Welcome to the gorgeous Chinese coastal
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city of Dalian, where we've come to
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drive the allnew A7. No, not the Audi,
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the Galaxy A7, a midsize sedan with a
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starting price of less than $14,000
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and what might very well be the most
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efficient plug-in hybrid powertrain on
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Welcome to Wheels, where we cover the
00:53
newest, coolest, and wildest vehicles
00:55
from the Chinese car market. Be sure to
00:57
like, subscribe, and hit the bell.
00:59
The people at Galaxy tell me that this
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is going to be a global model, but
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they're not specific as to which markets
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outside of China it's going to be sold
01:07
in. So, we certainly don't know the
01:09
price outside of China. Right now, we
01:11
know the pre-sale price in the domestic
01:13
market, which is about 13,700
01:15
That price and this size puts it in very
01:21
direct competition with another vehicle
01:24
that debuted last year with some pretty
01:26
crazy fuel economy claims, the BYD Chen
01:28
L. Now, we took the Chel on a 1,000 plus
01:31
kilometer road trip to put those fuel
01:34
efficiency claims to the test, and I
01:36
recommend you check out that video. The
01:38
thing about cars in this mainstream
01:40
midsize sedan segment is that they need
01:41
to appeal to as many buyers as possible.
01:43
And those buyers are looking for things
01:46
like practicality, affordability, and
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probably not avantguard styling. That's
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why you get cars like the Toyota Camry,
01:52
the Honda Accord, and the BYD Chenel L,
01:54
which are handsome, I suppose, but not
01:56
particularly out there when it comes to
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their looks. This car is no different,
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but I think it's kind of the best you
02:03
can hope for. It looks conservative, but
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handsome and in the right spec, even a
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little bit premium. Speaking of cars
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like the Toyota Camry, the man behind
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the camera insists that this thing from
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this angle looks just like the Toyota.
02:17
What do you think? This car's length is
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about that much longer than a BYD Chino
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and about that much shorter than a
02:25
Volkswagen Pat, but its wheelbase at
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2.845 meters is longer than both of
02:29
them. Wheel options include 17, 18, and
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these top-of-the-line 19in units.
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It's only appropriate since we're in the
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parking lot of a shopping mall to talk
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about how many bags you can fit in the
02:44
back. Well, the answer is 535 LERs worth
02:46
with the seats up. If you fold them
02:51
down, they're a 60/40 split. You can get
02:52
up to 988 L of your favorite
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consumables. The interior styling of the
02:58
A7 is just as conservative as the
03:00
exterior. The leather is faux but soft
03:03
in most of the places where you want it
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to be. I will say, however, I wish that
03:08
this center armrest was a little bit
03:10
more padded, as well as this area here
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where I would rest my knee on the
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highway, which I did quite a bit today,
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and I found it to be not quite as soft
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as I would like it to be. The other
03:21
materials, well, they're plastic, but
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that's kind of what you'd expect at this
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price point. The dark material you find
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in this interior here on the center
03:29
console as well as on the door and the
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dashboard is actually quite interesting.
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At first, I thought it just looked like
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piano black plastic with streaks on it,
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like handprints. But then I looked more
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closely and it's actually got a very
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subtle wood or smoky pattern to it. It's
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quite nice when you look more closely at
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it. It's not soft or premium, but again,
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that's what you can expect at a car this
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cheap. Final note, when it comes to
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material choices on the dashboard on the
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left and right side, you've got these
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little hex screw things. These look
04:05
exactly like the mounts that Xiaomi puts
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in their cars like the Sous7 and the U7.
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But in the case of this car, uh it's
04:14
merely a decoration. But while this car
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might not hold that many surprises when
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it comes to material quality, it is very
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impressive when it comes to interior
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features. For example, the base car has
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a 14.6 6 in center screen, but this
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topsp spec one has a 15.4 in screen
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which runs the Flyme OS. This is the
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same operating system we've seen on a
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ton of other Jely branded vehicles from
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Lincoln Co. as well as Galaxy as well as
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J itself. It is smooth. It is quick. It
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is good when it comes to the menu logic.
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Sorry, there's currently no English
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language menu available, so you'll have
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to make do with the Chinese one. But I
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hope you can understand at least why I
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think this thing is pretty attractive
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and easy to use. You also have a
04:58
instrument cluster screen right here and
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an available 16.6 in headsup display
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that is available in higher spec cars
05:08
like this one. Finally, you have a 16
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speakeraker Flyme sound sound system.
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That thing costs an extra 8,800 RMBB or
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the equivalent of around 1,200 USD if
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you want to add it to a higher spec
05:25
vehicle, though it is standard on this
05:27
highest spec model, I do believe. Now,
05:29
that is a lot of money to ask for a
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sound system on a car that is this
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cheap. It does, however, include a bunch
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of speakers. As I said, 16 of them,
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including two mounted in the driver's
05:41
headrest. The most surprising feature in
05:43
my opinion, however, is the seats. They
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are heated and cooled. Something I've
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seen on other cars at this price point,
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but they're also massaging. Something
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that's rarer. What I've never seen in a
05:54
car at this price point is that both
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front row seats have massaging points,
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not just on the seat backs, but on the
06:01
seat bottoms as well. And they're not
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that weak sauce airbag that just goes
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like and barely kind of pokes you. These
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are real physical kind of motors that
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are going up and you can really feel
06:13
them. They're quite effective. That was
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pretty surprising at this price point.
06:18
Interior ergonomics are pretty nice.
06:20
You've got a wireless charging pad right
06:22
here. You've also got your cup holders
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right behind a set of physical buttons
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for your air conditioning controls as
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well as a physical volume knob. Always
06:32
and forever appreciated. Below all of
06:35
that, you have more storage. underneath
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the center console. Finally, back here,
06:40
you've got a pretty deep
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storage compartment, mostly because this
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doesn't have a refrigerator.
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Finally, I want to talk to you about
06:51
something that I've never seen before on
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any other car. This is a glove box. I've
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seen glove boxes before, don't get me
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wrong, but what I haven't seen is this
07:00
pretty nifty little fold out hook right
07:02
here. So that way you can hang a bag or
07:05
maybe something else right here whenever
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you want to. And when you don't need
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that feature, you just fold it back
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The back seat of the A7 is pretty
07:17
capacious in certain dimensions such as
07:19
leg room. As you can see, I also quite
07:22
like the height of the seat with respect
07:26
to the floor. As someone who reviews a
07:28
lot of pure electric vehicles, I'm used
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to floors that are super high, which
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means your knees are right about up
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here. Not a very comfortable posture.
07:35
Speaking of your posture, the angle of
07:38
the seatback's pretty acceptable, I
07:40
would say. However, I'm not super
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impressed with head room. It's not tight
07:45
on me. I'm 1.75 m or 5' 9 in tall, but
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it could get a little tight for people
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who are much taller than me. I think
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this was an active compromise that they
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made. Making the seat height a little
07:58
bit higher means that you have a better
08:01
posture because your knees aren't that
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far from the seat, but it does mean you
08:05
might have a little bit less headroom.
08:07
Between the seats is a fold down center
08:09
armrest with cup holders. Not a
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guarantee in cars at this price point.
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And on the back of that center console
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are dual USB charging ports, a type- C
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The greatest mission, the number one
08:38
priority for vehicles in this class is
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of course efficiency in all aspects. And
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that's especially true when it comes to
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fuel efficiency. This vehicle also makes
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some pretty bold claims, as we've
08:47
already established, when it comes to
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efficiency. Specifically, they say that
08:51
its CLTC fuel economy when you've
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depleted the battery and it's acting as
08:56
a normal hybrid is 2.67 L per 100 km.
08:58
That beats the 2.9 L per 100 km that
09:03
earned the BYYD Chel such attention
09:06
globally. It also beats the combined
09:08
range of the BYD Chinel. They say this
09:11
car, when you combine gas and electric
09:14
range, can go over 2100 km on China's
09:16
CLTC cycle. Achieving that level of
09:20
efficiency starts with the 1.5 L
09:22
naturally aspirated engine, which
09:25
they've connected to a one-speed
09:27
dedicated hybrid transmission. They say
09:28
that engine has what is currently the
09:30
world's highest thermal efficiency for a
09:33
production engine at 47.26%.
09:36
that beats the BYD Chinel L and it beats
09:39
the pants off of the latest Toyota
09:41
Prius. Most of the motivation from the
09:43
car, however, comes from the single
09:46
front- mounted electric motor, which
09:47
makes 175 kW and 262 new m of torque.
09:49
The official 0 to100 km perh time is 7.1
09:53
seconds. Yes, it beats the 7.5 seconds
09:56
of the BYD Chel. However, it doesn't
09:59
match the 6.3 seconds of a Prius. It
10:02
gets back to beating the Prius when it
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comes to drag coefficient, which is 0.2.
10:07
229 versus the 0.27 of the latest Toyota
10:09
Prius. That's very important when it
10:13
comes to pure electric range. Obviously,
10:15
this thing has two available battery
10:17
packs, both LFP. The smaller one is 8.5
10:19
kwatt hours and has a claimed CLTC range
10:22
of 70 km. There is a larger pack that is
10:24
18.4 kwatt hours and it has a claimed
10:28
You can choose to put the car in hybrid
10:33
mode or pure electric depending on
10:35
whether or not you have enough battery
10:37
for that particular task. Alternatively,
10:38
you could simply leave the decision up
10:41
to the car by putting it into its
10:43
intelligent hybrid mode. That would
10:44
actually be leaving it up to their Thor
10:46
AI, which is going to decide which mode,
10:48
pure electric or hybrid, to give you
10:51
based on demands like the terrain, your
10:53
driving style, and other factors. To put
10:56
it in simple terms, Galaxy claims that
11:00
this car, if driven properly, would be
11:02
cheaper to commute to work in than
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simply taking the subway. I want to say,
11:06
however, I have not achieved that level
11:08
efficiency today. I'm currently sitting
11:10
at 6.1 L per 100 km. I think there's a
11:12
couple reasons for that. First of all, I
11:15
haven't been trying to drive
11:16
particularly efficiently. I've got a big
11:18
lead foot actually. Um, second of all,
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our route was a lot more highway than it
11:22
was uh city and those standards like
11:25
2.67 67 L per 100 km achieved on the
11:28
CLPC standard which in here in China
11:30
includes a lot more city stopand go
11:32
traffic like I'm in right now. I do
11:35
however know media that I know and trust
11:38
who have been able to achieve some
11:40
pretty impressive fuel efficiency
11:42
numbers behind the wheel of this car.
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Putting aside fuel efficiency for a
11:46
moment, I do think this car is outright
11:47
better to drive than the BYD Chinel.
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That one's great for eating up highway
11:52
miles. It has a very decent soft ride,
11:53
but this feels more athletic,
11:55
particularly on the front end. It feels
11:57
lighter, more tossable, and the steering
11:59
feels like it has better feedback and
12:01
more direct connection to what's
12:02
happening to the wheels. So, of the two
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cars, and granted, this is a pretty low
12:06
bar, I think this is the um one with
12:08
more driving pleasure involved. Even the
12:10
very cheapest version of this car, the
12:13
one that starts at less than $14,000,
12:15
comes with adaptive cruise control as
12:18
standard. But more expensive versions
12:20
like this one, the very top spec, they
12:21
come with a much more comprehensive
12:23
sensor suite which includes more cameras
12:26
as well as ultrasonic and millimeter
12:28
wave radar and an upgraded chipset,
12:30
specifically a Horizon Journey J6M with
12:32
128 tops. That means that they're
12:36
capable of highway NOA.
12:37
As for the performance of that highway
12:41
NOA, I would say it's pretty much in
12:43
line with every other GE product that
12:45
I've ever used in that uh it's not
12:47
particularly great. I would put it
12:49
firmly in midpack along with brands like
12:51
BYD. There are better performing systems
12:54
in this at this price point,
12:56
particularly the Xpong Mona M03. In
12:57
terms of what it does wrong, well, what
13:01
it does right is a lot of stuff. It's
13:03
perfectly fine for when you're trying to
13:05
go on an empty highway with not a lot of
13:06
other cars, but as soon as you get into
13:08
very heavy traffic situations, it's
13:10
hesitant to pass trucks. It's phantom
13:12
braking. It also allows for too great of
13:15
a distance between you and the car in
13:17
front of it. It's just not particularly
13:18
These days, it seems like Jile's
13:41
strategy is to take whatever BYD is
13:43
doing in any given segment and do the
13:45
same thing, only slightly better. That's
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certainly the case with this car in the
13:49
BYD Chin L. It's slightly more
13:51
efficient, slightly higher performance.
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Heck, it's even got a 10 km per hour
13:55
faster top speed than the BYD. This is
13:57
of course what every automaker should
14:00
do. try to outperform their rivals and
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frankly it seems to be working for J and
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their brands. They've got a string of
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highly successful models over the last
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couple of years. If history is anything
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to go by, I think this might be their
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very next successful model and one that
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is going to give a lot of trouble to
14:18
that BYDL. All right, thank you so much
14:20
for watching today's video. Be sure to
14:23
like, subscribe, and hit the bell. And
14:25
as always, check us out on our social
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media platforms. link in the description
14:29
below. See you next time.
14:31