 Hey, welcome to the LA Auto Show. We are The Verge. I am Chris Ziegler. We have Jason Harper with me and also Cameron Warren, my beautiful and lovely colleagues. And we are perched high atop the show, thanks to BMW. We're here in their booth on the second level. If you have two floors for your booth, I would say you're ballin'. Let's talk about some cars. What cars do you guys like? What cars did you not like? There weren't that many huge introductions here, right? It's kind of a slow show. Oh, you might as well just jump in with that Fiat. Yeah. Yeah, that thing's a polarizing. Yes. Look, the Miata is not a controversial car. Everybody loves the Miata who's driven it. It's cheap. It's good. It looks good. It's a great car. It's a great car. It's a great car. It's a great car. It's a great car. It's good. It looks all right. This Fiat does not look all right. So you like it. I like it. But I feel like it's a good sign, because what it shows is that we can get back into the era of small sports car convertibles. Right, the Spyder era, which has been missing for 30 years, right? And now it's maybe coming back to some degree. And, you know, I mean, even if you think about there were a lot of great, inexpensive convertibles. I mean, even think about Saturn for a minute, like throwback, right? Sure, Sky. But here we are with this new model. And I kind of feel like, well, that indicates a trend, which means we'll see more of them, which means less boring cars, which I'm always a fan of. I will also say nice lightweight cars. We talk about ways to be efficient. And you know, as we add complications, you end up with heavy cars that you need more and more complications. The great thing about the Mazda and the Fiat platform is it's light. It actually naturally has great efficiency. It doesn't take power to rate. Weight ratio is naturally fantastic. That's one of those things we're shooting for. And you know, people talk about lightning as a concept. That's the way to start it is a light, small car. Anytime by the way, I mean, we're seeing so many crossovers, everything, everybody's got their crossover, their SUV. It's certainly the trend. And somebody was making a point to me that, you know, it takes more than one car to get a high power car. There's five of them. It doesn't hurt the segment. It helps the segment. And I was just going to say, I mean, the auto industry is full of imitators. Everyone is skeptical until one jumps in and there's some positive sales numbers and then boom, boom, boom. Which might bring you to the, the evoked UV Cabriolet. Which is an unusual beast. Samra, you saw it in the flesh. Yeah. I love the weird cars at the LA Auto Show this year. I mean, thank you. No more Jan Symphony at the Auto Show. Please give me some weird shapes and designs. And you had mentioned something to me before that I thought was interesting, which is that it's LA. LA is a drop top city. And so they're showing drop top cars here. You know, and they always said, you know, LA shows a green show. And boy, we didn't see a ton of green stuff here. I didn't see anything mind blowing. There were certainly also no Ford GTs dropped here. It's a little bit of a quiet show. It isn't, this was not a show that you're, oh my God, did you see? Nobody walked up to me and say, I saw the coolest thing. I saw a couple cool sports cars. There is a BMW race car right behind us and we're going to get the M4 GTS, which kind of looks very race car. That's exciting. Porsche did their club sport. It is a Cayman actual race car. This is a show when they show those kinds of things because you actually pay attention to them. Whereas something like Detroit or Geneva, they're not going to get so much attention because they are releasing big things. So it's kind of the end of the year. They're they're they kind of just dropped the kind of those things that aren't such a big deal. Yeah, the Evoque convertible, they're not going to be selling a million of these, right? They're going to be selling a few thousand maybe. Yeah. And also in the subtract to one, a few hundred. And LA and just the product cycle of car manufacturing is not in the sweet spot. I mean, it originally started out to kind of get the jump on Detroit when we were really thinking about North America, but it's a global automotive market. And the reality is what happens here is not necessarily the most important to these automakers profit margins. I would say one interesting thing today is Audi. Scott Keough, the president did actually mention the TDI scandal, which I think was interesting. And they are talking about their electrification program, which they are talking about by 25 percent by 2015 will be 2025 2025. I'm sorry. I did. But the idea is they basically said he said, we're all in on this. We haven't been innovators. We will we will acknowledge as people come before us. But this is what we see as our efficiency program. And I thought it was interesting that they did indeed acknowledge the TDI and they talked about the electric program and that that is going to be important. They have to do something. Well, and it's timing, right? So it turns out this was a show that was time to address those problems. So to me, that was one of the more evocative things of the show, because, you know, do they face it? Do they talk about it? I have a question, and that is how important are auto shows these days? Do we need I mean, the auto makers themselves drop the news before the shows themselves. I mean, very rarely do you are you shocked? I mean, the Ford GT was a shock, but very rarely do you get some compelling piece of news anymore. It's it's well, I think I mean, auto shows started the history of auto shows has to do with car dealers. So they're about selling cars. So the press piece is sort of something that got tapped on along the way when automotive advertising became a thing and a profitable industry to invest in. This is the one place we actually get to see cars before they're on the roads, before they're available for consumers to try them out and to see how they look side by side. And I like that. And there is this interesting thing exactly that you see, you actually see design language as you walk through or lack of design language. It is interesting to look at Alfa and then look at Mercedes and see other commonalities. Sometimes brands wouldn't expect there to be commonalities there are. I think it's a great point that cheap by general like, Oh, my God, look at this. Yeah. Wow. Look at that brand. That brand is just right. Boring right now. Yeah. I mean, you're right. Like people are excited about cars and they want to touch them and see them in the flesh. It's important and it's important to continuing people's fascination with cars. I love cars. I love different kinds of cars. You know, mobility is absolutely interesting. But there's something about touching a car, the emotionality of the car that I think is one of the reasons that I'm in this business. So I want other people to be excited about this car. And not to go all East Coast on you guys, but the New York show is the most publicly attended auto show. Is it really? Yeah. Yeah. So so actually that's like, I had no idea. Ironic considering many New Yorkers that I know don't drive. So there's something about cars that still captures the imagination. Are they coming down from upstate? Are they? Where are they coming from? They're coming from everywhere. So are we going to do this again at Detroit? I assume the three of us will be some news to be broken. There will definitely be driven. So yeah, we I mean, this is the busy. This is the crazy season, right? We have CES, which is now a car show. Then we have Detroit the following week. And then we kind of hit the ground running through like the middle of the year. You know, we have New York in April and Geneva. So more cars, more verge, more fun times. All of the above. Yeah. So stay tuned. We're going to have more coverage here from the show. We're going to have more reporting. Hopefully you've seen some of our other videos. A few things that I need you to do for me. Go to the verge.com select transportation. That's your home for all of our car coverage and mass transit and transit policy and all those good things. I need you to follow verge cars on on Twitter. I need you to follow Jason Harper spin indeed on Twitter. Follow Tamara Tam on Twitter and policy power on Twitter and keep watching.
 Hey, welcome to the LA Auto Show.
 We are The Verge.
 I am Chris Ziegler.
 We have Jason Harper with me and also Cameron Warren, my
 beautiful and lovely colleagues.
 And we are perched high atop the show, thanks to BMW.
 We're here in their booth on the second level.
 If you have two floors for your booth, I
 would say you're ballin'.
 Let's talk about some cars.
 What cars do you guys like?
 What cars did you not like?
 There weren't that many huge introductions here, right?
 It's kind of a slow show.
 Oh, you might as well just jump in with that Fiat.
 Yeah.
 Yeah, that thing's a polarizing.
 Yes.
 Look, the Miata is not a controversial car.
 Everybody loves the Miata who's driven it.
 It's cheap.
 It's good.
 It looks good.
 It's a great car.
 It's a great car.
 It's a great car.
 It's a great car.
 It's a great car.
 It's good.
 It looks all right.
 This Fiat does not look all right.
 So you like it.
 I like it.
 But I feel like it's a good sign, because what it shows is that we can get back into
 the era of small sports car convertibles.
 Right, the Spyder era, which has been missing for 30 years, right?
 And now it's maybe coming back to some degree.
 And, you know, I mean, even if you think about there were a lot of great, inexpensive convertibles.
 I mean, even think about Saturn for a minute, like throwback, right?
 Sure, Sky.
 But here we are with this new model.
 And I kind of feel like, well, that indicates a trend, which means we'll see more of them,
 which means less boring cars, which I'm always a fan of.
 I will also say nice lightweight cars.
 We talk about ways to be efficient.
 And you know, as we add complications, you end up with heavy cars that you need more
 and more complications.
 The great thing about the Mazda and the Fiat platform is it's light.
 It actually naturally has great efficiency.
 It doesn't take power to rate.
 Weight ratio is naturally fantastic.
 That's one of those things we're shooting for.
 And you know, people talk about lightning as a concept.
 That's the way to start it is a light, small car.
 Anytime by the way, I mean, we're seeing so many crossovers, everything, everybody's got
 their crossover, their SUV.
 It's certainly the trend.
 And somebody was making a point to me that, you know, it takes more than one car to get
 a high power car.
 There's five of them.
 It doesn't hurt the segment.
 It helps the segment.
 And I was just going to say, I mean, the auto industry is full of imitators.
 Everyone is skeptical until one jumps in and there's some positive sales numbers and then
 boom, boom, boom.
 Which might bring you to the, the evoked UV Cabriolet.
 Which is an unusual beast.
 Samra, you saw it in the flesh.
 Yeah.
 I love the weird cars at the LA Auto Show this year.
 I mean, thank you.
 No more Jan Symphony at the Auto Show.
 Please give me some weird shapes and designs.
 And you had mentioned something to me before that I thought was interesting, which is that
 it's LA.
 LA is a drop top city.
 And so they're showing drop top cars here.
 You know, and they always said, you know, LA shows a green show.
 And boy, we didn't see a ton of green stuff here.
 I didn't see anything mind blowing.
 There were certainly also no Ford GTs dropped here.
 It's a little bit of a quiet show.
 It isn't, this was not a show that you're, oh my God, did you see?
 Nobody walked up to me and say, I saw the coolest thing.
 I saw a couple cool sports cars.
 There is a BMW race car right behind us and we're going to get the M4 GTS, which kind
 of looks very race car.
 That's exciting.
 Porsche did their club sport.
 It is a Cayman actual race car.
 This is a show when they show those kinds of things because you actually pay attention
 to them.
 Whereas something like Detroit or Geneva, they're not going to get so much attention
 because they are releasing big things.
 So it's kind of the end of the year.
 They're they're they kind of just dropped the kind of those things that aren't such
 a big deal.
 Yeah, the Evoque convertible, they're not going to be selling a million of these, right?
 They're going to be selling a few thousand maybe.
 Yeah.
 And also in the subtract to one, a few hundred.
 And LA and just the product cycle of car manufacturing is not in the sweet spot.
 I mean, it originally started out to kind of get the jump on Detroit when we were really
 thinking about North America, but it's a global automotive market.
 And the reality is what happens here is not necessarily the most important to these automakers
 profit margins.
 I would say one interesting thing today is Audi.
 Scott Keough, the president did actually mention the TDI scandal, which I think was interesting.
 And they are talking about their electrification program, which they are talking about by 25
 percent by 2015 will be 2025 2025.
 I'm sorry.
 I did.
 But the idea is they basically said he said, we're all in on this.
 We haven't been innovators.
 We will we will acknowledge as people come before us.
 But this is what we see as our efficiency program.
 And I thought it was interesting that they did indeed acknowledge the TDI and they talked
 about the electric program and that that is going to be important.
 They have to do something.
 Well, and it's timing, right?
 So it turns out this was a show that was time to address those problems.
 So to me, that was one of the more evocative things of the show, because, you know, do
 they face it?
 Do they talk about it?
 I have a question, and that is how important are auto shows these days?
 Do we need I mean, the auto makers themselves drop the news before the shows themselves.
 I mean, very rarely do you are you shocked?
 I mean, the Ford GT was a shock, but very rarely do you get some compelling piece of
 news anymore.
 It's it's well, I think I mean, auto shows started the history of auto shows has to do
 with car dealers.
 So they're about selling cars.
 So the press piece is sort of something that got tapped on along the way when automotive
 advertising became a thing and a profitable industry to invest in.
 This is the one place we actually get to see cars before they're on the roads, before they're
 available for consumers to try them out and to see how they look side by side.
 And I like that.
 And there is this interesting thing exactly that you see, you actually see design language
 as you walk through or lack of design language.
 It is interesting to look at Alfa and then look at Mercedes and see other commonalities.
 Sometimes brands wouldn't expect there to be commonalities there are.
 I think it's a great point that cheap by general like, Oh, my God, look at this.
 Yeah.
 Wow.
 Look at that brand.
 That brand is just right.
 Boring right now.
 Yeah.
 I mean, you're right.
 Like people are excited about cars and they want to touch them and see them in the flesh.
 It's important and it's important to continuing people's fascination with cars.
 I love cars.
 I love different kinds of cars.
 You know, mobility is absolutely interesting.
 But there's something about touching a car, the emotionality of the car that I think is
 one of the reasons that I'm in this business.
 So I want other people to be excited about this car.
 And not to go all East Coast on you guys, but the New York show is the most publicly
 attended auto show.
 Is it really?
 Yeah.
 Yeah.
 So so actually that's like, I had no idea.
 Ironic considering many New Yorkers that I know don't drive.
 So there's something about cars that still captures the imagination.
 Are they coming down from upstate?
 Are they?
 Where are they coming from?
 They're coming from everywhere.
 So are we going to do this again at Detroit?
 I assume the three of us will be some news to be broken.
 There will definitely be driven.
 So yeah, we I mean, this is the busy.
 This is the crazy season, right?
 We have CES, which is now a car show.
 Then we have Detroit the following week.
 And then we kind of hit the ground running through like the middle of the year.
 You know, we have New York in April and Geneva.
 So more cars, more verge, more fun times.
 All of the above.
 Yeah.
 So stay tuned.
 We're going to have more coverage here from the show.
 We're going to have more reporting.
 Hopefully you've seen some of our other videos.
 A few things that I need you to do for me.
 Go to the verge.com select transportation.
 That's your home for all of our car coverage and mass transit and transit policy and all
 those good things.
 I need you to follow verge cars on on Twitter.
 I need you to follow Jason Harper spin indeed on Twitter.
 Follow Tamara Tam on Twitter and policy power on Twitter and keep watching.