The Weekly Driver Podcast

As co-hosts of The Weekly Driver Podcast, Bruce Aldrich and I have for the past several years picked the top cars of the year at the end of the calendar year.

This year, as we do most often, Bruce and I interview a guest on the podcast and then drive the week's review vehicle to lunch. We often extend the day to further drive the vehicle, take images and share our opinions.

The 2023 Lucid Air is The Weekly Driver Podcast's 2023 Best Car of the Year. Image © Bruce Aldrich/2023.

Bruce has certain interests and knows the mechanics of cars and trucks far better than I do. I write reviews of vehicles for several publications, including TheWeeklyDriver.com since 2004. I usually drive every week for a week.

Bruce has contributed images for dozens of vehicles and has produced every podcast episode.

Like we do every year, we selected best-of-the-year lists is based only on the model year corresponding to the same calendar year.

The plush interior of the Lucid Air. Image courtesy of the manufacturer.

This year we individually chose our favorite vehicles of the year based on 2023 models of 37 vehicles fully reviewed.

As has also occurred several times, we both selected the same vehicle as The Weekly Driver Podcast's best vehicle of the year. It's the 2023 Lucid Air. The Lucid Air (Grand Touring) and Lucid Air (Pure) both were reviewed.

Here's what I wrote in part in my review of the Lucid Air (Grand Touring):

"Available in Pure, Touring, Grand Touring, Grand Touring Performance, and the new-for-2023 Sapphire trims, the Lucid Air is a high-performance, handsome, and the-future-is-now vehicle that provides a new definition of a sedan.

"Spacious and wide-bodied, the reviewed Lucid Air (Grand Touring) has 819 horsepower and a 112-kWh battery that provides the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive wonder with a 516-mile range and acceleration from 0-to-60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds."

"For performance enthusiasts and the electric vehicle obsessed, the stats are industry-best numbers. For the rest of us, sub-three-second efforts may cause lightheadedness. Conversely, driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles and halfway home isn’t possible in many gasoline-powered vehicles. A recharge isn’t required for long hours behind the racing-styled Lucid wheel."

Please join Bruce and me as we further discuss the upstart Lucid lineup and also reveal the rest of our respective Best-of-the-Year lists.

Like many automotive enthusiasts, when Rodney Kemerer talks about cars his enthusiasm abounds. A lifelong enthusiast, Kemerer is the author of Tales From The Garage.

As described in its Amazon profile, the "heartfelt book, the half memoir, have the memories of others, is truly a pop culture snapshot of modern society through the lens of the automobile."

Kemerer is our guest this week on Episode #277 of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia talk with Kemerer, a veteran journalist, about his first book and the surprising reactions he's received from readers.

"Kemerer understands that car stories can be the gateway to every aspect of our lives," the book's introduction states.

During our interview, Kemerer details his quick entry into automotive journalism. He submitted an article "cold" a decade or so years ago to Hemmings, the car collector magazine. The article was published, although its author was never told. Kemerer noticed it when reading another issue of the magazine.

The writer's debut was the impetus for other articles in the Los Angeles Times to Old Cars Weekly. He developed a relationship with the editor and publisher of Garage Style Magazine and began writing a column called "Tales From The Garage. The columns were successful and the new book is a compilation of the columns.

"I realized maybe I could have a broader audience for the pieces because they seem to have a universal appeal," says Kemerer. "The book is 30 essays and each one has its own graphic language."

Kemerer, who lives in Beverly Hills, California, has a vast collection of model cars and most of the vehicles he's ever owned.

Please join us for a 30-minute interview with a new author. He's funny and he loves cars. It's a good match.

Tales From The Garage (Amazon, $29.95) is available via TheWeeklyDriver.com's affiliate program with the online retailer.

Visit: Tales From The Garage

John Vincent is the Senior Editor and Correspondent/Vehicle Testing on the Autos team at U.S. News & World Report. With more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry, Vincent knows new cars, manufacturers and trends in the industry.

The former long-time newspaper reporter is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Honda was recently named one of the best brands for 2023-2024 by U.S. News & World Report. Image © James Raia/2023.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia talk with Vincent about his publication's recent release of its Best Cars of 2023 and 2024. Besides individual rankings throughout the spectrum of the industry, the publication also selected Best Car Brand (Honda), Best SUV Brand (Mazda), Best Truck Brand (Ram) and Best Luxury Brand (Rivian).

Vincent details the publication's methodology and the publication's site also explains it:

"The Best Vehicle Brand awards are an objective assessment of quality across all of a brand’s offerings in four categories: Cars, SUVs, Trucks and Luxury.

"Brand ratings are based on the U.S. News Best Cars overall scores for each vehicle, which incorporate the consensus opinion of the automotive press, as well as safety and reliability data."

Vincent also discusses his recent attendance at the Los Angeles Auto Show and his analysis of the show including why several mainstream manufacturers and prominent upstart carmakers weren't there.

Please join us for our informative episode #276 as we talk with one of the automotive industry's most prominent journalists.

Craig Jackson is the CEO of Barrett-Jackson, the country's most well-known auction company, and he owns 108 vehicles, from muscle cars to sports cars and modern classics to resto-mods.

Immersed in the automotive world since he was a boy, Jackson recently attended the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) annual gathering in Las Vegas. He was our special guest for the latest episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts James Raia and John Berg spoke with Jackson inside the Barrett-Jackson trailer on the showroom floor in one of several exhibit halls that housed the massive automotive showcase.

Jackson, 63, discussed Barrett-Jackson's legacy and details of his vast personal collection. He also shared his business philosophy and thoughts on the expanding electric vehicle industry segment.

"For an auction house to be over 50 years old, we've through a lot of changes," said Jackson in the wide-ranging episode. "The changes are that when we first started it we were selling all pre-World War II cars. Then it evolved. It started changing when we decided to go after the cars that the 'boomers' like, muscle cars."

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Barrett-Jackson began in 1971, as an expected one-time-only event. Its success prompted an annual auction. The Arizona event remained the showcase of the company's auctions around the country. It starts each season and is scheduled for January 20-28, 2024.

Jackson took over full operations in 1995 following the death of his brother and his father. Jackson added vendors and live entertainment to the auction events.

Barrett-Jackson saw increased popularity when the Speedvision network, later Speed Channel, began broadcasting the auctions in 1996. It was the first collector car auction to be televised, and coverage has since continued across several channels.

"We are in the live event business," Jackson said. "We are in a very passionate business. And what it's all about is bringing new people into the hobby."

Jessica Dunham is a veteran journalist whose passion as a travel writer is the open road. She knows the well-traveled roads along Route 66 and Interstate 5. And she knows the less-visited locales, like the night sky over Marfa, Texas, which includes mysterious blinking lights.

Dunham, the author of "The Open Road: 50 Road Trips in the USA" is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Jessica Dunham has authored numerous travel books, including an updated edition of "The Open Road: 50 Road Trips in the USA.

Co-host Bruce Aldrich and I interview Dunham about her latest book (it's an updated edition) and also about the pleasures of traveling — on good days and bad days. She discusses how the many places she's traveled were condensed into the 50 places in the book.

According to its media information, the book comprises "lists of the best coastal drives, cross-country journeys, trips for kids and awe-inspiring views."

The book, available on all major online retailers, is organized by region and includes suggestions for a weekend getaway to a cross-country trip.

Descriptions include a leaf-peep along the Blue Ridge Parkway, wildflowers on Arizona's Apache Trail, kitschy roadside attractions along Route 66, crossing the Continental Divide in Colorado and falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves at your campsite in Big Sur.

Dunman writes about eating your way through Vermont's farms, dairies, orchards and maple houses. She details gulf shrimp and fried okra in the South, oysters and craft beers Oregon and shaved ice along the scenic Oahu Coastal Loop.

The comprehensive book features planning resources from easy-to-use maps, helpful info on things to do, lodging and dining for every route, clear directions to each route's starting point and tips for minimizing your environmental impact along the way.

Dunham's enthusiasm for travel, whether on a solo trek, with girlfriends or with her husband and the couple's two dogs is evident in her upbeat demeanor.

The book also includes essential tips for health and safety on the road, navigating weather conditions, strategies for road-tripping with kids and four-legged friends as well as playlists and podcasts for accompaniment of the open road.

Besides her new book, Dunham has vast experience as a travel writer. She was a travel guide editor at Madden Media and has contributed to PHOENIX magazine, Midwest Living, Modern Luxury and Runner's World. She's also co-written and solo written several other travel books.

Please join us for a lively half-hour. Dunham shares her keen insight as a traveler and author, and she shares a few travails from the open road.

Doug Berman is the unofficial third brother of the admired comedy team and automotive soothsayer duo of Thomas Louis Magliozzi and Raymond Francis Magliozzi. They were more well-known as "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers." They were co-hosts of Car Talk, the NPR radio show, for 25 years.

Thinly disguised as a weekly program about automobile repair, the program was more about the banter between the brothers and an endearing relationship with their call-in audience. The former mechanics diagnosed engine problems, but they also provided advice, notably about relationships. Comedy reigned.

Ray Magliozzi (L) and Tom Magliozzi co-hosted Car Talk on NPR for 25 years. Image courtesy of cartalk.com.

Behind the scenes, Berman has coordinated the show since its early days. A former production assistant and then new director for NPR and several affiliates, Berman took on the producer's role of the then-fledgling auto show as a volunteer. He's remained in charge since.

The creator of the NPR show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell," Berman is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. A guest at the recent Best of the Bay gathering of the Western Automotive Journalists (WAJ) in Santa Rosa, California, the long-time journalist spoke with co-host James Raia and guest co-host John Berg about the enduring enterprise that is Car Talk.

Tom Magliozzi died in 2014 at age 77. We discuss with Berman the brothers' relationship and how the program has continued in syndication and most recently, the rebroadcast of the long series from the first episode in podcast format.

Berman details his relationship with Tom Magliozzi and his current role editing www.cartalk.com as well as collaborating on the syndicated newspaper column the brothers wrote. Berman also runs the program's vehicle donation program, writes car reviews and is the impetus for the enterprise's continuing success.

Car Talk show was honored with a Peabody Award in 1992, and the Magliozzis were both inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2018.

Jarred Pellat is the senior manager public relations and communications of Genesis Motor North America. It's the eight-year-old luxury vehicle division of the South Korean vehicle manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company.

A native of Canada who lived in South Korea for several years, Pellat is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

The 2023 Genesis GV70 was the carmaker's first vehicle made in the United States. Photo © Bruce Aldrich/2022.

Co-host Bruce Aldrich was on assignment, so John Berg, a new automotive columnist and photographer for The Weekly Driver, joined me for our interview during Best of the West.

Pellat, the fourth employee of the Genesis, was a guest during a two-day gathering of the Western Automotive Journalists (WAJ), the San Francisco Bay Area organization of automotive media professionals and industry influencers.

During the two-day gathering, nine manufacturers provided 13 vehicles to test drive from our headquarters at Vinter's Resort in Santa Rosa, California. Genesis had two vehicles on site: the 2023 Electrified GV70 Prestige AWD and the 2023 Electrified G80 AWD.

Pellat discussed the two vehicles at the presentation, and we also discussed the quick ascension of the manufacturer, its eight-vehicle lineup and the growing list of accolades Genesis has received in recent years.

Please join us as Pellat details plans for Genesis, its small but growing locations of Genesis-specific showrooms and the carmaker's philosophy for its automobiles.

John Vincent, senior editor and automotive correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, has more than 25 years of experience covering the auto industry.

In addition to reviewing vehicles, he has vast expertise in auto financing, leasing and buying. He's also an expert observer and commentator regarding the current United Auto World strike.

The UAW strike is a united effort to improve wages and benefits.

As the strike approaches its one-month duration, Vincent is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with the veteran writer the current status of the strike and what it means to the automakers and union members.

How have the communities throughout the Detroit area been affected? Has the strike changed the industry for consumers?

Does Vincent see the strike ending soon or could it continue into 2024? How does the Biden Administration view the current situation?

We also discuss with Vincent the automotive industry's focus on electric vehicles and what it may or may not mean to consumers.

Please join us for a 30-minute insight into the strike from an industry and sought-after media guest.

A member of the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards (NACTOY) jury, Vincent joined U.S. News & World Report after a long newspaper career at The (Portland) Oregonian and The Portland Tribune.

Adam Olalde is the founder and CEO of Xtreme Xperience. The Chicago-based company provides unique driving experiences in luxury cars mixed with racetrack and lifestyle experiences.

Olalde, who began his business after working for a luxury car rental service, is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Olalde the fascination consumers have in exotic and high-performance vehicles — from Lamborghini to Porsche to Rolls-Royce.

Xtreme Xperience provides high-performance drives and lifestyle packages in unique vehicles. Images courtesy of the company.

The business began with Olalde renting vehicles for one-hour test drives throughout Chicago. The idea expanded to test drives at a nearby racetrack.

Since the company's debut in 2012, the company reports it has helped more than 300,000 people cross 'drive an exotic car' off their buckets list at more than 50 driving destinations nationwide.

Xtreme Xperience offers several travel and entertainment packages, all centered around an expansive lineup of unique vehicles.

It's not uncommon, Olalde explains, that the joyful experience of driving a highly desirable car leads to a wedding proposal.

Please join Bruce and me as we spend 30 minutes with a business owner passionate about unique cars and providing unique driving experiences.

Michael Coates has done it all as an automotive journalist, from writer and editor to publishing and broadcast analysis. He's currently the editor and publisher of Clean Fleet Report, a well-respected automotive website focusing on automotive environmental issues.

Coates, who also serves as Automotive Editor at Innovation & Tech Today magazine and writes for Autoweek magazine, is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast.

The idea of car-sharing helps car owners save money and it also reduces traffic.

A recently updated post on Clean Fleet Report discussing the evolving and revolving companies involved in shared mobility piqued our interest.

The article begins:

"Car sharing has changed dramatically since Clean Fleet Report first reported on it almost two decades ago. While it was picking up steam at that point, in the years since it has morphed and been influenced by changing technology, both in vehicles and in the software that enables the service.

"Some big players have jumped in and then retreated. Some auto companies have incorporated car-sharing elements into their new business enterprises. Some small players were gobbled up by bigger companies."

Podcast co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Coates the most well-known car-sharing platforms (Uber and Lyft) and not-so-well-known options such as Turo, vRide and Getaround.

Coates, an alternative engine proponent, also shares his opinion of the industry, including the future (or lack of a future) of hydrogen vehicles.

Please join Bruce and me as we spend 30 minutes with a passionate automotive expert.