Exploring Car Data Privacy with Jack Nerad and Reviews of the 2023 Kia Soul GT Line

Welcome to another In Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am, central. It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show, coming up on monthly visit with author and well known car professor Jack Nehrad. Later a look at the automotive headlines this week, if we get time to get them in there, we're going to do the events calendar and Mr Mars has his Kia Soul review we're going to put in this segment. So stay with us. Audi, along with Mike out of this world, mars King, conrad DeLong. I'm Don Armstrong Jeff's on vacation this week. He'll be back with us next week. We miss you, jeff. How bad do we miss him.

We're bad, jeff, I owe you big time.

Yeah well, just remember that it comes up at dollar signs and I'm sure that Mr Mars will gladly pay you to come back Next time, I'll give him two quarters. Two quarters. That's it Joining us now. Author. Professor of cars, trucks, suvs, electrics. His name is Jack Nehrad. Jack, it's always good to see you, my friend. You're looking good. How are you?

Terrific to see you guys. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.

Well, thank you as always. By the way, apparently Mars got your gift package of the books Dance in the Dark, jack's latest foray into novels, and we're looking forward to digging into that for you there, Jack.

I hope so. I look forward to your criticism, don.

I want to hear what you have to say. Don was looking for the pictures.

Yeah, he flipped through it real quick.

I think the cover photo is probably the best picture in the whole book.

Well, I have to tell you, I think it's the only picture. Well, there's that. So, jack, how are things out there in sunny California?

Crazy. They continue to be crazy, but we're working through a bunch of different things. One of the things in California that I found interesting recently is there is an agency in California a state agency I wasn't aware of this state agency that looks at privacy issues and they're looking at cars as a possible source of privacy problems because when you stop and think about it, your car is collecting a bunch of data about you all the time, and what most people don't realize is the car companies are keeping that data a lot of the time and that can be accessed potentially. So if you've got an in-car camera that's looking at your face to make certain that you're paying attention, that might be captured.

Well, let's just hope that it's only your face that they're looking at.

Yeah, exactly, there's a lot of things people privately do in their cars that they probably would rather not have other people see, right.

Yeah, and GM OnStar has been collecting data for decades.

Yeah, exactly. So some of it is collected, like Google would collect or like Apple would collect, just to market to you and do all of that kind of thing.

Well, the first time I heard of this sort of thing we were up visiting Lingenfelter. Oh yeah, and in his collection he had a Bugatti and a Veyron and I said, well boy, that's really a neat car. He says, yeah, we've got to be careful what we do, because the instant that you turn it on it is in touch with the factory, and the factory quote, unquote is looking at the engine and all of the components in the car to make sure that everything is okay. Sure, they are. But that was the first insight into that. I had no clue that that was even available. But from now I understand it's available, not available. It's on almost every car that is available for sale.

Yeah, and there's some cars that are collecting. You know they have cameras outside. Obviously you use that for blind spot and those kind of things, but even when the car is parked, they're collecting data on people who are just walking by and video on people just walking by. You know, I think the Dutch authorities got after Tesla for that because they were passing them around within Tesla. Oh, look at this, this is a good one, check this out. Pretty bizarre stuff.

Well, see, that's what I would do. I'd go over to your desk and say, Jack, oh my God, you're not going to believe what I've run across today. Check this out.

Well, it's kind of like people using the Google Earth video or the Google Earth pictures and you know, because every now and then I'll get one from somebody. Hey, check this out, you know. And here's Gumby in a Google Earth picture at some street address somewhere that they passed by while they were taking the picture. Well, the people knew the Google Earth truck was coming by or car was coming by.

They were outside. Yeah, nobody about them. So, jack, I want to know. We had a story we actually had consumer reports on earlier on a show talking about this, and it's a lawsuit out of California about a group suing Tesla because they say that the car gets whatever, it is 350 mile range and in true form actually the real mileage and a warm condition is like 100 miles less than that. What have you got on that?

This might really blow up. So I mean, we've been talking about that on America on the road. You know the radio show that I do because in a way, this has a lot of symptoms of dieselgate. Right, what Volkswagen did and what some of the other manufacturers did to manipulate things in their favor right, and it sounds like this is all alleged. This is not proven. This is not proven in court, but there's the possibility that Tesla has kind of rigged the system in its favor and what they're suggesting is, a lot of times the car will give you a more optimistic prediction of what your range is going to be than what it really is going to be and it gives you a warm feeling about the car, but then you're kind of, you know, your hopes are dashed right when you're oh boy, I'm barely gonna make it to the next supercharger situation. So this could be a big big deal because they're alleging this and they're alleging that there is money that has been lost by the consumers because they bought a car that actually gets has lower range than they were led to believe.

Well, and my opinion is a class action lawsuit about making attorneys rich. The members of the class make very little, you know. Look, somebody's now suing Taco Bell because there's not enough meat in their Mexican pizza. You know they're all looking for who's got the pockets and they wanna go sue somebody who's got the pockets.

And I know that you know, this group of lawyers is looking for other plaintiffs right, Other people to join the suit. They'd love to have, you know, hundreds, if not thousands, of Tesla owners, because that would just make the pot bigger.

You know, jack, one article I read and I don't remember exactly where I read it talked about how they test the EVs and they usually put them on a dyno, they set the speed at 50 miles an hour, which is what I thought was kind of weird, and they just let it run until the battery goes dead. When the battery goes dead, they recharge it and they do the test. I think it said three times, and they take that average and that's where they come up with the mileage. They don't take any account that it's 148 degrees out here in East Texas. They don't take into account that it's 40 below in Montana or that somebody's driving 80 instead of 50. And I thought how can you even expect this to be even close if you've got it under such controlled conditions that nobody uses?

Right. Well, it reminds me of the early days of the fuel economy numbers that were way off and then they had to adjust that significantly because they were, you know, 25% higher than they should have been, that kind of thing. So I think they're still honing in on what range really is in an electric vehicle. As you point out, when you have extremes in temperature either way and you're using either heat or air conditioning and other factors, that's gonna knock down your range big time and that can be a big problem.

Jack, I was telling everybody that. You know, there was several years ago that I went to a test track facility for one of the manufacturers and there were some cars out there on the test track. I said, oh, what are they doing? Oh well, that's the EPA. They're getting the mileage for the cars. And I said, oh well, what's it like to have government employees? And they said, oh no, no, there's not the EPA government people, that's our people. We just supply them with the numbers. And I was kind of blown away by that. It wasn't an EPA person in there. They just go by the rules that are written by the EPA to perform the test.

Contractors, exactly exactly. There's some auditing done. Probably, you know, every now and then they'll pull a vehicle and EPA will actually see if it's matching up. But it's largely up to the manufacturers to provide the data and that's what they draw the EPA numbers from.

Yeah, so what have you driven lately that sets you up and goes? Oh, I really like that car.

Yeah, I had a couple recently. I got a chance to drive the 2024 Mustangs, the GT and the EcoBoost recently and those are really nice cars In that old kind of this is just a good car, good value kind of way. You know I like them a lot. I like the way they look, I like what they've done to the interior of the vehicles Little more horsepower for each of them. Gt is very old school with the V8 engine. The EcoBoost has a turbocharged four cylinder engine, so you can get that. I think they've done a good job and of course it's good to see the Mustang stick around right with Camaro leaving us at the end of the year.

As his challenger.

Yeah, exactly those kind of cars going away. So nice to see that Ford has renewed that.

Well, I'm interested in the EcoBoost four cylinder. That's over 300 horsepower, isn't it?

Yeah, 315 horsepower. I think they opted five horsepower for this time around. We drove it in the hills above Eastern Los Angeles Hills kind of mountains. I guess in Bernardino Mountains had a blast. Very torquey car I think it's got more than 325 pound feet of torque, peak torque, which is quite good, and it's available fairly low in the RPM band. So very flexible engine. It's a pretty good performance car. I mean I liked the more horsepower of the GT with the V8 engine but at the same time you can get an EcoBoost for something like $35,000, $40,000. It's really a pretty good performance car. It's satisfying.

Yeah, would you recommend something like that for a 30 year old girl that really is dying to get in the Mustang?

Yes, I absolutely would, you would, absolutely would, yeah.

Okay, and let's see. You said you had the Mach-E. Was it the GT?

The GT okay. Yeah yeah, the EcoBoost and the GT. So the GT is, you know, five liter V8 engine, normally aspirated. If I remember correctly, I think 480 horsepower or something like that. I think you get it Maybe at 486 horsepower. Yeah, that's a ton of horsepower, right. I mean that would be green days back in 1970, right?

Yeah, we had to work hard to get even close to that. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's not the case any longer. Well, so those are the. So there's the Ford product. How about electric vehicles?

Well, I've driven a lot of them recently. One that I've driven recently was the Kia EV6 GT.

Yes, I had that. Oh my gosh, what a car, kind of crazy fast, right?

I mean just almost mind numbingly fast. I'm not sure and I'm curious as to your take. In some ways it's a performance car, but in other ways I don't think it actually is a performance car. It's certainly a performance car in a straight line sense. What's your take on that?

Well, I agree with you. It certainly has the look. I love the look of the car. The styling was unbelievable, the interior was great, the materials that they used and all that. But I drove it most. I only put it in the GT mode a couple of times and well, you know what that's like. I mean it might be on a rocket ship, but that's not for everyday driving. I liked it. I don't know how comfortable it would be in the long term. I think the seats are a little bit too GT-ish, if you will, the wrap around stuff, and that's fine for the short period of time that I normally get the cars, but in the long term the ease of getting in and out of the car, I mean that needs to be considered if you're going to buy it for your everyday commuter car, I think.

Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think actually the GT line, which is also pretty darn quick not as quick, but pretty darn quick with more range, and is less expensive, probably the better buy.

That's what I would say too. I didn't get to drive that car, but I don't need that crazy horsepower. I mean, I like it, don't get me wrong, but for everyday use, I think that not only the price but just everything about it seems to make more sense to me.

Yeah, agree with you?

How are things going on? America on the road Do you take calls on that show?

We take questions but we don't take calls. Got you. We have people write in with questions or text in with questions and then we answer them on an upcoming show.

Do you ever get any kind of a run of questions that are kind of in the same vein on a week to week basis?

Yeah, we do. And kind of continuing on from something we answered the week before, we've had kind of a run of questions about two-seat sports cars, like is it a good idea to have one? What are some good ones? That kind of thing. Certainly, we're getting tons of questions about EVs because we talk about EVs a lot, probably too much, right? I mean, it's still less than 10% of the market, but it's the hottest part of the market, I think, in terms of consumer interest, or one of the hottest parts of the market.

So it's America on the road. And are you still doing TrueCar?

Yes, absolutely. I write for TrueCar. I write for JDPowercom. Virtually all the comparisons on JDPowercom now are I right, so you can look for those.

You're my hero, Jack. I love you, man.

What about the book?

Now the book. Yes, well, of course. Well, we've got it, we've had it up here to the whole show Dance in the Dark, Jack Neyrad, and I hope book sales are going well for you.

Yeah, they seem to be.

And we're going to try to help continue to promote that and we appreciate you being with us today, don just wants to come, my pleasure.

Thanks for having me. All right, jack, we'll talk to you again soon.

Thanks again, take care. You too. Author. Professor of cars, trucks and SUVs. He is Jack Neyrad. All right, man, Let us do, if you don't mind. You want to do Conrad's Events calendar, or do you want to do the car review? Let's do the car review. Mr Mars, let's do the car review. Is it too much to ask? No, you have to do it from a different seat. You're sitting in.

Jeff's seat today. It's so weird to be sitting over here and doing it.

Well, I don't make a habit of it. I'm used to.

Jack's, I'm not making a habit of sitting over here.

I can assure you Used to Jeff sitting there Anyway go ahead.

So we're talking about this time we're talking about the 2023 Kia Soul GT line. Now, this is one of the six trim levels. It's about a mid-trim level. It's front-wheel drive only. They've dropped the all-wheel drive availability, just like they dropped turbo engine option out of the GT line that you could get. Now this is considered a subcompact hatchback. It's considered a compact SUV. It depends on where you go and look for some sort of category on this vehicle and it's really the last of those boxy shapes that came out with the Scion B, the Cube, the Elman, all of them came out. They were all these basic vehicles.

Could you put that up there for the broadcast people to see? Like that, like that.

Yeah.

You're doing a fine job over there.

Apparently we're gonna, two different people are gonna drive, so okay. So the this to me, this is more of what we used to call a station wagon. It does have the big lift gate in the back like an SUV or a CUV, but the way it's laid out and stuff, I would consider the station wagon. It has no real competitors anymore. They've all left the marketplace, so we're gonna find that front. We've got some unique front and rear bumpers, because it is the GT line, got LED lighting all around, fog lights that are on the GT line, tail lights. We had the body color Heated side mirrors that are on it. That really help. It has a sunroof and, again back to your earlier point, crack it a little bit. Let some of that heat out makes a big difference. That's a rear privacy glass that also helped this vehicle as far as keeping the heat out. It rolls on some nice 18 inch alloy wheels and inside we have the cloth and syntax seating surfaces. Front seats are heated, back seats are not. They had the 10.25 inch screen up in the middle of the dash. It was a touchscreen. That's where you're gonna find your rear view camera. You're gonna find the Kia connect system. That's the infotainment system and all your convenience controls that are gonna be right there. It does have a wireless phone charger, front and rear USB ports which are important and the karmine harden premium Audio sound system. Again, drop the turbocharged, so now you only have the 2.0 147 horsepower or 132 pound-feet torque engine in it. It's backed by CVT. The M PPA says you should get 28 in the city, 33 on the highway. Combined should get 30. Now I got 29.1 across 293.3 miles. I thought it was great and I liked driving this car. I can see where it fits into that category quite well. It's not sets up like a big SUV, it's more like a car when you get in it and start driving. It's got adequate power around town. It's got acceptable inch and acceleration to get up on the freeway to make passing. It's a little bit of road noise but and it's a firm ride but it's nothing that you can crank up that Harman Kardon and you'll blow it all out. You won't even notice. I have always loved the Kia, so always base Model on this is 21 to 15 so you can get in the door for $21,000. Now the base trim price that we were driving get mid-trim level 24,000, 815 as tested, 27 to 20 Dang. Still under that 28,000 or you're gonna get a bumper to bumper, five-year 60,000 mile warranty with that, a 10-year hundred thousand mile powertrain warranty and a five-year hundred thousand mile Road assistance warranty with that be. Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. You were looking for something to compare it to. There's still the Hyundai Kona for 22 140 and Mazda CX 30 22 950, maybe even the Chevy 12 trailblazer at 22 1 to wrap it up and that's my review of the Kia soul GT and if I had a need for one, I would absolutely I've always liked them.

I like the styling of them and I have this particular one I drove for several months ago. It's sweet man, I really like it. Yeah, all right time now.

Let's get the events calendar in there, conrad so tomorrow is coffee and chrome at the Avalon diner down here off of the Fountains shopping center at 2, 9 basically 59 and highway 90. Also, october 20th is the 38th and a 38th annual Wolf Creek car and truck and bike show, wolf Creek Park in Cold Spring, texas. August 12th is Cypress cars and coffee back to school drive at the Fairfield Baptist Church. October 28th is the ok Oak Turbo Fest instead of October oak turbofest at the Kareem Shriners in Waco, texas. Lone Star drift round four is at motorsports resort in Angleton. That's August 19th. September 23rd Lone Star drift round five Is at the Houston police Academy at 17,000 Aldean Westfield and then also October 21st Is Lone Star drift to cat drift round 10 at 17,000 Aldean Westfield drive we talked to the drift guy last week.

What are we? Yeah, I, I was blown away. I had no clue and it was very informative. I guess yeah truly enjoyed that. You got a couple of headlines. I want to get in before we wrap things up today. Here's a reminder not to drink and drive, especially when the vehicle being driven as a $600,000 Ferrari that was on display in the showroom of the dealership. Utah Highway Patrol troopers arrested 29-year-old last week after he allegedly broken to Ferrari of Salt Lake City and took a car on a brief joyride. Man used a rock to break the glass wall of the dealership, opened the door of a car inside the building and found the keys on the center console. Morons Police said he started the car and hit the interior glass, four other vehicles and exterior doors on his way out with the vehicle, which was identified only as a model worth $600,000. The other vehicles reportedly sustained an estimated $100,000 of damage. The suspect was arrested by troopers who saw him walking away from the vehicle nearby. According to the man's booking affidavit, he stated this was a spur of the moment act after he was drinking all day.

Yeah, I'm going to get drunk and go steal a half a million dollar Ferrari.

I can't break the glass of the dealership and go in there With the car had the keys in it. Well, that's one.

Yeah, that's two problems there, yeah.

Uber reported its first operating profit, fueled by demand for rides and delivery, and marking a significant milestone as the company seeks to move beyond its cash burning past. They had. I didn't think they were going to make it and that the CEO of the company was spending all the money as fast as it brought it in. What a mess. But every I mean who doesn't know about Uber? Now Quite the change in direction and Toyota's Land Cruiser nameplate rejoins the brand's US lineup next year in a trimmed down and less expensive form. Much closer to the off-roaders roots than its bloated predecessor, which had evolved to overlap similar body on frame Lexus models, the Land Cruiser will be smaller, more nimble and equipped with a hybridized turbocharged powertrain, a host of infotainment systems, assistance and driver assistance features, and a boxy look that evokes its early heritage. Did you see the picture of it? Kind of interesting. It'll start in the mid fifties range. Toyota suspended US sales of Land Cruiser in 2021 after a 63 year run. Low volume off-roader started at 86 eight back in the day Crazy.

Very much in the vein of the original.

Yeah 2.4 liter turbocharged engine made it to an eight speed automatic transmission and a 48 horsepower electric motor. And Tesla All you, tesla owners, here you go. Us auto safety regulars have opened an investigation into the 23 Tesla Model 3 and Y electric vehicles after reports of loss of steering control. Agency said it has opened the safety probe to assess the scope, frequency and manufacturing processes associated with the issue. The probe could affect about 280,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. What do you got on tap this week, mr Mars, other than working on the show?

I got an invite to a Toyota event next Friday, the 11th, here in town. I did. They're going to have a few new Toyotas out there. I didn't get that invite Well they knew you couldn't make it.

Are you still a journalist? Are you still with the Texas Auto Writers Association? Yes, sir. Oh well, that's why, that's why, all right, I can't do that, at any rate.

Well, other than that.

Conrad is doing his thing over there. Yep, it's good.

Still working out of the house for MasterTech Nice Aftermarket warranty. Yeah, great company, good policy, good and learning a lot, you know, get a chance to see all the various vehicle lines and where their issues are.

We're going to wrap up today's show right after this. Everyone at the Tailpipes and Tacos cruise in at the Lupi Tortilla Tex-Max in Katie. Thank you for participating in the best cruise in around and look forward to seeing you again. You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on Inwheel Time. Next time you're in the West Houston Energy Corridor area, be sure and stop in at the original Lupi Tortilla Tex-Max at I-10 and Highway 6 or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard when passing through Beaumont or College Station. Stop in and have Lupi's award-winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas. There's always a celebration at Lupi Tortilla. Lupi Tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA Drag Racing Circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates. Look for them at the next Tailpipes and Tacos cruise in. The date will be announced soon and will once again be held at the Lupi Tortilla Tex-Max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I-10 and Katie. We'll give you all the details right here on the Inwheel Time car talk show and online Donations. Benefit God's Garage. We'll see you then. You own a car you love. Well, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it. Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts. We promise you'll be impressed. Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like-new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nanoceramic window tint or new windshield protection called ExoShield, gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go. Curb your wheels Instead of buying new. Why not have them repaired? How about a professionally installed radar detector? Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too. 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