A Chat with Jill Ciminillo

[00:00:20] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host. And on today's episode, I had an opportunity to sit down with Jill Ciminillo. And if you're not familiar with who Jill is, she is an automotive journalist and content creator. She is also the juror of the North or age or not the juror of the North American car utility truck of the year award, as well as the

[00:00:50] Women's Worldwide Car of the Year Award. Oh, that's a lot, but there's more. She's one of the hosts of the Consumer Guide Car Stuff podcast with she co-hosts that show with Tom Appel. And if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's one of my favorite shows. Watch it every Monday. So highly recommend. She's a runner and a volunteer, but she's also a veteran of the Rebel Rally, which is an eight day off road

[00:01:20] navigation race. So not this specific reason, but I'm releasing this episode a little bit early because Jill and her driver, Jill's a navigator and her driver, Kristen Shaw, they will be participating in the Trinity Road race and they will be driving a Lucid Air Sapphire through the race. And this is, this is a road race. It's different than a rally race.

[00:01:49] Jill's going to go into this, which, which is really good because I'm not going to be able to do a very good job explaining this, but the race starts on May 5th, but the check-in and other pre-race stuff starts on May 4th. So I'm releasing this in enough time. If you wanted to follow their progress, you could definitely do that.

[00:02:12] Again, in this interview, Jill's going to explain more of what that race is because, you know, I, I, I know a little bit about it based on what she told me, but I don't know a lot. So she's going to, she's going to be able to fill us in better on that.

[00:02:24] But what I would like you to do is go to Instagram and follow team brute squad. And I'll put the link in the show notes as well, but team brute, B-R-U-T-E squad, like Princess Bride on Instagram to stay up to date with Kristen and Jill's progress. And, you know, honestly get in the comments and share them on. Let's go ahead and welcome Jill to the show. Hi, thanks for having me.

[00:02:53] Thanks for coming on. Jill, this is, I think this is going to be a lot of fun. One of the things I wanted to talk to you about was the New York auto show and the cars that you saw there. So why don't we start off with the Kia EV3? Yeah. So, and it's really funny because usually the LA auto show is the big, like we're launching all of the EVs at the LA auto show.

[00:03:16] But surprisingly, we got two big EV launches at the New York auto show and the EV3 was one of them. And this is going to be the new smallest EV from Kia that will be available in the American market. This has been on sale globally for, I want to say, at least a year now. I want to say it won the World Car of the Year Award last year. But there, and it was questionable whether or not they were going to be bringing it to the United States, but here they are.

[00:03:44] So that's exciting. And it should have about 320 miles max range. As you know, there's different battery packs that are going to be available. So, you know, you're probably for, you know, some of the higher range or the higher trimmed vehicles, you're probably looking at probably around 280 miles of range. But there will be at least one version available with 320 miles of range. And it's going to have a max charging port. It is going to have a lot of up-level features.

[00:04:12] But my hope, and this is the big fingers crossed moment, is that this is going to be an affordable EV. You know, we were talking offline a little bit about, you know, affordable cars. And, you know, when you're looking at the EV market right now, you've got the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Equinox. And those are like just under $30,000. And so, you know, I think this will probably be priced under $30,000.

[00:04:42] And I'm just hoping, you know, you're going to be able to get a lot of bang for your buck with this car. It has a more upright design. It looks like, in many ways, a mini EV9. But definitely looks like a Kia. It has the cool lighting signatures. And I think you're going to have a lot of interesting available features on this. And, I mean, maybe I'm going to be, like, severely disappointed. I have a lot of high hopes for this car. But I think it looks good.

[00:05:10] And if it can deliver on the range and, you know, then with the next charging, I think that you have the potential to have a really nice, compact electric car. Do you know Brian Meeks? I know the name, but I don't know. He does the podcast of Brian Drives on the Believe Network. Okay. But he drove the EV3. And he had a lot of really good things to say about it. He's a race car driver.

[00:05:40] And so, like, on top of that, you know, he knows, like, performance. And he's going to tear apart if it's laggy. And he just had nothing but good things to say about it. Well, I mean, that's the great thing about an electric car is instantaneous torque. And, you know, you have a lot of the enthusiasts out there who are like, I need the rumble of the engine and the visceral feel of the engine, you know, vibration through the pedal. Okay, I get it. Like, I've driven on racetracks too.

[00:06:07] But there's just something that's really nice about the instantaneous acceleration that you get from an electric car that you do not get from a gasoline vehicle. There is no turbo lag. It is all just fast go. And it is, you know, especially if you have a vehicle that's on the compact side of things, you've got, you know, the really planted feel of the battery, you know, down low. And then you can really drive on curves and sporty, you know, maneuvers.

[00:06:36] And I don't know. I just, I think that I understand the whole engine thing. But I just, I think a lot of people need to get over it. Yeah. No, no. No, I, when, when Dodge introduced the, the, was it the Challenger EV? Charger, yeah. Charger EV, yeah. So they were like, they were like, oh, and it's got noises. And I was like, what kind of infants do you think we are? You know, like, do we really need a fake vroom vroom?

[00:07:04] I will say the fake vroom vroom is very fun. They call it the attitude adjustment. And it's like, you know, and it like vibrates and you can turn it all the way up. You can make it silent. You can turn it off. And it's really funny because my husband and I, I actually posted a video review of this. We took a road trip to Indianapolis when I was driving the Charger Daytona. And, and he was like, can you, can you turn that off? And I was like, I can, but I'm not gonna. And I'm driving. So bye. And he was just like, wait, I, what?

[00:07:33] And I was like, nope, my, my car this week, I'm driving. I like it. Maybe I'm a party or one. I don't know. No. Did you watch that event or were you at that event? Um, I wasn't at the reveal, but I've been at the launch of the vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. When he put it, he was just making so many excuses for how he's like, this is such a great car. I'm sorry. It's an EV. This is an amazing car. It's so fast. I'm sorry. It's an EV. That was just like the whole feel of the event. And I was like, you know what? Lean into it.

[00:08:03] You built this amazing car. And by all accounts, you know, there's, there's some quibbles that people have had with it. Price being one, but by all accounts, it's a, it's a decent EV first time EV and own it. It's a nice car. I would a hundred percent agree with you. And it's funny. Cause I was, um, so I live in Chicago. I'm in the city. And, um, in order for me to like, I don't have, um, a level two charger. I live in an apartment and I can plug into a wall jack. But, um, that doesn't get you very far.

[00:08:32] So I have to go out into the world to charge if I need to do some, some big, um, charging. And I was at one of the stations, uh, in my neighborhood and this guy, you know, you're, you're essentially like sitting there for like a half an hour to an hour to, to bring it up to charge. And I'm sitting there and this guy like is circling me. Um, and he likes goes down the aisle and I'm just like, do I need to be worried? You know what I mean? Cause he's like circling, circling.

[00:09:00] And then finally he stops in the alley and there is a fence. So it's not like he would, you know, come at, come at me, but he like stops and he, um, he's like does the roll down the window symbol. And so I like, I, I'm like, okay. So I rolled down my window and he's like, that is a cool car. And it was like, okay. And he's like, I have a gas version of this. He's like, I can't wait to buy this car. And it was like, oh, okay. Like you, you're, you're the person, you're the person that they're trying to win over. And he's like, I've been, and it was the four door.

[00:09:30] Cause it came out originally as a two door. And I had the four door model. And he's like, I've been waiting for the four door version of this car. And I'm so excited to see it. And I was like, thank you. And so then as I was leaving the station and I was driving down the street, like I saw his car parked on the street and I was like, that has to be this car. Um, and, uh, but yeah, so, I mean, I, I do, I do think there is some enthusiasm for it. I like the fact that they have offered, uh, you know, the six pack alternative, um, powertrain in it.

[00:09:59] Um, but it is, it is a great EV and you're right. They should not be apologizing for it at all. Yeah. Um, the, the other thing that I wanted to get your opinion on is, uh, Jim Farley recently, and I'm, you know, we're kind of zigging and zagging into affordability and out of affordability but, uh, Jim Farley recently said that if the Chinese automakers come, came to the U S auto market, it would be basically decimate U S automakers. What are your thoughts on that?

[00:10:27] Um, you know, I, I thought that was an interesting statement and I, I heard, I heard the interview and, um, and I like, I was just like, dude, I'm like, if you think this is the thing that's going to decimate the American auto industry, you've got bigger problems because we aren't just making cars for Americans in America. We are a global economy, whether we want to admit it or not. And we are making cars for the world and the world is making cars for us.

[00:10:54] You know, not every vehicle that we buy is made in America. And even if it is made in America, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's an automotive automaker. You know, Hyundai has that great meta plant in Georgia and, you know, not an American company, but doing great things by building cars in America. And, and so we operate on a global scale. And if you can't compete globally and you're worried about a Chinese automaker decimating the industry, you're, you're not, you're not doing it right.

[00:11:23] And I, I just, I, I was actually very taken aback at that comment because if you can't compete with, you know, the Chinese automakers, like why are we not competing? Like, that's what I would be asking myself. How can we do this better? How can we better compete with them? Because BYD, you know, Zeker, Gigli, they are on sale in Europe. You know, they're on sale in Mexico. They're on sale in Canada. Or, and if they're not, they're going to be soon.

[00:11:52] And so, you know, if we can't compete with those vehicles, you know, that are already on sale in our neighboring countries, like there are other problems that we need to be addressing. And, and so I just, I thought that was a very big statement that is worrying. To put it lightly, I have other words that I would like to use, but I'm going to keep my, my, my words polite today. No, I completely agree.

[00:12:20] On one side, he says that, you know, they're going to decimate us. And I think, I don't think that's correct because, um, Neo might be able to compete at the higher end where Ford typically sells its cars or maybe, maybe a Zeker or something like that. And, but they're, they're going to be priced competitively to what Ford is pricing their cars. That may be a little bit less, but for the most part competitively.

[00:12:43] But he's also like, he, he has said some good, a lot of actually positive things about Chinese automakers, but in their whole plant. And I think it's in Tennessee, their, their whole manufacturing process for their $30,000 vehicle is based on how the Chinese manufacture their cars. Yeah. So, I mean, we, we are hopefully going to be able to compete, but so here's the thing in terms of price.

[00:13:09] Like what we, I think we still have a hundred percent tariffs on anything from Chinese cars coming into the United States. That's why the Volvo, um, EX30 disappeared. We can't have nice things. Um, but the, so they're going to be certainly priced more than what they would be outside of this market. But to me, the bigger worry for American automakers is the build quality and the technology.

[00:13:35] Um, I, so I recently went to CES and it was my first time ever going to CES. I was hosted by Gigli and they gave us the opportunity to check out Gigli, Lincoln Co. and, um, Zeker vehicles. And they took us to a closed course cause they're not street legal in the United States. So we went to a closed course to be able to drive them around and like hit the buttons and play with the infotainment system and climb around inside the vehicle.

[00:14:03] And from the minute I sat down in my first vehicle, I was like, Oh crap, this is really nice. And, and, and, and to me, I'm like that, that is the problem. It's not, you know, pricing or affordability. It is how well put together these vehicles are and how technologically advanced these are.

[00:14:26] And, and if we don't try to advance our technology and if we don't try to, um, look at Chinese vehicles and make, not emulate them, but beat them, match them. Um, I mean, again, we have other problems. I was so impressed. Like you have this, you know, being American and being, you know, patriotic and very like, I love my American stuff.

[00:14:52] Um, you know, you have this sense in your head that, Oh, anything that's made outside of the United States is going to be, you know, it's not going to be good. And, um, and, and so it was just a very eyeopening moment for me because not only are these vehicles already competitive in terms of build quality and, um, accents and trim pieces and just the little details that are inserted into the vehicle.

[00:15:18] But the infotainment system and the technology, the processing speed was like so fast. And, you know, you would touch something on the screen and it would just be like, you know, I move so fast. And everything on it was very intuitive. And, and to me, maybe that's what Jim Farley meant about being decimated. That's the problem. But if we can't keep up with that and if we can't, um, compete in that arena, again, we have other problems.

[00:15:48] I feel like I've gone on about this for a while. I have opinions. No, no, that's fine. I love this. Let's keep going. The thing with, with like, I, I don't eat beef or pork, right? But I would sit down and have a sausage with Jim Farley and a beer because I just think he's that kind of guy that would just sit down with you and chat. Yeah. Um, Jim, I, I won't do beef. I'll provide the apple sausages and I'll be there. But, um, so like, I, I think Jim Farley is a really smart guy.

[00:16:16] I, I do think that all these companies that have decided that they want to customize their, their infotainment screen to the point of being unusable is, I think that's a problem. It's gotten better. But when the F-150 or not when the F-150, when the Mustang first came out, the Mach-E, um, I went to a dealer, took a test drive. I told him exactly why I was taking the test drive. And he's trying to explain to me while I'm driving the infotainment screen.

[00:16:42] And even this is a, this is a guy that had to be specially trained on the car to be able to sell the car. Like they, this was during the pandemic and they had to get me a, it was like a whole process to get this, this thing, uh, a test drive. And he's going through the settings. He's like, Oh no, that's not it. Oh no, that's not. And this is a guy that does that. That's his whole job is to sell these cars and nobody else sells them except for him and one other person in the, in the dealership. Yeah. And I mean, it's, again, it's gotten better.

[00:17:10] Um, but that's a, that's a bad start for sure. You know, it, it is. And I, I feel like technology should be intuitive and it shouldn't be tech for tech sake. And I, um, so Volvo, um, and Polestar are also owned by Gigli. If you didn't know, um, those listening. Um, so they are owned by a Chinese company and they have some really interesting technology inside their infotainment systems.

[00:17:40] But the one thing that they've done that I don't agree with in more of their EV focused vehicles is they have put all of the controls inside the screen. And I think that there are certainly some controls that can go inside the screen, but I do not want to adjust my side mirrors with a, a, a control in the screen. I do not want to adjust my steering wheel with a control that is in the screen. And I know Rivian does the same thing and Tesla does the same thing.

[00:18:07] Um, and, and so I don't know if they're trying to Tesla-fy their, their operating system or, or what, but there are certain things that I don't think should go into that screen. And, um, you know, I, and maybe this is a unique problem to women who wear a lot of different shoes. But like every time I get into one of these vehicles where you have to do like steering wheel and side mirror controls through the screen, I'm like, oh, a dude did this.

[00:18:32] Because like every time I get into a car, I have a different kind of shoes on, you know, I've got Converse shoes. I've got five inch heels. I've got platform shoes. I've got running shoes. I've got Wellingtons. I've got like, and I, I literally, I did a video of the, I think it was the Polestar 3. And my cover photo of, um, you know, for the video is me standing in front of the vehicle with all the shoes that I wore during the test week.

[00:18:56] And every time I got into the vehicle, I had to readjust the, the steering wheel and the side mirrors. And I'm like, oh, this is the distracting and annoying. And you have to do it while you're driving because in order to like line everything up appropriately on the side of the vehicle, you can get it close when you're sitting in your garage, but you got to see the lane lines. And I'm just like, this, this is not good. This is not good. Just give me a control. Give me a physical button. No, I think that's good. What, what would you call that?

[00:19:23] Would it, it wouldn't be, couldn't be the shoe index because men's shoes are, are, are maybe too, there's gotta be something there. That is, I think that's a, that is something that I have never thought of. And I wear basically the same shoes every day, even when I'm wearing nice pants. So it doesn't like, I'm not the, I'm not, I'm not going to adjust anything to be honest. See, yeah, it could be the shoe scale or the, yeah.

[00:19:50] And everybody's like, well, you know, just memory set it for one for heels and then one for tennis shoes. I'm like, even my tennis shoes have different soles. Like I have like squishy pumas that have like a two inch, you know, squish sole. I have Converse tennis shoes. I have five inch, you know, heels. I have, you know, it's just, it's not the same. You can't, there are two settings is not enough. No, it's not like my daughter. Absolutely. Like if, like right behind me is the garage and on the little shelf where we keep our shoes,

[00:20:19] she's got soles that are, you know, an inch and a half. And then she's got soles that are just teeny tiny, like the Converse, like you said. Yeah. That's funny. But, but so at any rate, the point I was trying to make is putting everything in the screen isn't the best idea either. And so circling back to Ford, they actually did something I think was really interesting in the new Expedition, so not an EV. But where they put the controls in like the thumb wheel and Lincoln did it too, in the thumb

[00:20:49] wheel of the steering wheel. So it's not necessarily a physical control on the door, but the steering wheel especially is on the thumb wheel in your foot pedals. So Ford has adjustable pedals. That's also in the thumb wheel on the steering wheel. And then to differentiate between Ford and Lincoln owners, in the Ford, they put the side mirror controls on the side where they normally are because they said that Ford owners tow more than like a Lincoln owner would.

[00:21:15] So in the Lincoln, the side mirrors are also through the thumb wheel, but a physical control not through the screen. So I don't know. But I've completely taken us off of the New York Auto Show, electric cars, affordability and everything we intended to talk about. Sorry. No, no, please. Like I like to have I like to do interviews in a way that's more conversational. And some people are super comfortable with that. Obviously, you are. But other people are not. They have their talking points.

[00:21:45] And if you try to have a conversation with them and you draw them away, they have to draw themselves back to the talking points to feel comfortable. So this is a totally organic conversation and I love it. So awesome. Don't apologize. But getting back on topic, what about the Subaru Getaway? Yeah. So so the Getaway is an all new vehicle for Subaru. It's three row EV and it's based on the same platform as the Toyota Highlander.

[00:22:10] So we we recently saw the new 2027 Toyota Highlander be revealed and it is only EV. And that was a bit of a shock because I think many of us thought that it would be hybrid and electric or, you know, you know, have a multitude of powertrains. But when they said no EV only, we were like, well, so it's not the 2027 hybrid, you know, Highlander EV. It's just the Toyota Highlander. There is no EV associated with it.

[00:22:40] The new Highlander is electric. And so this Getaway is based on that platform. So if you look at the interior of the Toyota and you look at the interior of the Subaru, you're going to see a lot of similarities. And Toyota and Subaru have had some platform sharing with like the BZ and the Solterra and then the CHR and I may mess this up. I think it's the CHR and the Trail Seeker.

[00:23:08] But at any rate, so they have the lineup, the vehicle, the Trail Seeker may be BZ Woodland, but at any rate. So they've got this platform sharing Uncharted. That's it. The Uncharted and the CHR are on the same platform. And so this Getaway is the latest iteration of their platform sharing and partnership. And it is, you know, meant to be a family vehicle that can take a road trip.

[00:23:37] I think they're also saying that this vehicle will get around 300 miles of available range. Also North American charging standard, 420 horsepower. And it will, again, you'll see a lot of the same technology. Like I feel like Subaru has done like this and then Toyota has done this. But a lot of the technology, like the Toyota infotainment system,

[00:24:04] will make its way into the Subaru Getaway. So you won't have necessarily the Subaru infotainment system. And it will seat up to seven passengers. It has like some decent cargo space in the back. It has the under floor storage in the cargo area. And I mean, I think it looks really good. I don't know that I would say it looks like a Subaru, but standard all-wheel drive and a lot of interesting, nice features.

[00:24:34] And so, I mean, I'll be curious to get behind the wheel of it. I think it looks good. And again, I've seen the Highlander, but I haven't, you know, they haven't opened that up for driving yet either. So I haven't gotten behind the wheel of that either. So I think both of these will be interesting to check out. Absolutely. It's interesting. Like in the same week that they announced the Highlander, they also announced that their solid state battery is coming in 2028.

[00:25:01] And I have, for the entire time that I've been doing this podcast, been a Toyota hater. Not because... And I'm trying to get Toyota on the show. So this is my mea culpa in this. It's not that I hate Toyota. I just hate all my friends that drive Toyotas because they're so insufferable about it. Like so insufferable. The Toyota car is fine, you know? Right.

[00:25:25] But whenever I would see a Toyota story, I'm just like, when it comes to EVs, I'm just like, I have to... Okay, we've heard this before. But now I have to change my whole attitude about it because I think Toyota did pull like an apple where they sat back. They let a lot of these companies make mistakes. They've worked on their technology. And I mean, hands down, Toyota has some of the best engineers in the business.

[00:25:51] And I think they're building something that's going to really appeal to people. And they have this huge audience of Toyota fans like my friends that I can't stand when they talk about Toyotas and Lexuses that will buy this car who wouldn't have considered buying an EV in the past. Yeah. Well, you know, and I think Toyota was really smart with their strategy because like you said, you know, they're like, let's just kind of dip our toe in the water.

[00:26:18] We know there are people who buy our vehicles, who like our hybrids, who would like to have an EV. So let's just kind of dip our toe in the water. Let's see how it goes. But let's like kind of hang back and see how the market works, you know, what mistakes other people are making, what successes other people are having, and then we can continue forward.

[00:26:40] And I think they've done a really good job strategizing in terms of, you know, not being subject to the whims of politics or EV credits. And they are just creating a plan that works for their company. And I think that they've, you know, also done a really interesting job of making the, like

[00:27:07] the hybrid powertrain standard on a lot of their vehicles and, or at least an option. So, you know, if the Toyota Prius, you have standard, you know, EV and then the plug-in hybrid. And the Tundra and the Tacoma, you have, you know, gasoline only, and then you have hybrid options. Not that their hybrid trucks are supposed to be fuel efficient. But I just, I think that they have been very forward-thinking and smart about their strategy.

[00:27:36] And I don't know. So I find it, what I find very fascinating is in the year of 2026, where a lot of automakers are pulling back and, oh, we're cutting our strategy. We're ditching this car. We're doing away with this. We're killing this brand. Toyota has four new EVs. So I find that fascinating. Yeah. And, you know, Stellantis just announced that they're not doing the Wagoneer EV in the U.S.

[00:28:04] for 2026 because they sold 10,000 in 2025. Fantastic number for an EV. But they only sold 176 or something in the first three months of 2026. Right. I mean, that should warn. That should just be echoing through the auto industry. And Toyota's like, no, no, we think we have a better plan. So we're going to implement it. And you're right. It's like the slow and steady race or like the little engine that could.

[00:28:31] They're just taking small bites at this and not making huge swings. It seems like to me anyway. Yeah. No, I would agree. And, you know, I look at Stellantis and their EV strategy and they've kind of been like, you know, like forward, backward, forward, backward. You know, they were going to have an electric truck. Then they were going to do this. And now they're not doing that. And then, you know, the Wagoneer S. I would contend that the misstep with that vehicle because it's a great vehicle. I liked it a lot.

[00:28:59] But I don't know that Jeep was ready for a fully electric vehicle like that. If I were doing strategy and nobody asked my opinion, so I'm not doing strategy. But if I were, I probably would have made that a Chrysler. Oh, yeah. I mean, we had a Chrysler Pacifica before we bought our Kia Carnival. And the Pacifica was such a beautiful car.

[00:29:28] For the most part, there were some transmission issues. But for the most part, it ran really well. We had over 100,000 miles on it when we got rid of it. And the only reason we got rid of it is because they were so, they just, the problems kept costing us more and more money. But I don't want to see Chrysler die. Right. I think we're going to, they only have one car.

[00:29:49] And in a couple of months, I'm sure they'll only have one trim of that one car because they have just narrowed it down so much where there's like some warehouse in the middle of, you know, Ohio that they have one line running this one car. It's kind of getting to that point with Stellantis and their American companies. Well, and I'm going to be very curious to see what they do with Chrysler.

[00:30:13] I mean, at the New York Auto Show, they did show the new Pacifica redesign with the new headlight and grill treatment. And before, so Chris Fuell was the former CEO for Chrysler. And last year, during the 100 years of Chrysler, we actually, Tom Appel and I on the Car Stuff podcast, we have a really great interview with her where she talked about the future, you know, the future of Chrysler.

[00:30:42] And, you know, she seemed to imply that there was more in the works. But, you know, it's just like plans change. You know, things pivot. Things change on a dime, especially in the current economy and situation. But, you know, in the current climate and economy, like, I feel like, you know, you have things are changing so quickly.

[00:31:08] And so I have high hopes that Chrysler isn't going to go away. But I don't know. I mean, at this point, I don't know. Okay. So that leads me down to like extended range vehicles and all that stuff. But I'm going to I'm going to pause there because I do want to be respectful of your time. Can you tell me a little bit about the rally race that you're going to be doing soon with Lucid? Yeah.

[00:31:34] So I am I have for the past four years competed in something called the Revell Rally. And this is an off road, dirt focused, in the middle of nowhere rally where you are taking they take your phone away. They take your GPS away. And you are usually actually literally using a map and compass to get over 2000 miles of terrain in the Pacific Northwest area. Well, I guess I should say California and Nevada.

[00:32:03] And so the woman who created the Rebell Rally has now created something she's calling the Trinity Rally. And this is going to be an on road rally for cars, sedans, electric cars, some SUVs. And the idea is that it is going to be time, speed, endurance and route book focused. You can keep your phone, but you're probably not going to be using your phone to navigate. Hopefully we'll be taking lots of photos.

[00:32:31] And but the idea is more about it's not a race. It's more about precision and observation and following directions than it is, you know, speeding from one place to the next. And so during the Rebell Rally, they have some portions of on road scoring where they give you a route book. And it's like, you know, travel 1.4 kilometers, then turn right at, you know, the tree.

[00:32:59] You're like, OK, I hope that's the tree I'm supposed to turn at. And then, you know, and then head north. And so like there is an element of that. But the the Trinity is going to be all like road book or time, speed, endurance.

[00:33:15] And so I'm I've like been looking at my Rebell stuff and I was like, oh, I got I got to pull out my math because you have to like they'll give you directions like go 35 miles per hour and do 1.4. You know, miles. And then, you know, at that point, you're going to drop your speed to 25 miles per hour and you're going to go four miles.

[00:33:38] And so you have to do math so that you can see, OK, at 2.4 miles, we should be, you know, three minutes into this and then four minutes. And so there are time controls. I'm probably not explaining this very well, but there's time controls. And as you go through for the time, speed, endurance, you will be like you get penalized depending on how far away from your time control you are.

[00:34:06] So if you're supposed to be there at four seconds and you're there at three seconds or you're there at five seconds, you lose points. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Is this just on open roads like with everybody? Yep. Yeah. And so the rulebook says you have to follow the law. You have to follow the speed limits over anything that the rulebook says or that the route book says. And then if for some reason, like there's an accident, does it account for delays? No, they call it force majeure.

[00:34:35] And if you if there's an accident, if there's a cow crossing the road, if there is, you know, anything that's going to hold you up. Too bad. Oh, wow. Yeah. Even if you're going if you're supposed to go in 65 and you go 35 for two minutes, that could be a huge point deduction. It really can. Especially since you can't catch up. That is true because you're supposed to follow the laws like maybe maybe the speed limit is 70 and they have you going 65. I don't know, but they wouldn't do that.

[00:35:05] But yeah. So if you are in a place and you can't catch up, I mean, you just you lose the points. Wow. And then you're going to be the navigator. Yes. Who's your driver? My driver is Kristen Shaw. So she was my partner for the first three years of the rebel. Our team is the brute squad from the Princess Bride. I don't know if you've ever seen that movie because I love that movie. We are the brute squad because, you know, me and my four foot 11 frame. I'm very intimidating.

[00:35:34] And so but we so we competed the first three years as the brute squad. And yeah, so she'll be the driver. I'll be the navigator. And, you know, looking forward to teaming up with her again. Oh, that's fun. How did you get put on the Lucid gravity team? Well, so Lucid had reached out to the founder, Emily Miller, and said that they wanted to put a car in. And they had targeted Kristen specifically to be the driver.

[00:36:04] And and Kristen's like, well, I'm not doing it if you can't do it. She's like, you're my navigator. I'm not doing it without you. And I was like, OK, thank you. Nice. Yeah. How long does this take to complete about? So tech inspection is Monday, May 4th. So we will come in on the 3rd of May and, you know, kind of get acclimated to the vehicle. So we're going to be driving a Lucid Air Sapphire. And then tech inspection is May 4th, Monday.

[00:36:32] And they will just kind of make sure that the vehicle is street legal, that there's nothing weird going on with it. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are competitive days. So we'll get like and they said that the rally will take place from 8 a.m. until 5 a.m. every day. Right. And so I guess they'll and again, like this is the first one. So nobody knows anything, but they'll give you probably a route book every day.

[00:36:58] And within the route book, in addition to, you know, go three miles, turn here, go three miles, turn there. There'll be the probably bits of the time speed enduro where it's like, OK, here's your starting line and here's what you have to do now to get, you know, to the next segment and then back on route book. But again, we don't really know because we haven't done it before. And but so Monday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, competitive days and then Friday back home.

[00:37:27] So that's fun. Is there a place that people can go to, like, track your progress or is this just all kind of done at the end? No. So I'm I'm assuming there. So if it's anything like the Rebel Rally, which I'm sure there will be some similarities. If you go to it's like Trinity Rally, T-R-I-N-I-T-E rally dot com there. I'm sure there will be a way to I'm like, let me see if I can bring up the website really quick right now.

[00:37:54] I'm sure there will be a way to do live tracking for the events. The other thing is we will be if you are on Instagram, we are going to I think our page is still set up for the Rebel Rally, but we're going to switch it over to the Trinity. So we're going to be team number 40. And but if you go to Instagram and follow or Facebook and follow the Brute Squad, Team Brute Squad, you will will probably have daily updates on there as well.

[00:38:25] And it looks like we start at the Golden Gate Bridge and we end at Sonoma Raceway. So I think they said it's 500 miles of driving over three days. Nice. That'll be fun. I'm going to definitely have to make sure that this goes out before then to so everybody can follow you. And I just followed you on Instagram as well. So this is awesome, Jill. I really hope that you come back on again because this was a fun conversation.

[00:38:53] I know I will be doing the Car Stuff podcast, but why don't you tell people where to find you, where to hear you, where to read about what you're doing? Yeah. So I'm kind of all over the place. I have a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter threads. I have all the things and you can find me at Jill Ciminello. That's J-I-L-L-C-I-M-I-N-I-L-L-O. Lots of eyes. And if that's too difficult, I use the hashtag Car du Jour.

[00:39:23] So kind of like Soup du Jour. And so you can usually find me on all the social media doing that. And I put videos up daily on TikTok and YouTube like little shorts. And I have two long form video reviews that I typically post to YouTube every week. But yeah, I've been busy a lot. I've been traveling a lot. I've been around. But I love to converse with people. I love people to ask me questions about the cars that I'm driving.

[00:39:53] And people tend to give me really great story ideas when they ask me questions. So I like the engagement and the interaction. So please come follow me and ask me questions or just have a conversation. Yeah. And you are 100% a good follow. Like I enjoy your content. I also enjoy the Car Stuff podcast that you do with Tom Appel. Yes. That is every Monday, right? Yes. Yes.

[00:40:19] So we are live on Talkstone Radio Mondays. And then the podcast goes out on like usually Tuesdays. But the consumerguide.com website has back episodes. You can also find us on the Believe Network. And then any place that you are streaming your podcast, you can find us. It's a consumer guide car stuff podcast. I feel like there is another podcast out there called Car Stuff, but I don't think they're active.

[00:40:48] So it's like an old podcast. So just consumer guide Tom and Jill Car Stuff podcast. But Tom and I have a lot of fun. So I should tell you, like Tom and I have known each other for 20 years. And people are like, you guys don't even like each other. I'm like, no, he was at my wedding. Like I really do like him. But we give each other a hard time. He's much more like an older brother to me. So he like picks on me like an older brother. And, you know, and I give it right back. So we just like to have good conversations about cars.

[00:41:15] And, you know, we do like each other. You know, if people think we don't, we do. Yeah, no. And that 100%, I think, comes through. That's one of the reasons why I like listening to it. Sometimes listening to car podcasts, and as a guy who's doing a car podcast, I might be sometimes guilty of this. It gets a little dry with the stats. And you guys pepper in enough personalities so that it doesn't, it's a fun, it's a fun listen. And it's, you know, 45 minutes to an hour or something like that again.

[00:41:45] With the ads, it's probably an hour. But it's a really good show. So I highly recommend it. I will put all of your links in the show notes. Jill, thank you so much for coming on and chatting with me. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I hope you'll let me come back that I didn't go on too many tangents. Oh, no. Like tangent away. Let's go. You can come on every single week if you wanted to. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right, everybody.

[00:42:11] I want to thank Jill Simonello for coming on and being such a great guest. Now, a little kind of behind the scenes chat here, right? I prefer when I can have a conversation with a guest. And when I say conversation is, you know, it's a little bit of an interview, but it's really more of we're just kind of talking to each other and we're basing how the interview goes. How the interview goes or how the segment goes based on what we're talking about.

[00:42:39] And it's really easy to go off the rails. But if you have somebody like Jill, you know, it's really great because not only did we explore the topics that we wanted to talk about when we had our little chat pre-show, but we also got to kind of have an organic conversation and hit other topics that were, you know, relevant to the conversation, but maybe not necessarily something that we thought about talking about earlier. Again, that is really hard to do with someone. So kudos to Jill for doing that.

[00:43:08] Now, I would like everybody, if you haven't done it already, please go to Instagram and subscribe to Team Brute Squad to keep up with their journey over the next few days. And when you're doing that, leave comments, let them know, give them support, you know, just kind of bring the love. And I don't know. I think this is super cool. I will be following their progress.

[00:43:34] So please, please, please be supportive. All right. Let's see. Oh, Jill also does a podcast with Tom Appel called the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast. Again, I think I said in my intro that I watched it, but I listened to it. I would highly encourage you to go subscribe to that podcast. I'm actually going to be on on July 13th. We don't have a topic yet because it's still a little bit away, but it will be on that show.

[00:44:04] And if you want to catch that conversation, subscribe so you don't miss it. Let's see. Car Du Jour is where you can find Jill. I'll put all of her links in the show notes. And yeah, I really hope you enjoyed this episode. I really had a lot of fun recording it and listening back to the conversation when I was editing it. I genuinely hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. So again, big thanks to Jill.

[00:44:34] And that is it for me. If you want to send me an email, it's Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn and it's just Bodie, B-O-D-I-E G-R-I-M-M. And yeah, I think that's it. I don't think I have anything else to plug. Supportkilowatt.com if you want to support the show. And having said all that, I hope you all have a wonderful week.

[00:45:04] And I will talk to you on Friday. No Tuesday show this week because I'm putting this show out on Sunday. It's a miracle that I'm actually putting a show out early instead of late. I know. I get it. It feels weird to me too. But no Tuesday show. So it'll be today's show Sunday. And then I'll talk to you again on Friday. Thanks everybody so much. And I will talk to you soon.