Greatest Comebacks In Automotive History -- ROAD TESTAMENT

MIKE SPINELLI: What are the best comebacks
in automotive history?
That's today on "Road Testament." Alex Roy is here.
ALEX ROY: Gumpert Apollo.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, right.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MIKE SPINELLI: Hey, welcome to "Road Testament." Today we're
talking about the comeback kids of the automotive
industry, the brands that were down and out, and they made a
big comeback.
Alex Roy is here, fresh from a season of--
what's your show again?
ALEX ROY: I've only showered twice since Sandy started.
MIKE SPINELLI: Sandy sta--
what did she start doing?
ALEX ROY: Two weeks ago, and I've had power the
whole time, and water.
MIKE SPINELLI: Oh, the storm, that [BLEEP]
us all up.
ALEX ROY: Yeah, let's not talk about my show.
Back next season, with surprises.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
ALEX ROY: Let's get into this episode right now.
MIKE SPINELLI: All right, @Drive on Twitter,
facebook.com/drivetv, and that's all I've got to say.
ALEX ROY: The news of the week which led to this episode is,
Suzuki's American distributor bankrupted, pulled
out of the US market.
And by the way, didn't you and Farrah do something recently
about brands that should pull out?
MIKE SPINELLI: Uh, by pull out, you mean--
ALEX ROY: Suzuki is one of those brands everyone's been
saying for a while, should pull out.
MIKE SPINELLI: Oh, shouldn't be-- that
should just pull out.
ALEX ROY: --in the US market, and now they are pulling out.
And they're making this thing which looks like a Touareg
with smaller, with--
MIKE SPINELLI: No, by the way, the SX4 is a really, really
good car for the money.
It's actually a fun car to drive.
It's got really good dynamics for a tiny little car.
A little high seating position, but it's good.
And you can--
me and Ian were talking about this before.
What is it, the, you can get the--
-All-wheel drive with a manual.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, you can get all-wheel drive with the
manual, which is getting a--
ALEX ROY: How much is this car?
MIKE SPINELLI: I don't know.
Show up at the dealership with whatever's in your pocket.
Lint, a button, they'll take it.
ALEX ROY: So, it's not bad.
MIKE SPINELLI: No.
ALEX ROY: Look at where they were back in the day.
MIKE SPINELLI: The Suziki Swift GTI.
ALEX ROY: A car that has a breakdown clock instead of a
license plate-- the day, time, and location of breakdown.
MIKE SPINELLI: Thursday at 3:43.
ALEX ROY: And that's exactly where we found this car.
So Suzuki actually was in a bad spot, got good, and now
they're gone.
MIKE SPINELLI: And they actually had a comeback.
And this is part of their comeback.
You were talking about the Kizashi before.
ALEX ROY: The Kizashi, four-wheel drive.
MIKE SPINELLI: What's good about this?
I actually have never driven one of these.
ALEX ROY: Neither have I, but the ads make
it seem really good.
And the ads seem honest.
The ads basically say, do you want an Audi S4?
Can you not afford one?
Would you like one that's smaller
with a different brand?
You can have this.
MIKE SPINELLI: Wow.
Well, I mean, it's a good looking car if
you see it up close.
I mean, it's pretty good.
But unfortunately, Suzuki--
ALEX ROY: They're gone.
MIKE SPINELLI: The clock ran out on Suzuki.
ALEX ROY: In the words of South Park, aaaaand it's gone.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah so--
and also, so the other news this week which turned out to
not really be news was that Lancia was going away.
Marchionne, head of Fiat, somehow said that it was going
away, and then it's not.
ALEX ROY: What you mean is--
MIKE SPINELLI: Lancia is definitely in trouble no
matter what.
ALEX ROY: So they're not a comeback kid.
MIKE SPINELLI: No, these are the ones--
this is the reason why we're talking about comeback kids
today, is because there are brands--
ALEX ROY: They're go-away kids.
MIKE SPINELLI: --that seem to be going away.
Exactly.
ALEX ROY: But look, there's a reason Lancia should go away.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, look at where they were.
ALEX ROY: Right.
Look at what they're giving us now.
MIKE SPINELLI: So they went from the Integrale to the
Lancia Grand Voyager.
ALEX ROY: Also known as the Grande Aventura.
But you know something, this car might
have a reason to exist.
Not as a Lancia in Europe, because if you're in Europe
and you have a lot of kids, what do you buy?
Renault Espace, Peugeot 806, these cars, they're cutting
production because companies are in trouble themselves.
MIKE SPINELLI: There's nothing this big, this capable, if
you've got a big family in Europe.
I mean, they have zero population growth, so I don't
know how much--
ALEX ROY: Lancia should go away.
MIKE SPINELLI: But anyway, you're right.
I mean, if Lancia is on the grille of a minivan coming
from its roots in rallying and in design, it's bad.
ALEX ROY: It's not good.
MIKE SPINELLI: It's bad.
So anyway, whatever happens to Lancia, we'll
just keep an eye out--
ALEX ROY: But before we even switch to the next slide, it
is sad that I'm reminded of how old I am-- almost 41--
by how many people, girls I meet, don't remember that some
brands, like BMW and Audi, were not good at one point.
They weren't good.
MIKE SPINELLI: And the first one we're going to talk about
is actually really interesting, because there's a
parallel with Toyota--
ALEX ROY: Today.
MIKE SPINELLI: --recently.
ALEX ROY: What's the next--
MIKE SPINELLI: So it's Audi back in the '70s.
So this is like a '78, '79 5000.
ALEX ROY: This car is so good that today, aftermarket rims
look just like the stock rims of '79.
And look at the head rests.
I mean--
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, and the GTs used to
have the mesh in between.
This is a very, very cool period in Audi's history.
ALEX ROY: And think about it just for a second, this car is
a direct evolution of the NSU, which Audi
purchased in the late '60s.
So Audi was really kicking it early '80s with this car.
MIKE SPINELLI: And then, by mid '80s, they had evolved
into the 5000.
ALEX ROY: The 5000 CS.
MIKE SPINELLI: Right.
And around this time, "60 Minutes" ran their--
ALEX ROY: Swift boated them.
MIKE SPINELLI: --well, sort of swift boated them.
They had their unintended acceleration problem, which
really kind of messed them up--
ALEX ROY: Destroyed them.
MIKE SPINELLI: --as they were--
ALEX ROY: Destroyed them.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, as they were just getting a foothold
in America.
They were persona non grata.
ALEX ROY: And it took 10 years before the Audi A4 was
released in '96.
MIKE SPINELLI: And $1.3 billion in development to
develop that A4.
But the thing about this car is that the unintended
acceleration stuff was never really proven.
ALEX ROY: It was never proven.
MIKE SPINELLI: And it was really just
apparently older people--
ALEX ROY: Pedal sizing and mistaken driver error.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well because-- right, I mean basically they
had been conquesting sales from Buicks and American cars.
ALEX ROY: Did you say conquesting sales?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
Not the Dodge Conquest.
ALEX ROY: Not the-- go on.
MIKE SPINELLI: But I mean, Americans were buying this and
Americans were used to having the pedal--
like, they didn't have any heel and toe action.
It was just like, giant gas pedal, giant brake pedal.
And these were European.
They were close together.
ALEX ROY: And you bring up that people--
taking sales from Buick.
The Mercedes E Class was just coming out during this time.
There was no mid-sized Mercedes to buy.
MIKE SPINELLI: That's very true.
I forgot about that.
ALEX ROY: And the 5 Series was ancient.
It was like seriously, a brick, with like--
MIKE SPINELLI: That 5 Series was the Bavaria, right?
I mean it came to America in the mid '70s.
So it still had the same design.
So you're right.
This was a period where--
ALEX ROY: This was a really big deal, this car.
MIKE SPINELLI: And sales fell off a cliff.
ALEX ROY: Next.
Look at this guy.
MIKE SPINELLI: So this is the comeback.
So Audi is--
by now, obviously, this is a couple of
decades into their comeback.
But that the A7 is absolutely a beautiful car.
And that's where Audi is now.
ALEX ROY: It's like bringing a T1000 to a T101 fight.
MIKE SPINELLI: [LAUGHS].
ALEX ROY: This thing is really, really cool looking.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
So Audi, total comeback kid.
Interestingly, it was the A4, though, that brought it back,
and it cost them more than $1 billion to make that car.
ALEX ROY: And I had a first gen A4.
It was a good car.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, very good car.
All right, next.
What's next.
Comeback kid.
Ah, Porsche.
All right, so you know about this era.
You owned a car from this era.
This is a 968.
By the early '90s--
so there was a global economic downturn.
I don't know if anybody remembers.
ALEX ROY: So by the late '80s, you had the end of a 15-year
evolution of the 911.
I have an '87 Targa, great car.
MIKE SPINELLI: Right.
ALEX ROY: And in '90, they came out with the
worst 911 ever made.
And then they had this--
MIKE SPINELLI: The 964 was the--
ALEX ROY: And then they had this, it was an
evolution of the 944.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
ALEX ROY: And sales were what, a couple thousand cars?
MIKE SPINELLI: I mean, they went from sales
in the 30,000 range--
I guess that would be North American sales?
ALEX ROY: I don't know.
MIKE SPINELLI: Something like that, to, like,
4,000 sales a year.
4,000 cars a year sold.
ALEX ROY: Another brand that people forget today, every
chick you meet in a club today forgets,
Porsche was at one time--
MIKE SPINELLI: They were on their ass back then.
ALEX ROY: Knees, knees.
MIKE SPINELLI: Oh, sorry.
Knees.
(WITH GERMAN ACCENT) On the ass.
How do you say knees in German?
ALEX ROY: I don't know.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, anyway--
but the back story is that the 911 hadn't progressed because
the plan had originally been, 928, 944--
those were the pillars of the brand-- and 911
was going to go away.
ALEX ROY: So in '90 to '93, we had some really wretched 911s,
except for the 3.6 turbo.
MIKE SPINELLI: But, right, OK.
ALEX ROY: Really bad cars.
Oil leaks--
I had a '90 C4, terrible car.
And then in '94, '95, they brought out the
993s, which were good.
And then, '96, '98, they had the last greatest ever 993s,
last, best air-cooled Porsches.
But the car that really saved them was the next slide.
MIKE SPINELLI: Was this one, the Boxster.
ALEX ROY: '96?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, '97.
And there was so much latent demand for this thing that
they couldn't stock them fast enough.
I mean, all right, granted, sales fell off a cliff in a
couple years.
They never sold, I guess, as many as they did in the first
couple years.
But it did kick start them into the era of the Cayenne,
and the money-making era.
And then they developed the 911 into what it is now.
ALEX ROY: Well, I got to believe this car was
the new buyer car.
New Porsche people got this car.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, the problem that Porsche had was
they had been going for scale.
They wanted volume.
They sold so many damn cars, but their margins
were thin on them.
What they decided was to change course, and to sell
fewer cars but to make more money on them, to
pare down the line.
And you're right.
They had improved.
I mean, the 993--
look at what 993-era BMW--
993-era 911s are going for right now, it's ridiculous.
ALEX ROY: You want to buy a '98 Carerra S today, I mean,
is an expensive car.
You can spend more than on a 991.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, and it's interesting that we talk about
this as the comeback in terms of money.
But rebuilding the 911, like, taking the 911 and redoubling
its efforts on it was really what happened--
ALEX ROY: You know, you could almost do a whole episode just
about the comeback of the 911.
Because the 911 has been a Promethean brand.
Going up the mountain, and they fall back down again.
Although now, they're on a pretty good roll.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
And maybe they're not going to--
I think they may be reaching the volume that
they were back then.
But that's now all of--
ALEX ROY: No, they're way above.
They're way--
MIKE SPINELLI: They're way--
but they're about 100 and something thousand a year.
ALEX ROY: All I know is, as long as they're getting people
like my mom to option out Boxsters, so that their retail
price is double the base price, they're going to be OK.
MIKE SPINELLI: They're doing fine.
Yeah, so there you go.
Porsche's back, after a scare.
Oh, Jag, so this is the Saint's car.
I know our young viewers won't know what the hell this is.
ALEX ROY: And if they do, they're going to think of the
Val Kilmer edition.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, not that saint.
ALEX ROY: They didn't even give him a Jag in the Val
Kilmer version of "The Saint," because it was so terrible.
MIKE SPINELLI: I never saw it.
What did he drive?
ALEX ROY: I don't know.
It wasn't a Jag.
-It was the C70 Volvo.
ALEX ROY: Oh god!
MIKE SPINELLI: A C70 Volvo?
Interesting.
ALEX ROY: Oh, god.
MIKE SPINELLI: So, the Segway of luxury cars.
ALEX ROY: You have this thing, which was an
evolution of the XKE.
MIKE SPINELLI: Sorry--
no, it was a fine car.
Continue.
ALEX ROY: So here you had this thing, which came after the
XKE, which is itself an embarrassment--
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, following that, the XJ--
I kind of like it.
Well, go to the next one again.
All right, so this is the XJ12.
Coming from the XKE, it is sort of interesting--
there is an interesting parallel between this--
how's your foot?
ALEX ROY: My leg started going.
MIKE SPINELLI: It just fell asleep?
ALEX ROY: My leg started going.
MIKE SPINELLI: But we bought this new couch just for you.
ALEX ROY: Go on.
MIKE SPINELLI: All right, so there's an interesting
parallel between this--
between Porsche and Jag, is that they both went upmarket.
Porsche did the 928.
Jag did the XJ, and neglected the bread and butter, which
was the XKE.
it was a--
ALEX ROY: They also neglected the buyers of the cars,
because I knew at age nine that Jags
had electrical problems.
I knew this.
And even today, I wouldn't buy one because of my latent
memory of that.
If there is one person alive at Jag who was employed at
that time, I will not buy a Jag, because his influence is
somewhere in the company.
I mean, they were really the laughing stock of high-end
cars, equivalent to Maserati.
They had to be.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, even worse.
But the thing about Jag is that it was amazing that
people still bought them.
I mean there were jokes about Jaguar years and years and
years before.
But people kept buying them.
And they never ran out of brand equity.
ALEX ROY: I'd love to know what percentage of Jaguars
were sold in England based on nationalist loyalty.
And then after that, what percentage were sold in
Connecticut.
That has to be--
MIKE SPINELLI: Because of nationalist loyalty?
ALEX ROY: Southeastern England and Connecticut had to be the
major markets, because the range of the vehicle prior to
breakdown was limited to your city house to your manor.
MIKE SPINELLI: That's very true.
ALEX ROY: And that was it.
MIKE SPINELLI: Actually very interesting parallel.
You're right.
It's like a very London to--
ALEX ROY: London to Downton Abbey.
MIKE SPINELLI: Downton Abbey.
Thank you very much.
ALEX ROY: That's the distance.
MIKE SPINELLI: So then Ford took them over and put them
under their wing.
ALEX ROY: And then they lost everyone who was classist
against Ford, but gained a new audience.
MIKE SPINELLI: They did, but although--
in the UK, Ford had a better image.
ALEX ROY: Ford does have a better image
in the UK than here.
MIKE SPINELLI: Ford was a pretty--
What was the--
Ford Cosworths and all that stuff.
The AJ-V8 came out of this period, which was actually a
pretty good thing to--
ALEX ROY: Well, this thing came out in
1996, is that correct?
MIKE SPINELLI: Something like that.
ALEX ROY: OK, and think about it, in '96, this was
a pretty big deal--
MIKE SPINELLI: It was a giant deal.
ALEX ROY: --because this was clearly not an evolution of
prior models.
It was fresh.
It didn't turn me on, but boy, if you're a Jag buyer, this
thing was a big turn-on.
MIKE SPINELLI: And not only that, it's not
totally not as [BLEEP]
as the stuff that became before it.
ALEX ROY: Yeah, it's a decent car.
MIKE SPINELLI: I mean, I would almost buy one
of these right now.
I'm just--
ALEX ROY: That's where you and I differ.
But let's go to the next slide.
MIKE SPINELLI: But they were on their way back.
And now, here we are.
ALEX ROY: Now we have this.
MIKE SPINELLI: Right, the X--
XK--
ugh.
XK--
TOGETHER: --RS
MIKE SPINELLI: Thank you very much.
ALEX ROY: Yeah, this is pretty business.
MIKE SPINELLI: This is business.
ALEX ROY: I mean, again, it's not my cup of tea, but this is
not a car to be ashamed of.
MIKE SPINELLI: No.
This is a badass car.
ALEX ROY: I'm with you.
MIKE SPINELLI: It's not the best handling thing, you know
what I mean?
It's not going to win the numbers games.
But it is-- when you drive this thing, you feel like--
ALEX ROY: Here's where I'll give Jaguar props.
MIKE SPINELLI: --the Saint.
ALEX ROY: Richard Hammond was saying not that long ago that
the biggest problem with the car industry is, everybody
wants to be BMW.
Everybody wants to have the best comfort and the best
handling, which is impossible.
If it was possible, 7 Series sales wouldn't suck compared
to S Class.
There are people who want comfort.
And Jag has really done a great job of maintaining the
comfort while adding handling.
And they've not trying to build a pure handling car.
And they shouldn't.
MIKE SPINELLI: You know, this is sort of the British
Corvette with more style.
ALEX ROY: It's the British Supra.
[LAUGHTER]
ALEX ROY: Let's move on to the next brand.
MIKE SPINELLI: Anyway, no, but wait a minute.
ALEX ROY: Next model.
MIKE SPINELLI: So by the way-- right, so to complete the
comeback, the F Series--
ALEX ROY: This is a great looking car.
MIKE SPINELLI: --is a really great looking car.
ALEX ROY: And it's so great.
It's like what the Ferrari California should be, because
it's not a poser BS sports convertible.
It is really good looking.
It's the car Jaguar should have been making
for the last 20 years.
And it's--
MIKE SPINELLI: Perhaps.
ALEX ROY: I'm excited for them.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, me too.
ALEX ROY: I would--
again, I don't want one.
But I would put it on the list.
Because it's the right size, it's cool, it's got pedigree,
it's got brand, it's got history.
And I bet you it's going to be a great car.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, I can imagine.
Also, with Land Rover and the Evoke doing really well,
they're making money hand over fist in China.
So economically, they're doing great now.
Their profits are up.
And so they can keep using--
they can do the Porsche thing, just keep using that money to
build better sports cars.
ALEX ROY: I'll say something really--
I'm going to take a lot of heat for this.
This is one of the rare cars which, if you're looking at
buying a Boxster, you can actually compare-o-shop
against this.
And there's not many people who are making a car that can
comparison shop against a Boxster.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, it's interesting because I'm
totally curious to see if this will come
anywhere near a Boxster.
Because Boxster is probably the best-driving car that you
can buy right now.
ALEX ROY: But remember, the person who buys this car is
not looking for the best-handling car.
And the majority of Boxster buyers don't give a [BLEEP]
[BLEEP]
about handling.
They're buying it because it's the only car of its kind at
its price from a luxury brand that happens to be good.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
ALEX ROY: And this doesn't have to be the
best-handling car.
It just has to be good, and they will steal Boxster sales.
MIKE SPINELLI (WITH BRITISH ACCENT): It's a Jag.
ALEX ROY: What's next?
Oh.
MIKE SPINELLI: Oh, the Catera.
So you guys may recognize this as the--
ALEX ROY: Opel.
MIKE SPINELLI: The Opel Omega?
No, Opel Senator?
Opel Congressman.
ALEX ROY: An Opel.
MIKE SPINELLI: As the Opel Congressman.
ALEX ROY: The Opel Chamberlain.

And this was sold as a Cadillac.
MIKE SPINELLI: So they brought it over here as a Cadillac.
And they call it the Catera because it sounded like--
ALEX ROY: A hot Italian chick's last name.
MIKE SPINELLI: A hot Italian dental assistant, Lisa Catera.
So they actually--
for the commercials, the-- what do you call it?
Not the side kick.
They used a duck, like a little--
ALEX ROY: You're getting too complicated.
Go to YouTube and look up Lisa Catera.
Lisa Catera.
There's an ad--
they actually had NBC or ABC place a character in a show
named Lisa Catera as a pun on the--
MIKE SPINELLI: Did they really do that?
That I didn't even know that.
ALEX ROY: As a pun on the, lease a Catera.
MIKE SPINELLI: So they wanted to--
because they were going after lease buyers, and they were
going after women with this.
And so they had a little duck animated
character that would follow--
it was like the Caddy that zigs was the line.
And the duck would follow the--
Cindy Crawford would be driving.
I mean, they were really going heavy on--
ALEX ROY: The only thing worse then selling an Opel as a
Caddy would have been if Cadillac bought Excalibur--
[LAUGHS]
--and just sold those.
MIKE SPINELLI: Sold Excaliburs?
ALEX ROY: It was probably an either/or, and they thought
this was less risky.
I mean, horrible Cadillac.
And I had a '77 Fleetwood.
It was my dad's car.
It's a great car.
This was really the bottom.
MIKE SPINELLI: And by the way, at the same time, they were
making Northstar V8s.
They were making a--
ALEX ROY: A good car.
MIKE SPINELLI: --an overhead cam V8 that was pretty good.
ALEX ROY: But it wasn't big enough.
The STS Northstar V8 was the right car
at the wrong audience.
It was the car that BMW buyers would have been interested in.
But they wouldn't, because the entire brand lineup was
tainted by this.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
Well, the other thing is that-- you're right.
I mean, luxury in America had taken a turn toward Germany.
And so Cadillac executives decided that they were going
start incorporating European ideals into
some of their cars.
ALEX ROY: By ripping off mid-grade,
second-tier German sedans.
MIKE SPINELLI: And they did just the worst job of it.
I mean, it was really just a hack.
And then you ended up, this was just the final straw at
the end of it all, was that they brought this Opel.
ALEX ROY: People forget.
MIKE SPINELLI: People forget.
ALEX ROY: And then you had the comeback vehicle.
MIKE SPINELLI: So the comeback vehicle was basically--
ALEX ROY: Well, this was the interim comeback car, the CTS.
MIKE SPINELLI: So the CTS was a pretty good platform.
And ultimately if you continue--

and I don't want to say that the CTS wagon was the comeback
thing, because they sold about five of them.
ALEX ROY: But it's a great car.
MIKE SPINELLI: It's a great car.
So we just wanted to put it up there.
ALEX ROY: Because you know something?
You know a brand is going in the right direction when they
decide to make a low-volume sports wagon that even for
brands that do it well, doesn't sell.
How many M5 wagons are sold?
Not many.
But it's a halo car.
It's a halo car.
But the real comeback car for Cadillac was the Escalade.
MIKE SPINELLI: It really was the Escalade.
ALEX ROY: Which is really a Yukon.
MIKE SPINELLI: Right.
It's just a dopey GM large SUV.
ALEX ROY: And the first gen Escalade--
we don't have a picture of it here-- but the first gen of
the Escalade literally was a Denali with a
Cadillac badge on it.
But it really wasn't until the second or third year that this
became a bling-tastically, like, a
seriously high-end car.
And this changed everything for them.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
I love the Escalade.
I have to say, I used to think it was an affront to
everything that was good under the sun.
ALEX ROY: Me too.
MIKE SPINELLI: It really is--
we drove one of these to a shoot once.
And I'm telling you what, this is the new American luxury.
This is our S Class.
ALEX ROY: This is our Range Rover.
MIKE SPINELLI: No, but you know what--
ALEX ROY: It is, it's the whole thing.
MIKE SPINELLI: It is really our S Class.
ALEX ROY: It's the whole thing.
MIKE SPINELLI: Because you drive a
Range Rover, it's still--
ALEX ROY: It's going to break down.
This might actually last.
MIKE SPINELLI: But the Range Rover at least has a little
bit of a sort of English countryside
sporting feel to it.
This is nothing but cruiser--
there's so much space.
It's like, you look around and it's like being outside, but
you're inside.
ALEX ROY: And nobody else does it as well.
Even today, after all these years.
Because the Cayenne, if you think about it, it's great.
But it's really small compared to this thing.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
ALEX ROY: And the Range Rover, I don't care what it is or
what it ever becomes, it's never going to last.
And everyone knows this.
Try to lease one.
It's a joke.
I mean, a three-year-old Range Rover is 80% off depreciation.
These things--
good.
What's next?
MIKE SPINELLI: That's it.
@Drive on Twitter.
ALEX ROY: We forgot one.
MIKE SPINELLI: OK?
ALEX ROY: The ultimate comeback brand that only Alex
Roy would ever think of, Morgan.
MIKE SPINELLI: Boy, they never really want away, did they?
ALEX ROY: Not true.
They did go away.
In the mid '90s, there was a show called "Business
Confidential" in England, where they'd go and analyze
businesses that are failing and give advice.
And Peter Morgan, the son of HFS, who
founded it, was the CEO.
And Charles was at that point out of college, or who knows
what he was doing.
And they basically told Peter Morgan, you're done, dude.
You are toast.
The delivery times are up to 10 years.
A 10-year wait to buy a car.
And the cars were unchanged for 15 to 20 years.
MIKE SPINELLI: What, did they have three
people building them?
How did that--
ALEX ROY: And after seeing the show, Charles Morgan, Jr. went
to his father.
And he said, give me a job.
And we're going to turn this thing around.
And about seven years later, the Aero 8 came out, in 2002.
And then they had the Aero Max, the Aero SuperSport.
MIKE SPINELLI: I remember that.
ALEX ROY: And now they have the three-wheeler.
And if you go to that factory--
MIKE SPINELLI: And you have one of those.
ALEX ROY: And I bought a three-wheeler.
If you go to that factory today--
I mean, talk about turnaround.
The bigger the company, the more likely it will
turnaround.
Small ones usually go away.
Anyway, let's move on.
Next week, we're covering Gumpert Apollo and brands that
actually did go way that no one knew did when they went.
Because they just filed for bankruptcy and got
refinancing.
MIKE SPINELLI: That's it.
Cool.
ALEX ROY: We'll discuss vehicles for disasters, the
power of diesel--
MIKE SPINELLI: And yeah, by the way, right.
I mean, that's the thing.
Sandy, the hurricane that we just had--
I don't know if you remember that.
Everyone's power was out.
And so we've had gas lines--
I mean, we are living in the apocalypse right now.
And the only people that are living
large like they should--
ALEX ROY: Diesel drivers.
MIKE SPINELLI: --diesel drivers, because there is
plenty of diesel available at these gas stations.
ALEX ROY: Thanks for having me.
I'm going to go home and shower.
MIKE SPINELLI: You're going to be on next week, too.
ALEX ROY: Yeah, I'll be here.
MIKE SPINELLI: And Matt Farah is going to be
on next week, too.
ALEX ROY: Look forward to seeing him.
MIKE SPINELLI: Look at that, the old gang.
All right, see you guys later.
ALEX ROY: Bye.
MIKE SPINELLI: "Road Testament."
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]