AMERICAN MADE INDEX, BMW X5, HONDA TRAIL SPORT PASSPORT

This is Cruise Control, your on-air automotive magazine with co-hosts Fred Stobb and Les Jackson.

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Cruise Control.

And welcome to Cruise Control, your on-air automotive magazine.

It's that time again, everyone.

Buckle up and get ready because we've got a great hour of automotive information.

New reveals, new studies.

Les Jackson will show his collection of seatbelt buckles.

It's going to be great.

Right, Les?

You've been collecting a while, haven't you?

Yes.

Seatbelt buckles and parking tickets.

All right.

I have a huge collection.

A huge collection.

Well, we're going to start this hour with a question.

What vehicle is more American than an F-150?

Les, do you know?

Any idea?

I would say a Navy F-14.

Not necessarily a vehicle, but it does move you around very quickly.

And it is American.

No, but you're right.

The F-150 is, you know, it's America, right?

Well, we're going to take a look at the 2024cars.com American-made index.

And the F-150 is not in the, ooh, I don't know, top 20?

So we'll talk about it.

Yeah.

Really?

We'll talk about that.

Wow.

And it's going to be a good story and tell you which ones are the most American-made

and how they figure it out, too.

There you go.

And speaking of American, should American car manufacturers pull out of the Chinese market?

One analyst says, yep, let's do it now.

Yeah, you think about GM.

That's been a big part of their business plan, and they did so well with Buick early on.

But who knows?

Maybe it's time.

We'll talk about what this analyst has to say.

And BMW celebrates its X5.

Can you believe it?

The BMW X5 is 25 years old, and they're celebrating with a special anniversary model.

We'll tell you a little bit about it.

All built in South Carolina.

That is on the list as a USA-built vehicle.

We'll talk about that.

Absolutely.

And Toyota says it will build performance cars, but it can't do it alone.

So we'll tell you who's going to help them.

Yeah.

I mean, we've seen them team up with the likes of BMW and Subaru.

And, you know, let's see what happens.

We're going to see a lot more of these in the automotive industry as people start spending

on things like electric vehicles and self-driving and safety technology.

They can't go it alone.

So they're going to take a look at that.

And a new study says insurance claims are getting a lot more expensive.

I just had a friend get his vehicle hit in the back, and it was $7,500 in parts alone.

Alone.

So all that.

And we're going to have an at-the-wheel review of the Honda Passport Trail Sport Edition

coming up on Cruise Control, your on-air automotive magazine.

It's me, Cruise Control.

Welcome back to Cruise Control.

Well, I can't wait to get into this story, Fred.

Yes.

Always a good one.

We like to cover this every year.

That's right.

What's, well, American-made cars in general, but also what's the most American-made vehicle?

Yeah.

And, you know, most people, including us, would say, oh, the F-150.

Yeah.

Probably.

Or some Chevy.

Mustang.

Yeah.

No.

And it doesn't have to be from a U.S.-based company.

I mean, I think all of the companies that build cars are what they call multinational companies now.

So they're not even necessarily U.S. companies.

That's right.

And, of course, the Trailblazers.

The Trailblazers were the Honda and Toyota building plants 40 years ago here.

Oh, yeah.

Pacific and the Accord.

They've all been built here since the, you know, late, well, early 80s.

Yep.

And this is how Cars.com comes up with the American-made index.

It's location of final assembly, percentage of U.S. and Canadian parts.

So, countries of origin for all available engines, countries of origin for all available

transmissions, and U.S. manufacturing workforce.

And that's how they figure it.

Not where the company is housed.

That doesn't come into it.

It is just those factors that I said.

So where it's built and the content, what goes into it, what is U.S.A. made or North

American made, I should say, because it involves.

Canada as well.

So, let's kind of take a look at it.

Do you want to work?

Let's do the top 10 American-made vehicles, right?

So, a lot of them this year are based in, around your favorite manufacturer, Les.

Absolutely.

In my favorite state.

Go for it.

Yes.

Well, it makes sense.

We're talking about Tesla, of course.

Yep.

And, you know, they're domestic.

Virtually the whole thing is made.

All the parts are made here.

Almost all.

Yeah.

Which is something that we ding Tesla a lot for quality, but, you know, that is good that

they do that.

I just wish they would get their quality better.

Sure.

Yeah.

Gladiator from Jeep.

Jeep is a pretty American-made product, although that's changing now because Stellantis came

in and you have engines from different places and that, but assembly happens a lot in Toledo,

Ohio.

That is the big Jeep country right there, right?

It is.

And the Toyota Camry.

Yes.

It was a solid, at one time, that was the largest single model sold in numbers.

It was fighting against the Ford Taurus for years, which one was the number one.

Yeah.

And, of course, Camry just went all hybrid and they just started coming off the assembly

line in the U.S.

Right.

Honda Ridgeline.

There you go again.

Yeah.

And Honda Odyssey, their minivan.

So, their minivan is more American-built than, let's say, the Pacifica, which is further

a wave down the line.

And then number four, Model S, Tesla.

Right?

Right.

Makes sense that most of the Tesla models are going to be way up here.

Yep.

However, right here on number three is the ID.4, which is kind of a surprise, but a good

surprise.

Yeah.

Built in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen.

Yeah.

And then number two, oddly enough, is the vehicle that I'm going to be reviewing a little bit.

Later on, it is the Honda Passport, and that is the number two most U.S.-made vehicle.

And then number one, you and I were talking about this earlier, this is the most popular

vehicle in the world.

And, Les, I'm going to let you reveal that.

That is the Model Y Tesla.

Yeah.

The Model Y Tesla.

So, there you are.

Tesla.

And then some of the others.

By the way, we'll just kind of throw a few out, like, you know, number 15 is the MDX, and number 16, the Grand Highlander Toyota.

And you're not hearing any domestic names, are you?

And F-150 is number 58 on the list.

Yeah.

Number 58.

So, hey.

That is the Cars.com All-American Index.

We'll have more about that after the break, so stay tuned to Cruise Control.

Coming up.

Cruise Control.

And welcome back.

Welcome back.

Shall we continue with this list of American-made vehicles?

Yeah, yeah.

This is the American Index from Cars.com.

They look at a number of things, where the parts are made, where the workforce is, that type of thing.

Not necessarily the company, but they have this huge list of vehicles that is, oh, gosh.

They have, I think, a hundred.

And we wanted to point out where some vehicles that you would think, which are very American, where are they built?

Or where do they come on that list?

And Wrangler's number 30, Jeep Wrangler.

You would think it's built in Toledo, Ohio, so.

Mustang.

It's built in Michigan, right?

That's number 31 on the list.

Corvette.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, right?

Can't get more American than that.

Number 34.

And then, okay.

Best-selling truck, right?

For years.

Number 58, the F-150.

58.

Now.

You know, we're talking about all kinds of factors that go into this.

Parts and pieces.

Chevy Tahoe is 41.

And this is an interesting one.

The Silverado is 89.

Some are built in Mexico, I believe, right?

Yeah.

Some are built in Mexico.

Whereas, you know, things like the Suburban, that's 39.

That's built in Texas.

Arlington, Texas.

Yeah.

So.

So, interesting, interesting stuff.

It's, you know, it's just interesting to see where things are built.

And it's confusing, because people say, I want to buy an American car, but you buy a Silverado 1500.

But maybe a Toyota pickup built in the U.S. is, in a sense, more American, right?

Because remember, if you have the plant.

You should be saying, I want to buy American, in the sense that I want to buy something.

You should be saying, I want to buy something built here by Americans with mostly parts made here.

Yeah.

Parts made by other Americans.

Remember, when they build a plant, they have to have all the suppliers that build the parts about 20 miles away.

So, if it's.

That's right.

Well, if it's in, let's say, in the case of the Subaru Crosstrek, it's in Indiana.

That means they're not going to, you know.

Those suppliers.

Those suppliers within a 20-mile circumference are going to be well within U.S. borders, aren't they?

That's exactly right.

And if you go to places like that, and go to a plant, and you'll just see, as far as you can see, in any direction, there are factories building seats and exhaust systems and you name it.

Yeah.

And it's just in time.

They don't stack them up.

They don't have pallets full of parts.

No.

Although, I do recall being in the Corvette plant and looking in through a door, and there were hundreds of LS engines sitting on pallets.

And I thought, wow, if only I could take a few of them.

Yeah.

And put them into something else, you know.

That's right.

Could I just borrow one of those?

You know what killed me?

It just, it was terrible.

Remember, they had the storm at the Corvette plant, and they had all these cars outside.

And they were damaged.

You know, the body work was damaged or whatever.

And they all had to be scrapped.

I thought, there's nothing wrong with the drivetrain.

No.

It's actually, some of them were probably repairable and could be sold as a, you know, a repaired car, which would be fine.

You know, if it was like, well, we have to take that fender off and put another one on.

But the drivetrain killed me, because that could go in anything.

It wasn't hurt at all, you know.

Yeah.

It's sad.

But I guess.

Economically, it's more expensive not to scrap it.

Yeah.

You would think that they could just knock the VIN plate out and sell them at auction, and people would buy them.

And say, you can't ever go back on the road.

But, you know, certainly there's great parts that could be harvested off of those by guys who do that.

So, it just feels wasteful.

So, anyway.

Our next question.

And this was an interesting story, Les.

You and I know that.

Several U.S. manufacturers decided that China was their market, that they made that market even more important than the U.S. market, right?

You and I have seen that some manufacturers, like GM, have said that that's their main market.

They release vehicles there, and if they do well, then they'll bring them to the U.S., right?

That's right.

Being one of the biggest.

Yeah.

They've been there since the early 90s, when they built a huge factory.

Yeah.

Now, one analyst, according to this Reuters article, is saying that it's time for Ford and General Motors to leave the Chinese market to preserve capital amid the costly EV transition.

And this analyst said, I think you will see the Detroit 3 exit China.

To be honest, it's going to be really difficult for them to get them out of the way in the moment, and you know they're just trying to get back into the global market.

We're putting them in the middle.

But I'm not going to say that they can.

There's a market that they possibly can.

John Murphy, Bank of America Securities Analyst said at his annual presentation of Car Wars, a closely watched industry report, what do you think?

I mean, we have manufacturers like Ford.

Ford says we might not sell in that market, but we might build our vehicles there.

Like the Nautilus, a large SUV, is built there.

They're all built there.

All of a sudden, every one of these cars in the world, a large SUV, are built there, right?

They're all like, you know, like, a V6, you know, a V6, you know?

Our vehicles there, like the Nautilus, a large SUV, is built there.

They're all built there.

All of a sudden, every one of them is built in China because it was designed for the Chinese market.

And if they get out of the Chinese market, I think they'll still manufacture there.

Talk about American-made indents.

Well, but then politically what happens if you leave your factory there but you no longer sell to the Chinese, what does the Chinese government do?

Do they say, well, we're just going to take over your factory?

We own Lincoln.

Yeah, I know.

That is, you know, people talk about products like the fake products, right?

And I think what happens...

They call it China real.

What happens is you come to me.

I have a Chinese factory.

You said, I want you to build 10 million widget A's, right?

And I was like, okay, I build that.

But I have so many parts left over that I decide, you know what?

I'm going to keep building them and market them as a widget B.

Right.

And that's what happens.

I mean, so it's like they just decide, like, oh, I'll make more and sell them.

They've done this for probably centuries, but certainly in large scale and World War II, everything that, like every airplane that landed on free Chinese soil wasn't returned to the U.S.

It was taken apart and copied by the Chinese.

Yeah, very good at copying.

For their air forces.

And they do that with...

They've done that with every...

Same thing.

Right.

Over all those decades.

Car parts, oil filters, you know, just...

They just copy our stuff because they have no regard for patent laws or anything else.

Copyright, anything like that, yeah.

That's right.

And sometimes the copies are okay, and other times it's an empty...

Sometimes they're not.

It's an empty oil filter with nothing in it or a shredded piece of paper.

Yeah.

So...

It's...

Yeah.

Oh, I recall being at the SEMA show, and it was a gas cap manufacturer, and he showed me the counterfeit part, and it actually had the company's name on it.

His company, the real company's name on it.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That's a problem in the U.S. if you did that.

They're not shy.

They're not shy about that.

So what do you think will happen?

I mean, this is kind of a bad play for...

I mean, it's a bad play for IBM that they made this such a big deal, you know, and Buick did well, very well, that kind of revived that brand.

Now they're building Buicks in China.

But if they pull out of that market, do they just stop building them?

I don't know.

Or do they do like Ford?

We'll keep building them there, but we don't sell them there.

I don't know.

It seems like a bad deal.

Well, the Chinese will keep building because they have all of the software.

They have all of the tooling.

Yeah.

They'll just...

Keep going.

They'll just sell them as something else.

Yeah.

Well, we'll stay on this, and we got plenty more Cruise Control coming up.

So stay tuned to Cruise Control, your on-air automotive magazine with Fred Staub and Les Jackson.

We will be right back.

Cruise Control.

Welcome back.

Well, it's an anniversary, Fred.

Hey, happy anniversary, Les.

Well, it's not our anniversary.

All right.

It's the BMW X5 anniversary.

It has been built, invented, and launched in Spartanburg, South Carolina, 25 years ago.

We entered the market there, actually, at the launch, because I was there.

I was in Asheville, North Carolina, at a resort, and lovely, lovely event.

Yeah.

What a success story for BMW.

Incredibly successful.

Yeah.

Been around forever.

I say, shows no sign of going away, for sure.

No.

And if you want one of these in Germany, guess where it comes from?

South Carolina.

That's right.

And that's anywhere.

You want one anywhere in the world, you order it up from South Carolina.

So let's talk about this anniversary edition.

It is standard individual lime rock gray metallic paint, standard X off-road package, two-axle air suspension, underbody protection plates, and four drive modes.

Do you think these vehicles get taken off-road that much?

I think they're more of an elegant vehicle to transport yourself around in, right?

Yeah.

Distinctive trim includes 20-inch M-star spoke wheels, an extended shadow line trim, carbon fiber interior trim, and silver anniversary edition badging, limited to about 1,000 units, with an MSRP of $79,900.

Wow.

$79,900.

Wow.

Plus $1,175 destination.

That would be $80,000, $81,000.

Yes.

I'm not sure there'll be markup on this, but we'll see.

I mean, you get upholstery choices are black, cognac, coffee, or Silverstone Sensafin, whatever that is.

Do you know what that is?

I'm not sure what that is.

I'm not sure either.

Yeah.

But a nice-looking vehicle.

I guess potentially a collectible.

It's a low number of them, but it's mostly trim and packaging.

But congratulations to BMW for having that and keeping the X5 around.

And certainly, I remember when that came out.

It was a big deal.

Wow.

BMW is making a truck?

Remember that?

It was a big deal.

Well, yeah.

They're making an off-road SUV?

Yeah.

And that's when SUVs were being sold for off-road.

Yeah.

And now, of course, they have the X3, which we talked about recently, a new fourth edition of that, or fourth generation of that.

The X7.

And who knows?

Probably more.

Down the line, wouldn't you say?

Yeah.

Now, luxury travel.

Luxury off-road.

Yeah.

Well, let's talk about manufacturers working together.

It's kind of an interesting theme on this hour of Cruise Control.

We're talking about U.S. manufacturers building things in China, first for the Chinese, now maybe for the U.S., maybe moving from China.

The American Index.

Mm-hmm.

Now, we're going to talk about car manufacturers working together.

And you and I know they're facing a lot of challenges.

They have to spend money on self-driving technology and electric vehicles and that transition and who knows what, maybe hydrogen down the future.

Toyota, this week, announced they still want to build performance cars like the GR Supra and the GR86.

But they say they can't do that.

They can't do that.

They can't do it alone.

They cannot build performance cars alone.

And that's why they're working with companies like BMW and Subaru to build these vehicles.

And they're saying this will continue in the future.

One, there's a rumor that they might build a new sports car based on the Suzuki Cappuccino, which is a very popular model around the world.

But we just don't have it here because Suzuki left the market a long time ago.

I like the name, though, don't you?

That's a great name.

You know, this isn't Suzuki, but I didn't know until recently that Toyota actually owns part of Subaru.

I did not know that either.

Yeah.

I believe it's 30%.

Was that part of the deal to make the 86 and the BRZ?

I believe, actually, they've owned part of Subaru for quite a while.

I have to look that up, find out what the particulars are.

But, you know, it just goes right past you.

You don't realize it.

Yes, you don't realize it.

But manufacturers working together, and I think it makes sense.

I really do.

Because it takes a lot to launch an automaker, and you look at certain failures like Fisker.

And the money that Tesla spent.

To get up and going, just losing money consistently.

I think they've fixed that.

Manufacturers losing money on every electric vehicle.

They still lose $6,000, $7,000 on them, if not more.

You can't do that.

Well, not for very long.

No.

Whereas Toyota is saying that you just can't build things like sports cars because the market for them is so small.

Right.

You can't build them alone, whereas you can build them and share the markets with people.

I love his comment.

He says, you know, I want to work with a smile on my face.

If I'm not smiling, I can't make the customer smile.

I like that.

And I'm sure that makes it a good place to work because of the president of the GR company that says that.

I still get, I still, I was watching Le Mans last week.

And they talk about Google.

It's like a zoo racing.

It's just funny.

But did you watch any of Le Mans?

It was just every time.

I watched it for like four hours and everyone was driving around behind the safety car because it was a downpour.

Just a little bit.

I caught about 20 minutes of it.

And it's, you know, it's the premier world racing event.

I was interested to learn that there are bronze.

Bronze, silver and gold drivers on a, on a three person team.

And that during the rain where they were following around the safety car for hours, hours, hours, hours.

They put the bronze drivers in basically to almost like a pilot to get hours or behind the wheel.

And so they're at reduced speeds, which was still over a hundred miles an hour in the rain and fog.

Like you couldn't see.

The in-cars were ridiculous.

It was like you were going through a car wash, you know, with the wiper going.

I remember one poor guy came right out off his break.

He says, my foot is cramping up.

I thought this is going to be a great three or four hour stint, right?

Or would they do two hours?

It's a great way to start a two hour racing stint with a cramped up foot, right?

Hopefully it will loosen up.

But well,

something will loosen up.

That, uh, yeah, just watching the safety car there.

The safety cars were out for so long.

Three of them that they had to bring out three more because the other ones need to go in and, and get fuel.

So it's remarkable.

I just wouldn't want to be out there doing that, uh, at that in that way.

Hey, let's look at a new study, um, that, uh, insurance claims.

Are.

Much more expensive than they used to be.

Uh, as I always say, like things like a taillight or headlight could be a thousand or multiple thousand dollars.

Um, so, uh, this is from an insurance industry study.

Um, Lexus, Lexus, Nexus risk solution.

And, uh, the damage bodily injury and property damage claims have climbed steadily since 2020 claims for bodily injury have risen in.

Severely.

By 20% and material damages have increased by 47% parts and labor shortages contributed as did increases in the cost of medical care.

Uh, there are 43 states plus Washington, DC that require $25,000 or less in coverage.

While four states have a minimum $30,000 coverage and three others have minimums of 50,000 barely covering the average new car vehicle price in the United States.

And when you think about that, the average price going up does not only affect, uh, what you pay in the, in the dealership, but it affects what you pay just using the vehicle.

Right.

And ensuring.

Yeah, that's right.

Um, you know, and again, uh, think about it.

The vehicle prices have shot up kind of exponentially in the last five or six years.

So, you know, so the price.

The price to fix them has also followed that also uninsured motorists have shut up.

Yeah.

And, and, um, the one thing that has not changed at all is, uh, Americans driving habits.

That's true.

Driving skills, which are some of the worst in the world.

On that note, we're going to take a break and be back with an at the wheel review.

Stay tuned.

And welcome back to cruise control, your on air automotive magazine, Fred Staub and Les Jackson.

We're glad you're with us.

Don't forget to check out all our social media, cruise control, cruise control, radio, find it on YouTube, all over the place.

Um, we've got an at the wheel review this time.

It is the 2024 Honda passport trail sport.

Just like many manufacturers.

Honda wants to get into the beefier off road.

Look, and, uh, they've done that with the trail sport passport passport starts out as the truckiest Honda.

I believe out there when it comes to, uh, SUVs and they've upgraded this one.

A trail sport is designed for off-roading.

This is a five passenger SUV.

They've put an in 20 inch alloy wheels, uh, more aggressive tires.

Um, they have, uh, fairly aggressive tires.

That are fairly noisy on the road to be, uh, accurate.

They have the mud, uh, gripping sidewalls.

These things do, um, and, um, you know, overall the interior seems large in this vehicle.

It's a high, high roof line in on the inside.

You get the orange, uh, trail sport logos and the orange, um, uh, piping on the seats and stitching on the seats, which, uh, goes through, uh, the.

The interior is also found on the door cards.

Very car like inside a lot of soft touch, high grain materials.

Uh, a lot of black as usual.

This was interesting.

They have an old foot operated, um, parking brake, no electronic parking brake on the passport, which is kind of a throwback, but overall the interior is very car like push button shifter.

Uh, all the amenities are there.

Yes.

There are plenty of buttons for everything.

Which is nice.

Nice to see.

And, uh, we like that a lot heated front seats with a button to activate them.

No big touch screen, uh, even a heated steering wheel button on the steering wheel gauges are clear and analog, but a bit austere.

I thought, um, push button screen had Garmin navigation.

If you don't like that, you can use, uh, Android auto or apple car play controls were large, easy to see.

There was a volume knob for the.

Radio out back kind of unique, uh, uh, set up for the rear seat.

Uh, you also get the orange stitching and all that decent leg room.

There's a two prong, um, power port for one 10 on an inverter, a couple of USB-C, uh, uh, connections, uh, cup holders, of course, uh, nicely found in the door cards and the door handles.

I thought that was a nice addition, uh, screens, uh, to keep the sun down.

Good rear leg room.

Flat floor in the back, which is welcome with a rugged tized, uh, rubber, uh, uh, seat, uh, covering and then a full flat rear seats, um, which is nice and flat floor for that.

Uh, I found this kind of unique.

You can slide the seat up basically all the way up to get more room in the back without folding it down overall car.

Like on the inside, very Honda, you know, you're in a Honda, a lot of parts and pieces look, uh, very, very.

Similar, uh, to some of the cars, even out back a tremendous amount of storage.

Um, this is a five passenger, so no third row.

So a great amount of storage, uh, really, really well finished, uh, back area to the vehicle, kind of with a carpeting type material.

Uh, you get, uh, a remote seat release and a power outlet for 12 volts.

And then, uh, underneath, uh, if you flip up the storage floor.

Uh, there is a large storage bin, plastic bin, which is nice.

And if you flip it one, uh, one flip further, yes, you get a spare tire, uh, which is, uh, really nice to see.

Uh, these vehicles come with a V six, uh, 280 horsepower V six, uh, kind of rare these days to get a V six and not a turbo four.

Uh, this one had the V T M four all wheel drive system.

Um,

mileage, not great on this vehicle, uh, for the trail sport.

It is a 19 city, 24 highway, 21 combined.

Uh, ours was in a very, very nice red, which is an upcharge of 459, $455 radiant red metallic.

That is an upcharge for that.

And, um, as I said, the trail sport package, uh, comes in, uh, the base build is 44,955.

Uh, for the, that is the total MSRP.

I take that back.

Base price is 44,500.

We added the $455 for the red metallic.

Um, and, uh, destination was $1,395, uh, total MSRP, 46,350, uh, ride quality, less, uh, these tires kicked up quite a bit of noise.

Uh, I think it's just cause they have a lot of tread.

And they have a lot of, uh, and they catch a lot of air.

Um, but, uh, you know, it, uh, it, it is the look people are going for.

These are 18 inch tires.

Um, and, uh, it, I would say it's a soft off-roader.

It is an off-roader that's trying to look a little bit tougher, but I would not, I would not take this on the Rubicon trail.

Is it capable in mud and snow and all that?

Sure.

It is not, uh, one though that I would do any.

Serious off-roading with, but as we mentioned, all the manufacturers like to have that kind of tougher look and that's what the passport has done.

Although not as much as let's say Toyota or other manufacturers, um, overall good quality.

Uh, these are built in the U S and as you know, uh, we just talked about this, that the, that the, uh, they are the number two most American made vehicle.

The passport.

It is, um, in, uh, in the U S so built, built in the U S and, uh, it is, uh, built with a lot of U S parts.

So, um, there you have it.

I, it overall, even, even without the, um, even without the trail sport package lists, uh, this is, uh, kind of truck, like the most truck, like a vehicle that you can get from Honda.

Uh, what I like about it is the high roof line.

The great visibility, uh, the big, uh, uh, greenhouse in the vehicle, uh, it's not one of those squeezed down SUVs.

And I think that is a popular, uh, feeling.

It makes me think of the, um, uh, you know, some of Subaru's offerings where you can see that the Forester where, where it has a very, uh, tall greenhouse and that is welcomed and it almost has become a feature.

And I would imagine it is a feature.

Uh, for the people that buy passports.

Um, so overall I would say as a package, uh, the trail sport is kind of a very light, uh, off-roader.

It's mostly all terrain tires.

Um, I don't think they've done anything to the ride height.

Um, but, um, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of a looks thing.

It, I guess it gives it a little bit more capability.

Um, but.

Um, you know, is it worth it is it's about roughly, uh, I don't know, a couple of thousand dollar upgrade.

They call it an off-road tune, suspension, trail ready, all terrain tires.

Um, you know, you have to decide if that's it, if that's a look that you want, uh, for yourself, um, you know, I, I think it's, it's just, it's one of the less capable upgraded models.

Uh, so you're not getting things like Fox shocks and all that.

But it, uh, it still gives a little bit tougher.

Look, I found the tires to be noisy though.

They, they were a little bit of the hum on the highway.

Um, so I don't know.

I don't know if I I've had other, um, passports that I liked, I think a little bit better that were just not, you know, not quieter.

Yeah.

Quieter.

Uh, what I like about the passport, it's got kind of a military look to it at, depending on your color.

That's.

Kind of, kind of fun.

Um, I just don't think the trail sport was the, uh, was the big package, you know, that, uh, you would want to go for and say, wow, this really takes it to the next level.

Just my take on it.

Um, you know, mileage for all the passports is not great.

So, uh, you know, 20, 21, uh, you know, 24 highway, 21 combined, you know, not, not the best, but, uh, American made vehicle.

Certainly.

Number two on the cars.com American index.

So, uh, a couple of things to think about.

There's also a new black edition.

Hey, we appreciate you listening to cruise control.

We will see you down the road.

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