The Avants Podcast

OVERHYPED! No, not us, we're pretty self aware. It's why we cry in the shower. In this episode we're talking about overrated cars. Not cars we hate, but cars we actually love, but still think are overrated like the Vector W8, the Jaguar XJ220, the Jeep Wrangler, and several classic cars. Are they bad cars? Not at all, and we want all of them in our garages, but the comprises these cars come with or came with are pretty hard to igno...

The future of driving just took another step away from… driving. BMW is bringing brake-by-wire to production—ditching traditional hydraulic systems in favor of fully electronic control. It’s a big leap forward in technology, but also raises a bigger question: are we slowly being disconnected from the driving experience altogether? EV drivers already rely heavily on regen braking—so does this even matter anymore, or is this the tipp...

Dan took the Bronco Raptor down to the beach—and honestly, nothing happened. It handled everything like it was built for it, no drama, no stories… which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly great podcast material. Meanwhile, somewhere across the globe, two guys successfully the exact opposite: a 14,000-mile journey from London to Cape Town in a Reliant Robin. And as you’d expect, they would never do it again.

Naturally, that got us think...

This episode kicks off with a bit of well-earned self-hype as Avants Magazine Issue 23 drops—featuring us! Huge shoutout to Brian Elich for capturing some incredible photos that made the feature even better.

From there, we dive into some big industry news: GM pulling out of the electric truck market. What went wrong for legacy automakers like Ford and GM, and how did Rivian manage to get it so right? We break down the challenges—a...

This week’s episode takes a few fun detours and a few hard turns into the reality of today’s car market. We kick things off in unexpected territory with a discussion on Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching and the strange, entertaining world of accidental ornithology—proof that bird watching can be far more intense (and competitive) than anyone expects.

With the GMC Jimmy officially making a return, we ask the obvious quest...

On this week's episode Nick experiences the fun of current fuel prices as he fills up the Storyteller with diesel for the first time. At the time of publishing this episode, Diesel is currently sitting at $7 a gallon! If you're on the hunt for a new vehicle, have you reconsidered due to fuel prices or are you betting on prices dropping? Let us know in the comments! 

The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA an...

Brian Dallas drops in to give us some updates on the Overland scene for 2026, Nick goes snow wheeling and picks up hitchhikers, and Dan thinks F1 is boring now.

Our Avants community question of the week, what is the most beautiful car ever made? Post a pic of your favorite! 

The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle!

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Consumer Reports has launched there worst of 2025 and much to our surprise, the new 4Runner made the list! We love the new 4Runner, but CR did have some good points about the underwhelming engine choice as well as it's ride quality on the road. While the other choices were somewhat expected, we were surprised to see the beloved 4Runner make the list, but what do you think? 

And for our question this week, where are you most excited...

For almost all of us out there, affording a new car means selling the old one. As we get older and more settled in life, sometimes the idea of a project car or buying a replacement for that vehicle you wish you still had becomes more obtainable. Which vehicle would you repurchase and why? Which project car is right around the corner for you? We also talk about the rise of the Chinese automakers that we can't get in the States, but ...

We talk about cars all the time, but we’re not out there test driving them very often so we don’t really consider ourselves “car reviewers”. Reporting in general has changed significantly over the years, and the latest “review” on the F250 by Dan Neil in the WSJ shows how even car reviews aren’t safe from bad taste and political soap boxes. In better car review news, the real car reviews on the new Rivian R2 have started to drop an...

On this episode we respond to a helpful listener voicemail, a great suggestion from Juan on the one car that just needs one change, and Brian Dallas swings by to talk about the Ford seat issues that plague their vehicles equipped with Recaros.  

The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle!

Not an Avants member? https://www.avants.com/member-plans

Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! 

Leave us ...

Bring back stereo dolphins! We think there's a market for simplified vehicles that will outlast you with proper maintenance, and we think diesel, non-hybrid, trucks with no built-in infotainment, and manual options would be just the thing. Doug DeMuro disagrees, but do you? It turns out about 1/2 a million Washington drivers have expired tabs. In a surprise to no one living in the area of constantly increasing taxes and costs, more...

"Good as new!" "...Yeah... good as new..." This week we talk about rebuilt and salvaged titled cars. There are good deals to be had buying rebuilt titled cars and rebuilding salvaged title cars, but you really need to know what you're looking and when to know you're getting scammed. Episode spoiler alert, you're almost always getting scammed. Also, we're mourning the loss of the local white 250 GTO that sold at auction for a $38.5 ...

We love it when our audience gives us feedback about a topic, so we want to hear how you have used your car for maybe more than its originally intended purpose. The big stories are always fun, but we would love to see and share some of your moments of your car being used to it's fullest. Camping out of your supercar? Towing your track bike with your track car? Converted your Smart car into a tank? Used your Hilux to help overthrow ...

We here at the Avants Podcast welcomes Kevin Nielsen and Daniel Piker to the crew! Kevin has just started the new San Diego chapter of Avants and is a car person through and through. Daniel joined us back in October and you have probably noticed all the upgrades on the Avants social media. Honda's new Prelude has bombed in the US market, selling just 126 units in the last 2 months. Probably because it's a rebodied Civic with better...

Are you giving your insurance and law enforcement everything they need to ruin your fun drive? If you've opted in to driving monitoring apps, or even just your cars infotainment system user agreement you just might be. We talk a little about the inevitable use of your data against you, yet another Corvette variant coming around the corner, and more on this weeks show!

The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA ...