Episode 165 - 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz, 2023 Volkswagen Jetta, 2023 Ford F-150 Tremor

Jealously guarding its position as the maker of the bestselling pickup model in the United States, Ford develops and offers the Ford F-150 in a wide variety of work truck, personal-use, and off-road versions. One of our all-around favorites is the 2023 Ford F-150 Tremor, a vehicle we tested this week. To build it, Ford engineers started with the fully boxed steel frame, aluminum alloy body, and varied powertrains of the standard F-150 and modified it to give it more appeal to off-road enthusiasts. At the same time, they retained the everyday usefulness of the truck and made sure the price wasn’t out of reach.

Ford has offered the F-150 Tremor package since the current-generation F-150 was introduced for the 2021 model year. A big addition this year is the new availability of the brand’s veteran 5.0-liter V8 engine, now offered as an alternative to the 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine. That was the configuration of the F-150 Tremor that Host Jack Nerad got a chance to test in the silt and sand of the desert outside Indio, California. He’ll have a full report.

The 2023 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Autobahn Edition is the subject of guest co-host Matt DeLorenzo’s road test this week. The Jetta has always been an appealing compact sedan, but in this era of soulless electric vehicles, it might be more appealing than ever. Both Matt and Jack will detail their thoughts on the car in this episode.

Volkswagen is also the lead news story this week as the brand introduced the U.S. version of its much anticipated VW ID.Buzz, the spiritual successor to the legendary VW Microbus. The unveiling took place in Huntington Beach, California, as a bow to the Microbus’s surfer heritage. We’ll tell you all about it and have some personal reminiscences about our own experiences in Volkswagen buses from the way-back machine.

Our special guest this week is Toyota product expert Thomas Sondej. He recently sat down with Host Jack Nerad for an in-depth interview on the all-new 2023 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid and the hybrid version of the 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross small crossover utility.

If you expect the price of electric vehicles to come down to the level of conventional gasoline vehicles soon — well, don’t hold your breath. The chief executive of a major global automaker says it’s going to take a while, and we’ll tell you much more as we recap the week’s top automotive stories.