103 episodes
The Carmudgeon Show Hagerty Media
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- Leisure
Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
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Rivian R1T & R1S 2nd-gen Review
There's a new set of Rivian twins on the market, but most of updates on the R1T and R1S are under the skin. But they're very significant!
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This episode is sponsored by Vyper Industrial — America’s #1 rated shop chair, tool carts, and creepers, proudly made here in the US. Go to https://www.vyperindustrial.com/ and use code HAGERTY for $50 off on all your order!
Click here to join the Hagerty Driver's Club: https://bit.ly/Join-HDC-Cammisa-Rev
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The new R1T and R1S feature new batteries, new motors, a new electrical architecture, new lighting, and new substantive updates to the interior — Jason flew to Washington to drive them on and off-road.
The new R1 includes infotainment updates that includes Apple Music — but still no Apple CarPlay, which Jason finds to be a wart on an otherwise near-perfect machine.
The other wart is the ride quality — it's still fantastic off-road, and it's better, but it's not up to the level of greatness attained by the rest of the vehicle.
The quad-motor variant rips off a face-melting 2.5-second 0-60 and 10.5 @ 130 mph in the quarter mile — which is impressive. But necessary?
Of course, the Carmudgeons spend some time insulting Subaru drivers (admitting that their experience with slow Subarus might be a San Francisco Bay Area phenomenon) but looking at some national statistics that show that Subaru drivers are the worst of any passenger-car brand.
And of course, they address people comparing their previous Waymo self-driving robotaxi episode experience to Tesla's Full Self Driving. They're not even remotely close.
More of this and more!
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Is Waymo The Best Taxi Ride Ever?
We discuss the future of motoring in the back seat of a Jaguar I-Pace while it's being self-driven by Waymo's computers around San Francisco.
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This episode is sponsored by Vyper Industrial — America’s #1 rated shop chair, tool carts, and creepers, proudly made here in the US. Go to https://www.vyperindustrial.com/ and use code HAGERTY for $50 off on all your order!
Click here to join the Hagerty Driver's Club: https://bit.ly/Join-HDC-Cammisa-Rev
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The End Must Be Nigh — because Jason Cammisa convinced the ultimate self-driving car-hating Carmudgeon, Derek Tam-Scott, to ride along in the back of a Waymo on an hour-long city adventure. And even Derek had to admit...
We're getting ahead of ourselves. There's discussion about:
Who Is Waymo?
How is Waymo different than other autonomous brands like Cruise or Uber?
How do you hail a Waymo cab?
...and important journalistic endeavors like:
What happens if a minivan cuts you off and ABS'es to a stop in front of you?
Jason's Van, Jynah, wanted to know. So we found out.
The other question: to what standard should we hold self-driving taxis? Should they follow all rules? Should they prioritize safety and smoothness (like Jason suggests) or do whatever possible to minimize commute time, even at the risk of making passengers sick (like Derek wants?)
It's an amusing, intelligent real-time discussion on the future of self-driving cars. And no, Waymo is nothing like Tesla Autopilot or any other current car's self-driving system.
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The Most Fun You Can Have
This week, the Carmudgeons recap their recent 600-mile back-road blast, which resulted in a surprise Best Car for the Mission. Unrelated, an update on their newly-acquired V-12 cars.
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This episode is sponsored by Vyper Industrial — America’s #1 rated shop chair, tool carts, and creepers, proudly made here in the US. Go to https://www.vyperindustrial.com/ and use code HAGERTY for $50 off on all your order!
Click here to join the Hagerty Driver's Club: https://bit.ly/Join-HDC-Cammisa-Rev
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Jason and Derek now both own V-12-powered cars. Jason confesses his 850 CSI purchase, which happened while he was doing research for an upcoming Revelations episode. Derek lit his on fire while learning that it needs an engine rebuild.
Turns out the BMW 850CSi has the shortest gear ratios of any V-12 car ever sold — and Jason is a self-described whore for short gearing.
Meanwhile, Derek bought a V12, manual Ferrari that has no compression in several cylinders.
The main subject of the episode is one of Jason and Derek's many friend-group backroad trips in Northern California. As usual, it was a varied group of cars:
Jason brought "Beatrice," his E30 BMW 325i sedan.
Derek brought his race-prepped Mk5 Volkswagen GTI.
Also present was a BMW Z3 2.8, an NA Miata, a GR Corolla, and one car that was very much not appropriate for tight mountain roads:
A C126 Mercedes 560SEC.
And the Mercedes was, by far, everyone's favorite. Wildly obese and far too large, with non-performance tires, the W126-chassis Mercedes should have been miserable. And what it instead demonstrated was perfect chassis balance, an indefatigable, 300-hp Euro/Japan-spec 5.5-liter engine, and a riotous time.
Sometimes, it's the wrong car on the right road that's the most fun.
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Is The EV Market Actually Doomed?
It's largely being reported in the media that Electric Vehicles are in trouble — sales are down, inventory is up, and customers just aren't interested. Is any of this true?
...or is this just a blip in the now-unavoidable transition away from combustion vehicles?
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Special Tuesday Episode: Happy Memorial Day!
Hyundai is making great EVs. BMW is making really good EVs. Tesla (despite the controversy) is still selling the dickens out of its cars — and the new "Highland" Model 3 is nearly perfect.
But the rest of the industry? Perhaps no one is interested in their cars because the cars are crap. We don't know.
But the Carmudgeons certainly have opinions on it.
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The V12 Is(n't) the Ultimate Engine
This is an inclusive list of every V-12 passenger car engine ever produced — with information, opinion, and the possibility that the V-12 isn't actually the best engine layout.
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Update: The data sharing programs from Honda, Hyundai (Verisk) and General Motors (Lexis Nexis) that we covered in Episode 143 have all been cancelled. Score one for Data Privacy and for Car Enthusiasts!
This episode stems from the quote from former Car and Driver editor (and founder of Automobile Magazine) David E. Davis, who said: “I firmly believe that everyone who is worth anything at all should own a 12-cylinder car before they die,”
We pose the question: why?
And then answer it with technical information about the V-12 engine layout, and discuss all of them — including defining the chapters of the V-12:
1. Prehistoric Luxury V12s.
2. Carbureted Performance/Racing V12s
3. Fuel-injected V12s.
4. Modern V12s.
Enjoy!
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The Full Piëchisode Podcast Bonus!
Y'all never thought it was going to happen, but here it is — whether you've seen the ICONS video or not, this is one to watch!
HOODIE: https://tinyurl.com/CammisaHoodie
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After years of teasing, the Carmudgeon Show is finally covering the life and achievements of Ferdinand Piëch. This is where the idea began, and the boys provide far more in-depth information than Jason could cover in the relatively short ICONS episode.
Enjoy, and thanks for the patient wait!
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