Auto Buyers Guide Podcast

Nissan just showed up to the hybrid party — only about fifteen years late. But here’s the thing: the new Rogue Hybrid might actually be worth the wait. Three big electric motors, rear torque that would make a RAV4 blush, and a three-cylinder engine that exists purely to keep the electrons flowing. Is Nissan’s serial hybrid system genuinely clever engineering or an elaborate workaround? Meanwhile, Volvo quietly transformed the EX90 into a fire-breathing 670-horsepower rocket that does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and adds 100 miles of range in five minutes — and almost nobody noticed, because Volvo tells nobody anything. GM unveiled two brand-new V8s big enough to make Ram nervous, and Tesla wants you to buy a Cybercab, deploy it as a robot taxi, and somehow turn a profit. Spoiler: the math doesn’t math.

Then it gets personal. Alex is car shopping — again — and the requirements are ruthlessly specific: CarPlay (non-negotiable, household law), a back seat that actually fits a rear-facing car seat designed for a seven-year-old, and preferably something that plugs in. What sounds like a reasonable list turns out to eliminate approximately everything good on the market. Along the way, the show falls down a genuinely fascinating rabbit hole: only 3% of new car buyers have young children at home, which explains — with uncomfortable precision — why modern cars are designed as if children don’t exist. More Subaru buyers have pet chickens.

 

 

Key Topics

Nissan Rogue Hybrid e-POWER — 40 city/36 highway MPG, three motors, 66% rear torque capability, no parallel mode

Why three-cylinder engines excel in serial hybrids — exhaust scavenging, turbo efficiency, the German “half-liter per cylinder” philosophy

Honda’s deliberate sacrifice of efficiency to preserve engine-feel continuity in their hybrids

Nissan’s 2 million e-POWER global sales and what that means for the US rollout

Volvo EX90 updated — 800V, 670hp, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, 350kW peak charging, ~100 miles added in 5 minutes

EX90 Supercharger problem — drops to 112kW on 400V stations, 45-minute charge sessions

Volvo’s baffling product strategy — launching half-baked, fixing quietly, same model year with two drivetrains

EX90 vs. Lucid Gravity — charging speed, interior quality, plastic sun visors at $97K

GM’s new 5.7L and 6.6L V8 engines for Silverado/Sierra — cylinder deactivation, competing with Ram’s 6.4L

Tesla Cybercab business model holes — ROI, insurance, cleaning, platform cut, range management, fleet logistics

Cybercab format problem — two seats, no luggage space, no consumer version with a steering wheel

Alex’s new car hunt — CarPlay required, big rear seat, plug-in or EV, Super Cruise/autonomy trade-offs

Why Silverado EV almost made the list but no CarPlay killed it — and the aftermarket hack question

Wired vs. wireless CarPlay — lossless audio and Dolby Atmos need the wire; GM wants your data instead

Car seat statistics — only 3% of new car buyers have toddlers; more Subaru owners have chickens than babies

Car seat regulation history — California rear-facing mandate not until 2017, only half of US states require it

Axkid rear-facing car seat — works to 65 lbs/49 inches, fitting a 7-year-old rear-facing

Why pickup trucks may be winning with young families — rear seat room that crossovers and full-size SUVs don’t actually provide

Palisade vs. Tahoe for child seat practicality — why the midsize crossover wins

 

 

00:00:00 - Intro & What's On the Docket
00:00:59 - Nissan Rogue Hybrid: America's First Real Nissan Hybrid
00:04:11 - 3-Cylinder Serial Hybrid Engineering: Why It Actually Makes Sense
00:17:39 - Volvo EX90: 670hp, 800V & a 5-Minute Charge to LA
00:28:14 - Charging Reality Check: 350kW vs. 112kW on a Supercharger
00:32:49 - GM's New 5.7 & 6.6L V8s: Big Power for Silverado & Sierra
00:38:08 - Tesla Cybercab: Great Concept, Broken Business Model
00:49:39 - Alex's New Car Hunt: CarPlay, EVs & the Silverado Problem
00:51:49 - The Statistic That Explains Why Cars Hate Kids
00:57:45 - Car Seat Reality: Why Nothing Fits & Why Trucks Might Win

Nissan just showed up to the hybrid party — only about fifteen years late. But here's the thing: the new Rogue Hybrid might actually be worth the wait. Three big electric motors, rear torque that would make a RAV4 blush, and a three-cylinder engine that exists purely to keep the electrons flowing. Is Nissan's serial hybrid system genuinely clever engineering or an elaborate workaround? Meanwhile, Volvo quietly transformed the EX90 into a fire-breathing 670-horsepower rocket that does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and adds 100 miles of range in five minutes — and almost nobody noticed, because Volvo tells nobody anything. GM unveiled two brand-new V8s big enough to make Ram nervous, and Tesla wants you to buy a Cybercab, deploy it as a robot taxi, and somehow turn a profit. Spoiler: the math doesn't math. Then it gets personal. Alex is car shopping — again — and the requirements are ruthlessly specific: CarPlay (non-negotiable, household law), a back seat that actually fits a rear-facing car seat designed for a seven-year-old, and preferably something that plugs in. What sounds like a reasonable list turns out to eliminate approximately everything good on the market. Along the way, the show falls down a genuinely fascinating rabbit hole: only 3% of new car buyers have young children at home, which explains — with uncomfortable precision — why modern cars are designed as if children don't exist. More Subaru buyers have pet chickens. 00:00:00 - Intro & What's On the Docket 00:00:59 - Nissan Rogue Hybrid: America's First Real Nissan Hybrid 00:04:11 - 3-Cylinder Serial Hybrid Engineering: Why It Actually Makes Sense 00:17:39 - Volvo EX90: 670hp, 800V & a 5-Minute Charge to LA 00:28:14 - Charging Reality Check: 350kW vs. 112kW on a Supercharger 00:32:49 - GM's New 5.7 & 6.6L V8s: Big Power for Silverado & Sierra 00:38:08 - Tesla Cybercab: Great Concept, Broken Business Model 00:49:39 - Alex's New Car Hunt: CarPlay, EVs & the Silverado Problem 00:51:49 - The Statistic That Explains Why Cars Hate Kids 00:57:45 - Car Seat Reality: Why Nothing Fits & Why Trucks Might Win #NissanRogueHybrid #ePower #SerialHybrid #VolvoEX90 #800VCharging #LucidGravity #GMV8 #SilveradoEV #TeslaCybercab #RobotTaxi #CarPlay #SuperCruise #CarShopping #RearFacingCarSeat #ChildSafety #HybridCars #ElectricVehicle #FastCharging #AutoBuyersGuide #CarPodcast #AutoNews #NewCars2026 #FamilyCar #CarReview #NissanHybrid

Sorry about what will be yet another dupe for some of our listeners on other platforms, but we're hoping third time's the charm to fix a bug in the podcast RSS feed....

Some of you may see this as a duplicate episode. Sorry about that; Apple Podcasts had an ingestion issue.

Plug-in hybrids are under attack from both sides — greens who want everyone in a full EV yesterday, and gas loyalists who think an electric motor belongs nowhere near a combustion engine. Caught in the crossfire is a perfectly reasonable technology that, at least in America, is actually working. This week the team tears apart the latest viral "PHEVs are evil" article and exposes the dirty secret buried in its data: it's built entirely on European company car statistics, and applying it to the American buyer who *chose* a plug-in hybrid with their own money is about as logical as using Tokyo bus schedules to plan a road trip across Texas.

Is an EREV just a PHEV with a better publicist? Should Jeep be planting solar chargers along the Rubicon Trail? And does the Jeep Recon make more sense than the Rivian R2 — or is 200 miles of range just not enough when the nearest pine tree doesn't have a plug? Strap in for a wide-ranging, opinion-heavy ride through the murkiest corners of the electrification debate, with a toddler occasionally losing her mind in the background for ambiance.

00:00:00 - Intro: Baby, Bogotá & Back

00:00:26 - PHEVs Are NOT 6x Dirtier: Debunking the Article

00:02:29 - The EU Company Car Problem That Doesn't Apply to America

00:05:00 - US PHEV Owners Actually Do Plug In: The Real Data

00:11:16 - EREV vs. PHEV: Are They Just the Same Thing?

00:17:39 - Grand Wagoneer EREV: Generator Mode & the RV Camping Case

00:27:39 - Serial vs. Parallel Hybrids: Nissan Rogue vs. Honda & Mitsubishi

00:32:37 - Jeep Recon EV: Off-Road Reality & the 200-Mile Range Problem

00:40:36 - Jeep Recon vs. Rivian R2: Which Should You Buy?

00:53:03 - Wagoneer S Should Die & Recon Needs a Hybrid