# Aston Martin Vanquish Volante & When Car Tech Goes Too Far

An episode of [Bloomberg Hot Pursuit!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1710787142), 3 Oct 2025, 30 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4778f66f-5d19-456a-9820-b08f00dfd567/85e40051-c2af-4081-9819-b36b010f748a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=42336c1a-f7c2-4898-885b-b08f00e0bb66

Hannah and Matt discuss when car tech goes too far - and which automakers are admitting it. Plus, Matt drives the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm Hannah Elliott and
[0:09] Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller.
[0:10] Speaker 2: This is hot pursuit.
[0:17] Speaker 3: Coming up on the show today, we talk about Hannah's
[0:19] Speaker 3: deep dive into how some car makers are pivoting away
[0:24] Speaker 3: from the newest, highest tech on which they were initially
[0:28] Speaker 3: all in.
[0:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, basically, you know what, just because it's new doesn't
[0:32] Speaker 1: mean it's.
[0:33] Speaker 2: Great, right, Totally agree.
[0:35] Speaker 3: This is something actually that I think you mentioned to
[0:37] Speaker 3: Ola Pollenius recently, So.
[0:38] Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, this is coming out of multiple conversations, especially
[0:44] Speaker 1: in Munich at the IAA show. But it's kind of
[0:47] Speaker 1: industry why. It's really interesting to note.
[0:50] Speaker 3: All Right, that is coming up on today's show, and
[0:53] Speaker 3: I think we're probably gonna all agree with you, because
[0:56] Speaker 3: if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably somewhat of
[0:59] Speaker 3: a purest when it comes to cars.
[1:01] Speaker 1: Probably and also maybe just a sensible person who likes
[1:05] Speaker 1: intuitive logic and common sense these you know, common sense
[1:09] Speaker 1: isn't really necessarily that common apparently, and we don't need
[1:15] Speaker 1: all of these gizmos and doodads and gadgets.
[1:18] Speaker 2: Totally agree, totally agree.
[1:20] Speaker 1: We like a few of them, though.
[1:21] Speaker 3: First off, though, I want to talk about what I
[1:24] Speaker 3: think may be the most beautiful new car that I've ever.
[1:30] Speaker 2: Had my hands on.
[1:32] Speaker 3: Your love, I am absolutely in love. And to be fair,
[1:36] Speaker 3: we get to drive these, you know, high priced super
[1:38] Speaker 3: luxury vehicles. It's not often that I'm driving the newest
[1:42] Speaker 3: Nissan Sentra, right. Oh, but this has been a string
[1:46] Speaker 3: of exceptional weeks for me. When it comes to getting
[1:50] Speaker 3: press cars, I am and it's not that so so.
[1:54] Speaker 3: For example, I had the Rolls Royce Ghost a couple
[1:56] Speaker 3: of weeks ago, and obviously it's a five hundred thousand
[2:00] Speaker 3: dollar car. Almost everything is going to be good about it.
[2:02] Speaker 3: And I just wanted to say this because I was
[2:05] Speaker 3: thinking about it and someone was asking me why I
[2:07] Speaker 3: complain about these things? Oh, I do try and highlight
[2:12] Speaker 3: the downsides of these vehicles, because there are clearly going
[2:16] Speaker 3: to be so many upsides to a half million dollar car.
[2:20] Speaker 1: Sure, But as we often stress, price and how good
[2:28] Speaker 1: something is for the task whatever that task is are
[2:32] Speaker 1: not necessarily related. They're not should be related. But you
[2:36] Speaker 1: can't use price as a as just an indicator.
[2:40] Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just saying though, as as a baseline.
[2:43] Speaker 3: And I used to say this all the time, but
[2:44] Speaker 3: I've stopped saying it because otherwise they would be on
[2:47] Speaker 3: every show. Like I typically get to test drive cars
[2:50] Speaker 3: that cost eighty or ninety or one hundred thousand dollars.
[2:53] Speaker 3: They're brand new, they're sent to me by the manufacturer,
[2:56] Speaker 3: so they're obviously going to be really good.
[3:00] Speaker 2: Plus they're super.
[3:01] Speaker 3: Modern, they're gonna be efficient, they're gonna shift well, they're
[3:04] Speaker 3: gonna you know, compared to whatever you had as your
[3:08] Speaker 3: first car in high school. They're gonna be they're gonna
[3:10] Speaker 3: blow your socks off. So what I try and do
[3:12] Speaker 3: is pick out the things that aren't so great without
[3:16] Speaker 3: having to say, like, everything else is fantastic.
[3:20] Speaker 1: Well, I think we have to talk about how you're
[3:22] Speaker 1: defining quote unquote really good. Because of course, yes, any
[3:26] Speaker 1: car that's new in the market today is going to
[3:28] Speaker 1: be better than one from thirty years ago, for sure
[3:31] Speaker 1: in terms of efficiency and engineering. That's just called progress.
[3:37] Speaker 1: But I think these cars should be evaluated within their
[3:40] Speaker 1: competitive set, how do they stack up against the other
[3:45] Speaker 1: cars in that segment and in that price point that
[3:48] Speaker 1: a consumer might be considering. Because at the end of
[3:51] Speaker 1: the day, we're trying to tell people, hey, if you
[3:55] Speaker 1: are seriously considering buying this car, this is what you
[3:58] Speaker 1: need to know about it. This is the con text,
[4:00] Speaker 1: and this is how it stacks up against other of
[4:03] Speaker 1: its contemporary.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Well cars, that's a fair point.
[4:07] Speaker 3: So the car that I'm talking about is the Aston
[4:10] Speaker 3: Martin Vanquish, and I am driving the Valante version, the
[4:17] Speaker 3: twenty twenty six Aston Martin Vanquished Volante.
[4:20] Speaker 2: I guess that means convertible in some language.
[4:22] Speaker 1: In Aston Martin.
[4:23] Speaker 3: Yes, And I will say that I don't know very
[4:27] Speaker 3: many people who could afford to buy this car.
[4:30] Speaker 2: I mean it is.
[4:31] Speaker 1: Also surely that's not true, Matt, all right.
[4:34] Speaker 3: I mean because because of where I work, Sir, I
[4:37] Speaker 3: know a lot of very rich people. But in terms
[4:39] Speaker 3: of regular dudes who live near me, you know, like
[4:43] Speaker 3: the guys I see at school pickup, are not going
[4:45] Speaker 3: to buy a car that costs the base price of
[4:47] Speaker 3: this vehicle as four hundred and eighty three thousand dollars,
[4:50] Speaker 3: and as it is optioned, the one I'm driving, the
[4:53] Speaker 3: suggested retail price is five hundred and ninety five three
[4:56] Speaker 3: hundred dollars. So it may be a million dollar more.
[5:00] Speaker 3: It may be, you know, this may be the most
[5:02] Speaker 3: expensive car that I have ever driven outside of the
[5:07] Speaker 3: Bugatti Chironne that I was lucky enough to drive.
[5:10] Speaker 1: In Germany, more than the Rolls Royce Royce.
[5:14] Speaker 3: I haven't, to be fair, I haven't driven all these
[5:17] Speaker 3: Ferraris that you drive. I haven't shared the Ferraris, so
[5:20] Speaker 3: the ff this.
[5:21] Speaker 1: Is more than a couple of Ferraris as well.
[5:24] Speaker 2: It's going to be more than a lot of those.
[5:25] Speaker 3: It is an incredibly expensive So I'm just saying, like,
[5:29] Speaker 3: I can't compare this to many other vehicles that are
[5:32] Speaker 3: in the same you know, stratosphere, because there just aren't
[5:36] Speaker 3: that many.
[5:37] Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, and you know, Okay, granted, this is a
[5:42] Speaker 1: gorgeous supermodel of a car. I think it's the best
[5:45] Speaker 1: looking car I've ever Cetely, no one is arguing that
[5:48] Speaker 1: at all. But I do think, and I've said this
[5:51] Speaker 1: before many times before, Aston Martin's are overpriced. This is
[5:57] Speaker 1: this isn't. To think that you're paying over half a
[6:00] Speaker 1: million dollars for an Aston Martin convertible is frankly insane.
[6:06] Speaker 2: I would do it.
[6:08] Speaker 3: I would do it because listen, if you if you're
[6:10] Speaker 3: gonna buy a six hundred thousand dollars car, I have
[6:13] Speaker 3: to assume that means you have rather you have many
[6:15] Speaker 3: multiple millions, and I don't know about that. I haven't
[6:19] Speaker 3: seen a modern Ferrari that looks this beautiful. The lines
[6:24] Speaker 3: actually remind me of the seventies Ferrari Daytona Spider three
[6:31] Speaker 3: sixty five, the one that the one that Don Johnson
[6:35] Speaker 3: drives in in Miami Vice. Although his is just a
[6:38] Speaker 3: Corvette dressed up as a Ferrari, but I think it
[6:41] Speaker 3: is incredibly, exceptionally beautiful. It is so powerful eight hundred
[6:45] Speaker 3: and twenty four horse power from a five point two
[6:48] Speaker 3: liter twin turbo V twelve. I at one point, driving
[6:53] Speaker 3: to work this morning, I looked down and realized, without
[6:57] Speaker 3: knowing it, I was doing consecutive uh.
[7:02] Speaker 1: Yes, yes, specific do we want to get?
[7:05] Speaker 3: And I think in order to buy a six hundred
[7:08] Speaker 3: thousand dollar car, you have to have multiple millions of
[7:10] Speaker 3: dollars of liquid.
[7:13] Speaker 1: Ask yes, yes, yes.
[7:15] Speaker 3: If I had, you know, ten million dollars in cash,
[7:20] Speaker 3: I would definitely buy this car. I can't think of
[7:23] Speaker 3: anything else that looks this good that's coming out new.
[7:26] Speaker 2: Now.
[7:26] Speaker 3: If I were you and I went to all these
[7:28] Speaker 3: collector car shows and auctions, maybe I would find an
[7:32] Speaker 3: actual nineteen seventy two Ferrari Daytona three sixty five Spider instead.
[7:37] Speaker 1: Oh yes, but that wouldn't be a fight. Eight. I
[7:40] Speaker 1: love the I love a forty eighty.
[7:43] Speaker 2: Yes, I agree, it's a beautiful car.
[7:45] Speaker 3: I think i'd probably just from reading about it, because
[7:48] Speaker 3: I haven't driven either one. But I think I would
[7:50] Speaker 3: rather drive the fore or buy the four fifty eight
[7:52] Speaker 3: because remember we were talking to Mark Royce from General Motors,
[7:55] Speaker 3: and he said, when they were looking to benchmark the Corvette,
[7:58] Speaker 3: they got a forty eight and they were like, this
[8:00] Speaker 3: actually isn't as good as the four to fifty eight,
[8:02] Speaker 3: So they sold that one and got the four to
[8:04] Speaker 3: fifty eight instead.
[8:05] Speaker 1: And the four to five. I just think the eighty
[8:08] Speaker 1: eight is a little more distinctive. But I will agree
[8:10] Speaker 1: with you that it's both beautiful cars.
[8:14] Speaker 3: I'm and we don't have to get off subject, but
[8:16] Speaker 3: I've been looking at lately three sixties, three fifty fives,
[8:20] Speaker 3: three sixties and what's the four thirty to try and
[8:26] Speaker 3: decide which one you'd buy if you're looking at one
[8:29] Speaker 3: of those kind of around one hundred thousand dollars Mark,
[8:33] Speaker 3: But let's put that aside for now and just talk
[8:35] Speaker 3: about this car because it is absolutely beautiful. The convertible
[8:41] Speaker 3: top mechanism works great. It doesn't have many of the
[8:44] Speaker 3: things that previously Aston Martin would have these blemishes or
[8:48] Speaker 3: these weird kind of anachronistic features that you thought like
[8:53] Speaker 3: this doesn't look.
[8:54] Speaker 1: Up to date, huge as question marks like what is
[8:58] Speaker 1: what are they thinking?
[8:59] Speaker 2: But this does I think for the most part, it
[9:01] Speaker 2: checks everything. It fixes that box. You've driven it? What what?
[9:04] Speaker 2: What's your take on it?
[9:05] Speaker 1: I extremely beautiful, extremely powerful.
[9:09] Speaker 2: To me.
[9:10] Speaker 1: It felt very wide. It feels it's a big car.
[9:14] Speaker 1: It feels wide. It takes up a lot of space
[9:17] Speaker 1: within the driving lane. I thought it drove pretty pretty great.
[9:23] Speaker 1: I would have liked to. I mean, it's it's not
[9:26] Speaker 1: a nimble It's not a nimble car like you might
[9:30] Speaker 1: expect from a nine to eleven. Yes, sorry to say that,
[9:34] Speaker 1: it's not quite as nimble and elegant even as some
[9:38] Speaker 1: of the Ferraris even like a Ferrari Roma. To be honest,
[9:41] Speaker 1: I know that sounds crazy. It's just it's more of
[9:45] Speaker 1: a it's more of a touring car.
[9:47] Speaker 3: That doesn't sound crazy, and actually so you can change
[9:50] Speaker 3: modes by swinging the dial that surrounds the start button.
[9:55] Speaker 3: And I've noticed that, you know, those cars will have
[9:57] Speaker 3: normal and then Sport and then track or whatever. Normal
[10:00] Speaker 3: mode for this car is GT mode, so they know
[10:04] Speaker 3: it's a GT. And actually when I was I walked
[10:06] Speaker 3: out to my driveway to get in it for the
[10:08] Speaker 3: commute this morning, and it's you.
[10:10] Speaker 2: Know, the hood is so long.
[10:13] Speaker 1: It's a big car.
[10:14] Speaker 3: I thought, Man, this thing is huge, and it yes,
[10:16] Speaker 3: you know, honestly terrifies me a little bit to drive these.
[10:18] Speaker 3: The Rolls Royce was scary for me to pilot around
[10:21] Speaker 3: because it's so big. And if I heard it, I'm afraid,
[10:24] Speaker 3: a I'm gonna be liable and be you know, Jerry
[10:28] Speaker 3: and the guys at Rolls Royce are never gonna talk
[10:29] Speaker 3: to me again.
[10:31] Speaker 1: Matt. You'd be far from the perse first or the
[10:33] Speaker 1: last press person too.
[10:35] Speaker 3: I don't mind, like you know, if I if I
[10:39] Speaker 3: hit a wall with a Camaro, but if I do
[10:42] Speaker 3: it with you know, these six dollars cars. In any case,
[10:47] Speaker 3: I when I got in it and I drove it,
[10:49] Speaker 3: and I took it down the Bronxburg Parkway, over the
[10:51] Speaker 3: Cross County, down the Sprain Brook to the sawmill to
[10:57] Speaker 3: the Henriette's the Westside Highway, So that is a commute
[11:00] Speaker 3: that a lot of Yes New Yorkers, And and even
[11:05] Speaker 3: at five in the morning, you still get some wheel
[11:08] Speaker 3: to wheel action, you know, like considerable especially and I
[11:13] Speaker 3: actually didn't have any problem planting it exactly where I
[11:16] Speaker 3: wanted to. I will say, the only the only problem
[11:19] Speaker 3: they had, or the only concern I would have with
[11:21] Speaker 3: this is when it's in full automode.
[11:23] Speaker 2: And of course you can't get it.
[11:24] Speaker 1: In a stick, which was another topic I.
[11:27] Speaker 2: Know I talked to.
[11:28] Speaker 3: I was talking to Laurence Stroll about this a couple
[11:29] Speaker 3: of months ago, and he was like, we could do it,
[11:31] Speaker 3: and I was like, you'reantimistic.
[11:33] Speaker 2: He's just was.
[11:34] Speaker 3: Saying that to me, I think, and you know, he's
[11:37] Speaker 3: the billionaire owner, so he's like, you, we can no
[11:39] Speaker 3: but his beingcounters are gonna be like, dude, we cannot
[11:42] Speaker 3: do that. But so when you have it in full
[11:45] Speaker 3: auto mode, uh, and in sport, it down shifts so
[11:51] Speaker 3: quickly that it is really scary, and I worry that
[11:55] Speaker 3: I won't.
[11:55] Speaker 2: Be able to keep control of the vehicle.
[11:57] Speaker 3: So I instantly put it back into manual and drove
[11:59] Speaker 3: with the paddles, because when it steps down to like
[12:03] Speaker 3: fourth or third and you're already doing eighty or ninety,
[12:06] Speaker 3: not that I was doing that speed, all of a sudden,
[12:08] Speaker 3: you're doing one thirty and you're like whoa, and that
[12:12] Speaker 3: would be illegal, and I would never do that.
[12:13] Speaker 2: On public roads.
[12:15] Speaker 3: So I prefer to keep it in the manual paddle
[12:17] Speaker 3: shift mode because you have more control over the acceleration,
[12:22] Speaker 3: which is like when you touch the pedal hard, it's
[12:25] Speaker 3: like a hellcat. You get real slippage right away.
[12:28] Speaker 1: Right, And I don't necessarily think that is a good thing,
[12:32] Speaker 1: to be quite honest, scratching it, you know, well right,
[12:38] Speaker 1: for a car, it would be nice if it was
[12:40] Speaker 1: a little bit more predictable or confidence and confidence inspiring.
[12:46] Speaker 3: So my point is that for the most part, I
[12:49] Speaker 3: thought it was really confidence inspiring it. There were no
[12:51] Speaker 3: times when I was worried about rubbing somebody else or
[12:54] Speaker 3: scraping the barrier, and I was weaving fairly New York.
[13:00] Speaker 2: You know.
[13:02] Speaker 3: The only control issue I had is when I dropped
[13:06] Speaker 3: the hammer in automode in sport, it just downshifts so
[13:12] Speaker 3: quickly that you're all of a sudden you're accelerating so
[13:15] Speaker 3: much with eight hundred and twenty four horse power, it
[13:17] Speaker 3: really is. It felt a lot faster than the Mercedes
[13:21] Speaker 3: GT sixty three se performance that I had, which also
[13:24] Speaker 3: was eight hundred horsepower and one thousand foot pounds of hork.
[13:27] Speaker 1: But probably half as expensive.
[13:29] Speaker 3: Literally, well, no less than half is expensive, right, It
[13:33] Speaker 3: was two fifty.
[13:35] Speaker 1: That's what I keep coming back to, to be honest.
[13:36] Speaker 1: And I just looked up the numbers on Bloomberg Intelligence,
[13:39] Speaker 1: our data side of things. Bloomberg Intelligence says that vehicle
[13:43] Speaker 1: prices at Aston Martin are more than four times the
[13:46] Speaker 1: average price at Mercedes and more than two and a
[13:49] Speaker 1: half times the average price at Portia. And I know
[13:52] Speaker 1: what they're trying to do. They need cash, but I
[13:55] Speaker 1: just don't. The Aston Martin to me would be like,
[13:58] Speaker 1: if I already have all those other cars, then I
[14:00] Speaker 1: will also get that too.
[14:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you have to. This has got to
[14:04] Speaker 3: be for the woman who already has everything.
[14:06] Speaker 1: Of course, we're talking very hypothetically, but also that's the
[14:08] Speaker 1: great thing about cars. We all like to dream, and
[14:11] Speaker 1: we all like to imagine if if we could, this
[14:14] Speaker 1: is what we do. It's very aspirational. That's a wonderful thing.
[14:18] Speaker 1: We're all dreaming here.
[14:19] Speaker 3: I also think this is just gonna be such a
[14:21] Speaker 3: rare vehicle you're not gonna see. You'll see a lot
[14:24] Speaker 3: of vantages. Probably you're not gonna see a lot of
[14:27] Speaker 3: Vanquishes out there. And when you do, I recommend you
[14:31] Speaker 3: spend some time to really look at the vehicle.
[14:34] Speaker 2: If you can get in it.
[14:35] Speaker 3: It's very comfortable, even for someone of my height, which
[14:38] Speaker 3: is I.
[14:39] Speaker 1: Was gonna ask you, Oh yeah, it's the seating is
[14:42] Speaker 1: very low.
[14:43] Speaker 3: It's low, but which I like legroom, and I'm all
[14:46] Speaker 3: leg You know.
[14:48] Speaker 1: We've discussed this, so I think I.
[14:50] Speaker 3: Think they've nailed it on almost every level. Of course,
[14:53] Speaker 3: I would prefer a stick.
[14:55] Speaker 2: It's obviously not going to happen.
[14:56] Speaker 3: This is more of a GT cars you point out anyway,
[14:59] Speaker 3: so maybe you don't need that. And I felt the
[15:03] Speaker 3: driving experience is I can't wait to get out of
[15:06] Speaker 3: this studio and go drive it right now.
[15:08] Speaker 1: And for the record, I would say that this Vanquish
[15:11] Speaker 1: is steps better than previous ass and Martins. The cars
[15:17] Speaker 1: are continuing to get better, they're continuing to improve, They're
[15:20] Speaker 1: all going in the right direction. I think they understand that.
[15:23] Speaker 3: So as much as I'm in love with this vehicle,
[15:27] Speaker 3: and how could you not be for six hundred, they
[15:29] Speaker 3: better make something amazing. I do think it is the
[15:31] Speaker 3: most beautiful new car in existence. There is a flaw,
[15:36] Speaker 3: and it's similar to a flaw that I noticed that
[15:40] Speaker 3: really kind of irked me on the Rolls Royce, and
[15:43] Speaker 3: we're going to talk about that next because this gets
[15:47] Speaker 3: exactly to the heart of your story on Bloomberg dot
[15:50] Speaker 3: Com right now and on the Bloomberg terminal that's coming
[15:53] Speaker 3: up on the show. I'm Matt Miller along with Hannah Elliott.
[15:56] Speaker 3: There's more Hot Pursuit coming up right after this. Now,
[16:08] Speaker 3: let's talk about Hannah's latest piece on carmakers needing to
[16:11] Speaker 3: pivot away from some of their new fancy tech. And
[16:17] Speaker 3: tell me about I mean, this is something you kind
[16:19] Speaker 3: of talk about to some extent with regards to the
[16:22] Speaker 3: Mercedes volume Knob, But tell me about how the genesis
[16:26] Speaker 3: of this story.
[16:27] Speaker 1: I mean, we talk about this type of thing pretty regularly,
[16:31] Speaker 1: and it was the volume Knobs at Mercedes that really
[16:34] Speaker 1: kind of crystallized the idea in my head because when
[16:38] Speaker 1: I was in Munich at the IA Show last month
[16:41] Speaker 1: for the debut of the new GLC, which is mercedes
[16:44] Speaker 1: top selling suv. You know, multiple board members at Mercedes
[16:48] Speaker 1: were very open about the fact that hey, yeah, by
[16:51] Speaker 1: the way, we are bringing back the real roller switch
[16:57] Speaker 1: on the steering wheel that you operate with your thumb
[16:59] Speaker 1: that control the volume that everyone loved in Mercedes, that
[17:02] Speaker 1: no one had a problem with. They had gotten away
[17:04] Speaker 1: from that with a haptic version, and Mercedes folks were
[17:08] Speaker 1: very open saying we're gonna go back to the roller
[17:10] Speaker 1: thing because everyone loved it, and we realized we didn't
[17:14] Speaker 1: need it, like we just didn't need it. No one
[17:16] Speaker 1: was asking for the new haptic style, and I thought
[17:19] Speaker 1: that was great. And then when, for instance, Tesla had
[17:23] Speaker 1: their big problem with their electronic door handles, obviously we
[17:28] Speaker 1: talked to Franz von Holshausen, the Tesla designer, about that,
[17:31] Speaker 1: and Franz told us, hey, we're actually going to reconfigure
[17:35] Speaker 1: these electronic door handles that have been criticized as a
[17:38] Speaker 1: safety handard hazard. That really got me thinking, you know what,
[17:44] Speaker 1: there is a moment when automakers right now are being
[17:48] Speaker 1: a little bit more introspective and they're saying actually, we're
[17:53] Speaker 1: going to listen to consumers and really read the market here,
[17:56] Speaker 1: and we're not just going to throw new things at
[17:59] Speaker 1: you because we can, or the dirty little secret just
[18:02] Speaker 1: because it'll save us money. Which is another aspect of
[18:06] Speaker 1: some of this new tech that we can talk about.
[18:07] Speaker 3: Well, I can imagine one of the ways that at
[18:10] Speaker 3: least those car makers who can afford it, or those
[18:13] Speaker 3: selling cars to people who can afford to pay for it,
[18:15] Speaker 3: is at one point the whole industry went to everything
[18:19] Speaker 3: on the screen, like every even the climate control was
[18:23] Speaker 3: in the screen.
[18:23] Speaker 1: Or the the aravins.
[18:25] Speaker 3: Yes, we're screens exactly. And what consumers want, even consumers
[18:30] Speaker 3: who love new technology, is actual buttons and knobs, especially
[18:34] Speaker 3: for the things that you need on a regular basis.
[18:36] Speaker 1: Right completely. Another example which I thought was so interesting
[18:42] Speaker 1: is Lincoln, which had put their active park assist in
[18:45] Speaker 1: a lot of their vehicles for a couple of years.
[18:48] Speaker 1: I spent a bunch of money developing this pretty actually
[18:51] Speaker 1: pretty well working system that would automatically park your car
[18:55] Speaker 1: for you, and Lincoln would look at their consumer data,
[19:00] Speaker 1: consumer data that they capture in the cars, and they
[19:02] Speaker 1: realized nobody was using it, like nobody was using this
[19:06] Speaker 1: active park assis thing because you know, you can park
[19:08] Speaker 1: your own car, you don't need it. And so Lincoln
[19:10] Speaker 1: just announced that for the twenty twenty five model year
[19:12] Speaker 1: they're taking it out because no one used it and
[19:15] Speaker 1: they don't need to put it in. So that's another
[19:17] Speaker 1: example of just this idea that you're saying that we
[19:21] Speaker 1: don't need necessarily new things that are are answering a
[19:26] Speaker 1: question that nobody's asking.
[19:28] Speaker 2: That's that's interesting.
[19:29] Speaker 3: I think I don't one hundred percent agree with that,
[19:32] Speaker 3: because Okay, so we had that park assist, you know,
[19:36] Speaker 3: automatic park assist on our twenty twenty g Wagon, and
[19:42] Speaker 3: I used it a fair amount because.
[19:44] Speaker 2: That's also a car.
[19:44] Speaker 3: You don't I didn't want to scratch in Berlin. Yeah,
[19:47] Speaker 3: And the only problem with it is that it's a
[19:51] Speaker 3: little bit finicky to activate, and but after I figured
[19:56] Speaker 3: it out, I would use it a fair amount. When
[19:57] Speaker 3: I was driving this Rolls Royce Ghost a couple weeks ago.
[20:00] Speaker 2: Also, I.
[20:02] Speaker 3: Was like, all right, I don't want to risk trying
[20:04] Speaker 3: to park this thing myself because it's a boat and
[20:07] Speaker 3: I don't want to even nick the paint. But again,
[20:11] Speaker 3: it was it was a little bit too difficult to
[20:14] Speaker 3: activate and use.
[20:16] Speaker 1: And you mean that because to activate it you have
[20:18] Speaker 1: to get the car in a very specific position.
[20:21] Speaker 2: Yes, I have to go very specific.
[20:24] Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I've experienced that too. It's like you have
[20:28] Speaker 1: to do everything exactly just so, and I think that's
[20:32] Speaker 1: why it doesn't get used. Maybe you're the exception, Matt,
[20:36] Speaker 1: but I don't. For me, I don't have the patience.
[20:38] Speaker 1: I'd rather just take the risk and park it myself.
[20:41] Speaker 3: I don't know how much of it is the fact
[20:43] Speaker 3: that I'm always driving test vehicles, so I don't have
[20:45] Speaker 3: time to live with and experience them.
[20:46] Speaker 2: So in the car that you know, my wife and.
[20:49] Speaker 3: I bought and we used it on a regular basis
[20:53] Speaker 3: when I had enough time to figure it out. I
[20:56] Speaker 3: did use it more often, especially in tight spots in Berlin.
[20:59] Speaker 3: You know, for some reason, they think all cars should
[21:02] Speaker 3: be the size of a Fiat Panda, and so it
[21:06] Speaker 3: was more necessary. I feel like if I if I
[21:09] Speaker 3: actually owned a Rolls Royce Ghost, I probably would figure
[21:12] Speaker 3: it out to the point where I could use it
[21:13] Speaker 3: on a regular basis, and hopefully car makers because I
[21:16] Speaker 3: think that's great functionality, like the auto park. Yeah, I
[21:20] Speaker 3: mean you may be good at parking, and my wife,
[21:22] Speaker 3: for example, is amazing at parallel parking.
[21:25] Speaker 1: It's on how confident I'm feeling that.
[21:27] Speaker 2: I am not very good at it.
[21:29] Speaker 3: And I'm also horrified of scratching rims.
[21:33] Speaker 1: And that's the worst sound in the world.
[21:36] Speaker 3: And for some reason, I mean, this is another sort
[21:39] Speaker 3: of It's not a high tech thing, but I wish
[21:40] Speaker 3: car makers would get away from giant wheels, you know that.
[21:44] Speaker 2: Have no sidewall.
[21:47] Speaker 1: You rolls.
[21:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, and I hate it on all cars, Like I
[21:50] Speaker 3: want sidewall, and I also want the wheels to be
[21:54] Speaker 3: protected by the rubber on the tire so that when
[21:56] Speaker 3: I do hit a curb it's not a you know,
[21:59] Speaker 3: five thousand dollars mistake. So I like park assists.
[22:03] Speaker 1: But yeah, I get that. You know, we should say
[22:07] Speaker 1: too that just trying something out in a new car
[22:10] Speaker 1: and then walking back from it is not a new thing.
[22:13] Speaker 1: This has happened in the history of cars. And one
[22:16] Speaker 1: perfect example of this is do you remember in the
[22:18] Speaker 1: eighties and nineties those automatic shoulder belts that were attached
[22:24] Speaker 1: to the to the car when served to you, Yes,
[22:28] Speaker 1: which I actually thought was the height of sophistication. Growing up.
[22:32] Speaker 1: I thought it was very cool, but those were prone
[22:35] Speaker 1: to twisting and sticking, and half of those doors were
[22:38] Speaker 1: so big anyway, it was not elegant to like engage it.
[22:44] Speaker 1: So those went away, especially when what's the word driver airbags?
[22:50] Speaker 1: When airbags became standard, that basically did away with the
[22:53] Speaker 1: safety harness. Did you have a car have a car
[22:55] Speaker 1: with a safety harness on it?
[22:57] Speaker 3: Well, by safety harness you mean the little ard the
[23:01] Speaker 3: seat belt.
[23:02] Speaker 2: Yes. Have I ever owned a car that had that?
[23:05] Speaker 3: I don't think so, although there have been cars in
[23:08] Speaker 3: which I wish that was. Keep in mind, I scooted
[23:11] Speaker 3: my seat all the way back, and I lean the
[23:17] Speaker 3: and I lean the seat back, so I can usually
[23:19] Speaker 3: grab it pretty well. But no, I I can imagine
[23:23] Speaker 3: that those would break easily and you'd need to pay
[23:25] Speaker 3: money to fix them.
[23:26] Speaker 1: So you know what I would always do too, is
[23:29] Speaker 1: just you could unclip the shoulder section, so the little
[23:34] Speaker 1: modular would run across the top of the door with
[23:37] Speaker 1: nothing attached. And I would just always unclick the because
[23:42] Speaker 1: I had actually had an accurate legend at one point
[23:45] Speaker 1: in college, and I just unclicked it because it was
[23:47] Speaker 1: annoying and it didn't really work.
[23:50] Speaker 2: Interesting. Interesting.
[23:52] Speaker 3: One modern tech feature that the that the Ghost had,
[23:55] Speaker 3: which I wish more car makers would give you is
[24:00] Speaker 3: instead of reaching out to close the big doors, and
[24:02] Speaker 3: I have this problem in my Challenger, and it is
[24:05] Speaker 3: actually like a major first world problem with the Aston.
[24:09] Speaker 2: Martin as well.
[24:10] Speaker 3: Rolls Royce has just a button that you hold in
[24:14] Speaker 3: the console and the door closes automatically for you.
[24:17] Speaker 1: Have you ever closed it on your leg?
[24:20] Speaker 2: No?
[24:21] Speaker 3: Do?
[24:22] Speaker 1: Okay, I have done that.
[24:25] Speaker 3: Doesn't it have some sort of safety mechanism that make
[24:28] Speaker 3: sure it doesn't?
[24:29] Speaker 2: You know?
[24:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, there is a safety thing. You have to keep
[24:32] Speaker 1: your finger on the button.
[24:34] Speaker 2: Yes, true, Yeah it won't.
[24:35] Speaker 1: You can't just push the button once and the door
[24:37] Speaker 1: closes no matter what not, Like you have to keep right,
[24:40] Speaker 1: You have to keep your finger on the button. If
[24:42] Speaker 1: you take your finger off, the door stops, which is
[24:44] Speaker 1: a nice little thing.
[24:45] Speaker 3: Can I tell you the major complaint that I had
[24:48] Speaker 3: with the Rolls Royce Ghost and the major complaint that
[24:51] Speaker 3: I have with this Aston Martin Vanquish and one that
[24:55] Speaker 3: I would have in plenty of cars, certainly in nine
[24:58] Speaker 3: to eleven's is car makers had developed, especially luxury car makers,
[25:03] Speaker 3: high end car makers had developed the most beautiful analog
[25:07] Speaker 3: gauges and and a lot of cars like a Rolls
[25:09] Speaker 3: Royce Ghost that was a selling point. They have the
[25:12] Speaker 3: gorgeous white face and they have these platinum yeah exactly
[25:18] Speaker 3: arms and so beautiful and when I'm operating a motor vehicle,
[25:22] Speaker 3: I want to see that kind of thing. Now they've
[25:24] Speaker 3: gone to these screens in the dash the aston has
[25:29] Speaker 3: its have it And I get that they're configurable somehow
[25:36] Speaker 3: if you fiddle with it, and maybe you have your
[25:38] Speaker 3: own favorite configuration, but they're just so ghetto compared to
[25:43] Speaker 3: a car that you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for.
[25:46] Speaker 3: You want the analog gauges, and I imagine this is
[25:48] Speaker 3: a way that they're just saving money.
[25:51] Speaker 1: Yes, it's transparent, this is This is something that has
[25:55] Speaker 1: been bothering me because Porscha just announced the interior for
[26:00] Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six Cayenne Electric suv and that interior,
[26:05] Speaker 1: I was hoping that maybe they listened to customers and
[26:08] Speaker 1: they decided to go back to at least a couple
[26:11] Speaker 1: of the dials in the dashboard being analog, because as
[26:16] Speaker 1: everybody knows, Porsche has five gauges. They went down to
[26:20] Speaker 1: a few being computerized, and now they're all computerized. And
[26:24] Speaker 1: I thought, for a second, maybe Porsche would, you know,
[26:27] Speaker 1: go back to some actual analog old world gauges. They
[26:32] Speaker 1: did not do that well, and now I mean the
[26:34] Speaker 1: whole thing is a computer screen.
[26:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, I was the amount of money that they're not
[26:42] Speaker 3: making right now. They've had profit learning after profit warning,
[26:46] Speaker 3: the stock has been actually cost they don't really they
[26:49] Speaker 3: need to save money where they can.
[26:51] Speaker 1: And the development what about making cars people want right.
[26:56] Speaker 2: Well, the development cycle of these cars is also multi year.
[26:59] Speaker 3: Right. Even if they decided, like when they had a
[27:02] Speaker 3: GTS launch in Sevilla last year and you said to
[27:08] Speaker 3: Oliver Blooma, here, Blooma, I really don't appreciate these digital gauges,
[27:14] Speaker 3: he probably would have said, like, well, we need to
[27:16] Speaker 3: save money right now, so we're putting these digital gauges
[27:19] Speaker 3: on a two hundred thousand dollars car.
[27:20] Speaker 1: But I only wish you'd been that Fach.
[27:22] Speaker 3: We're developing a new nine to eleven Hannah, and it's
[27:26] Speaker 3: going to have actual analog gauges because that's we know
[27:29] Speaker 3: what everyone wants. It's going to have a handbreak instead
[27:33] Speaker 3: of an electric button because that's what we know everyone wants,
[27:36] Speaker 3: I know, and it's going to have an optional stick
[27:38] Speaker 3: because although it's expensive, we charge multiple hundreds of thousands
[27:41] Speaker 3: of dollars for these nine to elevens, and so we
[27:45] Speaker 3: are going to give the customer what the customer.
[27:47] Speaker 1: Choose, because that is long term thinking about. Yes, it's
[27:50] Speaker 1: going to cost more money, but in the end, if
[27:52] Speaker 1: we sell more cars, then it's worth it.
[27:55] Speaker 3: If anybody should put actual beautiful platinum analog, I was
[28:00] Speaker 3: gonna say Rolls Royce. If Rolls Royce doesn't do analog gauges,
[28:05] Speaker 3: I mean they don't need.
[28:07] Speaker 1: But also Porsia because think of all the racing history
[28:10] Speaker 1: that built up the Porsche brand and racing and like
[28:14] Speaker 1: real chronological timekeeping pieces are so integral to each other.
[28:21] Speaker 1: It just would make it's like a sporting it's a
[28:23] Speaker 1: sporting brand, it's motorsports. Every piece of motorsport history has
[28:29] Speaker 1: tons of gauges and timekeeping machines.
[28:31] Speaker 3: And I know a car enthusiast is so much more
[28:36] Speaker 3: likely to wear a traditional mechanical watch mechanical, even though
[28:42] Speaker 3: the Apple watch can do so much for you, right,
[28:45] Speaker 3: you'd rather have the tics.
[28:48] Speaker 1: Well, the other thing too is anytime for this article
[28:52] Speaker 1: about the tech I keep going back to, but if
[28:55] Speaker 1: you you know, I spoke with the editors from Edmunds
[28:59] Speaker 1: and from Kelly Bluebook and they both said, flat out,
[29:03] Speaker 1: all of our research indicates consumers are so overscreened. Period.
[29:08] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:10] Speaker 1: I mean, and these are independent third parties. This is
[29:13] Speaker 1: separate from the automakers trying to tell us what we
[29:15] Speaker 1: want or what they think we should have. I mean,
[29:17] Speaker 1: I don't know how much more clear you can get.
[29:19] Speaker 3: Well, hopefully, you know, if it takes five years from
[29:22] Speaker 3: start to finish to develop and then sell a car,
[29:25] Speaker 3: maybe we're going to start to see more ages.
[29:29] Speaker 1: I would love it.
[29:34] Speaker 2: All Right, That does it for this week's show.
[29:36] Speaker 3: Remember to follow and subscribe to Hot Pursuit on Apple, Spotify,
[29:40] Speaker 3: and anywhere else you listen. You can also send us
[29:42] Speaker 3: your comments and questions. Email us at hot Pursuit at
[29:45] Speaker 3: Bloomberg dot act.
[29:46] Speaker 1: For sure, and check out my columns and stories on
[29:49] Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com and the Bloomberg Business App. You can
[29:53] Speaker 1: also go there for car reviews, events and stories that
[29:55] Speaker 1: you won't find anywhere else. Find it all at Bloomberg
[29:59] Speaker 1: dot com s lsh Pursuits slash Autos.
[30:02] Speaker 3: I'm Hannah Elliott and I'm Matt Miller will be back
[30:05] Speaker 3: in your podcast feed again next week

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