just because they are really pushing that plug-in hybrid 4xe brand. But by and large, really, it sounds like it's living up to its six figure price.

The one experience that I had with the Grand Wagoneer was actually at the Chicago Auto Show, where I got to listen to the McIntosh audio system. And that is probably coming to a future review/opinion piece on Autoblog as well, in that I don't think I've listened to an audio system that is better than this, than the Macintosh system in there.

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself an audiophile to the degree that you could make such a statement, but just to an untrained ear, thing sounds really, really good. And honestly, better than most. I mean Jeep, with this vehicle and the way they've gone with the Grand Cherokee L, and even down to something like the Compass, now they're moving upscale in every single way. And honestly, it feels like they're executing when they're doing that, because Jeeps have long been known for their fairly high prices, even if you're paying a Jeep tax, so to speak. And maybe you could get a similar vehicle with similar features from another brand for a lesser price.

But at this point, like, a Grand Wagoneer $100, $110 thousand, you're sitting there, and you're not really losing much to, say, an Escalade or a Navigator in terms of the interior ambience and just the general experience of luxury. Because the way that you describe your time in it, honestly, it's like hand-in-hand with the brand new Escalade, which I think is pretty friggin awesome.

GREG MIGLIORE: I would say what's impressive about the Grand Wagoneer is the way they make you-- like inside, it feels like how you think a Wagoneer, a Grand Wagoneer would feel. It really does. I mean, frankly, some of it is just the use of wood, and that's where I think you feel more of the heritage than maybe the outside, where this, frankly, could be-- this could be a GM SUV. This could be, like, a Tahoe or something, if you didn't have the grill on it.

But they do get a lot of the little touches right, like the badges that say Grand Wagoneer. There's sort of like-- there's actually a very small American flag displayed correctly, like almost how the military does it, with the stars and then the stripes flying. The attention to detail there is really something. And I mean, there's even some-- I guess I would almost call it, like, guilt touches, like little almost like bronzed insects in the vents along some of the badges.

It feels luxurious. And as I was driving around in it, I've always noticed the Jeep tax. I mean, that's something-- we probably have-- sort of off-road enthusiasts. Then you're like, well, do I want this? Would I pay for this? You start to recalibrate your brain for the Jeep tax. Immediately, that started to go away, and I began to think of this thing as like, oh, yeah. I could 100% see people cross-shopping this with the Escalade, which until I drove it, it didn't hit me, like, oh, yeah, this is what this is. It just seemed like, wow, is Jeep really going to do this? It kind of struck me almost like when Volkswagen would rule out something like the Phaethon or just almost like an ill-conceived attempt to go up market. And I didn't think this was ill-conceived. I think it was actually a really smart play.

But it just all kind of fell together, kind of hung together, like OK, I see what they're doing here. Jeep is, frankly, a luxury brand in many senses, and this is what they're doing. And it makes perfect sense. I mean, many Jeeps I've tested lately have this-- I would say, this feel to them. Like the massages, the Fam Cam, which is also available in the Grand Cherokee L. Just literally, you could open that up, and you're like, oh, hey. There's everybody in the second row, in the third row.

And you know, again, to go back to that sense of luxury where it's like, maybe you don't see yourself driving an Escalade or a BMW X7 or a Mercedes GLS. Definite luxury like feels, but driving a Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, which frankly is actually almost like an old money kind of vibe as well. It still has, I would say, a different mental calibration, because you're still in a Jeep. And I know people have that mindset, who would say, you know, I'm not going to buy an Escalade or I'm not going to buy an X7. What I want is this Subaru or this Jeep, and that's where this vehicle starts to kind of I'd say service that crowd, if you will. So yeah.

I really think this could be a home run for them, but they do need to sort of clean up some of the things, like the fuel economy. Get the 4xe technology into it, if it can be there. I don't know, off the top of my head, if they've said anything about the EcoDiesel. That would seem like a natural fit for this. Round out the portfolio. Find a way to get a few more-- get this thing test better. I don't know. But you know, you can't be rolling around getting 13 MPG in a real-world economy to make it work.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. It's very old-world FCA, and I'll stick a V8 in everything. And it's supposed to be this new-- this is the new Jeep brand, with all of the great green 4xe things that go with it. And it's just very-- the messaging is not straight, to put it, I guess, in a different way.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. There's a part of me that thinks-- I mean, to your point, it's a little incongruent what they're trying to do with this. But I mean, we'll see. I mean, the other thing is, you have such an enormous vehicle like this. You have so much space to work with. It would seem like you could transition this to full on electric, because you have so much room to work with. In a fairly reasonable amount of time. Like, literally, with the next generation, just start building in the battery areas and away you go.

ZAC PALMER: And I would bet good money that that's coming. I can't remember if they specifically talked about it in the big Stellantis EV day, but they do have large platform BEVs coming that could absolutely fill the role of a Wagoneer, Grand Wagoneer. So it could be coming soon.

GREG MIGLIORE: Have you seen the Grand Wagoneer commercials? I watched a lot of football this week, and it seemed like they were literally beating you over the head with it. I don't know if the marketing just kicked off, but they're pretty good. They're pretty-- I mean, there's yellow labs. There's American flags. It's very Ralph Lauren-esque. But you know, they're trying to build an identity of sort of like what this car was, when you would see it on the cover of the Eddie Bauer Christmas catalog or something.

ZAC PALMER: It feels right. They should be aiming after that nostalgia angle, because that's what is really going to get that name out there, when you have so many. You have Tahoe, Expedition. So many people already know those names and go straight for them. So I love it. Sounds like a good idea.

GREG MIGLIORE: All right. You know what I think is also a good idea, is the Nissan Frontier. I drove one about a month ago. But you just got out of one. So I'm curious, what do you think? Another name that's back and revitalized? This one never went anywhere, but it did get a little dusty. So what was your take on this truck?

ZAC PALMER: Indeed. So the one that I just had in my driveway was the SV Crew Cab. And so I drove that one for the past week. But I should also point out that I was on the first drive for this truck about a month and a half or two months ago, where I got to drive a PRO-4X, which, I believe, is the same version that you actually drove. And that's the off-road trim of this, sort of equivalent to a Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road. Part of the way there, but not to a full, like, a TRD Pro or like a Colorado VR2.

But overall, I think that the Frontier is right there at the top of the pack for me as best midsize truck out there in the game. And that-- it feels a little weird to say that, just because you know, it's still rocking the same frame and everything as the old Frontier that we've had for the last 20 years. However, a lot of the improvements that Nissan made underneath have turned it into what I think is probably the best driving of all the midsize trucks.

It's super comfortable, super, super quiet, and refined inside. That was one of the biggest takeaways, was just how nice it was inside this truck versus a lot of the others. My most direct comparison was to a Toyota Tacoma that I had a few months previous to this one. But there's that.

And then one of the big differences I actually got to see versus the first drive and the truck that I just had in my driveway was I'm driving this one at sea level versus that one, I drove about 3,000 feet above sea level. And frankly, the new 3.8 liter V6, that is best in class power, didn't feel all that powerful out there when you were that high up. But back home in Michigan, this truck feels plenty quick. Gets up and goes just like any of the other mid-size trucks. None of them are particularly fast, but they're all just sort of good enough.

And this powertrain is definitely good enough. The nine speed transmission, super smooth, was fairly quick to downshift. I actually think, you know, the truck that I drove in Utah was slower on the get up from a transmission side than this one. This one was much more responsive when you wanted to pass somebody on the highway or something like that. So maybe they made some changes there between the trucks that we drove and now the production ones that are coming out, but that was really great to see.

And then really one of the biggest things that you notice with this whole midsize truck category is just the interiors are not all that special, and Nissan joined the group here in that this interior is not all that special, either. But it's good. It's just sort of good enough, has the technology in it that you need, has the infotainment system with Apple carplay, Android auto. You can get a lot of the other tech stuff optional, like a wireless phone charger. Heated steering wheel. All of that good stuff.

So they're with the times again, which is really, really great to see. And I honestly think that this Frontier is going to be great for many years to come. I don't know if you got the same impression, but I was rather impressed overall with this truck.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah, I was impressed, too. I think it's a solid entry that goes, I'd say, right into the middle, even upper, part of the segment. They just-- they didn't really do anything new here, but they really just took the formula and did it as good as they could do it. And I was impressed. I think aesthetically, it looked good. I think it looks a little bit tougher than the old truck.

In some ways, I looked at this, and my first thought was geez, this is what GMC should do for the Canyon. This is, like, how the Canyon should look. You know, the interior is nothing to write home about. Like you said, it's a little cramped. But you have a good commanding drive position, so that's nice.

It definitely has-- it's not like the Tacoma or even some-- I mean, admittedly, we did both drive pretty off road-centric trims. But it's got a little bit of that rough and tough, bouncy jouncy feel. The steering is a little bit of work, which I like on a truck like this. You know, they definitely buttoned up a lot of the things from the old truck, like a new infotainment system from the 20th century. That sort of thing.

It's tough. You mentioned it's very competitive. Where would I put this? Would I put this number one? I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't. But would I put this in that top area? Sure. I mean, what's my top one? Oh, geez. This is a fun game to play. I don't know. Overall, I almost default to the Colorado, because it's very good at every single area, except for the interior, in which, basically, outside of the Gladiator-- which is more expensive-- they're all pretty bad.

The Tacoma is so outdated that I don't really feel like I could even-- aside from, like, the emotional, oh, this is a cool truck, I don't feel like I could even say that's top four. Ranger is pretty solid. It's right in there with the Colorado. And then to me, you get this. And I almost put the Tacoma and the Gladiator, for different reasons, as their own thing, if that makes sense. The Gladiator is very good, but it's also quite expensive. And it does maintain a lot of that Jeep Wrangler, off road kind of capability and vibe. And the Tacoma obviously has some of that as well. But it's also just an older vehicle, with older power train elements. The interior is cramped and small and outdated.

I mean, I'll say this. You're not going to really go wrong with anything in this segment. I mean, if you ask me which overall is best, I would probably say the Gladiator, actually. But it is more expensive. And then you've got this sort of like upper middle class of Ranger, Colorado, and now Frontier. So where would you put this?

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. Frankly, I mean, same as you. Gladiator, right there at the top, because it's the most expensive. It's the only one with a, frankly, nice interior in there. But then after that, I think if you live somewhere with elevation, it would have to be the Ranger, because it's the only turbocharged option of the bunch that you could actually get that staying power once you do go up in the mountains.

After that, though, I'm going to take the Frontier. I like the way it looks better than both the Ranger and the Colorado, and frankly, even the Toyota, as well. And in either trim, whether you get the PRO-4X or one of the lower trims. And I just really like the way that this thing drives. I was actually talking with our news editor, Joel Stocksdale about his time in the PRO-X and he was sort of feeling the same way in that he really, really loved the way that this thing drove on the road and just what Nissan was able to do with such an old chassis.

And on top of that, this is a fairly good price. It's not as cheap as the old Frontier used to be, of course, because the old Frontier wasn't competitive at all with the current crop of mid-size pickups. But this one is a fairly decent value play versus some of the others. If you get them equally equipped, the Frontier is normally about $2,000 to $3,000-ish less than the others for very similar equipment.

And one of the last reasons why I'd really throw this Frontier up there at the top is that it's still a small-ish pickup. Of all the mid-sizes out there, it is the smallest from a footprint perspective. And that's one of the things that I really like about mid-size pickups, is just how compact they are and how great they feel to actually be agile in a city.

You know, they're narrow on an off-road trail, and that sort of thing really appeals to me, as opposed to something that is just a few inches larger, here a few inches wider there. I will take the smaller truck. Maybe it doesn't work as well to put things in the backseat, throw a baby seat back there. But no, I'm all here for Nissan continuing to try and keep the footprint to a reasonable place and really differentiate it from full size pickups out there.

GREG MIGLIORE: Gutsy call. I think when I look at the merits of the Frontier, I don't disagree with you about where you would rank it. I think maybe there's just a little distance that it's so new right now, at least this generation is new. Not quite ready to crown it or give it the second place crown.

Frankly, I think what I would need to do is drive some of the other ones. I did drive a Ranger somewhat recently, and I do still think it actually somewhat holds up. And a Colorado, you know, just to see if they're where I sort of remember them. And maybe the Frontier is starting to creep ahead of them. But yeah, I'm willing to put them in that conversation, but maybe not put them up there or ahead of the others. But I hear you.

And I think also, especially where you live-- even where I live-- having a slightly smaller truck, much easier to maneuver. You can put some of these in your garage, depending on how big the garage is. There's a lot of things about a mid-size truck that really improves your life, makes it more fun, but also it's not trying to dock like a RAM Laramie at a parking meter or something. So you know, these are all things to consider.

So let's shift gears over to the Jaguar XF. That is a venerable nameplate that's been around for a while. Did a nice road test on it. I have not driven the XF in quite some time. It's been a while, but I have good memories of that car. I actually took one to a Journey concert about 10 years ago, and it had the shift knob thing that would come up and go down while we were trying to get out of the parking lot at the venue.

So I was just like, park. Knob would sit down. Sit in traffic. OK, here we go. Car back on. Knob in drive. But it was really good. It was a really great application, because you could get the car in gear and get going. And I've always thought it's actually aesthetically a very attractive car. You know, it's a Jaguar sedan. They tend to know what they're doing there most of the time. So what did you think?

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. So mine was the updated one that didn't have that rotary knob anymore. They actually swapped to-- just this year-- sort of like a monostable type shifter, where you just sort of rock it forward and back for drive and reverse, and then there's a button for park. It's a, frankly, elegant solution. It's a nice leather and suede shifter.

But back to the car as a whole. Unfortunately, I don't share the same love for the design as you do. The one that I had was in hakuba silver, which sort of just blended into the background. They did some exterior-- I guess you could say enhancements with this refresh. But I don't think that they necessarily went far enough. And I think that a lot of the other sedans in this price range, this size range, are more attractive than the XF now, which is unfortunate. Because like you said, design is normally a big card in Jaguars hands. These days, you know, you can get something like an F-type. Even an F-PACE, I think, is really, really pretty.

But you know, I think something like a Genesis G80 out-classes it. If you're pulling up to a fancy hotel, you know, obviously, the E-class is just timeless. And you could even go into other less expensive stuff, like an Accura TLX is just about the same length as this XF. And well, I certainly prefer looking at that. But the specific XF that I tested was the P300 R dynamic, which, as I pointed out in my road test, is actually the sportiest one now because there's no supercharged option. The supercharged V6 is gone, unfortunately.

But the two liter turbocharged four cylinder in mine still made 296 horsepower. You know, it's still fairly quick. It gets to 60 in under six seconds, which is just plenty fine for the price point that you're looking at here, right around $50,000 base. However, there's just nothing truly exciting about the way this thing drives. It's not like a BMW 5 Series that even if you get something like a 530i is going to feel fairly light on its feet and agile.

This is just more of a very docile commuter car. The transmission is never really in a hurry to shift. You know, you can go ahead and throw it into manual mode and use those paddles, but there's nothing. It's not like you're snapping off gears in a dual clutch automatic or even some of BMW's eight speed torque converter transmissions. Still, not quite as quick.

On the plus side for this car, I think the interior is rather nice. It's sort of transcended to this sort of minimalist style. They have a nice, big, new touchscreen in there that is a massive improvement over Jaguar's old tech, which was, honestly, a bit of a deal breaker here for the past couple of years, when you could have something that was much, much more capable and much more competent in other brands' cars. But Jaguar's back on the right track here with this new infotainment system. Looks pretty. Super quick. I had no bugs at all with it, which is great.

And then on top of that, you just have the really, really good Jaguar styling in there. Really nice leather. Some good aluminum accents. Just overall, a nice, classy place. The big problem with the XF is just there are other things out there that are also nice inside, I would argue look better on the outside, and they also are exciting to drive. Which I think is a really important attribute when you're over here looking at a mid-size sedan, because the reason you're buying a sedan most likely in this day and age is because you care about that sort of thing. You care about having a car that's fairly fun and somewhat engaging to drive on the daily.

Otherwise, maybe you go and pick up a crossover. Maybe you find yourself in an F-PACE or one of the other European crossovers that are more utilitarian than the sedan. So it just sort of falls flat in that area, and it's not exactly cheaper than even some of those cars that are more exciting to drive. It is cheaper than an E-class or a 5 Series. But those cars offer much more in the interior niceness and the actual drive experience than Jaguar does these days, now that they're only with the fairly low powered four cylinders versus some of the other more powerful options.

So it's cool. Still here. We still have a Jaguar sedan. But it would not be my first choice, if I were to be out there recommending a mid-size sedan to somebody.

GREG MIGLIORE: I do-- so I will reiterate that I do still like the design. That being said, I would agree with you that I would not pick this among the many different options you could go with in this field. This is also-- to your point-- again, check out Zac's road test. He makes this point in the review, and I will make it for him, and he can elaborate on it. That this is kind of a tweener car in that it doesn't really serve the purpose of this particularly well, because it doesn't quite measure up, like you said, against the Germans and the E-class 5 Series. And then it's trying to compete against some of it, like the Cadillac CT5 and some of the other ones.

And it's just like, what are you doing here? I would say, honestly, the only brand that's done that-- and I'll say this-- successfully, air quotes, is Cadillac, which has sort of tried to play up and down a segment based on price, but also size of the car. You saw them do that with the CT6 a little bit. But it's tough. And generally, you see companies do that when they're sort of playing a zone defense, to use a sports analogy.

They don't have enough product to go head-to-head against everybody, so they're sort of, well, we're going to put this car right here in between these two. And this one over here, we're going to price it this way. You can get all this stuff, and it's good value, but this stuff over here. So I don't know. It can work. It works for, like, Tesla, frankly, but that's because they're Tesla, and people want their cars. Not because you're winning individual head-to-head matchups.

So I think it's also interesting-- and this is among the first times I've ever heard this, where you like the infotainment and the interior of the Jaguar, but the looks aren't where you want it to be. So that's really not exactly how Jaguars historically play out. And frankly, I think in some ways, that's almost indicative of the work they have ahead of them. They need to put a little something saucier under the hood.

It's about time for Jaguar to probably start scripting out some new design language. We don't know what's going to happen to the XJ. I mean, we know it's gone, but we don't know if they're ever going to bring it back. Is it going to be electric? What are they going to do with that? The honest answer is probably not much in the near term, because it's just a large sedan. And Jaguar-- as beautiful as the XJ was, they sort of proved that they're not going to play there. Or they couldn't really beat the Germans, and there's no sense in trying to keep doing that, unless you're going to try to be like Cadillac and get in there again, like I just said, and play at a slightly different price point. Yeah, we'll see.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. You made my point there perfectly, how it's a tweener sedan. And the point of what is this going to be, ultimately. Like, is the XF just-- one of the points I made in my story is that they sell less than 1,000 of these things a year, which is-- well, that's not good for pretty much any segment, short of a super car segment.

What could they do to breathe some more life into this thing? Well, probably make it electric. Because they're just not competing on the same level as anybody right here, and they're just not finding the buyers that they really need to. Because I mean, in a way, they've made the excess slightly less appealing than it was before by taking away that one cool supercharged V6 option, which is unfortunate. But making it electric, giving it a super awesome, futuristic design, showing us where Jaguar is going, that could breathe new life into a Jaguar sedan that I would be really, really excited to see. But we're not there yet, and I don't think we're going to be there for a little while yet.

GREG MIGLIORE: Mini Cooper-- Mini Cooper Jag Cooper Works convertible.

ZAC PALMER: Yes.

GREG MIGLIORE: Change gears. We'll stay British. That must have been a lot of fun. We can talk about its mission and what it does, all that, but this is a car that you just kind of have fun with. So what do you think of this?

ZAC PALMER: Honestly, yeah. That is the main singular point with this thing, is that it is about having fun. It's sort of hilariously expensive. Mine was $46,000 for this little thing. But that being said, I had an absolute blast driving it. The JCW John Cooper Works vehicles for Mini, every single one of them that I've driven has just been an absolute blast. It's sort of like the best of what Mini can do from a performance perspective.

So it's got the two liter turbocharged four cylinder with 228 horsepower, which might not sound like a whole lot on the surface when you have stuff like the Civic Type R that makes 306 horsepower Veloster N sitting up there at 276. But it's plenty. It's plenty to have a lot of fun with. You don't need to be going 0 to 60 in 5 seconds or under 5 seconds to be having a blast in something.

Especially because one of the things that the JCW's are known for, and what this one continued to excel in, was making a really, really great noise. The exhaust system's on pretty much every mini JCW I've driven have been just flat out fantastic. And this is the first one that I've driven that is a convertible, and frankly, it just gets even better when you drop the top. The overpasses and bridges and tunnels all get that much more fun. You can slap the paddle shifters down a few gears, flatten the throttle pedal, and yeah.

Everybody around you turns and looks. I went out for a drive with my buddy, who was also in a fairly loud car. He had a Durango SRT at the time, and said everybody was looking at the Mini as it went by, because it's just making that much noise out the back of it, which is just sort of hilarious. It's still fairly tough for me to wrap my head around that price. When you're talking $46, $47,000, that's a very, very big price for such a very small car that doesn't even compete toe-to-toe when you want to talk actual performance versus some other performance cars you could have in this general price range.

This is way, way more expensive than even like a Subaru WRX STI and considerably more expensive than the front drivers that I already mentioned, the Type R and the Veloster N. But with those cars, you can't drop the top. So that's one big advantage. If you do want a convertible performance car that has that same sort of hot hatchish driving to it, this is-- well, this is pretty much it. Because there aren't many other cars like this out there.

So yeah, mini JCW convertible. An absolute blast. It's super small. So agile. You get all the really great hotted up stuff, JCW specific suspension, big Brembo brakes up front. It looks hilarious and mean and cute, all at the same time. And it's just-- it's such a blast to drive. You just have to be a Mini fanatic to buy it, I feel, because otherwise you're paying out the years for it. And it hurts a little to say that it needs that caveat, but it definitely needs that caveat.

GREG MIGLIORE: I think it's actually kind of nice right now that there's a number of vehicles that sort of fit in this bucket, where they're expensive. They're maybe not necessarily luxury, but for somebody, this is the car. This is the car for them. If they're willing to pay for it, more power to them. And I think that's a great thing right now. I mean, we go up and down the spectrum of like, well, hey, look at how expensive this Porsche 911. You can get this, or you could get like, literally, like a McLaren.

So it becomes, like, well, do you want the mid-engine supercar, or do you want the 911 in its highest form. And go up and down the food chain. Do you want to step into an Escalade, or would you rather have a loaded up-- well, Suburban is probably a bad example. But you know, you can just figure out how you want to spend your money.

I would never tell someone if this is the car they want, not to get it. Let me put it that way. I mean, part of purchasing a car is an emotional purchase. And if you love Minis, then more power to you.

ZAC PALMER: Absolutely. You're not going to not have a good time. I'll say that. You know, you're guaranteed to be having fun in this thing. And that's sort of what's important in a performance convertible. Just like you said, more power to you.

GREG MIGLIORE: Speaking of more power, Corvette Z06. We're getting a teaser shot of it this morning. The big news here is the 5.5 liter flat plane crank V8, which yeah, I'm sure there's hybrids and electrics coming, but the Z06 is, right now, just showing off some good old v-8 power.

This is exciting. We're thinking it could red light all the way up to 9,000. Check out the story that Byron, one of our associate editors, wrote this morning. The big thing is, we do get a new picture of it, which is cool. I have been impressed with the mid-engined Corvette, so obviously, the fact that they're doing a z06 version, it's just, like, of course. Naturally.

In some ways, I think the mid-engine Z06 is almost a little more tasteful just looking at it than perhaps the front engine Z06 was. It seemed like-- you know, I spent a fair amount of time in the last gen z06, and it was just dripping in, like, fighter jet carbon fiber plastic wings. The splitter looked like something you could shave with. I mean, this, I'm sure, will have all the downforce and necessary things that you need. But just-- I mean, it's one picture. It looks a little more civilized. Although I'm sure it won't be. But I'm very excited to drive it.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. The one picture they showed here actually is-- it must be some low wing option. Because we've seen it testing with a high wing option, sort of like what you were thinking and just describing there of the previous Z06. And I bet good money that there'll be some sort of aerodynamic downforce option package that you could get here that will get you all of that stuff.

But the fact that the base Z06-- because that's probably what this. This is probably the standard least wings, least aero crazy stuff that you can get on a Z06. That will look classy enough to-- you could roll up somewhere and be like, yeah. This is the new Corvette. And I don't look like I'm trying to set the fast lap at the [INAUDIBLE] ring or VIR or wherever. It's still like a fairly subdued mid-engine supercar, because that's what this thing is definitely going to be with this engine and the amount of power that it's going to put down.

And you know, the one big sort of differentiator that I'll point out here versus the standard Stingray is that sort of side blade intake, in that they've completely redesigned the side of the car there. And I feel like that's more differentiation for this generation of Z06 than we normally get, because the entire side air intake is new, in that it sort of looks like a boomerang or like a three piece triangle that isn't connected. I don't know exactly how to describe it. But it's very different from the sort of like C-shaped side intake of the standard 'Vette.

So it should make the Z06 a lot easier to recognize. And I also point out that the actual Z06 logo is in a new place there. Instead of the front fender, they've got it there on the rear fender, by that sort of boomerang looking side intake. I'm excited. I think about a month's time is when we get to see the whole thing and get all the specs and all the details. And this has me just that much more excited about the flat plain crank Corvette.

GREG MIGLIORE: It's some nice touches that we're seeing this morning. I think that just moving the badge to the back area is kind of cool. Yeah. This is interesting. I love the wheels, too. A little more of almost an elegant vibe for the Z06. I don't know what to say. I think those wheels look really good, though.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. I'm impressed by the wheels, too. Normally I don't really like Corvette wheels. Normally, like, every Corvette wheel option to me is just kind of average to below average. But these are pretty sweet wheels.

GREG MIGLIORE: I like old-- I like old Corvette wheels.

ZAC PALMER: Yes.

GREG MIGLIORE: The newer ones, I don't know how I feel about that. But cool. So let's go to the Mailbag. We will spend some money, but first an update from Carl. He writes to us, after receiving advice in just the last podcast, episode 697, Carl had written to us that his son was-- had gotten into a school to study aviation. Had a new 60 mile commute.

His son has an 88 Subaru XT6, which is, like I said, pretty awesome last week. Was looking for something more reliable for the daily driver. And the update is he ended up going with a manual Mazda 3, 2014, 80,000 miles on it. Great condition for $12,500. So hey, congratulations, Carl. I feel like that's a pretty good move. Yeah. So that's, like I said. I mean, hey, you have a Mazda 3 in your kind of family there, Zac. Seems like a good move, right?

ZAC PALMER: Oh, absolutely. I think that's a great decision. And I'll give you a shout out. That's pretty cool, that you have an 88 Subaru XD6.

GREG MIGLIORE: Right?

ZAC PALMER: I actually had a guy, back when I was in college, who lived on my street, who street parked an old Subaru XD6. And I'd see it all the time. So it brings back memories of that. It's pretty awesome to see that you have one that's pretty nice and you're taking care of it.

GREG MIGLIORE: Yeah. Absolutely. So let's spend some actual money. This week, Dave in Chicago. Watched a lot of football this week and in the Midwest I caught that Wisconsin Notre Dame game at Soldier Field. So I wasn't there, but I spent a lot of time watching it until Notre Dame kind of tore apart Wisconsin there in the fourth quarter. But that's just my Chicago impulse there as I'm reading this.

Dave has a 2018 Golf R manual as his daily driver. Love the car, but I need to move up to something a bit bigger. Getting old, bad knees, have a dog. OK. Looking at the Mazda CX5 now that it has the turbo and the Acura RDX. Any suggestions on what else to look at? A few-- lot of different ways we could go here. But Zac, I'm going to toss it over to you.

ZAC PALMER: Yeah. So I am sad. No more Golf R. But that doesn't mean you can't have something that is still exciting. I have a couple of suggestions here, one primary and then a couple sort of secondary in case you are looking for something slightly different than my first suggestion.

But number one on the board would be the Hyundai Kona N. Brand new 2022 Kona N. It's basically Veloster N that has been transformed. They've taken all the good powertrain bits from the Veloster N and just tossed it into the Kona. That means you get pretty awesome, wicked engine, great sounds, if you're used to the good sounds that your Golf R makes. Super good handling from our first drive review has been all good impressions, pretty much.

I have not personally driven it, but I have driven the Veloster N, so I feel like I can pretty safely recommend the Kona N. And in case you were looking for something perhaps with a little more luxury, I'll also suggest-- I know you drove recently, Greg, the Mercedes AMG GLA 35. Now that is definitely going to be more expensive than Mazda CX5, Acura RDX, or even the Kona N. But seeing as how the used car market is pretty lucrative right now, maybe you can get some good money for your Golf R to put towards something like that AMG.

And if you want something even bigger than the GLA 35, there is the GLB 35 that even has an optional third row and definitely more cargo space for the dog. And all those three-- Kona N and the AMGs are easier to get in and out of than a Golf R. There's no doubt about that. They're taller off the ground, have the great crossover stuff that you're looking at with the CX5 and RDX, and they're definitely both more fun than those two that you mentioned. To you, Greg.

GREG MIGLIORE: Interesting. Yeah, and nuanced choices. So what I'm going to do-- and I hate to do this. Whenever somebody throws up certain vehicles, I tend to confirm them. CX5 with the turbo, that's a good one. It is. You're going to like the interior. You're going to like how it drives. It's a solid motor. And it's one of the better-looking crossovers of that segment. So that's good.

I would also throw sort of an odder one. That's the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. I drove that about a year ago, and I oddly liked it. It was in this like sort of R-line trim. And I generally-- that's definitely a deep cut, if you will. And I wouldn't say the Atlas is anywhere near the top of its segment. But if you have a Golf R, maybe you're kind of a Volkswagen person. You know, check it out. It's a pretty good-size SUV. It definitely is more comfortable.

If you do want to maybe still have a little bit of that sporty vibe, it's a different bit of a silhouette. It looks kind of nice. You could get some of the different trims that, again, can make it a little sportier and dressier. So yeah, that's kind of what I would say, just as different take than just the CX5. And it's somewhat of the same vibe. So that's the Cross Sport.

So those would be my two. I'll leave it there. Send us your Spend My Money. That's Podcast@AutoBlog.com. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a five star rating on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get the show. If you have a question, drop it to us also, again, at that email. We love to spend your money and answer your questions. Be safe out there. We'll see you next week.

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