America on the Road

What happens when an automaker puts a 472-horsepower twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 into a subcompact sedan? That’s what America on the Road Co-Host Chris Teague got to discover as he road-tested the 2023 Cadillac CT-4 V Blackwing this week. While the rear-drive rocket is not necessarily suited to battle the rigors of a harsh Maine winter, those are the conditions that the feisty Caddy found itself in. With magnetic ride control, competition-tuned suspension, and Brembo brakes, the CT-4 V Blackwing might seem better suited to a pristine race track than snow-covered rural lanes, but we’ll get a full report from Chris Teague.

Meanwhile, across the country in Southern California, Host Jack Nerad had the pleasant task of driving and reviewing the most recent Mazda MX-5 Miata, a Club RF with the Brembo Recaro package. The Miata is one of those cars that has taken on a life of its own. But is a two-seat sports car like the Miata still relevant in a market that is turning its head toward battery-electric drive? We’ll give your our opinions in this episode.

Our guest this week is auto expert Matt DeLorenzo, the author of the new book How To Buy an Affordable Electric Car: A Tightwad’s Guide to EV Ownership and a longtime industry observer. He and Jack Nerad will discuss the new vehicles just unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show and assess their implications for the industry going forward.

In the news, a just-released study shows that the move to vehicle electrification faces more hurdles than many imagine. We’ll have the details on what the study found coming up later in this segment. And in a related story, it appears the predicted transition to EVs now hinges on made-in-America batteries and on raw materials mined and processed in America. But there’s a big hitch in that scenario, and we’ll tell you what that is coming up.

Also in the news, Elon Musk and Tesla got good news in the resolution of one court case this week. And then he and his company got more good news from the U.S. Treasury Department. We’ll have the details for you on that and so much more in this episode of “America on the Road.”

Host Jack R. Nerad's latest book, Dance in the Dark, is a crime thriller now available in Kindle and paperback from Amazon.

The new 2023 Ram Heavy Duty Rebel brings added off-road capabilities to its brutish power and impressive payload capacity. The recently introduced Rebel version of the Ram 2500 features unique exterior features, aggressive off-road tires, an electronic rear locker and rear limited-slip differential, and standard skid plates. A 12,000-pound WARN winch is optional. So you get the idea that this is a vehicle that is all-terrain ready.

But how does a massive vehicle like this fare when confronted with the zero-degree temperatures and drifting snow of a Maine winter? That’s just what America on the Road Co-Host Chris Teague found out this week, and he’ll detail his experiences in this episode.

In our other road test, Host Jack Nerad got up close to Honda’s renewed love affair with hybrid power in the all-new 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid. There was a time when Honda seemed completely uninterested in hybrid vehicles, but these days it has reconsidered that posture. The hybrid versions of the CR-V are not only the fuel economy leaders of the lineup, but they are also the most powerful and, importantly, most fun to drive. Honda expects to sell tens of thousands of them in the next several months, and Jack Nerad will offer his opinions about the 2023 CR-V Hybrid later in the show.

If you’re thinking about buying a car in the next year or so you’ll want to hear this week’s interview with Sam Fiorani, the VP of global forecasting for Auto Forecast Solutions. An expert on vehicle supply and demand, Fiorani has some incisive and surprising things to say about the current auto market. They’re things you need to hear if you want to save money when you purchase your next car.

In the news this week, Elon Musk and Tesla are in hot water again, this time about self-driving claims that have been made regarding some of its electric vehicles. Is there an issue or is the renewed investigation political retribution? We’ll consider both alternatives coming up.

And here’s a question for you — does it cost more to refuel a conventional gasoline car or recharge an electric car? A recent study attempts to answer that question, and we’ll tell you what the researchers found.

Despite supply chain issues, rising interest rates in the United States, and competition from the Chinese, a major automaker has retained the title of the top-selling car manufacturer in the world. We’ll tell you what that company is and fill you in on the details coming up in this episode of America on the Road.

Ford and General Motors have been conservative in their approach to battery-electric pickup trucks, But Ram has decided to go in a completely different direction. Its Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept, introduced at CES, takes the pickup truck to a different plane. And this week we have an exclusive interview for the man responsible for the startling concept — Stellantis Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles.

Host Jack Nerad got the opportunity for a one-on-one interview with Gilles about the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept truck concept. And the designer revealed the key points in the development of the vehicle and capsulized what it means to the Ram brand as it goes forward into electrification.

In this week’s road test segment, Co-Host Chris Teague describes how the battery-electric Genesis GV60 fared in the frigid Maine winter. The snow piled to the rooftops had the GV60 a bit confused at times, and we’ll tell you why.

Also in the road test segment, Jack Nerad will describe his week behind the wheel  of the hot Hyundai Elantra N. He’ll tell why he thinks it is one of the absolute best performance bargains of 2023.

In the news, one major automaker has had so much difficulty with supply chain issues and inventory shortages that it called a national press conference to explain. We attended that conference, and we’ll tell you what car company it is and what its chief American executive said coming up.

Can you afford to buy a new car right now? A new survey shows that a lot of Americans are concerned about auto affordability these days, and you could be one of them. We’ll give you the details a little later in this segment.

And Maserati has launched the new Maserati Grecale SUV in America and released new details of the three upcoming 2024 Maserati GranTurismo models. We’ll have more on both coming up. Plus, your listener questions are answered, so join us for this week’s episode.

Host Jack Nerad's latest book, a crime novel based on true crime. It's available now by clicking here.

The 2023 Nissan Z loudly proclaims that affordable performance cars are not dead. While many seem to be writing off internal combustion engine vehicles — and all automotive fun — we say, “Not so fast.” The new Z and its 400-horsepower turbocharged V6 are poised to breathe new life into a segment that is in need of some rejuvenation. We’re excited to get into the details of the 2023 North American Car of the Year Finalist with two experts from Nissan. Our special guests this week are Christian Speaker and Jonathan Buhler. Each will offer unique insights on the new sports car, including the equipment that all Nissan execs agreed was mandatory for the newest version in the legendary line.

In the road test segment, Co-Host Chris Teague will take a long look at the 2023 Ford Maverick Tremor, the new, off-road-oriented version of the brand’s smallest truck. He set it to work hauling in the midst of a dreary Maine winter. Did it get the jobs done? He’ll have a full report coming up.

In our other road test, Host Jack Nerad had a plusher assignment, putting the recently revised 2023 Hyundai Palisade crossover SUV through its paces. The Palisade has a new look for the new model year, and Hyundai has upped its equipment level as well. Nerad will assess the changes and tell how the zooty Calligraphy trim stacks up against luxury-brand three-row SUVs.

In the news, General Motors has unmasked a hybrid gasoline-electric version of its Chevrolet Corvette and there are some surprising things about it. We’ll tell you what they are and offer our reaction to the model that is now the quickest of all available Vettes.

Also newsworthy is the report that a big-time electric vehicle maker was considering a launch in the United States, but now it has rethought that idea and decided to pull back. The reasons are simple but a bit frustrating as we describe in our report.

And Mercedes-Benz is getting ready to deploy an advanced automated driving system in Nevada. What other states be next? Does this mean that autonomous cars will actually come to market after decades of development and delay?

All that plus your questions answered in this episode of America on the Road.

Host Jack Nerad's newest book, a crime thriller filled with twists that will leave you guessing until the last page. Available now in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.com

The 2023 Kia EV6 GT isn’t just a crazy, in-your-face performance trim level. It is a shot across the frunk of every electric-vehicle manufacturer, including Tesla. With its $61,000 price and 576-horsepower all-wheel-drivetrain, the Kia EV6 GT states quite boldly that the heretofore “value brand” intends to be a global force to be reckoned with when it comes to engineering, manufacturing, and marketing EVs. It is a major step as Kia moves to execute its Plan S, the shift to battery-electric vehicles. And the best news is we had the chance to drive the Kia EV6 GT on both road and track outside Las Vegas. The experience gave us a special perspective on the car.

With the capability of rocketing from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds, the Kia EV6 GT has the performance to get people’s attention. But the market for a crossover EV with those credentials is untested and likely very limited. That isn't the point, though. The car speaks volumes about the brand’s aspirations to be an essential builder of electric vehicles both now and in the future.

Its credentials are impressive. The 2023 Kia EV6 GT with dual-motor all-wheel-drive uses a 160 kW front-mounted electric motor and a 270 kW rear electric motor to produce a combined 576 horsepower and 545 lb-ft of torque. That’s plenty of horsepower even when squared off against a curb weight that bumps up toward 5,000 pounds. The weight is just one reason why its range on a charge is estimated at 206 miles. Host Jack Nerad, who drove the EV6 GT outside Las Vegas, will have much, much more on this car coming up, including an explanation of its hidden "superpower."

In the other half of the road test segment, Co-Host Chris Teague will chronicle his experiences with the 2023 Toyota Tundra during the post-Christmas crunch in Maine. Bad weather and bad roads proved to be no match for the recently revamped Tundra, and Teague will offer even more coming up.

Leading the news this week is the announcement of the 2023 North American Car, Truck, and Utility Vehicle of the Year. And we have special access through our exclusive interview with Gary Witzenburg, the president of the North American Car of the Year jury. Immediately after the awards ceremony, he sat down with our own Jack Nerad for an exclusive, in-depth interview on the vehicles that won the awards and the other finalists in what might have been the strongest field ever.

Also coming up in the news, we will examine one car company president’s assertion that the shift to electric vehicles will cause the overall car market to shrink. He predicts dire consequences, including major plant closures, if the transition to EVs gathers more steam and goes on unchecked. We’ll have the details.

Tough times continue for Tesla this week as well. The Texas-based automaker is cutting prices overseas as some markets contract and its market share declines. Tesla has slashed prices of the Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles in China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Now the question is will we see lower Tesla prices here in the United States?

Also this week, General Motors asked the U.S. Treasury Department to take a second look at its Cadillac Lyriq because it believes the department has misclassified it in its new rules for tax incentives for electric vehicles, based on the Anti-Inflation Act. We’ll tell you more about the government’s latest fit of confusion, and we'll have much more for you as well.

Dance in the Dark, a crime novel by America on the Road Host Jack R. Nerad

Should a Kia be faster than a Ferrari? In this episode of America on the Road Kia America Executive VP and COO Steve Center tells us why his company built the Kia EV6 GT and what it plans to get from it. The 2023 Kia EV6 is the most powerful Kia production vehicle ever. It boasts 576 all-electric horsepower, and independent testing shows that the battery-electric EV6 GT can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. It has a claimed top speed of 161 mph.

During the Kia EV6 GT’s first U.S.press drive, AOTR Host Jack Nerad sat down with Center for a lengthy interview that dove into the brand’s evolution from value to aspirational performance. And, according to Center, the EV6 GT is just the tip of the new-product iceberg that will force consumers to think differently about the Kia brand.

In other electric-vehicle news, Volkswagen is letting us all get a glimpse of its ID.7 battery-electric sedan as it builds out its all-electric lineup. VW chose CES in Las Vegas as the venue for its first public preview of the soon-to-be-unveiled battery-electric sedan. We’ll have more details for you coming up.

Tesla is in hot water — or maybe we should say cold water — in Korea. The South Korean government has just announced it is issuing a big fine on the Texas-based automaker. This year has started rocky for Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, and we’ll tell you why coming up.

In the road test segment, AOTR Co-Host Chris Teague details his recent experiences in the Mazda CX-30 small crossover utility vehicle. The CX-30 has a reputation as one of the best-handling, most fun-to-drive CUVs out there, but the nagging question remains: it is too small for Chris Teague’s manly six-foot-tall frame?

And while Chris Teague was shuttling his young family around Maine in the Mazda CX-30 Host Jack Nerad was doing much the same for his more mature family in Southern California in the Toyota Sienna minivan. Was the hybrid Sienna the right choice as the family transport for the Christmas holidays? Nerad and Teague have the answer for you coming up.

This week's episode is a repeat of the AOTR episode that was first aired on December 3, 2022. The special guest is Mike Darrow, President of TrueCar and an absolute expert on the car-buying process. He has some very educated advice about what to do when vehicle inventory at dealers is low and interest rates are on the rise. TrueCar has some solutions for you. And we’ll have the results of an illuminating new survey that attempts to answer the question: do Americans really want electric cars?

When it comes to road tests, we have some very popular SUVs to talk about. The Ford Bronco is the hit vehicle of the decade, and we test a version that is smack in the middle of the lineup. The Bronco Badlands has been equipped for serious off-roading with 33-inch all-terrain tires on 17-inch aluminum wheels as just a hint of what it offers. Our two-door test vehicle had the special seven-speed manual with the ultra-low crawler gear to enable some very Old School off-roading.

Of course, even the most gung-ho off-roader has to drive on the pavement the bulk of the time. So how the $58,000 Badlands trim negotiated the wilds of suburban South California proved just as important as any off-road trek. We’ll tell you how it all went coming up.

At the same time Host Jack Nerad was piloting the Ford Bronco Badlands, AOTR Co-Host Chris Teague and his family spent a week with a $120,000 2023 Cadillac Escalade. The big SUV’s level of luxury is off the charts with more video screens than a Buffalo Wild Wings on an NFL Sunday. Did Chris Teague’s daughters really do somersaults and cartwheels in the Cadillac? We’ll check into those claims in this edition of the show.

 

In the topline car news, Steve Center, a key executive at Kia, has spoken plainly about the effects of the federal legislation passed this summer that changed the way tax incentives are determined for electric vehicles. We’ll have the details of what he said and why he said it.

All that and plenty more coming upon this edition of “America on the Road.”

The Acura Integra is back and in many ways better than ever. And we test the performance-oriented A-Spec version in this episode of “America on the Road.” The Integra was a mainstay of the Acura lineup from the day the brand was introduced in 1986 until the Integra was discontinued 20 years later. Now, as Acura turns its back on its alpha naming system, the Integra has returned as a five-door hatchback with driving enjoyment as its key calling card.

In A-Spec form, the 2023 Acura Integra features its first-ever turbocharged engine, 18-inch alloy wheels, and the availability of a six-speed manual transmission with rev-matching capability. Of course, there is plenty of tech as well, like the 10.2-inch digital instrumentation display and the adaptive damper suspension system. And the Integra A-Spec looks the part with stainless steel pedals, red gauge needles and contrast stitching on the steering wheel, console, shift boot plus a leather-wrapped aluminum shift knob.

In the news segment, we examine the contention that electric cars will be less trouble-prone and need less service than conventional gasoline cars. Many pundits have made that claim, but a new study from Consumer Reports says quite the opposite is true. We’ll have our thoughts on all that coming up.

Also in the news, is there a “Silent Majority” of top car company execs that believes that pursuing electric vehicles to the exclusion of conventional vehicles is a giant mistake? One prominent global executive certainly thinks so, and in this edition, we’ll tell you who that is and why he believes it. Our guest host, EV expert Matt DeLorenzo, will weigh in on that as well.

DeLorenzo is the author of the new book How To Buy an Affordable Electric Car: A Tightwad’s Guide to EV Ownership and a longtime industry observer. In a special segment this week, he and AOTR Host Jack Nerad will take a long look at the assertion by some climatologists that the accelerating move to electric vehicles is not the right solution to climate issues. In fact it could be a multi-trillion-dollar mistake. Nerad is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hybrid and Alternative Fuel Vehicles in addition to his latest novel, Dance in the Dark.

In the road test segment, Matt DeLorenzo will detail his recent experiences in one of the biggest “sleeper values” on the sedan market today — the Volkswagen Arteon. The highly styled and well-equipped Arteon deserves more attention than it has received, and we’ll tell you why.

The Toyota Prius has been called many things through the years. But “sexy” has typically not been one of them. After its complete re-do for the 2023 model year though, it is hard not to call the new Prius sexy. It looks good from every angle. And the good news is its good looks haven’t compromised its leading-edge fuel economy.

But don’t let us be the only voices to tell you about the new 2023 Toyota Prius. Our special guest this week is Thomas Sondej, Toyota’s Senior Planner of Product Education and the expert on the all-new hybrid. Host Jack Nerad sat down with him at the recent first drive of the vehicle, and he has special insight on Toyota's goals for the vehicle. We’ll have that interview coming up later in the show.

In the road test segment, AOTR Co-host Chris Teague will take a long look at the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV battery-electric crossover utility. Of course, battery-electric vehicles like the cold about as much as palm trees do, so we’ll see what Teague says about his week in the vehicle. Did it survey the rigors of late fall in Maine? Did the spotty New England EV infrastructure ruin the Teague family’s experience with the affordable EV? We’ll tell you all that and more coming up.

The 2023 Hyundai Elantra HEV was the other vehicle we road-tested this week. Host Jack Nerad put the hybrid version of the Elantra to the test over the course of a lengthy trial period in Southern California. With fuel economy topping the 50-mpg mark, the Elantra has efficiency going for it. But does it have the stuff to be a pleasant everyday driver? Jack Nerad and Chris Teague will give you their opinions on that key question later in the show.

In the news, the CEO of a major car company says the auto industry will rebound strongly next year. But a survey of auto dealers indicates they are pessimistic about their prospects for 2023. We’ll have our thoughts on all this coming up.

And though many politicians claim that a shift to green cars will add jobs to the American auto industry, a vehicle manufacturing plant in Illinois is about to close. And the company that owns and operates claims the expenses involved with electric vehicles are responsible for the closure.

In a related story, the Swiss government’s proposed regulations on energy use are stopping electric-vehicle sales dead in their tracks. We’ll tell you what the Swiss are proposing and how similar regulations could be instituted right here in America. And you could be the loser.

The Mustang Mach-E doesn’t get the publicity it received when it was introduced, but it continues to have an impact around the world. As proof of that, Ford has just produced its 150,000th Ford Mustang Mach-E since starting production two years ago. And this marks a significant milestone as the automaker scales EV production to a rate of 600,000 annually by late 2023 with plans to produce two million annually by 2026.

In this episode, we’ll discuss the Mustang Mach-E, Ford's EV goals, and what the market is likely to hold through the end of the decade. Right now Ford is the number two-selling electric vehicle brand in the U.S., and the continued strong demand for Mustang Mach-E has a great deal to do with that. Almost all of Mustang Mach-E’s growth to date is coming from customers who are replacing an internal-combustion-engine vehicle — more than eight in 10 U.S. customers and nine in 10 European customers. Ford likes those stats and wants to keep the momentum going. We’ll tell you more coming up.

Do you drive a Honda CR-V, HR-V, Jeep Compass, or Ram 2500 pickup? If you do, you’ll want to hear about the just-instituted investigation of those vehicles for safety issues. Stay tuned for that.

And Apple is hitting the brakes on its upcoming Apple self-driving car, something its occupants won’t be able to do. More details on why the Apple car is progressing slower than planned coming up.

In the road test segment, Co-host Chris Teague will take a long look at the all-new 2023 Mercedes-Benz C-300 4Matic. Mercedes-Benz has incorporated a large portion of S-Class technology in the new C-Class, and Teague will tell us if he thinks it hits the marks it should.

In the meantime. host Jack Nerad and his family spent much of Thanksgiving week driving around Southern California in the 2023 Mazda CX-9 midsize crossover SUV. The drive helped solidify the CX-9’s position as the best-handling, most-responsive three-row SUV in its class.

Our guest this week is Russell Wager, Vice President of Marketing at Kia America. As we’ve mentioned in previous shows, Kia has been on a strong roll lately and he’s been a big part of it. In the interview with Jack Nerad, he’ll tell us what Kia has in store, including the brand’s big push toward an electric-vehicle future.