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On today's episode of Cool Cards with Chris,
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we have Courage returning back to the show, better than ever.
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Hi to man for this guy.
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And we're talking about how both of us, ironically,
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both have failed our driver's license test.
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Yes, you'll hear that story, plus you'll hear our picks
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for the three best cars we would choose
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if we got to fill our personal garage. Let's go.
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Courage and Chris and Cars is officially the CCC. Check that out.
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CCC Club. I take it.
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In the house. How you doing, Nate Courage?
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I'm doing good, man. I'm doing awesome.
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This is fantastic. Our first podcast recording.
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Becoming beforehand, it was a little bit,
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okay, I got to make sure I'm on my game and talk like a person,
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but now I'm feeling good about it.
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That's fantastic. So I like cars. You love cars.
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What guy really doesn't love cars?
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I don't know. I don't want to know that person, but cars are great.
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Let me ask you this.
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What age were you held for you when you got your driver's license?
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Because some people get it older, younger. How old are you?
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So I guess you can say my learner's permit, I guess,
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the word you're actually able to drive is you had to be in the car with someone right at 16.
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It was like, it was the goal when I turned 16 to get that.
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And I can probably say this now because that's your limitation.
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But my parents let me drive around with it.
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Like I drove myself to school.
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Like I went out with my friends and everything.
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Like my dad drove me to school every once in a while.
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He drove with me and drove the car back.
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But that was when I got that, it was like my ticket to kind of start getting behind the
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wheel more. So I would say like around 16 was where I was,
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was a citizen driving on the road of the Bay Area.
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And you had your driver's license at 16 then?
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Okay. Okay. Yeah. I had mine too, also at 16.
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But let me tell you, I did not get studied very well for the test
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because I failed the written test three times.
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And then I had to take it a fourth time, come back another day and reschedule and
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take it a fourth time. I finally passed it for the permit.
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And I didn't do a ton of like behind the wheel training.
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I did some a little bit here and there, but not a lot, I think.
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And so when it came time to actually do the actual test, I failed that too.
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I failed my driver's license test.
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So what got me on the driver's license test, what actually failed me was,
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of course, I was super nervous.
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You're 16 years old.
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Someone's grading you and judging you while you're trying to drive.
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You're trying to figure out how to use the car and you're trying to figure out,
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remember all the different rules and what to do and how to do it and all that kind of stuff.
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Not only that, but there was a section where we were driving down a road
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and as you have two lanes, they kind of like merge into one lane
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and they have that sign that says this lane's ending, merging to the one to your left.
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And I didn't do anything.
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I just kept on cruising straight and I didn't even like, look, I didn't even signal.
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I didn't even like acknowledge there was a car coming or anything.
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And so because of that, she failed me.
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It was an automatic.
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She says, I was like, as you were saying that, trying to figure out like,
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yeah, what would be like, what's the rule?
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I guess, like we kind of know now, but like, what were they expecting you to do?
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But it's just funny.
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Well, I think when it comes to driving, because I've had to do this again
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for my commercial license and had to do the same kind of deal.
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But with the commercial license, there's so many more tests you have to do.
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There's like, if I remember correctly, it's been a while,
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but I think there was like three different phases before you even get into the truck
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to do the actual driving test, you know, like pass each phase.
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And so it kind of goes in stages.
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And so when I finally got to the driving portion, I was very nervous too.
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And I think they actually marked me down in the driving portion
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because I was going too slow.
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And I was always figuring that slower is better than going too fast
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because if you're speeding in a truck, that's bad.
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So I was going a little slower than the speed limit, I guess, maybe,
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and he kind of marked me down for that.
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But I think as you're new, and I remember when I was training to be a driver,
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they were teaching us, you know, don't speed and, you know,
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keep control over the weight and that kind of stuff.
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But yeah, I failed my actual driving, my regular car license.
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Well, you'll be glad to hear that I did.
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I actually failed my first driving test, my physical driving test as well.
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Oh, what'd you get?
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What'd you fail for?
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So mine was a no-turn-on-red sign.
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There was a corner we came up to, and I still, to this day,
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hold to the fact that it was not a very well-placed sign.
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It was kind of just angled at this way where,
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as literally as I was inching forward, I saw the sign.
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But it's just too late at that point to just stop in the intersection
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so you just have to go.
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And I just, in the corner of my eye, saw the lady.
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She was like, because she let us know, there's certain things
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that if you do that, that's a mark, but it's not an automatic bell.
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But I knew when she started writing that that one was going to be the automatic bell.
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So my first one was off of a no-turn-on-red sign, basically.
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So now I'm really particular about when I see those.
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And I get extra frustrated at people that honk at you at a no-turn-on-red.
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Yeah, that's the thing.
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It literally says it right there, a no-turn-on-red.
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But what gets me is the, if someone's sitting on a green light
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and I like to give them the honk or whatever they get mad about that,
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because they're on their phone, it's still illegal, as far as I know, to use your phone,
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like physically be using your phone while you're driving.
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I mean, I still claim, and to be, yeah, it definitely still is.
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So for somebody to get mad about you letting them know that they're
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one doing something wrong and holding up traffic is just pretty funny.
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Dude, but they get so mad though.
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They get so pissed.
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Like nobody likes being told what to do.
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And nobody likes being told, like especially if they're doing something wrong
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and they know they're doing something wrong,
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but they're mad about something anyways, you know, they're pissed off too.
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And so, I mean, being out there driving, you see a lot of the crazies.
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You see a lot of people doing all kinds of crazy things.
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But the one thing I do see a lot is the cell phone stuff.
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If you're stuck in traffic, I would almost guarantee that like almost every other car
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around you in that traffic jam is on their phone, hands on their phone,
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just looking at their stuff.
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Every time it is the law.
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But I mean, I don't know how many cops are given tickets for that stuff.
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But maybe people have really evolved.
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That could be it too.
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People have evolved to where they know how to kind of split, how to catch cops
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in there, see a cop and put the phone down or whatever to catch them, that kind of stuff.
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But there are idiots out there too.
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Idiots with anything.
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But I imagine that was probably another byproduct of COVID though, too.
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If I'm going to pull somebody over, it's going to be for something.
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If it's a phone thing, I'm probably not going to do it.
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And it's probably gotten to the point where they're letting that slide a lot more than
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they were in the past.
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But at the end of the day.
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Well, it depends too.
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I think if you're stuck in a traffic jam on a major freeway and you've got five lanes
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across and everyone's stuck and everybody's in traffic, what are they going to do?
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Unless you happen to be right next to them.
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I've seen a lot of videos on Instagram.
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Instagram is kind of my go-to for all these short form videos.
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I see these ones where these guys are taunting cops and all these cop videos or cops are like,
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you know, arresting people or pulling people over or a lot of the ones where the guys will
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have the cameras mounted on the car and they'll like do this whole like video where the cops
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kind of next to them or following them or whatever.
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And then they'll rev their engine to kind of taunt the cop and the cop will chase them or
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whatever. I don't know.
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Just like it's all content.
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There was a guy in New York City.
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I don't know if you remember this probably a year or two ago that had this whole channel
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chasing cops or chasing.
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Do you remember what I'm talking about?
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Was it the black Corvette, the ghost Corvette?
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I don't remember what kind of car it was.
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But it was like filmed in the DGI like 360 cam kind of style.
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And they were just cops are chasing them.
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He was dodging, you know, running out chasing cops or running around chasing or whatever.
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I thought they actually caught the guy.
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Because it sounds like that because I think it might have been that guy because it was,
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yeah, he was just known.
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And it was this whole like lore about like this dude with this just like blacked out.
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I think it was a Corvette.
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It might have been something else.
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But it was, yeah, it was a whole lore of this guy like, you know,
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where he would hang out and like what were his routes and all of these things.
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And yeah, that was his whole premise.
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Just for content, just for views for clicks for whatever.
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So people do crazy things for clicks and, you know, I mean cars, I mean, I love cars, dude.
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And far as cars go, you were mentioning earlier about if you had to choose
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a three car garage, you had to fill it with three separate kind of cars.
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What kind of cars would they be and why?
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And particularly I wanted to kind of limit it to a single brand of cars.
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So basically you're saying all Hyundai's, all Ford's, all Chevy's, all Toyotas.
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So I thought it would be an interesting question because it brings in the question of what company
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has kind of made a decent range of cars that people can pick and build like a,
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their ideal garage from.
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So that was where, that was where I was kind of going with that one.
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I wanted to see if we kind of see what your stance was on that.
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Well, I guess it kind of depends.
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I've kind of been a Ford guy, I guess.
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I've also been a Nissan guy myself too.
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So I've kind of, those are two, two companies I've really have purchased vehicles from,
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I've owned vehicles from.
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I'm trying to think about owning anything else.
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Because I have two in mind.
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So I'd be curious to like what you're to and then obviously whether the three cars
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in that, in that realm that would fit that where, where like one sports car,
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you know, ideally two-door sports car, one, I'd say either SUV or truck, you know,
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maybe you don't need a full-on three-year-old SUV, but a truck or something that's like
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And then just like what would be the daily?
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Like just, I'm getting in to just go grab some groceries and things.
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Like what would that be?
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And so I'm curious.
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Well, did they all have to be the same brand?
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That ideally, yeah.
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Because I mean, you can maybe jump brands if they're like under the same umbrella,
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Well, I mean, I know, I know Fords.
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I've driven, I drive a Ford F-150 pickup and I know the Ford lineup fairly well.
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So I guess staying with Ford by itself, shout out to Ford, possibly a sponsor,
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maybe, maybe not, we'll see.
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Jim Farley is a cool guy.
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So he might actually do something like that.
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I got him a, I got a speed dial.
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Let me call him up real quick.
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Oh, no, but, but I guess to stay with the lineup, I guess I've always loved the
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Shelby Mustangs, of course.
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I've been to the Shelby place in Vegas a few times.
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They have a museum and they've all the cars and the races and they've got like a,
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We go in there and see all the cars, like a car show.
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And then you go behind, they have a tour where you actually see them building
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all the performance stuff on the cars in the back.
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We went back there too.
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Not just cars, but they do trucks too, of course, and Broncos and all I'm sure
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But I would say, gosh, I mean, I love the problem with the garage though.
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I found this out having a lifted truck is that trucks barely fit in the garage.
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They won't kin the garage.
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I know this firsthand because my other truck was, which was an F-150 crew cab.
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It was, I called it Silver Bullet because it was, they called it the chrome and tow package.
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It was all chromed out with chrome rims and grill and chrome.
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All that has all towed for towing and stuff, but it wasn't lifted or anything.
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It had like the normal two-wheel drive.
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And so it barely fit in my garage in my old house.
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In fact, it barely fit.
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I had to get the thing within three inches of the back wall to get the door to close.
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To be able to close, yeah.
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And I had this whole like system.
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I got this like radar system thing I bought at Home Depot, like that went in your garage.
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It helped you like stop, like you got close enough kind of a thing.
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And there's a lot of times I kind of hit the wall, but whatever didn't go too bad.
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But anyways, I think barely fit and barely fit by the height.
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I actually had to get a smaller like antenna because the antenna was getting
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clipped in the ceiling and stuff.
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So I had to go with those smaller nubbier like antennas for the thing.
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So that's for the F-150, which it can fit barely.
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Now, now that is a great truck.
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I mean, it is great because what I love about my Ford F-150 and why I love it,
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the other one too was that if you've been in other like crew cab full-size trucks,
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they all kind of are similar, but a lot of them are all kind of different.
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They all have their quirks that are a little different.
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One of the F-150 is that it's been a big seller for so many years.
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It's very popular truck.
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People love it or they hate it, whatever.
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It's never perfect.
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In fact, my other F-150 did need a whole new engine replaced,
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which was covered in warranty.
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Oh, wow, during warranty.
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It was about 40,000 miles.
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It kept blowing oil, oil could disappearing or whatever.
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And then so they did a microscopic check and they said the oil was going
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through the piston rings.
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So they got a whole new block or whatever.
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Ford took care of it.
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But that being said, that's fine.
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But the one thing I do love about the F-150, the crew cab anyways,
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is that in the back section, the back seats in the very back where you sit,
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they fold up and out of the way and the actual back seat area is completely flat.
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If you look at the other trucks, the Chevys, the Toyotas, the whatever,
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and look at all the other companies, full-size trucks like that, their back seat section
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has got that hump for the differential that kind of like divides between the
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two passengers in the back seat.
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There's a hump in the middle.
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But F-150, the Ford, people at Ford have figured out a way that they've kind of
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redesigned the frame so that it's flat like a cargo van back there,
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completely flat all the way across.
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And I absolutely love that because the seats go up.
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It's completely flat.
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It's like an entire like cargo section in the back seat back there,
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which you can stack boxes, totes, whatever you want,
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lay it flat, slide it across.
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It's great for that kind of stuff.
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Now, as far as like my sports car, I guess I'm sticking with Ford,
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probably Mustang, Shelby, or even the Shelby GT350.
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Those, I love those ones too.
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Or even a really nicely equipped like 5.0 or like maybe Roush makes
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the ones too, speaking of Roush, my truck is a Roush.
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So Roush Mustang, 5.0, those are great too.
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You could go later gen versus like some of the elders.
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And it doesn't have to be super specific, but like just, yeah,
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like do you feel like you'd be more on like the later gen
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cap Mustangs versus like the, you know, say pre-2005,
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like redesigned ones, like the 90s, anything of that sort.
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You're talking like Foxbody now?
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Foxbody or like the Cobra, like the, was it, I can't remember them by
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like Essen, whatever they were, but the, the one after that,
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which was more of like the bubbly shaped, like, you know, Cobra.
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Yeah, the nose looks like a bullet in front of a bullet.
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Yeah. Yeah, I liked that model when it came out.
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And I liked the one right after that.
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It was kind of took that same design and like chiseled it out a little bit.
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I kind of like that design.
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That was one of my favorites when it came out.
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And then of course, when the 05 Mustang came out,
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it had that like iconic flashback design.
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And that's when the retro design happened with the Camaro
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and with the Challenger.
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And so that was like a big thing back in the mid 2000s,
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was like super popular.
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And so I kind of, I kind of dug that too.
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I really liked that, that whole thing too.
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And then, but like the thing we got from me was that
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like when the Nissan Z came out, the 350Z came out,
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and even the 370 came out, it was like pushing horsepower
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numbers that were, that were doing better than the V8 Mustang.
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And I was like, holy crap, I got a V6.
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It's pushing out better numbers than a V8 Mustang than a V8.
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And I'm like, that's crazy.
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So, but, but sticking with Ford, I would say probably,
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probably something newer, I would say, just because I like the 5.0 platform,
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the new 5.0, because I have the 5.0 in my truck,
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so I'm familiar with the platform.
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So the new 5.0 would probably be anything, probably 2012, 13-ish.
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Well, the new design in 2015.
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So let's just say the new design,
16:48
but then that was the newer design now.
16:50
Now that I have a brand new one, this came out, new, new, new design.
16:52
I keep you, you know.
16:54
But anything in that realm of kind of that, like later,
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later 5.0, yeah, like 2015 and up, that's kind of,
17:01
that's kind of the camp of it sounds like.
17:03
Yeah, those 5.0 engines, I've watched a YouTuber on it recently
17:06
and they were talking about like, it's one of the best V8s you can buy.
17:10
It's most reliable.
17:11
It's got tons of potential.
17:13
People are swearing they can get 1000 horsepower of that thing,
17:17
turbos and whatever, but that it's built very well.
17:22
It gets lots of power for considerably how small it is.
17:25
It's a V8, it's 5.0, but compared to like Chevy's 5.3 or whatever,
17:31
it gets fairly good power out of it.
17:33
Four dodges in there, there's six twos.
17:35
Like, I mean, you know, those are just monsters,
17:38
but it does fairly well for what it is.
17:41
And it's supposed to be fairly reliable knock on wood.
17:45
But I mean, as far as the SUV goes, I mean, I like the Bronco.
17:50
I've always loved, I wanted a Bronco.
17:52
Broncos are big too.
17:53
They barely fit in the garage.
17:54
If you get like a Raptor version.
17:55
Yeah, if you get a Raptor, that's pretty tough.
17:57
Dude, I saw like four of them like last week, four Raptors.
18:00
I thought one today, a Raptor Broncos driving on the neighborhood.
18:02
I thought they were like unicorns, but now I'm seeing them a lot.
18:05
When they first came out, I was looking about online for Raptor Broncos
18:09
and they were like 30, 50 grand over sticker prices.
18:14
So, but people love those though.
18:17
I mean, they, you know, they, they love the Raptor just with the F-150.
18:20
And they, you know, I mean, still older first gen Raptors
18:24
are still like holding some pretty solid values.
18:27
They are. I was looking at them.
18:28
I was looking for those.
18:29
Yeah. They're like, even gen ones are like, I mean, it depends on the mileage.
18:33
It depends on the year and mileage.
18:34
I mean, even with a lot of miles,
18:36
it's still going to get you like 20 grand probably.
18:38
Yeah. You would think at this point that you could probably get,
18:41
you know, get one of those floating around the 10s or something,
18:44
but like people, people love those.
18:46
And they've, they've just kept it going with the, you know, with the Bronco Raptor.
18:49
And I even saw a Ranger Raptor.
18:53
In Vegas. Yeah. So they just got that ticket.
18:57
Yeah. Just throw a Raptor on it and do some things.
18:59
But they do more than just throw them.
19:01
I, yeah, that's true.
19:02
The full on suspension is, is upgraded.
19:05
And, and they, they really put some engineering into those Raptors,
19:08
especially like the Bronco.
19:10
And I heard that the Bronco Raptor,
19:12
it's actually just as wide as the full size F-150 Raptor, like wheel to wheel.
19:19
Okay. Well, so if you took them side by side, so far as like parking goes,
19:22
like that's the thing, my truck, it's kind of wide with the tires and everything.
19:25
So I know like parking is an issue when you drive anything big like that.
19:29
And I can like an imagine, you know, especially in the city.
19:32
So, but that's kind of like, I love the rural drive, power performance, fun kind of cars.
19:39
I mean, I, there's a place for minivans.
19:41
There's a place for like, you know, sedans and things like that.
19:45
And I get that or whatever.
19:46
EVs or hybrids or whatever.
19:50
I mean, I guess I, I guess I would, if I was like an Uber driver, maybe or something.
19:54
Or if I had, I had to commute forever in a day to work every day or something or some,
20:00
or maybe if I hated cars.
20:03
If I just hated life.
20:04
And I was like, I just need something to give me somewhere.
20:06
I think those are solid choices though.
20:08
I think we talked about this before too, is I feel like we kind of represent
20:12
some slightly different camps on, on car choices, which is not a bad thing at all.
20:17
Like I think all in all, like I think that's, that's how I like,
20:20
that's how I like meeting people is, you know, we might have a difference in maybe
20:24
what we gravitate to.
20:25
But at the end of the day, we got a common interest in cars.
20:28
And I feel like we're maybe on that side of things where, you know, I'm,
20:32
I'm maybe a little bit more on the smaller, like, you know, not EVs, but, you know,
20:37
the smaller, the four cylinder V six, you know, cars, you know, all will drive,
20:42
maybe front wheel drive.
20:43
I do love rear wheel drive cars.
20:45
So I don't, I don't want to say that I don't enjoy those.
20:48
I love rear wheel drive cars.
20:49
But, but I, but I also kind of drift to that camp of front wheel drive
20:52
because it's been pretty interesting what they've been able to do with those,
20:56
those small displacement, two liter, two and a half liter turbo cars over the last,
21:01
you know, decade or so, just the amount of power and amount of handling they can pull
21:05
But yeah, I think it's always cool to kind of have folks, they have kind of slightly
21:09
different camps on the cars that they gravitate to.
21:12
So what is your, what is your three?
21:14
No, I mean, mine really funny enough, it would, it would be a kind of camp
21:20
between Nissan and Infinity to be totally honest.
21:24
And I decided to just, you know, be true to the topic.
21:27
And if I chose one stick with it, but Infinity will probably be my one, my brand.
21:33
And in terms of cars, I would choose the, my, my two door or my fun sports car
21:40
would actually be the, the G 37, the G 37 S particularly.
21:45
That same as the 370, right?
21:47
Well, same as 370, they did make a special version
21:51
that I think was either a one or two year option though.
21:53
And it was a, it was an IPL version.
21:56
It came in like this purple kind of iridescent color.
21:59
And it actually had some power upgrades that were a little bit over the stock,
22:03
like the stock G 37s and the, in the, what do you call it, the 370.
22:09
And so those, they're, they're kind of unicorns because you can never find them.
22:14
Even though coincidentally, the guy that works across the street at the bank
22:17
that's right across the street from my house has one.
22:19
But outside of that, I like never see him.
22:21
And so they made it in a six B manual and they made a convertible, convertible version too.
22:26
So that would be my choice is like the two door fun sports car.
22:31
Cause I just feel like it would have that unique story,
22:33
kind of unicorn like, and, and those things move.
22:35
I mean, you had a 370, so you know, but they're, they're fun cars.
22:38
They're quick cars and they're also comfortable cars that you can see yourself
22:42
driving a lot in the Infinity versions, like the plush version of Z.
22:46
So the Z was harsh and it was tight and the suspension was tight
22:48
and it was low. You know, like practically sit your butt on the ground,
22:51
like just to get in there and all of that.
22:54
Where I'm imagining the Infinity version is more like a sedan car.
22:58
A little bit, a little bit plushier for sure.
23:01
But yeah, that'll be the two door car for me.
23:03
The daily, weirdly enough, would still be an SUV,
23:07
even though I was toying between this because they, there's,
23:11
this is kind of two fold.
23:12
They have, they had the Q 70, which they actually called the Q 56
23:17
at a certain point before Infinity kind of lost their mind
23:20
and went in different directions with naming and all that.
23:22
But the Q 50, the Q X 56 was basically that sort of,
23:29
that it was the SUV crossover that they had,
23:32
but they put the big, the big like our mod of like V8 in it.
23:39
So they, they had a, and this was actually the sedan version they had.
23:43
It was the, it was the, I'm forgetting it now.
23:46
I'm blanking on it, but they had a sedan version that had that
23:49
5.6 liter V8 in it.
23:51
And I drove one of those a few years ago and that thing was just
23:54
absolutely ridiculous.
23:56
Like it, they had like 430 horsepower.
23:58
But it's not like really a long, like suburban, right?
24:01
Because suburban are like, I just like that,
24:03
but they're like very long, like a bus.
24:05
No, they're actually pretty short wheelbase.
24:07
Like a Tahoe, I guess.
24:09
I would say even shorter than that.
24:12
The Q X's were, they, they were on the,
24:14
they had basically the same underpinnings as like the Z and the 370 and all of those.
24:20
But they, but they just had the SUV body over it.
24:24
And so they were, that's like unicorn too.
24:26
I like never ever see those.
24:28
Like the, the later gen with the 5 liter V8 that they actually switched to,
24:33
they only made that V8 for that car.
24:36
It had paddle shifters and things like that.
24:38
Paddle shifters and SUV like that size.
24:41
It had downs, they had the downshift rev matching and everything.
24:44
I gotta show your picture.
24:45
Cause I think it, I think when you see it,
24:46
you'll realize like these are actually a little smaller than, than you expect.
24:52
What I think of, when you say that, what I think of is the Nissan had the Murano.
24:56
And then infinity had like a version of the Murano,
24:58
which kind of like Murano, but it was like infinity version of it.
25:01
Oh, that was different.
25:03
That was, cause yeah, the Murano was, yeah, kind of that weird, like the,
25:08
those were a little bit different.
25:10
But it was about the same size as that though.
25:12
It was, it was, it was kind of the same size as like the Murano,
25:15
but it had a big V8 in it and it was all a drive.
25:18
So, it was back when Nissan was kind of just willing to take some risks and do some things.
25:24
Nissan was really killing it.
25:25
That's the year I had my Nissan Frontier bought it, 2005, brand new.
25:31
And I specifically told the, told the dealership, I want it to be single,
25:34
I want to be crew cab or a king cab, stick shift and the big V6.
25:39
And so that's what I got and I lost you there.
25:45
But with Nissan, I remember there were some, there were some years like during that whole
25:50
like mid 2000s where I think the Nissan was really killing it.
25:53
And that's when I bought my truck in, and I wanted this, Z was doing great.
25:57
Nissan has some great years, a lot of great cars came out.
26:00
They had to change the maximum.
26:01
They had the new Frontier.
26:02
They had a new Titan truck was, was killing it.
26:06
And which is a complete total gas hog, by the way.
26:08
If you get those new, those Titans ones back then, I was looking at,
26:12
the funny thing is before I bought the man for 150, I was looking at Titans back then.
26:17
And, and I was like, man, these Titans are getting horrible gas mileage.
26:21
I look at the numbers compared to anything else.
26:22
Like they're horrible gas mileage.
26:24
And everybody's got them.
26:26
I guess everybody loves them.
26:28
But, but now Nissan, I don't know.
26:30
They're, I don't know.
26:32
It's a weird, both Nissan and Infinity is a weird place that they're in right now.
26:37
But they, they had a heyday really between that, like early 2000s to like mid 2015s timeframe,
26:43
where they, they just were, they were willing to do stuff.
26:46
And they were actually kind of hitting the mark on a lot of different things, you know.
26:50
And, and yeah, I mean, that was, I was, I'm definitely going to send you a picture though,
26:53
because I was actually, that's why that kind of happened.
26:55
I screwed, I looked over to see if I can find a picture of these,
26:58
but like the design of these were always like so quirky back then,
27:02
like the FX 50 and the, I had an FX 45, which was the first generation.
27:07
And then they switched it to the Q70 where they had a VA version,
27:12
but they didn't designate it differently as the V6 version that still had the same V6 as the Z did.
27:19
But then that's just when they went off the rails and they stopped making the VA version after
27:25
And, and they, they stopped in that crossover segment really at the time where they should
27:30
have kept going because that was the time when the Urus came out.
27:33
And the, the Cayenne, the Cayenne really continued to be popular throughout that.
27:38
And like everybody had a kind of smaller crossover SUV,
27:43
but then Infinity said, yeah, we're done with this segment.
27:45
We're just going to do other things.
27:47
And I just don't know why it's funny.
27:50
And like, you know, you drive, you drive a Hyundai and Hyundai,
27:54
I think they've got like, how many SUVs in their lineup?
28:00
It's like, it's like how many, I mean, it's easier to point out how many cars they have,
28:04
a little SUVs they have.
28:05
I mean, I think it's all SUVs and cars.
28:07
Well, they had a truck, they had that one truck they have.
28:10
It's like an SUV truck thing was like Santa Cruz.
28:12
The Santa for, yeah, the Santa, yeah, Santa Cruz.
28:15
And I saw that it's supposed to be the competitor to the Ford Maverick,
28:19
which is like a front wheel drive.
28:20
Oh, I never really even put those together actually, but that's a good point.
28:24
Well, it is the straight competitor.
28:26
The front wheel, their front wheel drive, quote, trucks and trucks,
28:29
trucks supposed to be rural drive, but their front wheel drive trucks, both of them,
28:33
designed to get around town for like, you know, grocery getter can park in downtown,
28:37
that kind of stuff, hauling here and there, like hauling in the bed if you want to.
28:41
Throw a bicycle back there, whatever.
28:43
Maybe that's about it kind of a thing.
28:45
But, but, you know, I mean, Hyundai, you know, they've got a lot of cool SUVs.
28:48
And I think they really, they doubled down and Kia too, same company,
28:51
but they doubled down a lot of the SUV lineup because they realized
28:56
sometime around the mid 2000s, I'm guessing, maybe even earlier,
29:00
everybody started switching to SUVs, like many vans are at the door and nobody wants those.
29:06
And it's all SUV, SUV, everything.
29:08
And then they're like, well, we'll just make a bunch of different front wheel drive SUVs,
29:13
different, like probably keep the same frame and some same chassis for like a bunch of milk
29:17
carryover. And they're just slap on different, a different body on with different,
29:22
you know, bells and whistles or whatever.
29:23
Yeah. And I mean, that's, that's honestly what Nissan was doing before.
29:27
They, they, they gotten that down of kind of coming up with like a base frame
29:31
and just building off of that, just building a couple of different models off of that.
29:35
And yeah, Hyundai's definitely, they, they leaned into that as well.
29:38
And I heard something that they're planning to kind of start doing
29:41
like a body on frame truck.
29:43
Yeah, SUV version of it too.
29:45
Yeah. I mean, that's going to be pretty cool.
29:47
I don't see why not. I mean, might as well, I guess, if you can, you can, but
29:53
so you're sticking with infinity.
29:54
What would be the truck would be the four would be the Nissan frontier would be the, the Titan.
29:58
So I would end up, so that's why I kind of pose this as either truck or SUV
30:04
with my kind of situation. Me, I want that third row.
30:07
And so I would probably actually lean more on the, the SUV kind of laying on that.
30:12
But you can, you know, about the QX 80s, right? The, the basically the Armada, the infinity version
30:18
of that, those, those things are like, they're bulletproof.
30:23
They got a big old VA like with 400 horsepower.
30:26
They got, they're all will drive in like the, the limited models actually have like
30:30
locking diffs and some other things too.
30:32
So you can actually kind of take that on some light.
30:35
You know, the ground clearance isn't really there, but you can take it off
30:38
roading a little bit and get to some, you know, kind of challenging, challenging spaces
30:42
and they're cheap. They like, I mean, you can find like 2015, 2016 QX 80s for probably like in the
30:51
like high 10s, like, you know, getting close. Like if you want a really nice one,
30:56
you can probably pay about 20 or 25, but you can find some pretty well kept ones,
31:01
maybe like higher mileage because people drive them a lot.
31:04
Road trips, I'm assuming, you know, a lot of like highway miles for sure.
31:08
But you can find them for really decent prices and, and they're going to run forever.
31:14
Like that, those, similar to like kind of the four V eights and the five liter and everything,
31:19
they, the Nissan has been using those V eights for so long and they're in like the Nissan
31:23
Patrol, which I mean, people use those out in like these crazy remote places to go to
31:29
all these like different, you know, play that those engines have to be reliable.
31:33
And so that to me is like the perfect, like I need this to like haul people around in,
31:40
maybe go off road and occasionally and not just like break the bank and need like a huge
31:45
six figure SUV. I, that would be my choice for sure. But if I needed a truck, I'd probably
31:52
have to break the rule and probably go like, you know, say, say a Tundra or something.
31:56
Even the Tacomas are expensive too. Like I was looking up Tacomas, Tacomas had
32:00
Costco last weekend, they have them on display sometimes. And it was like a four wheel drive
32:06
crew cab. I mean, nothing crazy fancy. I think, I don't know their model lineup,
32:10
but it seemed like a middle of the road model lineup version. And I think it was still like
32:15
55 grand. Yeah. So, I mean, that wasn't even their full size. We're talking the midsize
32:22
truck here. And I mean, they do hold their value though. We try to find a used Toyota
32:25
Tacoma or used Toyota pickup truck. They're usually are pretty high, even with high mileage.
32:30
Dude, I saw one at Christopher. I saw one that was like early nineties Toyota pickup truck
32:37
and it had like 280,000 miles. The guy wants to, wants five grand for it.
32:41
To mention if you, well, yeah.
32:44
You know, like, like, you're getting to the point where you're at least probably
32:47
going to have to do a pretty big reveal on that. Well, I don't know. They said
32:51
those motors run forever. Every, you know, praises those engines for running forever.
32:56
And I was kind of wondering if there's any kind of like conspiracy theory about how car manufacturers
33:02
like time when engines fail so that they can have you buy another one.
33:07
German cars. I'll just say those are just like electronics and turnt singles and sensors
33:12
galore. Yeah. Let's say never buy a BMW with over like 60,000 or never buy one
33:18
with 100,000 on it. Yeah. Unless, unless you're really into that kind of thing.
33:24
Well, that's what I'm saying. Like you got to really be invested in it because I mean,
33:30
I know guys like with the, you know, like the E39 BMW and fives, like that's like kind of one
33:36
of the like holster poster cars for a lot of people, but like the sedan, the M5 of that
33:41
generation. Right. And I know some guys, yeah, with like 150, 100, you know, close to 200,000
33:47
miles on those, but they have put a lot of money, sweat and tears into keeping that car on the road,
33:53
just because they love it. Like they're just, they're invested in it. But if it's like, if you
34:00
even have a semblance of like, I don't want to be spending every dime I have on my car, then
34:05
don't do it. I knew a guy I work with who bought a BMW and it was an M, it was an, it was an
34:11
M package. It wasn't even like the M version. It was like an M badge one or something they
34:16
did. I don't know. So basically it was like had like an M appearance, but it wasn't an M,
34:20
but it was a five series. And so he got, he thought it was great. Loved it, but I'm like,
34:25
where's your car? I was in the shop. Where's your car? I was in the shop. Where's your car?
34:27
It's in the shop. Really. Eventually I think he's got rid of the thing and they traded it.
34:32
He was complaining so much. I think he got rid of the thing, but at first he's
34:35
all excited. It was a used BMW with about like 30,000 miles on or whatever, maybe
34:39
more than that. I don't know. But, but yeah, I mean, that's what I hear about
34:43
used BMWs is or Mercedes probably the same problem too. Is that, you know, these German cars or
34:51
I mean, so many technology, you had so much technology to a car. There's so many little
34:55
things that, you know, go wrong and more things to break and more issues you're going to have.
35:00
And I used to watch some YouTube car guys that were complaining about those different cars,
35:04
you know, they say, never buy used Porsche, never buy used BMW, never buy used Mercedes,
35:09
never buy used Audi, you know, those things. I feel like it's, yeah, like you said,
35:14
there's definitely some ones to steer away from. If it's like, if it's, if you're looking for some
35:19
level of reliability, you know, I feel like sometimes as like when you're, again, when you're
35:23
really into certain cars and, you know, again, if that's, if that's, if you know that it's
35:29
going to be a project and you're willing to take that on and you, and honestly, if you know
35:33
somebody that can really help you through it, like that, I wouldn't shy people away from
35:38
it. Like I, I mean, I would love to have like an E35 or what do you call it, the AMG?
35:45
Oh, well, I love, yeah. I mean, all the C63s, like the E63 wagon, like, you know, all those
35:53
AMGs, like they, they take the cake for a lot of things. But, you know, I just have to kind of go,
35:58
if I were to ever go down that road, it would just, you would have to know that
36:02
this isn't going to be easy. It's not going to be your daily driver either too.
36:06
I think most people who buy that say buy like a second or third hand, you know, BMW, for example,
36:15
you know, it's got maybe 50 to 80,000 miles on it and they pick it up for 10 grand.
36:20
And like, I got a BMW for 10 grand. Yeah. It's been like, you know, check this out, ladies,
36:24
I got a BMW and you're like pushing it, you know, or, or whatever, you know,
36:31
something happens or whatever. And I think that's a thing is that, because my son was
36:34
looking at cars, he's in the age where he's looking to buy his first car and you're looking
36:37
at cars and he's looking at BMWs. Oh, these are like 10 grand. Wow. Yeah. But there's a reason.
36:43
There's a reason. Yeah. But, but yeah, I mean, that's, that's kind of why I lean towards that,
36:48
that Nissan camp. But just, you know, I know that those, those three would be, you know,
36:52
if you got them in the right, you know, the right state, obviously, you, you be,
36:56
you know, you be in some decent reliability. They wouldn't cost you that much. I mean,
37:01
that would be like a, you know, probably 40 grand, you know, option to say to go out,
37:06
if you were to buy like nice versions of those three cars, like you could probably do that for
37:10
under 40 grand. Like, which is crazy to think that like you can barely buy a new car for 40 grand
37:15
these days. Right. At least something decent. I mean, most cars are, I mean, I mean,
37:20
my car was 40, like, pretty much, pretty much out the door. The end was 40, like, you know,
37:26
with taxes and everything. And so, you know,
37:28
That's not bad. That's not bad. I mean, I thought, yeah, I thought they're like,
37:31
well, yeah, I think the taxes, they're like 30, I think you're 36.
37:35
Yeah. Like 36, 36 MSRP when I was looking at it. And yeah, out the door. Yeah. It was like,
37:41
right. And so, I mean, for, you know, that's for like a fun car, but still like does a lot
37:45
of things. That's it. That's it. Your car, your car is literally like, it's the ultimate
37:50
grocery getter. Yeah. I mean, you can do it.
37:54
I can still take it to the track.
37:55
Yes. You can do all that stuff. You can't really do that with like a sports, a two door,
37:58
like a, you know, Porsche or something like that. I mean, yeah, maybe a Cayenne or a Macon.
38:03
Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. That's why I made those kind of cars for those kinds of things.
38:07
And the, like my Z, like, I remember going to Costco, my Z and I'd be shopping on Costco
38:12
and have my Z in the parking lot. I realized, Oh crap, I can't buy all this stuff.
38:15
There's certain things I can't buy. I'm like, how am I going to fit this in
38:18
the car? How am I going to fit it in the car? You know, I mean, as long as it was just by
38:21
myself, I can use the passenger seat to put stuff on and in the back and stuff like that.
38:25
But in my, in my Z, it had a, from the previous owner, they put that sound system in the, in the
38:30
my Z. So it had like a speaker box in the back of the car, like a subwoofer in the back.
38:34
So it took up a good chunk of it. That just took away everything.
38:36
It took it all, but it took a good chunk of the space to take it up.
38:39
Yeah. And it was just fine, whatever, but the, but you go to Costco and buy stuff and,
38:44
and things of that sort. So, so it is tricky. You have to really know your use case.
38:48
When you buy a car, and I think having a car that can kind of fit multiple purposes like your car,
38:54
that you can, you can drive it, fun stick shift, you know, throw the gears around and you can really
38:58
race it and do fun stuff. At the same time, you can go to Costco, go on a road trip, you know,
39:04
do, do whatever you got to do. And it kind of, you know, fits both, both worlds, I guess.
39:10
And I think it's kind of cool that it does that.
39:12
Yeah. There's, there's not a, there's done, there's not a lot that really kind of do that
39:16
well. And I mean, just, just crazy to think that Hyundai is, is, is the culprit to pulling,
39:21
pulling that together. But yeah, I mean, I will say though, on a Costco run, there are limits in
39:27
terms if we're getting paper towels, like toilet paper and another big box situation,
39:33
that's usually the limit of where we're like, okay, like anything else needs to be small items.
39:37
Like there's a certain SUVs where you can just throw all of that stuff in there and you
39:41
not even worry about it. But you know, even I've thrown stuff in the back of my truck. I don't
39:45
like doing it, but I've obviously water bottles, not a problem, but like, but I've come almost
39:50
kind of like debating whether or not, if I get one of those like covers that go over the top of
39:53
the bed, not the one that goes like a shell, but there's this one, I think it's like a tonneau
39:57
cover, just a tonneau cover. Yeah. It kind of goes over the back to where you kind of have
40:00
the almost like a trunk space in the back there. I even thought about that or whatever.
40:04
I thought about doing a lot of things. I've been getting a shell a long time ago with my
40:07
other truck and I thought I was doing, I always think it's other stuff, but the first thing
40:10
I did get from my truck was I got a bed cover, a bed liner for it because the new Ford F 150s are
40:17
made out of aluminum and the beds are made out of aluminum too. And so I'm imagining that if you
40:22
drop anything big in there, we'll just go right through or put a hole in there or maybe,
40:27
you know, dense or whatever. So I did get a cover for, I mean, I did get a bed liner
40:31
and first thing I got on that truck and haven't really hauled anything heavy in the back.
40:35
And I think it popped my truck, but I mean, it is what it is. They say a lot of people buy like
40:41
off-road raptors and things like that, like just take them to the store and back, you know,
40:46
I mean, through the Starbucks drive-thru. That's it.
40:49
I saw something recently just on that note of this guy was like, he was in his and it could
40:55
like, I mean, everybody says like things on social media or stage, but this had to be
40:58
real was he was behind this, this Jeep is like a Jeep Wrangler and he's in like a, in a Gallardo,
41:05
like like the O8, like Gallardo and he's got one of those 360 cams on the back, but they're
41:11
out of light and this Jeep's like kind of waiting and not going. And you can see on the side,
41:15
like there's construction signs and it's one of those like intersections where they were
41:19
repaving. So they had taken out like a good chunk of the pavement and it's like a little
41:24
bit of dirt, but you have to kind of travel over the dirt to get to the other side of the
41:27
intersection and it is paved again. And dude in the Jeep is like waiting there and like the guy in
41:33
the Lamborghini is kind of waiting like, what's going on here? And he backs up and the dude in
41:37
the Jeep turns around and goes the other way because of the construction that's going on.
41:42
And this guy in the Lamborghini was just ready to just blaze through this in his like lowered
41:47
Lamborghini and you're in your lifted Jeep Wrangler and you're not going to go over this
41:52
like small little indent in the road over here just because it's going to get your Jeep dirty.
41:56
Like I feel like a lot of times that ends up kind of being the folks that get them.
42:01
Like not to say anything bad about them, but you know, they're not really putting it to use is what.
42:07
Yeah. I mean, honestly, God like my truck's four wheel drive and I think I've taken it four
42:11
wheel drive twice. Yeah. You know, that's more than that's twice more than probably a lot
42:17
of folks that are getting new Jeeps now. Yeah. You know, and and I did it the first
42:24
time. It felt weird though. I mean, so the first time we did it, we put it and it was like this
42:27
one little area for a wedding we were working at and it had like, it was colder time of year,
42:34
kind of muddy, a little bit, not muddy, but kind of dirt. And so it was down this little trail
42:38
path area inside this farm area, I guess, and it like climbed back up to the main road.
42:43
And I'm like, this is kind of like a lot of not saying mud, but I guess it was kind of mud.
42:46
I'm like, let me just see if I can put this thing in four wheel drive, see what it does.
42:48
I put it in the low, low four wheel drive. There's the four wheel drive high,
42:52
and there's four wheel drive low, which you have to be locked flat,
42:56
either put it in neutral, I think, or something to lock it. And it does this,
42:59
you hear it move, like it's got a transformer under the truck here. I mean, these gears like
43:03
move or whatever. And then when you go, it's, it's all the torque, all the power pushing
43:09
it to all the wheels at the same time. And it, but it's really low. It's like for crawling
43:12
over rocks and like hills and stuff. And so I'm doing that. And the whole thing feels
43:16
like it's grabbing at all different weird angles and stuff as I'm trying to like
43:19
steer up the little hill or whatever. And it was probably overkill. I didn't need that,
43:23
but I wanted to see what I could do. I mean, because I never actually used four wheel drive.
43:27
So I was like, I'm going to use it this time, you know, and excuse you. Yeah. So,
43:30
so did it like stop it, put it back in park where you can like undo the lockers or whatever. But
43:36
four wheel drive high, I guess you can flip it on at any speed and it will just flip on or
43:41
whatever. And it works too. I've done that like in the rain and stuff, but that's pretty
43:45
much all my four wheel driving. I've done my truck for the most part, you know,
43:50
and it does have a rear differential lock too. So I can lock the whole thing or whatever. I haven't
43:54
messed with that too much either. There's a lot of things, a lot of gadgets on my truck
43:58
that I haven't really like, like messed with really, you know, they're nice features to have.
44:04
Like I've got a, I've got a, I've got a safe in my truck in the center console.
44:09
Like a full on safe with a, with a code and everything.
44:12
Yeah. Metal safe. Never use it.
44:14
Well, I think I put, you know, you go to the dealership and they give you all the paperwork.
44:18
I think the paperwork for the dealership was in there. That's about it.
44:22
Like I know that safe in there. Well, I don't, I mean, I guess I had a ton of cash or something
44:27
or whatever valuables or jewels or whatever. You can throw it in the safe there and lock
44:31
it up. If you were in Texas, you could use it for a gun set. And yeah, it's a total gun
44:35
safe is what a gun is. Yeah. It's exactly what it's for. But I don't really use it.
44:39
It takes up the entire console. Like the console, it's called a console vault,
44:43
and it's built into the center console. So the top console comes up about two inches or whatever
44:49
in the safes right there. So you have a little bit of space above the console, but we open the little
44:54
top lid where your armrest is at, open that up. And that's where the console vault is at.
45:00
And it's got the safe and the standard, you know, four digit code or whatever it is,
45:06
you click and turns like a locker combination thing. And inside there, you can put whatever you
45:11
want. Yeah. No, that's what they, they kind of had an idea in mind of who they were marketing for
45:18
having that, but you found a different use for it, which is, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't use
45:23
for anything. I just threw in whatever junk paperwork they gave me and threw it in there.
45:26
And that's where it's been ever since I bought the truck. But I mean, I thought it was kind
45:30
of a cool thing, but that was a cool thing. The reason about my truck was that another
45:34
cool thing I really got sold on was the fact that I have a complete and total sunroof moonroof from,
45:39
from back to front. A lot of cars aren't doing like any form of sunroof. Now I've,
45:46
I've started to notice like, which is the kind of a point to that is I've noticed like they'll,
45:51
they'll do a glass roof or something of that sort. But like sunroofs are really becoming
45:57
just kind of a thing of the past for a lot of cars. Well, it's a glass,
46:01
I have these skylight sunroof that moves back. And then I have the,
46:04
the cover that moves back and opens up because literally it's like open, like open air.
46:09
Like, yeah, I can do that. And I can do the entire like glass roof thing too,
46:14
which is kind of cool during like rainy days, but not so much during sunny days. And I rarely,
46:18
rarely use it. Yeah. I, you know, all these little gadgets are there. Cool at first,
46:22
when you first get the car. Oh, this is so cool. Does this, does that?
46:25
Like after a while, I'm like, yeah, well, you know, I mean, that was fun.
46:29
You find the things that you really use a lot. And then you,
46:32
you have the other things that are just like a,
46:35
like the one chance where you might have a chance to use it kind of thing.
46:39
Definitely. Yeah. Well, like the four wheel drive, for example,
46:42
like I use it once and then like, you know, if I need it, I have it.
46:45
I can tow stuff with my truck. Great. If I may have towed,
46:48
like once with my truck, really, that's only, you know, so, I mean,
46:52
I know a lot of people buy trucks like mine and they literally go to Starbucks
46:57
and back with them. And that's like, that's it. Yeah. And that's all they really,
47:00
but they have them. I'd look at it as an option. You may not need it today,
47:03
but there's a day where you're going to wish you had that feature.
47:08
And I ended up people say, oh, people like features. You buy a car,
47:10
have all the features, but if you don't use them, you don't use them.
47:12
But I've come from having like a Ford Ranger with like literally nothing horsepower
47:18
and trying to haul anything with that thing. I'm like, gosh,
47:21
wish I had a bigger engine. I wish I had a bigger engine.
47:23
I wish I had a bigger truck. I wish I had this.
47:25
You know, it's kind of like going from that into something more you could,
47:29
if you had to tow something, I can, or haul something you can. It's all about options.
47:36
Encourage. I know we're getting late here and I know you got stuff to do
47:40
and I appreciate you stopping by today and talking shop
47:43
and your three cars you want for your cool garage.
47:46
Yeah, absolutely, man. This is fun.
47:48
This is fantastic. So until next time, thank you so much for listening
47:53
and we will catch you later.
