Video: 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show Winners and Losers

So here are our picks for the winners and losers for this year's 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show. Let's take a walk, and we'll show you what we picked. (upbeat music) Well, we're gonna start things with our unanimous winner, and that is the 2027 Kia Telluride. Guys, I think we like the style, the interior. We like everything about this thing, don't we? Yeah, there really isn't much to fault with this thing. The thing about Kias is that every new Kia seems to be significantly better than the last one. This one is no different. I mean, the powertrains look fantastic. The interior on this one specifically is something that you liked. Oh yeah, this is I believe blackberry and sand. It's purple and tan, which shouldn't seem like it works, but it might be a little crazy for some people. But I like it. And my thing about this Telluride, is that it fixes every complaint I had with the previous generation, which was really starting to fall behind. The Telluride finished second in a three row competition when it was new. And in our most recent three row comparison, it was down to fourth, mostly because other things got better. But now this thing's got standard Turbocharged four-cylinder powertrain or an optional hybrid. We've driven the hybrid in the Palisade, which is the sister ship to the the Kia Telluride, and the hybrid is fantastic. And I got big hopes for the four-cylinder. 'cause the V6 was kind of a lump. Kind of a lump, and as y'all know well, I'm not the biggest fan of the V6 before and after when the Palisade came out. So the fact that this has the turbo four in all grades regardless either the hybrid or not, fantastic in my book, and in the XPro, which I think is very cool, I love the chopped carbon trim. I think that is very cool, and a huge breath of fresh air when compared to all that fake carbon that we've been exposed to over the past decade or so, so huge winner in my book. So unanimous winner, all three of us. 100%. (upbeat music) And here we have the new Hyundai IONIQ 6 N, which is basically a translation of the existing IONIQ 5, and onto the Hyundai IONIQ 6 platform. And for, for me, I think this thing is great. It looks great fun. We expected this to happen. Brian, do you like this thing? I really like it, especially on paper 'cause I haven't had a chance to drive it yet. But the 5 N was a blast to drive. This should be a refinement of that same power level, same end named goodies. But I think, Aaron, you're not a huge fan of it, so what's that about? No sir, I don't like it. And I don't like it for a couple very specific reasons, and that's the seats are not adjustable enough. It's the seat bottom position. It's the same problem that I had with the 5 N. They're angled too high and for some reason, I don't mind that they're manually adjustable seats, but they should be more adjustable than they are. It's what leads to me being in a very uncomfortable driving position for the thing. I can't enjoy the 5 N. I can't enjoy the 6 N either. And there's not a whole lot of room in the back either. Let me guess. You also complain about cargo storage in a Mazda Miata or the fact that the Cadillac Escalade doesn't have a manual transmission. Am I getting picking up on the same thing there? No, that's nothing like what we're talking about. This is simply the fact that they have these adjustable seats, but not adjustable as they should be. Cost savings, weight savings, I don't know. But you know what, no. Loser in my book. Okay, well I like it quite a bit. Me too. (upbeat music) The Bolt is back, baby, and we are excited about it. I rated this thing a winner. It's a 2027 Chevrolet Bolt, not Bolt EV, that was the old one. Just plain old Bolt. It's the return of the Bolt. It's got a new powertrain, it's got a new interior, but it keeps the body style of the old Bolt EUV, which was the larger of the two. I think it's a winner. It's an affordable, really cool cheap little SUV EV, and it works for me. A lot of EVs, Vs, UVs in that sentence. Certainly less exciting some than some of the other debuts here, but no less important. Arguably one of the most important debuts here. It's a winner of my book primarily because it's offered in habanero orange. What a heck of a color. I love the RS trim, interior's pretty nice. I like how it's kind of modular, and it's got nice little touches here and there. Brian, what'd you think? Yeah, it's got a ton of room inside, front and rear. It's affordable, it starts right around $30,000, which is pretty much the sweet spot these days, I think. And I just like the way the control layout is. It's very nice, you get a nice large screen for that. One fatal flaw. There is one fatal flaw and I'm gonna get to it. And that is no CarPlay, no Android auto at all. GM is just adamant that you don't need CarPlay because they want your data. So they're gonna force you into using the Google operating system, which is better than the old systems, yes. And if you're coming from a Tesla that's never had CarPlay, you're not gonna miss it. But for a lot of customers, it's important. But for you, not so much. So for me, not so much. I thought it was gonna be a deal breaker and then I started to use it on some of the GM vehicles that I've driven. Honestly, I have connectivity issues a lot of times with CarPlay. I don't really care about notifications for my phone calls or for texts. Works so great, I don't even care anymore. It doesn't even bother me. But unanimous, all three of us, Bolt is a winner. (upbeat music) So guys, what car are we talking about now? What is this, what do you think it looks like? Well it looks like a Mitsubishi, Conner. It's not, though. It's not, it's a Nissan. But it kind of is. This is the new Nissan Rogue plugin hybrid, and well, I mean why does this thing look like a Mitsubishi so much? Well, so lemme get the story straight on this thing. So the Mitsubishi Outlander is actually a Nissan Rogue. They shared platforms and parts and whatnot. So Nissan gave Mitsubishi the platform to make an Outlander. Outlander took that, Mitsubishi took that, and made an Outlander plugin hybrid. And then Nissan went, you know what, that looks really cool. We should have that back. But instead of putting the powertrain in the regular Rogue, they took the entire car and put a Rogue like Nissan badge on the front instead of the Mitsubishi grill. Is that about right? That sort of tracks. You know what, though? For me, that makes it a winner. Because you know what, low effort, you get a really good plugin hybrid. There's some decent fuel economy on this thing. 38 miles of all electric range because it's a plugin hybrid, so I'm okay with it. I don't know, "The Simpsons" taught me the value of doing a half-ass job, but I still can't get behind this. It's a loser for me. It's just too confusing, it's too much. A Mitsubishi with just a Nissan badge, the interior's the Mitsubishi, everything is the Mitsubishi except for anything with branding on it. It's a bit too overt for me as well. I'm gonna call this a soft loser unfortunately. (upbeat music) We are here in the all new Jeep Recon, the electric off roader, and we have some mixed opinions about it. I'll get into why I'm not a fan, but let's start with what you think, Conner. Well, I like it. I was at the first early preview of this thing, and I think given the challenges presented with just EV-ifying or electrifying an existing vehicle, this is about as close as you're gonna get to a fully electric Jeep Wrangler. And I really like the way that it looks a little bit like a Wrangler smashed with a little bit of Grand Cherokee smashed with a little bit of the Land Rover Defender. And I think it works really well. I think it's a niche product, but I think always was going to be a niche product. And Aaron is sighing in the back. What's your thoughts? I want to love it, I really do, and I do love so many things about it. I love you can take the doors off. I love that there's a huge sunroof. You could take the back windows off. I hate the fact that it is $67,000 to start with, and it only goes 250 miles when you've got competitors coming like the Rivian R2 that'll go over 300 miles, it costs $45,000, but can't quite do everything this can do except that, you know, I'm also kind of worried about how this thing is gonna drive 650 horsepower on all-terrain tires. God help you in the wet. Sounds fun to me. So that is very true, Aaron. But something to keep in mind about all that pricing is that the Recon launches with the off-road focus Moab trim, which is gonna be more kitted out with the wheels and all the trim and all the, you know, the materials. And we've already seen the more road oriented overland trim, which is I think a little bit more luxury oriented. We do not know the pricing or availability on that. However, I can only imagine we are gonna get more affordable versions of this in the near future potentially with the price tag starting with five. I hope so. 'Cause there's a lot to like in here. I mean the thing is much bigger than you think it was. There's so much headroom in this thing 'cause it's so tall. But again, it's heavy, it's expensive, it's overpowered. So I don't know, we have to see. We have to drive it. I have to drive it. Yeah, for me, pretty much echoing what Aaron said. There's just so much shoehorned into this very expensive package to start. And like you said, there will be more affordable versions, but I just don't see a lot of corporate support for something like this, an all electric off-roader from a brand that also seems to be trying to shoehorn a V8 into every product it can. Yeah. So basically I rated it a loser. What'd you guys say? I said loser. Winner. There it is. (upbeat music) What smells like a steak and seats 35? No, it's not the Canyonero. It's the new 2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. I think this thing is a winner. I think that the old one was a winner. They didn't change too much on the new one, but they really didn't need to change too much on the new one. They did change one thing significantly, and that's a new powertrain, a plugin electric hybrid, what they call the REEV, the range extended electric vehicle. But what Chevy used to call an extended range electric vehicle, great big battery, Pentastar V6 engine is a generator only. So it's an electric vehicle that uses a small gas engine, well, small, a mid-size gas engine in order to just act as a generator. But overall this thing is glorious. I absolutely love it, I think it's fantastic. It's a winner in my book too. I do have some reservations about that powertrain. I worry it's gonna be another plugin Jeep that no owner ever plugs in. That just does seem to be a theme for them. But I'm standing in front of probably my favorite thing, which is we're no longer pretending it isn't a Jeep. The Jeep badge is right there on the hood. Inside, it's still roomy, it's still luxurious. It was already pretty good, it's a little bit better. It's a winner for me. I think I need more exposure to this with some hands on the road driving. I don't think they changed enough in context of how this compares to like let's say a Denali Ultimate or an Escalade or something like that, or a Expedition, whatever the heck, it's a King Ranch or whatever the top trim of that is. That being said, I generally like it, but I'm gonna label it another bit of a loser, because I just need to drive this powertrain first. So it's not like, just a loser for the show, in context of the show, I think. So loser from you. Loser for me. Winner for me, winner for Brian. Winner for me. I think the New Canyonero is fantastic. (upbeat music) This is the 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee and it's a winner in my book because they didn't change a lot. The Grand Cherokee was a pretty good SUV, and in the summit trim like this one, you get probably the most luxurious interior of any SUV of this size, or at least one that's very competitive. And you get a new Turbocharged four-cylinder that I believe is the most powerful in the class. Yeah, the most power dense engine on the market when it comes out. Now hopefully it'll be the most reliable four-cylinder in the market when it comes out. We have our fingers crossed for that. But again, I think this one's a winner too. That new powertrain, I can't wait to drive that thing. It looks fantastic, it feels fantastic. Look at this color, this is gorgeous. Yeah, you mentioned the color. That is easily the stand out thing about the new Grand Cherokee's appearance. I will say about the interior, I think Jeep does top line level interiors better and more characterful and more stylish than the competition pretty much hands down. Oh yeah. Winner in my book, engines, and I need to drive it. And I know that's kind of contradictory what I said about the Grand Wagoner, but I definitely need to drive this. But I have really high hopes for this new powertrain. I think this is an absolute winner. It's a winner from all three of us. That's a winner Winner from all three. That's just a small selection of the cars here at the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show. And those are our opinions of them. What do you think about our winners and losers? And remember, there's a huge selection of cars here at this auto show. So if you're in the market, it's a great place to go and check out pretty much anything you might be interested in. And for all our coverage of the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show, head to cars.com/news. (upbeat music)