The Best and Worst Vehicles at the 2024 Charlotte Auto Show

LeeAnn Shattuck (00:00.43)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the straight shift. I’ve been going to auto shows since I was a kid. I used to go with my dad all the time. We went to the Chicago show fairly often because we lived up in Milwaukee. And ever since I started this business, gosh nearly 20 years ago, I’ve been going to the Charlotte international auto show here in my hometown. It’s been getting smaller every year. All auto shows have they really been on a decline as people are shifting to YouTube.

as their source of information, just doing everything online instead of going to the physical shows. Even the LA show last week was very small by comparison and a lot of people found it very disappointing. But they’re just so expensive for the manufacturers to put on, so they’re shuffling their marketing dollars to other places. And that’s unfortunate because I love going to the auto show. You can only do so much research online and I do a lot of it.

but you also have to touch things. You have to sit in the car. You have to feel the materials. You have to see if the seat is comfortable. I like being able to go to the auto show and crawl through hundreds of different cars in one day without the pressure of a test drive and having to schedule appointments or drive all over town to go see the different manufacturers. Just about everything is right there and I can just move my butt from seat to seat to seat.

and compare the cars very directly. And this year they had an indoor electric vehicle test track. That was super fun. I’m gonna share with you my experience on that and tell you what cars really stood out to me, what I liked, what I didn’t like, and my annual awards, the car chicks worst in show, best in show, and the infamous WTF award. So let’s get into it.

LeeAnn Shattuck (01:57.538)
theme of this year’s auto show in Charlotte was technology and sustainability. So of course there was a huge focus on the electric and electrified vehicles. And this EV indoor test track was seriously cool. I hope you are watching this podcast on the YouTube version because I have video and pictures to include that you won’t get in the audio version. So if you’re just listening to the audio version, you might want to come back and watch the YouTube version so you can actually see what these cars look like.

and see some of the fun things that I got to do on the EV test track. Unfortunately, I did not get to drive. But that wasn’t anything with me personally, although it could have been, but nobody got to drive. It was a ride along and it was a very small course that was focused on the acceleration. And you got to see the interior of the car and feel it and see some of the cool technology. People who were driving were very knowledgeable about the vehicles. Now, not all the EVs were out there.

It was mostly the European luxury brands. So we had the Audi e-tron, BMW brought the iX and the i5. So the SUV and the sedan, let me tell you that sedan is a monster. And Lexus brought their RZ, Mercedes brought their sedan, the EQE 350, which is very, very beautiful. And then Ford also participated. They of course brought their Mach-E and the F-150 lighting. You got to feel.

that acceleration that you really can only get in an electric motor because an electric motor delivers a flat torque curve. So that means that you have 100 percent of the power available at zero RPM. You don’t have to wait for anything to spool up. There’s no hesitation. You put your foot on the go pedal and it goes. I was really surprised at how different the cars felt. And a lot of it depends on how big the batteries are, you how many electrons

but also how they program it to deliver those electrons. Everything is programmable. So the ones that are designed for more performance are going to give you that power right off the bat. And you are going to be able to spin the tires, especially on a freshly polished concrete floor, which was kind of funny. The traction control systems were having a wonderful time on that. And some of them are designed just very sustainable, very economical. We’re going to give you as much range as possible.

LeeAnn Shattuck (04:22.798)
and be very comfortable doing it. So as you might expect, the Mercedes was the slowest, but it was very luxurious. It’s very smooth. That’s the other cool thing about an electric powertrain. It’s so smooth. There’s no jerking. There’s no hesitation that you get with a gas powered engine. It’s just all of a sudden you launch and you go and it’s a lot of fun. I was really impressed with.

the BMW sedan. mean, that thing was an absolute monster. It launched very much like the Ford Lightning does. It just blows you back into your seat and it was so much fun. A couple things I didn’t like are that electric vehicles, because they’re still these future vehicles and all this cool technology, they focus a lot on that technology. So when you get into an electric vehicle, some of them, it’s like getting into a

limo in Las Vegas or walking into a Las Vegas nightclub. This huge screen, but all those ambient lighting, they call it. And some of it, like in Lexus is truly ambient. You know, it’s along the dash. It’s maybe behind the sides of the armrest. It’s truly more under lighting, like the under lighting you put in kitchen cabinets in a nice home. It’s subtle. It’s elegant. It produces ambiance. But believe it or not.

BMW and Mercedes were just downright obnoxious about it. Those were the ones that I really felt were like a Vegas nightclub and not necessarily in a good way. I found it a little bit cheesy for those brands, especially Mercedes. Mercedes is supposed to be, you know, just top luxury and elegance in class. And it was a little bit cheesy. The dashboard actually had all these little tiny Mercedes symbols all over it that lit up.

So they’re like stars on the ceiling of a child’s bedroom or a disco ball in a nightclub. It was a little over the top. I don’t think that was necessary. But it is cool that you can program the colors. Some of them give you a few dozen choices of colors, but most give you hundreds, some even millions of choices of colors. But I just felt that that was a little overdone in some of the cars. But the performance and the experience was a blast. I spent the morning playing on the EV track.

LeeAnn Shattuck (06:44.042)
And then once I was done playing, it was time to get to work and go crawl through all the different cars that they had at the auto show. Unfortunately, not every brand was represented because again, auto shows all across the country are getting smaller and smaller. Of course, one of the vehicles that was at the top of my list to see that was not there was the Toyota Grand Highlander. But I understand because they’ve had inventory issues, they had the whole stop sale due to the airbag deployment issue.

and they are just now starting to produce those vehicles and get them out to the dealers. So they just don’t have the inventory. But I did get to see the new redesigned Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser, you may remember, took a hiatus between 2022 and 2023 model years. So they did 21 and then they stopped it for a couple of years. And then for the 24 model year, they brought it back and it’s completely redesigned. It is smaller.

than the previous generation Land Cruiser. It’s a five passenger mid-size SUV. It sits between the 4Runner, although they’re about the same size, the Land Cruiser is just taller. And of course the larger three row Sequoia SUV. It’s also no longer charged by a V8 engine. Yep, it’s Toyota folks. It is a hybrid. It’s powered by a turbocharged inline four cylinders. Like, God, a four cylinder and a Land Cruiser.

but it’s paired with an electric motor and a full-time four-wheel drive system. So you are not sacrificing the performance or the off-road ruggedness at all with the hybrid powertrain, but you are getting about 23 miles to the gallon. And while that doesn’t sound like a lot for a hybrid, remember this is a big rugged SUV and it’s a heck of a lot better than what the old Land Cruiser got, which was like 14 miles per gallon, if you were lucky. So the best part?

It’s so much cheaper than the old ones. The 21 and previous Land Cruisers, they started at like $85,000 and went up from there. And the new one is 30 grand less. They wanted to make it more affordable. It’s a great looking vehicle and if you’re looking for that out road adventure, it’s gonna be a lot of fun to drive and be more economical to do so. The only downside in my opinion is the cargo area. It’s a smaller cargo area.

LeeAnn Shattuck (09:05.88)
but the cargo floor itself, the load floor, they call it, is really, really high. So if you are putting cooler and stuff back there, you are gonna have to do a lot of lifting to get it in and out. That’s because the hybrid battery system is back under the cargo area where a spare tire used to be. Overall, I was very impressed with it. The interior was rugged, but still very nicely done. Really a lot of fun. Another Toyota that I got to see is the new

Crown, it’s Toyota’s newest hybrid sedan. It’s kind their new flagship sedan. It’s slightly larger than the midsize Camry. It’s a little more reminiscent of the Avalon, but it has a very sporty, almost SUV-like sloped roofline that gives it just a sportier look. It’s a striking vehicle that gets about 40 miles to the gallon, which is what you more expect out of a Toyota hybrid powertrain.

Toyota will also be releasing a two row midsize SUV that is built on the same platform called the Crown Cigna. The Crown is going to be a little bit more of a luxury level. So it’s gonna be a step up from your regular Toyotas, but not quite up to the Lexus level. And it’s gonna focus a lot on technologies. also checked out Toyota’s biggest rival, Honda, and was disappointed yet again. Honda has gotten so freaking

boring. They’ve been focusing on being practical, which is fine. I have no problem with practical. They’ve been focusing on being reliable, which I don’t think they have managed to do in the last several years. I will do a whole separate podcast on what the heck has happened to Honda and why they’re not reliable anymore. I was interested in checking out their first pure electric vehicle, the Honda Prologue. It’s a brand new two row mid sized SUV.

comparable to the Toyota Venza, which is what the Crown Cigna is replacing for 2025. But it gets a near 300 mile range, which is really fantastic for a pure electric SUV. It’s just a hair longer than the gas powered Honda Passport, which is also a two row SUV, but it has a lower roof line, which gives it a little more streamlined and futuristic modern look that I think really works. But here’s the catch.

LeeAnn Shattuck (11:25.162)
It’s not really a Honda. It’s built by GM. It is built on the same EV platform and software architecture as the Chevy Blazer EV. Like, why would Honda do that? They’re already having problems with their electronics and other reliability issues, so they partner with GM, which is notorious for having problems with their electronics and their technology? Well, it makes sense.

If you look at it from the global perspective, developing pure electric vehicle technology is really, really expensive. And that’s not realistic for every car brand to make that type of investment on their own. No other automaker except Tesla has invested more in EV product development than GM. They have gone all in.

Now Honda wanted to start getting into the EV market much faster, much more affordably, both for them and for their customers. It’s kind of like how Subaru and Mazda partnered with Toyota for hybrid and electric technology. So it makes sense that Honda would go to the biggest producer of electric technology in the U.S. market, and that’s General Motors. Honda’s responsibility in this partnership is what the industry calls hot hat development.

Everything you see above the chassis inside and out was designed by Honda. Everything else is GM. So that means that the body panels and the interior, the seats, the finished materials, all of that is Honda. But anything that actually makes the car work is GM. It’s built by GM at their plant down in Mexico, although it is produced on a completely separate line.

that’s specific to the prologue and the design that Honda specified. Same way with Acura’s equivalent, the ZDX, it’s built at GM’s plant in Tennessee alongside the Cadillac Lyrique. All these vehicles share the same GM platform. But if you’re looking for a two row midsize electric SUV that has great range, the prologue is one to definitely consider.

LeeAnn Shattuck (13:42.382)
Back to the gas powered vehicle world for a minute. I was excited to see Mazda’s two row midsize SUV, the CX-70. It’s technically new for 2025 and it slots between the smaller CX-5 and CX-50 and the three row midsize CX-90. But the CX-70 is a CX-90. They’re exactly the same. The 70 just doesn’t have that third row.

And I think that’s a good thing because when you take that tight third row out, which is kind of cramped anyway, you get all this really usable cargo space and you get it in a package that is infinitely more reliable than its competitors like, the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Volkswagen’s Atlas Sport. And it’s more stylish than the Subaru Outback, which is perfectly great vehicle, but the styling does not appeal to everyone. What Mazda does so, so well is their

Plasti, they have some of the most beautiful interiors. I would put the top trim level Mazdas up there with the Lexus interiors, Infiniti, Genesis, so many of the luxury brands. Mazda really does just as well at a lower price point. The last vehicle that I wanted to mention before I get to my official awards is one that I was so happy and so excited to see because I honestly wasn’t expecting

us to have one at the Charlotte show. The LA show, sure, but I didn’t think we were going to get one because they are just now hitting the market. We don’t have any on the ground at any of the dealerships in Charlotte. And that is the Volkswagen ID Buzz. The 25 ID Buzz is a fully electric minivan and the styling is what you expect. It is a total retro throwback to the original Volkswagen minibus that is just a

cultural icon of the 60s and 70s represented the freedom and the adventure and just kind of that whole free loving living lifestyle of the 60s. I mean, it was the hippie bus and the new buzz just takes that spirit and thoroughly modernizes it. It has all the latest and greatest in both the electric vehicle battery technology and the regular technology just combined with this ton of

LeeAnn Shattuck (16:08.75)
passenger and cargo space in a family friendly and totally fun package. The powertrain is decently powerful. I it’s, not designed to be a performance vehicle and the range is not spectacular. It’s just over about 230 miles. That’s not great. It’s not going to get you a long way on that family road trip, but who cares? It’s so freaking cool.

that comes in these happy fun colors like this two-tone candy white and lime yellow that they had at the Charlotte Auto Show has a ginormous panoramic center and it has a bunch of playful details inside. They had some exposed screw heads in the door trim and so they covered them with little smiley faces and the dividers in the center console double as a bottle opener and an ice scraper. I mean,

Who thought of that? It’s amazing. And my personal favorite is on the brake pedal and I’m still going to call it a gas pedal, the go pedal. There are little icons for pause and play. mean, come on. That is just a fun detail. Obviously the folks at VW had a fantastic time designing the ID buzz. I’m pretty sure they were fly, but hey.

It’s a VW bus, man, what do you expect? I absolutely loved it. Finally, onto my official Karchik Awards for the show. I didn’t crawl through every single vehicle at the show. I focused on the ones that I most wanted to see that were actually there. These awards are based on

my personal opinions, mostly based on style, because I couldn’t actually drive any of them. And let’s face it, style really matters. So this is like me criticizing the outfits on the red carpet at the Oscars. Although I did factor in some of the performance and the capabilities of the vehicles, but these are just my opinions and are in no way related to the actual Charlotte Auto Show and the wonderful folks that put it on. So let’s…

LeeAnn Shattuck (18:17.326)
Let’s start with the worst in show. Believe it or not, worst in show goes to the Toyota BZ4X. This seems from having one of the most humbersome and ridiculous names in the automotive industry. I mean, what the heck? Apparently BZ stands for Beyond Zero, which refers to its electric nature. Did Janika build it into the name of the car?

then the 4 represents the size of the vehicle similar to the RAV4. And then the X symbolizes the crossover body style. I don’t know. It’s kind of ridiculous. And honestly, if Toyota had put as much thought and effort into actually the design of the vehicle versus the stupid, difficult to pronounce and remember name, they might have actually produced a decent car. But they didn’t. It’s not horrible.

The electric range is on the low side for the industry. It’s kind of in the low to mid 200s if you’re lucky. A lot of the competitors are up there on the 300 mile mark like the Honda Prologue. And the performance is just kind of meh. So it’s not exciting to drive. That’s okay if you’re just trying to be economical. But it’s the design that absolutely kills me and why it earned this award. The exterior is…

kind of ugly. don’t like these two tone fenders. They make it look just kind of cheap. This is the same vehicle as Subaru Soltera. They’re identical, but the two tone doesn’t bother me on the Subaru because it’s a little more consistent with the rugged outdoorsy nature of that brand. I don’t think it works on the Toyota version. It’s not what I expect in a Toyota and worse the inside just feels so cheap and boring.

It also feels kind of ramped, even though it is actually pretty spacious and even tall people can get in and out easily and can fit in it easily. I think part of it is that the interior was all black and it was all black. There’s a lot of just cheap, hard plastics, not a lot of soft touch materials and not a lot of variability in tone and texture. It just kind of felt like a cave. You got in it and it was just black.

LeeAnn Shattuck (20:42.124)
The only fancy part was the gloss piano black on the console. But all that’s going to do is collect fingerprints. I hate that piano black and especially in a place that you’re touching all the time, you are never going to get rid of those fingerprints. They’re going to be there forever. The infotainment screen itself is very usable. It’s very user friendly, but it is smaller than a lot of the rest of the industry. Not horrible. But then the informational display, the traditional dash is

in this console that’s kind of mounted behind the steering wheel by these weird plastic arms and it’s almost up by the windshield. It kind of reminds me of when I’m trying to read a restaurant menu with my multifocal contacts on at my age and I’m holding it way out here because I can’t read it. That’s kind of what it felt like. And I couldn’t even find a seating position in the car where I could see it well.

Are they’re over or under or through the steering wheel? And it just almost looks like they were trying to make a cockpit in a spaceship. I don’t know. I’m sure they were thinking that it was supposed to be further out to make it easier to see like a heads up display so you don’t have to look down to see the pertinent information. So why didn’t they just bid a heads up display and display the important stuff on the windshield like Mazda and so many other brands are doing?

If you want to be technologically advanced, just do it right. Because that weird on plastic thing, it just looks absolutely terrible. I hate it. And then, of course, the pièce de résistance, what really put it over the top for getting worse in show, was the industrial, arquet-like fabric that is covering the dash. I’m convinced that this is the exact same fabric that they used to have in the Yaris.

Why they decided to put it on the dash? I don’t know. It’s just hideous. And I think I have seen this carpet in office buildings. In fact, I know I have seen nicer looking carpet in office buildings. So I don’t know why they put it there. The BZ4X, I can’t even remember the name. It’s the only electric vehicle that Toyota is producing right now. And it’s pretty pricey and not eligible for the tax credit.

LeeAnn Shattuck (23:06.542)
And given that it competes with the prologue, it competes with the Hyundai IONIQ 5, which is very funky, the Kia EV6, and the Ford Mach-E, I’m sorry, but the Toyota just doesn’t even come close. It falls short of its competitors in every single area. Congratulations, Toyota. You may be a reliable brand, but your BZ whatever wins the car chicks worst in show. On the flip side,

My pick for best in show was not at all what I expected. The ID buys was a strong contender based on the adorable nostalgia factor alone. But I actually fell in love with another pure electric family vehicle. The Kia EV9. I did not expect that. The EV9 is a new three row electric SUV.

It’s the same size as the very popular and completely awesome Kia Telluride. It can go about 300 miles on a charge and then recharge very quickly on a DC fast charger. They have great recharging capabilities and that makes it more practical for a family vehicle, especially if you want to take a road trip with the family.

And speaking of road trip capabilities, it is very spacious inside, very comfortable interior. Even the third row is very usable, even for adults. And it comes with loads of bells and whistles and technology for the money. And that’s what Hyundai and Kia are both known for. The interior design is beautiful. It’s got all this leading edge tech, but that tech doesn’t really take

center stage, it’s not obnoxious about it the way it was in the BMW and the Mercedes that I saw. It’s a little more understated and elegant while still being cool. Techies are going to like it. You just get so much bang for your buck and for way less money than the three-row SUVs from Mercedes and Tesla and Rivian. People who love sound, they’re going to appreciate it has an amazing Meridian audio system when you get up to the higher trim levels.

LeeAnn Shattuck (25:19.338)
And my absolute favorite feature is what they call the relaxation comfort seats. Again, that’s available on the top two trims, but the driver’s seat and the passenger seat, they not only recline, but there’s a power leg rest. So when you do have to stop and refill the electrons, you can take a power nap. It’s literally like having a lazy boy in the car. A lazy boy that is both heated and cooled.

And on the very top trim level, the seat cushion and the seat back have massagers, but it’s not the massaging seat that uses kind of the hard finger like things. It uses air bladders that just inflate and deflate really fast to give you a much more comfortable massage. I swear I did not want to get out of this vehicle. And if I had one, I probably wouldn’t. I would just maybe move my office in there. So right now.

It’s truly by itself, it is going to start seeing some competition from its cousin, the Hyundai IONIQ 9, which debuted at the LA show last week. That is coming out hopefully in spring of 2025. So now we’ll have two choices of amazing three row electric SUVs. But for now, the Kia EV9 wins my best in show. Finally, my infamous WTF award. This stands for what you think it stands for.

and I give it to the vehicle at the show that just makes me go, what the f*** were they thinking? And this year’s award goes to a surprising vehicle. It goes to the Lexus NX that was at this show. I’m not knocking the Lexus NX as a vehicle in any way, shape or form. It’s actually a great little SUV.

It’s comfortable, it’s luxurious, it’s stylish, it gets great gas mileage, especially in the hybrid version. And of course, it’s reliable, as you would expect from Lexus. So why did it get my WTF award? I’ll learn. Let’s start with the exterior. It’s a new color for 2025 called Copper Crest. It’s kind of a medium, rosy copper. It’s actually really pretty. In fact,

LeeAnn Shattuck (27:40.448)
I have an eyeshadow stick like literally the makeup I’m wearing right now is almost the exact same color. I have nail polish in this color. It’s a beautiful color. Just not necessarily on a par. It’s one of those different trendy colors that catches your attention. And I’m sure they are hoping that it has you making an impulsive buying choice because you think, it’s so pretty. It’s so different. I love it. I’m going to buy it.

And it is a more feminine color, which makes sense because the NX is purchased more by women than men. When are you going to be sick of it in a few years? Maybe even a few months. Is the market going to be sick of it in a few years, lowering your resale value? Are you going to still love it in a year, in two years, as much as you do right there on the showroom floor? Me, I personally would not. I would rather just have that color in nail polish. But here’s why it got the WTF award.

It’s because they paired it with the Palomino leather interior. And my gosh, the Palomino interior is this mustardy yellow tan. I think it’s a hideous interior no matter what exterior color you partner it with. But when you put mustardy yellowy tan with this rosy copper, it just takes hideous to a new

level. I think it would have been fine with the black interior because then you could just focus on the exterior color. The macadamia interior, which is very, very neutral, almost white interior. That is going to be very beautiful with it. But no, the palomino mustardy yellow trim with the coppery exterior. Just no, whoever put those two together needs to be fired or they at least need to be forced to take a remedial

Polar Theory class. It’s just, ehh, barf worthy. What the f*** were they thinking? So you get the WTF award Lexus. Sorry. Alright, that is it for my review of the 2024 Charlotte Auto Show and some of the amazing electric and gas-powered vehicles that are on the market today. Thank you for joining me.

LeeAnn Shattuck (29:59.886)
do you think of these vehicles? Like what is your favorite? What do you love? What do you hate? What makes you go, why did they do that? Let me know in the comments below. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show and share it with your community. If you have any questions, feel free to submit them through the form on my website. If you have any ideas for shows, I will absolutely put that on my content calendar for the next year. I want the show to be for you.

And speaking of things for you, I also have my online course, the No BS Guide to Buying a Car, your inside track to getting a great deal, where I teach you all of my secrets and my methodology to help you buy a car without all the bullshittery that comes with traditional car shopping. You can check that out on my website, www.TheCarChick.com Until next time, everybody have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m out of here.