In this bonus episode of the Car Stuff Podcast, Jill sits down with Mazda North American President and CEO Tom Donnelly.

Jill and Tom welcome Mazda Crashworthiness Program Manager Christina Smith to the podcast. Christina discusses Mazda's safety philosophy, and the systems currently in place in the maker's products.

It’s impossible to see the kind of volume pickup makers enjoy, and not assume that everyone, everywhere, is buying pickups, but that’s not actually the case. That said, some States of the Union are FAR more pickup committed than others. What you really need is two charts to fully appreciate where these trucks are going.

We are losing our flagships in a hurry—at least our big-sedan luxury flagships. In the last dozen months or so, the Audi A8 and the Lexus LS have been dropped from U.S. Showrooms, and, for good reasons: large luxury-vehicle consumers are moving to big crossovers--at a alarming rated.

Thanks in large part to the arrival of the R2, Rivian’s 2026 Q3 sales results were the best in the company’s history. Still, at roughly $60,000 to start, the R2 maybe a little too pricey to reach mass-market status. We look forward to the R3’s arrival, and its rumored $40,000 starting price. Oh, and we think the R3 looks adorable.