161. Happy New Year!!! (a 2025 close out)

Welcome to the people's car podcast. My name is Ryan Beal and it's sitting right next to

me is Danny Mercado. What's going on, man? Yo, what is up? So we had, um, we were going

to get some, uh, one for updates, but, uh, things, plans changed and that happens sometimes.

So we are just sitting here bullshitting, trying to, uh, make up an episode out of absolutely

nothing right now. That's fantastic. Um, I think we have your vortex band. Me probably

would be pissed off about the one for updates. That's funny that you say that, uh, because

that was one of the things that I was just going to, uh, I do have that on my phone right

now because we take a couple of notes talking about some things. Vortex ban me is like,

where it's, yeah, it's great. Um, anybody that doesn't know, go check them out. It's

like one of those things where it's just fucking one meme after another. And then they do blocks

and memes. There's like 10 at a shot just coming at you. Yes. And they're all fucking

ridiculous. The 16s still are fantastic. I think like the whole memes with the 13, 14,

15s on a mark one and then the 16s, you know, um, I think it's just like everyone can relate

to it one way or another. Yeah. Yeah. And depending on the time period, like you got

into Volkswagen, you can also relate to in that aspect as well. That's very true. You

how cars have been built. Um, I think we're kind of back around to the smaller wheel segment

in, um, early mark ones. Um, but then again, like a cabriolet on 16s, I think works really

well. Um, yeah, like a clipper kit, a clipper kit, cabriolet for sure, uh, looks good on

like, uh, a set of rather narrow, but like tall wheels. Yeah. Um, you slam one of those

down. Yeah, dude. Of course it looks good. That is funny that you say that about, uh,

about the whole 13s and 16s. And it's so funny, like no one acts like there's any wheels in the

middle. It's just like 13s or 16s. And in my, in my eyes, for the most part, I think 15s are

kind of perfect for a mark one. I think 15s are the route. Um, but I do love 13s. I do love

14s and I do think 16s work. When you have 16s, the fitment has to be on point. Yes. So like you

are literally kind of backed into a corner. It's like, all right, you got 16s prove me wrong.

Well, right. Exactly. Because it has to be the right setup. And, uh, it's funny because, uh,

Errol from Errol's auto works posted a quick picture about like the 16s and that love and

dubbing on a mark one. I also have a set of 16s that are going to be going on a mark one

this coming year. And it seems like it's a long time away. Right. It's two days away.

What's two days away? Oh, next year. Yeah. So that being said, happy new year to everyone.

Happy new year. Not happy new years. Not happy new years because it's not like multiple years.

It's a year. Yeah. Happy new year. Happy new year to everybody. Uh, we will be rolling in in 2026.

And I wonder what will be coming out and so many different, uh, people that are fucking with their

cars. Um, this is the time. This is the time that, you know, every car is locked away and there's,

I don't know about you, but I've literally cleaned off my driveway now. Like

eight times I've brought that snowblower out. Dude, we just keep getting hammered. It's like

two inches here or three. It's just enough to where you can't like just leave it alone. Just

not to piss you off. Just enough to piss you off. Yeah. We've actually had a pretty cold

December with a lot of snow and ice. We just had a random ass 50 degree day, which is so crazy.

Yeah. How does it even happen? I don't know because it was like nine the day before. I know

today it feels fucking real. The, the, uh, the weather or the, the wind was wild.

Today was crazy. Yeah. It was, it was really, really bad at work because I'm on top of a mountain

where I work at and it's literally like a wind tunnel. It's, it's, it's just awful bone chilling.

Um, yeah. So let's talk about your mark one real quick. Okay. So you just brought up the 16s and

everything and you, you're going to attempt the, the 16s on the mark one. Yes. So do you have a plan

on like how to stance that truck? Um, I want to run bags in the front air air bags, uh, shocks in

the rear. Okay. It's my, my pickups, my pickups. So, so the pickups going to be low. Yeah. The

plan is to be low, like not like pretty low because like we say, I mean, it really does it,

it matters when you have 16s. 16s look fucking fuggly as hell if it doesn't fit well. Right.

You know what I mean? Yes. Um, yeah. So I think that's the, the, the, the idea for how I'm going to

run that truck. Um, I'm also, uh, most likely going to put flares on that. Okay. Um, just because

the one side, it's weird on the back. I don't want to, I don't want to really do anything with the

paint. I like the way the patina looks on it. Yeah, it does look good. There's a, um, you know,

the, the, the, the little quarter spat half spat in the, in the, in the, in the, uh, I don't know,

one side of the truck. It looks like there was one there at one time, but now it's like a different

color. Now someone has painted it on there. Like it looks like it was like painted on to make it

look like it had one. It's like a rough tech. It's weird. The little quarter flares you're talking.

Yeah. So like it, like now I either have to replicate that one on the other side,

which I don't want to do. Well, or try to remove that, which I also don't want to do because I

don't want to mess up the pan underneath it. So you could, if you are going to do flares that

will help with your fitment. Yes. Also it'll help with the fitment. It will, it will look better.

Yeah. I agree. And then the other thing I think, which I've always liked was

if you're going to do a late Westie truck, I always thought that with late Westie trucks,

you can run a front GTI air dam on it and then a plastic bumper. True. So I think,

I just think that look is like super those two things together with the flares. I think like

then you pull off kind of the black and the yellow thing. Yes. Kind of all over. Yep.

Where I just think that would look pretty cool. Or I mean, what? Yeah, I have a small lip for it

right now. Oh yeah. Yeah. I might see by running a bigger one or do a GTI dam or something else.

Yeah. But I think that, that does have a nice look to it when you run the plastic bumper in the

front with the flares to kind of ties it all together. Plus, yeah, I'm also going to most

likely pick up or use the hood, the vent, the hood scoop as well. Oh, okay. So it kind of will have

brings it all together. Yes, exactly. So that's the idea for that with the 16s. So I'm excited

about the 16s because it's a wheel that it's going to go, it goes with the theme of the truck.

And the swap with the G60 motor. It's I think it's definitely aggressive. It's definitely not

everyone's taste. And I think that's completely fine. Yeah. It is. Who cares? Exactly. And on top of

so, dude, this is kind of like the time of year where so,

you know, I'm just all you're on, you're on marketplace like every day, like you wake up,

you go on marketplace, you're looking around. And I need a couple of things in my life. One,

I need like an actual truck. Yeah, you're talking about that. Yeah. And I've seen a couple.

It's one of those things where it's like, I'm sure other people think this too. This is so

fucked up and stupid. But in one aspect, I want to downsize. And I almost only have one to have

right now, just the way things are going like, and me wanting to finish projects at the house.

I only have one. This is such a fucking first world problem. It's not even funny. But I want

to have just one or two like good cars, right? And then I want to have, I need a truck. But then

you think like, when I want a truck, I've been wanting for a long, the longest time,

like a 17 to 19 Duramax, which they fucking cost a lot of money. They're not cheap still.

They're not cheap still. And that's because they're great trucks. And that to me, that's kind of

my dream truck. As far as actually being able to pull and everything else and do whatever,

because I'd like a camper at some point. I want to bring the kids around and us go wherever the

hell we want to. I want to be able to pull just whatever the fuck I want to pull. And I don't

really want to have limitations. I don't want to buy a truck and then be like, I wish I went bigger.

I wish I went whatever. It's just like when people build a pole barn and they're like,

fuck, I should have just gone a little bit bigger, just bite the bullet now. And then

you'll have like what it is that, you know, so you're not like adding on later, which everyone

eventually does. That's a problem that everyone has. Yeah. So there's that. And then there's

like the other side where I'm like, or do you just get a truck that just does what you need,

save a bunch of fucking money, then you could do a bunch of cool shit or buy another car.

You know what I mean? I'm just like all over the place. Yeah, dude. It's funny you said that

because there was this like post that I saw about, you know, not having a lot of money and

thinking about all the money you would have saved or having your bank account right now if you

weren't into cars. Sure. And it's like, but it's like then, you know, it's like you're 17 years old

and then you've realized that you can, you know, buy, start buying modifications for your car.

And here we are like fucking 30 years later or whatever, you know, like doing this and the

money we spent and so put into vehicles just to like sell the parts off or sell the cars off.

So that's funny that you say that because my wife always had, you know, years ago when it was my

birthday or it was Christmas, she goes, what do you want? What do you want? I want, say, so this

said car part. Right. And she's like, I'm not going to do that. And I'm like, that's what I want.

Right. Right. I'm like, if don't ask me and then say, I'm not going to do that. But her reasoning

was, I'm just going to buy you this part and you're just going to sell the car. And she was very

much right. Cause like, you know, I've had 40 some cars. Like I know, like she's not wrong is what

I'm saying. But also on the other side, it's like, but you're asking me what I want. At that time,

in that place, at that moment, that's what you wanted. Exactly. I don't ask her for shit like that

anymore. And it just is what it is. Like that has passed because I realized that's just really,

I think that would have set her. And I get it. You know what I mean? Yeah, I understand that.

Cause I've, I've also been in the same boat and asked for car parts and stuff and things,

automotive related. And one of the ones that are more recent, I think this might have been the last

car part related thing that I asked for was I wanted a BFI shift knob for my B six three six

Passat wagon. Okay. Oh, when it first got that, right? I still had the shift knob. I got it for

Christmas. Right. It's still in the box. That's crazy. I haven't had a car in years. Right. And

yeah, I could put it in something, I guess, whatever I put in the Torag. Yeah, whatever. But

it's like, yeah, it's, it is funny. Kind of something that never used. And that might have

been the last carport I actually asked for. It's stupid. It's dumb. It's so stupid. It's funny

because you're looking about, you know, talking about buying a truck and I'm actually selling

my truck and it's the end of an era for me with my Dodge Ram. It's not going very far. It's actually

working out. My father's been looking for a truck and we actually worked out a good deal. It works

for him and he's got this little Jeep compass thing that he absolutely hates. It sucks. It's

like a lifted Dodge start, you know, it's basically the same motor, two liter fucking motor and

CVT garbage transmission hates it. That's a CVT. Yeah. Jesus. Yeah, it's awful. It's probably

awful. Oh, it's awful. So he's been talking about a truck and I was like, well, we sell your car

and then whatever differences you make up the difference. So like it wound up working out great

because there was a guy at work. He wound up buying an Audi A4 that I did through co-part a few years

back, probably five years ago, four or five years ago. And it's a buddy of mine that lives local

and his son, unfortunately, just got into an accident this past weekend with the weather we had,

total of his car, which surprising was a Dodge start. And he's like, Hey, man, you have anything

that you're looking to sell at all? And I was like, Well, I do have the crash silver persona

I'm putting back together, but stick. He's like, No, he doesn't want to stick car. I was like,

Okay, that's fine. I'm like, my dad has this Jeep compass. He's putting it for so and I literally

just put the listing on marketplace hours before. And I had some people that wanted to go look at

it and stuff. And he's like, I'll take it. I was like, Really? He's like, Yeah, I'll take it. I show

them the pictures of it. The mileage is like 85,000 miles on it to 2012. And it just worked out that

I'm going to be selling that to my friend. And then my dad doesn't take the truck. So nice. Yeah,

I'm happy about that. And if I ever need to borrow it, it's there. Yeah. Because we are actually

picking up a Q seven this weekend. I kind of worked it out that it was like my wife's Christmas

gift to her. So it's a 2017 Q seven with like 50,000 miles on it out of dealership in Jersey had it.

They gone through everything with it. It's black with the brown interior. So it's called combo

that she wanted she's been wanting something a little bit bigger just for road trips and stuff

like that. Yeah. She likes a look of the Newark Q sevens. So got a good deal on a good price.

And that's going to be her new daily driver. So I'm inheriting the Torag, right, which I'm excited

about. Because, you know, it's only so much you want to modify something. If it's your wife's

before it's like the point like, does she want it? Does she want you to do do that? Does she want

to even drive it anymore? Right. So now if I want to like do things to that, I'm not going to feel

like, you know, bad or guilty for doing it because like, she's all about it. She's cool with it. But

like, I never look at it as my vehicle. Yeah, I look at hers. Yeah. So like, if she doesn't want

me to do it, I'm not going to do it. So now I could want to lift it, lift it, if I want to lower

it, lower it, whatever I want to do to it. Sure. So tune it, delete it, all that stuff. Nice. So that's

a plan for my towing the future. So no more truck. Torag is going to be the tow hauler.

You know, when you're going to need a truck is right when you get ready yours. Absolutely. But

that's always when you need it. That's how it works. Your dad, if your dad's going to have it,

I mean, that's cool. I do have a six by 10 trailer trailer. So that was the kind of like the deciding

factor of it. Because I do have the trailer and it does downsize us a little bit because, you

know, instead of having like 11 cars at the house, we'll have like 10. Whoa, whoa. I'm pretty sure

because you have 13 and you're still going to have 13 because you're getting rid of one, but

getting one in return. Oh my God. What the plan is to get to unload the silver

PSOT wagon once it get it all squared away. So that'll be gone so I can put the money back

into the Deer Slayer and get that going. Are you going to get the Deer Slayer going again?

Yeah, that's going to be the plan. I've been driving the

Oh, so you're not going to drive the Torag every day? No, no, it's going to be the Deer Slayer

and or the Jetta wagon, the R2 wagon. Oh, I've been dealing that for back and forth to work.

And it's cool, but it sucks because I feel bad. It's like driving through all the salt and shit.

Yeah, but it's not perfect. The car is not meant to be driven. It's a car. Yeah. So it's like,

whatever. I remember like, I remember years ago and it's not that far. Oh,

I guess this is about 10 years ago now. But I remember one of my cars broke down and I was

daily driving my Corrado back and forth to work in the snow. So it's not whatever it's a car.

Yeah, it's not the end of the world. Right. And as long as I mean, for the most part,

as long as you wash them off after you've really gone like after they just salted and you've

washed them off and then you make sure there's no, you know, places where things are really

like stuck in as far as like debris and wetness and stuff. I mean, you'll be all right.

Dude, yesterday, I don't know about you on come back from work. It was one of the worst

driving experiences I had driving in like winter. Really? We got a squad. So I'm coming on 84

home. So it's 84 West, like New York border going into PA and past a Milford exit and

elevation changes there. It goes up from there, hit a snow squall. And then like the temperature

went from 50 degrees down to 22 degrees. The rows of ice fucking black ice. Jesus. I've never

seen so many accidents at no chance on the highway. There was a truck, a smaller like pick

up truck, maybe like a frontier or something that looked like this parked on the side of the road,

had his four ways on. He's saying that to the guard rail. He was all smashed up. Yeah, then I'm

driving and I had the the mark for jet a wagon. So that I had a jet a wagon going super slow.

I don't have snow tires on it. Just has all seasons. Then I see like lights pointing across

the highway. I'm like, what the fuck is that? Oh, there's a truck in the fucking woods. So I'm

like, Holy fuck. Then coming up, I see this like big mass of something. I'm like, what the hell is

that? It's like off the highway, but like just off the highway. It was a jacked by a team wheeler.

Like Jesus Christ. Yeah. And like there's a line of traffic. Everyone's with their four ways on.

And we're doing probably 3035. Then come up. Where's like a hill, like a long gradual hill that

comes down and goes back up the highway. I see like this, another mass of something.

But it's like, I see lines. I'm like, like this thing looks like a lot of lines on it. I'm like,

what is that? I think it's a piece of construction equipment or something because it wasn't like

the center of the highway between both lanes. And it was a fucking overturned 18 wheeler.

I've never seen so many accidents on one like maybe mile and a half span. It's crazy. So like,

I got home, I was safe, everything was good. So like the four motion jet a wagon like is more than

capable of handling the weather. Yeah. Not even having snow tires on it. It was just all seasons,

but crazy still like I don't want to be driving that car in that kind of conditions. Yeah,

because I don't want you know, it was a definitely fucking butt puckering moment all the way home.

You know, you're white knuckling it. But yeah, so the plan is to drive that as a daily.

Once I get the deer slayer back on the road, I'll be the daily duties again. And then the

torac would be like the kind of like the third vehicle because my truck was kind of the vehicle

that just kind of hung out unless I needed to use it for something. Right. So the torac's gonna be

that vehicle. It's gonna hang and hang out. I'll use it like once a week just kind of to keep it

fresh. And then that would be the vehicle if I need to tow or pick up something or something like

that. Yeah, man. I often go out and I look at the I look in the garage and right now I only have

the two cars. I have the 16 valve mark one and I'm like, well, that doesn't need anything.

Right. It's just fucking awesome. Yeah. And then I look at the mark two and I'm like,

that mark two is it's so like the body is just super like original and clean. And it's got,

you know, it's little bits of like patina here and there. But it's, it's just a very clean car.

And honestly, man, when you drive it, you're like, do I want a mark two with a supercharged 12

valve? Yeah, I do. But you know what, it's almost like one of those cars where when you drive it,

you're like, it would be such a shame to break this apart because it's so original and it's so

like survivor nice. Yeah. And it drives so well. Like we came up from Georgia with absolutely no

problem. I drove it all around here all summer. Like I drove it all over the place and the car

doesn't miss a beat. You can, it can sit there for six weeks and you could just, you go right and

it literally just starts immediately up and it's just ready to go. And I mean, it really just needs

like a set of like good wheels and, you know, maybe like a new exhaust system because there's

some leaks and stuff out of that and everything just like a tectonics, like whatever. Yeah,

throwing exhaust on and honestly just like rocket for a while because it's, it's just kind of like,

you know what I'm saying? It's a good car. It's a good car. It is. It's cool. It's just a cool car

because there's so many cars that are swapped and modified and you don't see cars just kind of like

how they would be as a daily driver 25, 30 years ago. Yeah. And it's just a good,

good, nice, honest car. Yeah. I'm also kind of like quasi on the, on the search for like

the cleanest possible Mark one ever. And I, I, I'm, I'm looking, I, I'm like, I'm just,

I'm just at this point. I don't know. I just want like the stupidest, more, more stock the better.

So like, I just want something that is like, holy shit, it looks like it came out of a museum.

Right. And it is so like original and good. And then am I going to fuck with it? Sure.

I'll fuck with it. But like, I just want something that is like something that stands out that is

like so fucking nice. That's the mode I've been in recently. So I've been looking all over the

internet and I'm talking like all in Germany and everything just for a car. And I've even talked

to Nick from open air and stuff. And dude, things are fucking expensive right now. And

if you want, if you want something right now, and if you're looking at something

that's in Germany, it is like 85 cents of hours to $1. No. Yeah. Yeah. To $1 of theirs.

So that's changed a little bit. No, I'm saying it's I'm saying that the wrong way.

$1 of hours is only 85 cents of theirs is what I meant to say. And that really adds up. So like,

if you're talking say like a $15,000 like stupid clean car, immediately that's like over $19,000

in their money or in our money. Right. And because of the conversion rate. And then you

got to worry about getting it shipped. And it's not like the shipping price. Say someone's like,

Oh, it's a thousand bucks. Well, no, it's like almost 1500 because, you know, everything just

converts to more and more money because you're paying in euros. Everything is in euros. And then

to get it over here is like another, you know, few thousand dollars. And then the paperwork's like

hundreds and hundreds of dollars and 15,000 cars, $30,000. I mean, it's like, yeah, $15,000 is

definitely a $25,000 car when it's over here. That's, that's an absolute like you're not getting

anything. And it just sucks. It's like, you know, a couple of years ago or even maybe like a year

ago, it's funny because you can see the conversion rates and what it was like, you know, say three

months ago or eight months ago or whatever. And it wasn't that long ago or it was almost one to one.

It was literally saves you thousands of dollars or like people don't realize it

fucking adds up fast. Dude, like with my experience getting them, the Mark four wagon,

the jet a wagon from Canada over to here, like because the conversion rates so opposite, right.

So it was like, Oh, wow, this is a lot cheaper. Yes. I thought it was going to be it is because

of that. So opposite wise, you can, I was just looking at some other cars that were in, in

Canada that might be cool to buy. And I was just like, if I offer, and of course we just go through

these like stupid scenarios all the time, if I offered this dude 14 grand of my money to get

this fucking sick car, that would be 19 grand of theirs. Like that's how different it is. It's

almost the same conversion, almost the opposite right from ours to Europe as now to ours to

Canada. Yes. And, you know, then it goes a lot longer for them. So like it's cheaper for us.

It's just a shame because it's wild. There are some beautiful cars that come out of Canada.

And there are some guys that, you know, you see, like they have picked up some really nice shit

just out of the, the fucking middle of nowhere. But talk about like road shit. I'm sure it's

so much worse up there than a lot of our states too, because I mean, they get hammered even worse

than we do. You know, it's like Buffalo. It's like Buffalo. It's like 24 seven Buffalo. Right.

Because if you think of how like the lake effects knows are like, yeah, so like Canada gets a lot

more weather than we do. And the roads are, you know, just garbage and salt and everything. Like

I think looking at how things are going to be imported in the next few years, we really

talked about this about like potentially how they're looking to allow like the government is

looking to allow cars to be imported here that are built here that are currently not not legal to

purchase here. Like the K cars. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So if that happens, did we talk about that with

Vanick? I don't think we did. I don't think we did either. Um, yeah, like you got all the cool

little K cars and stuff that we were never able to get before. Right. Which would be cool. And then

what happens? Is there a snowball effect? Does it even happen? Is it bullshit? Right. Or if it does

happen? Is there almost a snowball effect saying like, well, if you can do this, yes, then we could

also bring in say all these other cars that might, you know, smaller cars, smaller cars, smaller

trucks. Absolutely. Oops. Uh, all that making me not mean anymore. But like, yeah, but can you,

can you bring it in? And that's the thing because like Volkswagen is not looking good right now.

Volkswagen is like a sinking ship. No pun intended to the ship that went down in the middle

lotion a few years ago. They had like 4,000 cars on them. But anyway, um, they just, they look like

they are not in a good place. And looking like what they just announced with the ID buzz being

discontinued for next year and possibly coming back out on 27, which I don't see that happening at all

because they completely like screwed the pooch on that ID buzz because of how it was marketed,

the price point, the electric, the electrifying of it. Obviously nobody wants an $80,000 as

minivan. And we're not going to like harpoon that because we've talked about that a million times,

not going to be able to that horse. But will this open up the segment, the market for a company like

Volkswagen to bring over cars that we've always said it should have been here.

Well, there's a lot of scenarios that we're talking about. That is, it's, it's like what ifs,

you know, what ifs, we know that. Yeah, we did beat this dead horse, but also like

it serves you fucking guys right in a way, you know, right? Like no one's going to buy this

fucking stupid thing. Clearly no one wanted it. How you're out of your gourd to say that a $73,000

fucking minivan is going to work. Right. When it, when we're talking 15 grand over

something like the Honda Odyssey, which is like everybody's favorite minivan, like, yeah,

I mean, people buy like Hondas and people buy minivans, they buy Dodge caravan or not Dodge

town, country. Yeah. People do buy minivans, but not for $73,000. No. And it's just wild.

And, and on top of that, it was like a no miles kind of thing. It was like, we only get 200 miles

or 215 or whatever it was miles out of this. It's like, so wait a minute, you're marketing something

that is a van that let's not forget also, they did not give us the, was it the shorter version?

They're only giving us the long version. Yeah. So you give us the long goofy one,

and it's not like a sportier shorter one. Right. Right. And then you're saying you can only go

so many miles and it's way overpriced. And this is what you're going to bring your family around

in. So you don't want to be fucking worrying about mileage and, you know, having the mileage,

anxiety, and all the other stuff. It's just, it was just a joke. Especially because like,

look at the market of like commercial vans. Yeah. They could have easily brought that over

and made a big commercial segment on it and probably sold it fucking really well compared,

compared to the Sprinter van, the small ones, the smaller four transits, stuff like that.

But the electricity, electricity, whatever, electric vehicle aspect of it, EV is what

basically is killed this off because of that. Yeah. There's so many things that went against it.

Price point. And they said it was coming for like eight years. Yes. And the thing like showed up,

I mean, literally, I mean, they were saying, you know, we started hearing about it like years ago,

and then like for five years, they're like, it's going to come next year, next year, next year.

Yeah. You can only get excited so much about something. Yeah. And then it came out and people

like, whatever. Yeah. Um, yeah. Volkswagen do something else. Right. Do something. Listen to

enthusiasts. Bring something cool over. They just, they completely have just gone away

from anything cool. There's like, here's your bloated SUV.

Um, that's fine. Here's your two liter turbo motor. That's all you get. You don't have any

options. You don't have any other choices. And we're not going to bring a cool mini van over

that you can actually drive far on trips. I don't know what it's like to, to be in charge of a huge

manufacturing, like a car manufacturer. I don't know how difficult some of these decisions are.

I do know it's very easy from us in a basement to say, like, do something cooler. Right.

I do know that there are fucking atlases everywhere. Oh yeah. The atlas is definitely,

like, like really, like we say, listen, listen to your customers. Are they? Yeah.

I mean, that, well, the atlas, I think absolutely because that was something that the, uh,

what do you want to call the U S market responded well to because you want to, they want to SUV.

It was a Ford Ranger or a Ford, uh,

Exploder. Yeah. It's something that it's like the, the, the German explode. Yeah. It's a good price

point. Yeah. It's, it's got a decent reliability when it comes to the three six. I'm not the two

liter turbo is garbage. Um, it has a lot of room and it looks good. Like it was actually,

it checked a lot of boxes for say, I mean, we have, I have one. Yeah. For enthusiasts that like,

you know, getting older and have families, it was a great option. And either for people that have

nothing to do with cars whatsoever, it was, it was a great option for everyone. It is. I think

it's a great car for a family hauler. If you need to do stuff, like it's got a VR six. Like, yeah,

it's not going to have fucking insane problems. Like whatever, either electric or even fucking a

TDI or something may have like the six liter threos, you know, or six cylinder threos. Right.

But, um, yeah, dude, I don't know. I just, I don't know. I mean, we've said it a million

times, but if, if you do bring in K cars, can you do this other stuff? Is there a knockdown of

the whole wall of the, the chicken tax thing? That's exactly what it would have to be is. Yeah.

I mean, can this all happen? Like I know that the, the secretary of transportation or whatever

was, was given the quote unquote okay, but is that even true? Like you just don't, you just don't

know. Um, so yeah, I mean, it could be cool. I think if they were to ever get a smaller, dude,

I'll tell you what, I was looking at, um, not to switch gears a little bit, but it's still related.

When I'm looking at trucks, you know, I think to myself, yeah, I'm looking at a Duramax or

whatever, that would be a great truck to have. But then you think, well, you're not going to run

that all day every day. So then you need a fucking truck or a car to, to drive every day,

which would be more of a beater car, say like a fucking whatever, something that's good gas

mileage. I'm driving 45, 50 minutes to work every day one way. And, uh, but then you start looking

and you're like, well, what if you combine both of these ideas? And then like you look at the,

like the GMC, uh, Canyon or whatever, or you look at the, the Colorado, the, the, the Chevy

Colorado and the newer versions are pretty fucking sick. Like the ZR two is sick. The, the,

they have the, the baby Duramaxes that are in these, which is basically the idea of, uh,

what the Torre was, but it's a, it's a mid-sized truck. It's a three liter turbo diesel, but that's

an inline six actually. I didn't know that. Yeah, dude, the baby Duramaxes are actually,

especially the new ones, the LZOs are like these awesome fucking engines that are finding that

they're like pretty reliable, more so than I think like the Torre engine would be. And they

don't have all these fucking weird oil in the valley problems and all this shit because it's

just a simpler architecture. It's a straight six. You know what I mean? It's basically like

the way a Cummins is set up. Only it's a, it's a, you know, Duramax made this. But anyway,

so like it has way more torque than that, more horsepower and it's a fucking truck.

And it's basically what I'm saying is it's basically what the like Amarok and everything

like should have been, should have been or what we should have experienced, but we never did and

we never could because all these bullshit rules. So yeah, all the head being said, it'd be great if

a lot of these rules went away and we had some cool shit over here. I think in general, because

it sucks if like a lot of that stuff did go away. It would, there's so many things and like, I don't

want to go down rabbit holes here, but there's so many things that whether it be the government,

the big three automakers or whatever case is, don't allow because they don't want certain

competition here. And I mean, obviously it's the demise of like, and we've talked about this.

Yes. Like the demise of Volkswagen ultimately will be the lack of diesels here because that was

their huge push was diesel. Like everyone knew Volkswagen diesels were like, if you wanted a

diesel vehicle, not a large truck, that was your go to. And it's just gone. It's like,

how can you have something that was such a huge part of your sales market to just be here today,

gone tomorrow. And then like now it's like you got this weird limbo of they don't,

it's like they don't even know what they are. They don't even know what to sell here.

They don't know what they are. You're right. They are in a complete identity crisis.

I think it's sad to say, but in the next five years, I don't think Volkswagen will be in

United States anymore. Who knows? It's something like, if they're really talking about like how

bad the company is doing in the next couple of years, they're like possibly falling bankruptcy.

Yeah. I can see them pulling out their small markets.

Yeah. But think about this. I mean, when a huge automaker, top three, top four,

always is usually like Volkswagen, right? It was number one for a long time. It was number two

back and forth with Toyota for many, many years. But if a huge automaker like that even said,

fuck the US, but we're just going to sell two SUVs, people are still buying those SUVs.

Now, all of us are going to be like, and you know, it sucks, but like Volkswagen kind of

just sucks now. And like that's it. And everybody knows it. You're right. Like it's almost like we

just accept it. Oh, Volkswagen just fucking sucks. Right. We love our old shit. Right.

But Volkswagen, it's like the air cool dudes. They are, they don't, these guys, these fucking air

cool guys, like in California, when you go to some branch that some dude has that has 15 buses

and he's got 30 bugs and everything, he literally doesn't even know what a chaos is.

Right. Exactly. He doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't give a fuck because, but he,

if you were to say, are you a Volkswagen guy, he goes absolutely. Yes. And you could even show

him a fucking a mark for our 32 would be like, what the fuck is that? He doesn't care. We are

turning into those guys. That's true. And it's like Volkswagen has moved away. Yeah. And it's,

it's, I hate to say it, but it's almost like, is this the last drunk text that you send your

ex-girlfriend? It's funny. You said that because it almost feels like that. You know what I mean?

It's almost like, you know what, fucking for all time sake, let's just throw this out there.

Yeah. Like, you, or it's the last time when you're, you know, you're at the bar, it's fucking

almost 30 in the morning. It's way past last call, but you have some skank bartender that

doesn't give a shit about the fucking law. Right. And she's still serving you and you're

seeing cross-eyed and you look down at your phone and you see your girlfriend and it says

Volkswagen. Yeah. And you, you're about to push your thumb over the send and you just go,

you know what, I'm not doing this anymore. Yeah, dude, you're right. It's funny you said that because

looking at the way things are. Okay. So over this past holiday weekend here for Christmas,

my sister-in-law came up from Maryland. She has a 22 Tiguan. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. 21 Tiguan.

He has like 38, 39,000 miles on it. She was down by Harrisburg and it went into

fucking limp mode, started acting all crazy and then she doesn't know anything about cars. Like,

she knows when it starts acting crazy that, you know, obviously pullovers because the

engine line was flashing and stuff. It's already under dealer warranty for the head,

but the head's on back order. There's like 22 heads at this dealership that's currently on

back order. But anyway, I'm going to put this. That's not really an any way thing. It's like,

that's a big fucking deal. It is a big deal. So like going back to Volkswagen, like possibly being

like going under, if one dealership has backward or 22 heads for two liter turbos because

oil consumption issues and whatever else, how much money are they losing,

remanufacturing heads for these vehicles? Like, dude, I know.

And this is, this is like even a separate thing of the, to forget the enthusiast people or the

cool cars. This is like a Tiguan. Yeah. So this is, and they can't even get their fucking head on

straight. Literally, literally, literally, you know, her and her husband coming up with their dog

in the car full of Christmas presents, break down the highway. Yeah. And they don't know what the

fuck is going on. Your eyes are fucking crying. And like, it just, that's a, that's a shitty

feeling to be like to deal with because like you're expecting this car that's pretty new.

Low miles to just be able to do what it needs to do. Now, I am going to put King Volkswagen

on blast. That's in Maryland. I don't know if anyone that we associate with or listen to

that, sorry, that listens to us work there. But if you do, this is fantastic for you. And you

need to talk to whoever worked on my sister-in-law's Tiguan because she had it there

about three months ago. All right. For the head. And it's going to be dealer warranty,

but I just have to wait till they come in. So she's had it. She's had a

loaner this whole, no, no, but she's had a loaner for three months. No, no. So King

Volkswagen said you can still keep, continue to drive the vehicles. It's just going to

still go through oil consumption and whatever, but just, okay, just keep putting oil in it.

Yeah. Okay. Every time you gas up, you put oil in it. Right. It's like, cool. Anyway, so like,

all right, let me go back to them breaking down. They break down, they able to limp it down to

settle in Volkswagen. It's down by Harrisburg. Get it there. They're super great. They're like,

you know, sorry, you know, this happened. They want to getting him in the tails,

they get the tails, they bring it up here two hours north of where they broke down

for the holidays. He made it safe and everything. They couldn't get back to the car until this past

Monday. They finally got the car in the shop. The reason why it went to limp mode and broke down,

they didn't plug the coil packs in all the way. They weren't plugged in, pushed down.

So she's been driving with this, like they're barely shattering and stuff and like, no, it's

the first time it happened. So like, it was just like enough that was on the, like it was enough

to drive okay for the last couple of months. And now it just did this kind of separated from the

plugs and just pulled out. So now it was, that's why I was running limp mode because like,

there was like two of the four plugs weren't plugged in. And it's like, come on, man. So like,

King Volkswagen, obviously when they're looking at the car and went through the head and everything,

unplugged shit and checked stuff out and never plugged it back in properly. So it's like, that's

a stupid thing. Sure. As a tech like, come on. Sure. So going into the tails, I was like,

let me check this thing out. It's got a one five in it. Yeah, it's new. One of the biggest pieces

of shit I've ever think I've sat in. I've heard that the one fives are gutless in those cars.

The motor is whatever. I don't care about the motor so much.

This is cheap. Now she went from the Tiguan to the Taos. So she immediately felt the less power

handles like shit. It was a front drive. So it wasn't all drive. It floats on the highway.

It feels like it's going to fucking just like fall over. Like it's just doesn't feel.

It's not what we know Volkswagen to be. Right. It was like a very cheap feeling vehicle.

Yeah. Like even back in the in the state and and yeah, like a Taos is like your low low lower

class model, whatever it is for either like newer drivers or someone that wants something

cheap or whatever. You know, it's it's not an upscale model car. But no, dude, if we go back

to like mark four days and stuff, even the fucking say like the two liter, like the AEG Jetta,

five speed fucking roll down windows, it still felt like a heavy, tight car. Exactly. And that was

the quote unquote piece of shit back then. Right. Like it. Yeah. I know what you mean. There

there wasn't this this massive divide between right like this. It almost like just Chinese

shit. Even a new fucking beetle, the new beetle, the two liter automatic beetle that came out back

in 98 or 99. Yeah. You said you sat inside of it. You're like, wow, this is actually pretty cool

with a door color coded door doors that are painted the same body color and like the little

features inside. It was a cool vehicle. Had a lot of headroom and stuff. And it didn't feel

cheap. Right. Now you have this vehicle. It just feels like it's like any whatever on the

highway, any other car. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah. So it's like going from Tiguan to that.

She 100% noticed that and like I noticed it immediately as this is fucking terrible. Yeah,

that blows. So she got back home and they took care of her and she everything's good to go except

for her head still on back order. But again, this is a 21 Tiguan. The two liter turbo, the TSI

motor has been out since what 2009. Yeah. 2008 to 2009. So it's like, yeah. Oh yeah, because that

was when they hit. Yeah. So 2008. Yeah, whatever. We're 17 years into this piece of shit fucking

motor. Dude, I know figure it the fuck out by now. I only had a two liter in a B six

Passat. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know that. I think the GLI too. That's right. That's right. I did

have a 2000. What was that 2012 GLI? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That was a that was a six

speed manual one. Yep. Yeah. But yeah, don't dude. I mean, like they're just boring as fuck.

They're not all these problems. That's the thing. I don't know. Take away like one five has issues.

The one four is a fucking great motor. Then this goes back to what my thought process of like

going down rabbit holes is. So you've got the two five. Yeah. Great motor. Great motor. When that

motor first came out, everyone's shit on it because it wasn't very fast. They have a lot of

horsepower. But now, looking back on it, how super reliable the two fives, the later two fires

were, the earlier two fires weren't very good. Yeah, like 08 on or whatever. Yes, later two fires,

bullproof motor. Volkswagen cans it. One four comes out. Great motor. Super good gas miles on it.

Reliable like nothing. You don't fucking do anything to it. Just what they do. They fucking can it.

So it's almost intentional. I don't think it's intentional. It's like how can you figure this

out all these years? Why didn't they just throw even a small fucking low PSI turbo on the fucking

two five because it's too reliable. And it's not. Yeah, it's exactly. You know, not like not full

out like Audi TT RS. Obviously, like I'm talking like literally an 07 K with a fucking nice little

turbo on low compression. Yeah, just enough to like really get up and go. You have great sounds.

It's a reliable motor. You still get great gas mileage. Yeah, like why why why didn't they kind

of figure that out? And like everything was all about the fucking two liter turbo. And I don't

see that changing at all because now I do they don't even know what the fuck they're doing.

Right. That's the thing. Like their hands are completely up because they're like, well,

Jesus Christ, we spent all this money and saying that 230 2035 was going to be the last

combust engine. The combustible engine is going to be done. Now it's not. And now it's not. And

they're like, well, what do we do? Yeah. And they have an opportunity to come back and make a sick

little fun car. Yeah, they're not going to do it. No, they're gonna have the gen 48 two liter

turbo. Yeah, seriously. It's like this motor, I don't know why I don't just stop. Just stop. I

obviously the VR six motor had a long run. You know, it came out in 92. And it just stopped in

what 23 23 22. So that had a super long run. So like people would argue about that that motor

being out for so long. But but it was a fantastic one. And it was beloved by everybody, not everybody,

but a lot of people like that motor. That's why it's been prevalent for years. It's reliable. And

it's good. It's proven. Yes. And there was never any like huge catastrophe stuff with the VR six,

right? Not stuff where like they had fucking oil consumption issues or heads forever,

or like, right, you know, people aren't constantly having to do walnut blasts and VR

sixes and shit. You're doing constant maintenance every 40,000 miles on because you have carbon

buildup. Yeah. And your fuel pump failures to destroy your motor and can followers like such

stupid shit that like, again, you're 17 years into this motor and you can't figure it out like

won't like just to have it be reliable, fuck power, the health enthusiasts, have it be reliable,

bring the VR six back, bring the 2.5 at a turbo, bring the one for turbo back. Yeah, that to me

would be like the lineup, like throw them throw them in. Yeah, why not? Because if you look at the

European market in a segment, they have multiple engine choices. They don't have those anymore,

but yeah, and give us fucking diesels again. Yeah, we get one because America is doing diesel.

Yes, like bring back diesel. But again, yeah, who knows, there's a lot of politics and a lot of

politics involved in it. Maybe they're not even allowed to bring diesels back to the United States.

Yeah, there might be some handshakes saying you guys don't get to do this anymore. Yeah. And maybe

let's get off this rant. Sorry for the rant. We're airing out our grievances for the last of

2025. Exactly. So we can start a new so we can be fresh next year for 26 two days. I think it's

like a day and a half. Yeah, day and a half now. Scott Norton sent me something. I think it was a

follow up on our last episode. We were talking about cookies. Yeah. And I said the ones with the

turds in the middle, I think. And he said they're called peanut butter blossoms. Merry Christmas

and Happy New Year. They are called peanut butter blossoms because we actually made some

over the holidays. Yeah. I often see people set up the elf on the shelf. Yes, as it's taking a

dump into the cookie. So it looks like, you know, it's a gooey from from the elf. Yes. It's funny

like you said it off on the shelf. Have you ever heard of mench on a bench? Mench. My buddy has

at work. We have a lot of Jewish inmates at our facility. Right. And like obviously Hanukkah just

passed. And there's this thing called mench on a bench. And it's like a play on off on a shelf.

Yeah, it's kind of funny. It's kind of cool. It's like this rabbi sitting on a bench. So

um, what did you get for Christmas?

Nothing car related. Okay. Me and my wife bought ourselves a sauna that we have to put together.

That's really cool. And it's not a cheap little one, but it's also not a huge super expensive one.

Yeah. It is also like a red light therapy kind of thing. Okay. But it's dude, I had like a really

tiny sauna for a couple of years, like real small, like only a person could fit in your head would

stick out the top. Okay, sure. Like a goofy little thing. Yeah. But I used to do that. And then I

would take a shower after that. And dude, I would pass the fuck out for eight solid consecutive

hours because like it's rejuvenated. Dude, you just, I just feel like you sweat out all the,

the nasty shit, maybe some of the toxins and stuff that just shit people eat or you're around or

whatever. And I think it has a calming effect to maybe your whole nervous system. And then you

take a shower on top of it and then you feel like clean and refreshed. And dude, I'm telling you,

sleeping after a sauna is like unbelievable. That's what I like to, some people like to do

saunas and then maybe you do a cold plunge or get all crazy. Who knows, but we bought one

and we're pretty excited about that. We're going to set it up. Eventually it's going to come down

here. Sweet. What did you get other than a Q seven? So we started to pick that up. But

now I got a few things. I did actually got, I did get a new jack. I asked for a new jack. So I

guess that is automotive car really nice tools. It's different. Yeah. So I did get that some

clothes and stuff. Nothing, nothing crazy. We actually wound up getting my son a quad. So he

got a new one. Dude, I saw him doing donuts. It is awesome. He like figured that shit out fast.

110cc, nothing crazy. A little quad. That's pretty crazy for a little kid. Yeah, I guess so good.

And he's used to riding an electric dirt bike. Yeah, but I always felt like 90 was always the

thing that little kids got. But this is a buck 10. Yeah, it's 110. That's cool. So it was about,

it could go about 25 miles an hour, but it's governed. I was talking to a buddy at work that's

really into quads and stuff. And he's bought and sold a lot of things. Dude, just buy a new quad

and you're going to like run it for a few years and you're going to sell and probably make

75% of your money back. 100%. Yeah. Yeah, you see them all the time. And it's like, man,

these are almost like new prices. It's 1500 bucks for a brand new one. I know. And it's

what kind is it? It's a knock off Chinese. Yeah, like that's what they are. Yeah. Did you try riding

it? I did. Well, it goes pretty well. He got on it. And for like about two days,

just kind of back and forth with the road. Yeah. And then the road's been, I seen slow and snowy.

So I was like, you know, just turn your handlebars and like, you know, you can feel a fist

tail a little bit and a little bit, tell him to hit the brake and turn into his slide. Just kind

of teach him how to like run it. Yeah. And then like in two days, he's fucking doing donuts.

That's awesome. And like, you know, like, you know, his grandma comes out and Anna runs out and

is like, what are you doing? And like, you know, mom runs out and all freaking out. But like,

it was cool. It was cool to see. I also got him. It was crazy to me. I guess I haven't really looked

at like toys as say we had as kids as much. I wanted to get him a slot car track.

They don't make slot car tracks anymore. Really? Like your basic Hot Wheels brand or Tyco,

which is not even a company anymore, I guess. Yeah. Slot car track. And they have other companies

that do make some knockoffs of it and, you know, some companies in there and heard of.

But I wanted like a Tyco brand slot car track. I happened to actually find one on eBay,

a vintage one, brand new in the box from 2005. It was a Hot Wheels one that had

a Plume of Superbird and a Dodge Charger, like a 71 Charger and a Plume of Superbird.

And we got it and he hasn't stopped playing with it. No shit. He has because like,

the weather has been kind of crappy for the past couple of days and stuff. So he hasn't really been

outside and he's been just rocking this slot car track. And it's so cool to see because he's

playing with this. He also got a Nintendo, I don't know how to call it, Switch. Yeah.

That was a hand me down from his aunt and uncle because they had to switch and then they got a

newer one. I guess it was a new one hour or something. But he's been playing with this

slot car track more than anything. That's awesome. So like now I'm like, I used to have my kids

when I was a kid. I had a bunch of fucking cars. I knew the cars I had. There's like

ones that glow in the dark. They can see the spark. They're called spark and hot rods.

There's one this night glow that the track will go up the wall. So now I'm like, I'm fucking

marketplace. Yeah, dude. Looking for a slot car track, parts and cars and shit. It's insane

to money. Those have gone. Oh, yeah. A car's like a hundred bucks now. Wow. It's like for

one in package, you know, a new box that's like a new old stock one. Yeah, I had the one I had

where is a white. I think it was a white was which one was what I think it was a red Testerosa.

And then it was a white Lambo. I don't know if it was a Diablo or it was actually a which I'm

going to call it a good man or I think it was a kuntash. Okay. But that was a long time. That

was actually a track. That was what you if you bought that one track came with both of those

cars. Yeah, that was a Tyco. Yeah, it was. Yeah. I've seen some of the new old stock

tracks that those cars stolen. Yeah, dude, that's crazy. That's pretty cool. Now it makes me want

to go look for one. It's just a little figure eight track, but it's so cool. He wants to like

get a long piece and drag race to cars. Yeah. And he's like, it's so funny. How's mine thinks

that he sees like newer stuff. So he's putting the car sideways or backwards and like drifting

him up the sides of like the turns and stuff. He's like, I'm drifting in the car and it's like

it's cool to see like the new and the old. Yeah, for sure. My cars I had a 57 Chevy,

a red 57 Chevy and then a black 44 to flames. Those were my two go to ones I had. I had a

bunch of other ones too, but those were like my main ones I had nice that came together with the set.

But yeah, that does just kind of side note there. Remember when we used to do instabits?

Yes. We would usually talk about somebody. We would talk about something that we saw on

Instagram or some unnotable person that people should be following. Yes. Of course, I can't

fucking find who I was talking about. Well, why are you looking for that then? Yeah, go ahead.

I do. Oh, I found it really cool. So the guy that I think everyone should be looking at right

now, and this is a Mark one build. It's that stalls world. Okay, underscore VW underscore

mark one underscore swallow tail. I don't know if you've been if you've been seeing this guy at all.

Yes, I've seen. Yeah, it's basically you're, I'm not going to say typical, but like he's going

all out on this build and it looks like it's really coming together. I think it's like from

Finland or something. Yeah, but this dude, it's like a creamy white mark one slammed on what looks

to be 16 inch or maybe even 17 inch RS is but like maybe they're 16s, but they look like they're

bigger. Yeah. And you know, it's a whole itb 16 valve set up just like doing it right. Yeah,

it's like very much the formula that works, but also like taking his time and thoroughly building

up every aspect of the car. Yeah, that's a sick build. Go ahead and follow it. That's definitely

something to keep an eye on watch for. Yeah, you're coming out. Speaking of this year coming out,

your tripper is coming up. This is your trip of 13 February six and seven down in Florida,

Fort Myers, Florida. I saw that there is a new law in Florida. It's a 50 mile per hour or over

law. So like if you get caught speeding doing 50 over, not going to get a warning. Yeah,

you're not going to get a fine and all you go on your way. You're getting arrested.

Like 50 or over. No questions asked. Step out of the car. You're going to jail.

Your car's getting pounded. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Well, 50 over is a lot. Well,

it depends, right? So if you're, well, no, it's a lot. It's a lot because like if you're in a 25,

like 50 over, you're going 70 fucking five in a 25 in a 25. That's a lot. Yes. I'm going to say,

all right, like, I don't know if I have a problem with that. If you're, if you see a dude do 75,

literally down our like the main street of our little town, I mean, he could fucking kill anybody

that walks out, you know, like you have no time to even react. Yeah. So or like, because so many

places are 70 mile per hour speed limits, uh, down in Florida, right? 70, 80, 90, 100, 110.

That's 120 miles per hour, right? Which, which I mean, that's what you do going to work every day.

I mean, that's kind of what like, no, but honestly, it makes sense because, you know,

yes, there's time and places to do certain things, but if you're doing certain things around

people, if you're gonna fucking hurt other people or whatever the case, right? If you're not in

Mexico per se, right? Yeah. All right. Would you like to move on to some questions? Let's do it.

All right. Um, we are going to start off with type 17 says 26 car, 2026 car resolutions. Do you have

any? Mine would be, um, I've, I've kind of like been in the whole downsizing mode. That's, that's

me. I, I find it very calming to get rid of stupid bullshit. Sure. And the Toreg is next. I've been

saying that for weeks. I have to take pictures that and put it up. Kind of looks sad they're

hanging out. I know. It's just like wet likes it needs somebody to do some of it. I'm just done

with it. I've had, dude, I've had that car, uh, for going on eight years now.

Oh, shit. Um, guys got it. Yeah. Got it in 2018. So, um, yeah, that car, that car can go.

Uh, and yeah, just kind of like even parts everything. Like I want my garage fucking

clean. I want to really set it up where it's nice and like everything's tidy. Now we're flowing.

Yeah. You know, I don't, if I have parts, I want to put them where it makes sense. Yeah. If I have,

you know, tools have to go away. I want to just like, I want a TV in there. I want good lights.

I want cabinets. I want fucking everything. Like, you know, even like my hunting shit,

my fucking guitars down here, my guns, like everything I just, that is my kind of overall

resolution is like to really start tidying everything up. Yeah. No, it makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. Um, I feel like it's kind of like the same wavelength I've been on and I want to kind of

continue that because just now it's like, it's dude, it's, it's fun and games. It's funny with

all the deer stuff, but it is the fucking deflating, seeing two smashed cars in my house right now.

It's the saddest thing ever. So fucked up. And it's like, I don't want these two cars smashed

up in my house. So I want one to fucking go. Sure. Like really just get the hell out of here

and then fix the other one. Yeah. But I just don't want to have to like deal with that kind of

shit. Like I want to be able to have, I want to be able to work on cool shit. So it's like,

now I got to work on bullshit because of, yeah, dude. I, yeah, you don't want to waste your time.

Yeah. Dude, I hear you. Yeah. It's like, what the fuck? So dude, get a fucking old XJ and just

plow through anything like one with a four liter that's not going to ever die. Right. You know

what I mean? It was crossed out, but yeah, but like it's going to keep going. It'll keep going.

Parts of it will fall off, but it's not going to stop. Yeah. Um, Fuffalo bucker 89 says,

is there a dude speaking of you and deer? Is there a go fund me for all the orphan deer because

of Danny? Oh my God. That is so funny. Um, no side note. This is a completely off the topic thing.

Um, where I work at, we have an outside camp outside camp inmates. They, uh, take care of

the outside grounds and facilities. So snow plowing, cutting the grass, taking out the trash,

shit like that. They also feed the fucking animals. Yeah. Um, we have a goose there that lost its leg.

Really? It looks like I got caught in some flamingo.

It got caught in some kind of string and it just cuts the circulation in the leg and it just fell

off. So there's an outside cooler that I use. Um, and there's like a little plastic shed that they

used to use for like, I don't know, sports equipment in the summertime. They literally put this fucking

goose in the outside plastic shed that can't move. Oh my God. And they're like,

trying to nurse it back to health and feeding it and fucking whatever. Um,

it wouldn't make it in the real world. No. So I got, so maybe it would. There was a goose to

fucking missing a leg at our camp outside and there's also a goose as a broken wing. So these two

geese just fucking hang out. Oh my God, dude. It's so stupid. I can't. Um, Connor McCann says,

what car shit y'all get up to over Christmas? I don't, he talks so weird. Um, it says,

we're VR swapping another Mark two. Original. No, fun. Yes. Yes. Um, I didn't know about a

Mark two that they're also swapping to you. Um, no, but that's kind of cool. Yeah. No, that's,

that's always fun. VRs belong in hard twos. VRs do belong in Mark twos. Um, I, I need to fix

to your crashed. Yes. That's what I gotta do. That's what my objective and goal is for next

couple of weeks. Um, when I have time after the holidays, cause it's just been kind of crazy and

busy right now and fucking freezing. Yeah. They don't have a good heat source in my garage.

That's what my plan is. Connor McCann also says, or Connor McCann says, um, have you ate like

shit over Christmas? Yes. I haven't feel awful. I feel terrible. He says physically and mental

mentally. Uh, I, uh, yeah, I ate like shit. Also what I do is, uh, after Christmas, I go like

no carbs, no sugar for like four months and fucking get back into it. Sure. I said four months.

I'm like thinking like four days, four weeks. He said four months. No, I'm serious. He's like

by April, I'll be all right. I do. I do. I like, I've, I had enough. What's good about that is

his dedication. Cause like my problem is because they work in a fucking food service department.

It's just always right. It's like a chicken patty day. All right. I'll have five. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like whatever. Oh, don't do the chicken patty thing.

Dude, it's bad. Vanick knows about chicken. I know. I'm gonna fucking, he died once. He did.

Um, uh, Matty Sick Ride says, why do transport drivers suck? Did you, did you see that? What

he had to deal with? He, he got that, uh, polo and he had it. And the fucking door was mangled.

And it's like, you've dealt this with when you got your R32 shipped and they fucked the bumper

on that. And it's like, these guys don't give a shit because like they don't look at the cars

like how we look at these cars, but they should. It should be like an enthusiast mindset when you're

taking care of these cars. They don't care. They're just putting it off and on a trailer,

doing whatever the fuck they're doing and then mangling shit up. Dude. And he was kind of like,

he made a whole video. I watched some of this and it was like, man, they, they were acting like it

wasn't their fault. They were acting like it was like that kind of or whatever. You try to get a

mark one apart, like to say here, I'll give you this car instead. Yeah. Here, take this. It's just

like, yeah, fucking like Dasher piece of shit. Right. And then they're trying to like source a

mark one door to like fix it with no, it's a complete different fucking. It's not the same car.

No, but people, people do look at them like these guys don't care. This is just a business

that they're like, dude, it was, it was dropped off. You good? No, we're not good. Right. Exactly.

And it's like, this guy's got patina, it's got stripes. It's like, it's a, it's a, it's a nice

card. You can't just fucking put a door on a polo from a fucking rabbit. Yep. Yep. He also says,

when are people going to start buying and the heavily discounted ID buzzes and putting VR six

turbos in them? Dude, yes. Now I gotta say, fishes white ID buzz looks fantastic slammed on wheels.

Dude, I don't hate the body. No, the body. I don't hate the interior. Like it looks fun.

If someone, I just hate everything else. Sports swaps the turbo to five VR six into it. Sign me

up. Yeah. Yeah. That would be cool for sure. Who else we got here? Arctic rabbit says,

do you look forward to most of the new year? Any goals? Oh, sorry. What do you look forward to

most in the new year and any goals or resolutions? Well, we just kind of talked about some of the

resolutions. Mine is just basically to, to tidy shit up, get rid of bullshit. I don't need.

Yeah. I always look forward to every new year. Yeah. Well, we do like, I don't know if everyone

does this. I don't know if it's just like a weirdo thing or whatever, but we like clean everything.

Yeah. We wash everything. We wash the linens. We'll wash like all the laundry. So there's no

laundry in the laundry basket. Clean up any trash that's left over. So like everything's either like

in its place or thrown out, even if it's like not in like taken by the trash man, but like,

at least it's in the garbage outside. Yeah. So it can go. So that's how like we start a new fresh

year. A little piggyback on that is, you know, when we really clean the shit out of absolutely

everything is when we're going on vacation. Okay. And the reason being is because when you come back

from vacation to a perfectly clean house, it is the fucking best feeling. Yeah. You don't want to

come home to a shithole and be like, fuck, now I gotta do all this work after coming back for

vacation. Yeah. That makes sense. I love that. Who else we got here? Simply diet says,

what shows are you guys excited for after the winter? Well, it is certainly the Georgia stuff.

It's for us, it is such a nice relief when it starts to finally get a little bit warmer out.

And then we go down to Georgia in the Helen and it's not, it's like warm and all the cars are

out and it's just like that is the best. Yeah. It's such a ridiculous turnaround from,

it literally could be snow up here still. Yes. To going down there. Dude, it comes so fast too.

Yeah. It's wild. You think May is like so far away and it's just like, boom, it's on you. You're

like, what the fuck? I know. And it just comes up so quick, but like getting down to Florida for

your trippers always been fun. Yeah. That's great because like it breaks up the winter a little bit.

It's been really shitty so far. Like that would be nice to try to hit that up.

I'm not sure if we're going to be able to this year or not, but it's just cool to have it back

in mind. Yeah. I think those are like the two in my mind right now. Also, the one show that's

returning is Dubs on the Lake. That's that took a year off last year. That's coming back also in

May. That's a cool show. That would be something cool to hit up. I'm not sure if it works out for

dates wise, if we're dealing with Helen because usually they kind of coincide. Yeah. But this

year, I think it might be the weekend after, but that's always a fun show to hit up as well. But

also they announced the racing series for two tracks in Maryland and also for Junebug. Junebug.

That's going to be cool to check out. That's always fun. I love that. I love to watch more

racing. Fun fact, Maple Grove Raceway got bought out. I don't know if you know this or not. Yes,

I do. IHRA. Yes. So it's going to become like serious again. Yes. Hopefully. Yes. So IHRA bought

this track out and they're going to make it into like a serious contender track. That's

fucking awesome. Like NHRA and IHRA are the two main drag racing entities in the United States.

So for them to buy this out, it sounds like they're going to try to do some cool things that maybe

put some money into it. Maybe do something else with this. So it kind of leaves things in limbo

with like potentiomarquan madness. What's going to happen at the campground? I don't know if that's

going to stay the same. They're going to leave it as is. Right. Cross that bridge we're going to get

there. But that's a potential up in the air thing for like us that go to marquan madness to people

that go to it. So sure. Yeah, those are the things on my mind right now about shows coming up.

And then like, you know, we also have the smaller ones that we go to.

The fun fact, dubs on the lake is actually May 1st, 3rd this year. So May 1st to 3rd is usually

March to May Day time also. Yeah. So we'll see. And dubs at the lake is now Open Air Imports

show. Is it? That's great. I think you're a big sponsor. I think he bought out the show.

Oh, that's awesome. I bought out the show. Okay. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Cool. So yeah,

we should definitely hit up that. No poking no love says, did you guys have a good Christmas

break? Yeah, man. Thanks for asking. Hopefully you did too. Yes. Also, he says, what kind of

meal did you guys have on Christmas Day? Interesting. I had beef tenderloin. Nice. Love it.

That was my thing. What about you? So we actually wound up making spaghetti meatballs,

but it was homemade meatballs, pork beef meatballs with Puppet out noodles, like the real long,

fat, long ones. Yeah. And like the pie, I love popping up pasta. I usually use it for a bowl of

maize because it's a very hearty noodle that can hold a lot of sauce. So that's what we made. Fresh

homemade bread, sourdough bread, one was a garlic loaf, one was a regular loaf.

So that was it. Love it. Yeah. But like, it was good. It was really good. Nice.

No poking no love also says, what daily car would you be okay driving bone stock?

That's what you're for neon. Jesus, dude. I've been on this fucking kick, dude. Get one. I kind of

want one. Get rid of other stuff though. I just want one for daily driver.

Dude, before that bitch totaled my fucking Jetta, I loved just my mark six, one point four later.

You should get another one for me. Again, not good golf or something.

Yeah, the golf. Yeah, the golfs are cool. Yeah. Yeah, I've been thinking about it.

Cool. Definitely. Okay. Frosty B says, what's the best advice you've received about Volkswagen's?

I don't know what the best advice because usually like advice about Volkswagen's like,

like, stay away. You know, it's funny. The only advice I've ever like received on Volkswagen's,

which was like, I don't know, fucking 25, 30 years ago. Yeah, it was kind of like,

don't buy Volkswagen. Stay away from them. They all have electrical nightmares.

Yeah. And that was like the thing back in the 2000s. Yeah. And I heard that too. I would say that

also for me, that advice always came as like a negative. Like, you don't want it to get into

this. You don't want to do that. Don't buy a Volkswagen because you get to buy all weird tools

and you don't enter a metric. They have electrical issues. It's like, shut up. Yeah. Yeah, pretty

much. I've never had like any other advice, I guess, with Volkswagen's because like, for me,

being a weirdo and having B threes, people are like, don't buy those. There's garbage. Yeah.

Swap cars or people are like, you know, don't get into a mark three that will rust out, you know,

shit like that. I mean, it's been like negative stuff. No one's ever been like good advice.

Yeah. No one's ever like, no, get this because it's like, this is what you should get her half.

Well, my, my buddy has like 300,000 miles on his Jetta, his mark six, one, four,

and he was basically like, dude, you got to get one of these. I mean, if you consider that advice,

um, which I did and it was, uh, it's like the perfect daily car. Um, but yeah, dude, I don't know.

We don't usually listen to advice from people. We just go and do what you like. Yeah. You know,

it's funny because most non Volkswagen people have such a stigma with Volkswagen's and it's

like, again, it goes back to older Volkswagen's because a lot of people now don't know newer

Volkswagen stuff. Yeah. They only know what they know from years ago. Yeah. Um, and it's funny

because you'll talk about Volkswagen, but oh, Beatles, you're like, no, I'm not talking about

aircolds and they have no idea they even made watercolds. Right. Yeah. Um, there's a one wing

80 says, are there many barn fine Volkswagen's in the United States? I think there's a lot still.

I think there's so much, dude, there were so many of these cars, uh, built and, and sold here.

Yeah. Um, they're, they are all over the place and I'm sure we don't know. And the reason why it's

so hard to figure it out is because our country is so fucking big. It's so big, it's so much air

to cover. So there could be something in Utah, dude, just fucking sitting there or, you know,

something in your backyard. You don't even know the, well, yeah, the, the one car that I found,

the Mark one, and it was a, it was a late Westie. I mean, that was because it was built in Pennsylvania.

Right. Um, I don't know if you know that or not, but we had these cars and obviously, uh,

that car was sitting there with like 20 some thousand miles on it. Yeah. And it was just an

old ladies car that was literally in a barn. The case of Santiago is off. You remember this one,

the four door. Yeah. Um, that was like, well, within minutes, I think he was at a gas station

to Mayday and happened to go to a gas station and then someone was like, wait, you like these kind

of cars? He was like, yeah, he's like, why don't you come over and check this out? Right. And it's

was in his garage and it had like 29,000 miles super low mileage four door late Westie car. No,

no, no, that's a really German car. Oh, what's German? Oh, yours is late Westie. Sorry. Yeah.

Yes. It was an early German car. Right. Yeah. It was like a 78 or 79. Yes. And it's like,

that was around just in just around the corner there. Yep. Yeah. You never know, man. There's

stuff around all the time. That's why you should always drive your cool cars too,

because that is sometimes like the beacon. That is the flag that you hold up saying,

I'm into this shit. Right. And then when you are sitting, if you're, if you go to get ice cream

in something or sorry, or if you go to get gas and someone walks up to you and says, hey,

I have one of those. Right. Do you think you'd be interested? Yes. Right. If you're driving around

on whatever fucking, yeah, grossly gathered that no one cares about, no one's gonna ask you,

hey, you into Volkswagen's when you have a four Explorer, the exact or whatever you have, you

cabrio says, uh, why am I mark three? Oh, this is more of a technical thing,

which we don't really have to get into. He's having axle seal final drive problems.

Sorry, man. We're just trying to have fun here. That sucks that year. I mean,

it is what it is. Like sometimes it's like, there's so many different things you have to

deal with with seals and stuff. Yeah. He's looking at O2O trans problem with leaking.

Um, and sometimes it's how it's, uh, it's seats, sometimes different, uh, seals

are shittier than others, different brands. Like if you don't see it properly and punch it in,

you know, and have it seat exactly how it's supposed to be, there's a lot of issues with that.

Sucks. Yeah. Sorry, dude. Um, Philly underscore Chris says, do we think there's a chance that

Volkswagen will figure out what people actually want or is it too late? Dude, that's the kind

we were just talked about. Yeah. I think it's almost too late for us market. I'm feeling as of

the last couple of years that it's too late, which sucks, but what are you going to do?

Avant Realtor says, paint my shit box or buy a different car for less than the price of the paint

job. Depends on the shit box. I think, dude, I think it's an a, hold on, an a four wagon.

It's like a B five a four wagon. I think because he has also, I think a silver

Passat as well. B five and a half is how I can do. Uh,

I mean, just get another car, man. I'm on the opposite spectrum of that. I would say,

if it's a car that you really enjoy and want to keep for a long time, paint that picture. Well,

in June, any Volkswagen events or gatherings, I have no idea. That's fantastic. That's something

to check out in a reload podcast because they would be able to touch base with the shows that

are happening in their neck of the woods over there. Yeah. And at that time, I'm not really sure.

When does the Titanic dobs thing happen? That's usually in the fall, but I believe the one show

that does happen over there, um, that would be close to that would most likely be, um, Euro

Traffin. Well, there you go. I believe, um, that is around on the same time, but I'm like to be wrong.

Um, Ricky, who was on the podcast before when we were down in, uh, I was going to say Ocean City,

when we were down in Wildwood says favorite non-Volkswagen winter beater that you've owned.

Favorite non-Volkswagen winter beater. Mine is definitely one of my Hondas. It's either my

Honda Civic. It was like a 97 LX or it's probably the fit. The Honda fit was fucking awesome because

I just beat the fuck out of that thing. You threw that thing around everywhere.

Everywhere. And it was a smashed potholes and shit. It didn't matter. Three wheels were bent.

Like that thing is fantastic. Yeah. What about you? I think my Dodge Dakotas I had because I had two

Dakotas. Yeah. Two black Dodge Dakotas, uh, 47 V eights manual. See, I don't think that is like a

winter, like a fun winter beater. I think it was great. No, and not that wasn't great. It probably

was fucking right after the winter and driving through the snow. Yeah. That's what I didn't care

when my truck rusted out of you there. I didn't go fuck. I just drove everywhere. Sure. Don't you,

don't you feel like sometimes like, I don't know, like in my mind when I think winter beater fun,

I think like small nimble. Also, I think my first, my first and or second 16 valve

Passat sedans I had. Um, I both, I went to beat both of those and like the one, the black one I

had the one that was a little bit later, the Wolf 92s. Um, I had a lot of fun with that. I used to

fucking do backwards donuts with it and just, just do stupid shit with the car in the winter time.

And that was a fun car to beat around back and forth to work. Yeah. Um, and I didn't care if

like, you know, anything happened to it. You know, it's crazy. All right. I'm not going to get into

a fucking deer Slayer ran here, but when you don't give a shit about a car, it seems like nothing

happens to it. Well, sometimes they're a lot more fun that way too. Yes. And it's funny because like,

I didn't give a shit about these cars. I wanted them to look nice. I kind of made them look nice

a little bit, whatever, but I didn't give a shit about them. And like, I would beat these things

to the ground and whatever. And like, it was just fine. Yeah. Now it's like, I want cars to look

halfway decent and like try to take care of them more and whatever. And it's like, I just fucking

can't. So I just needed to get the mindset, you know what, maybe that's why New Year's resolution

should be don't give a fuck about certain cars and just fucking run them. And then maybe they

won't hit deer. Yeah. Maybe they won't get smashed up. Yeah. Just say, you know what, fuck it. Or

like how you used to get all the mark five co-park cars. Yeah, you should just run the cheapest mark

five and who cares if it's a fucking, I didn't have a good track record that could have hit a

deer with the mark. Now, if you remember to get another one then for like 400 bucks, the fucking

blue mark five I had, I smashed the deer at that had that B five. Jesus Christ. There's no, the B

five and a half is great. If you remember that one, I had like two weeks on the road, I smashed

the deer at that and told that one. I remember. Yeah. I remember very well. Um, roadside cross

says Volvo or Saab. I'll take Volvo. I will take Saab. Okay, cool. 100%. The only reason why I

and it was a dog. It wasn't very fast. Um, but I think fucking went through everything. I think

it was a tank. I think the early Saab turbos were sick. Yeah. I mean, I guess if you, what you're

looking for, if it's like a beater or if it's like something that you're going to, I feel like

they're all beaters in my mind. Okay. Fair enough. Like I think they just be all cool as a beater.

Yeah. But like a nice beater. I like a brick wagon. I like a two wagon with the rear facing

seat in the back. I think that's so cool. That weird ass headrest. Kale has that fucking

wagon. It's so cool. Yeah. Um,

what else? What is everyone buying now that they're selling their cars? I don't know.

Can't, can't answer that. I do see a lot of people putting their cars up for sale. Um,

I think people are like, all right. So like Chad from PA has his truck up for sale right now.

Correct. And some parts and stuff. And he's got the Mark one for sale as well,

but he also did just buy, um, an early Ford pickup truck as well. So it looks like he's trying,

he's changing course. Some people are trying to branch out to other things and have fun.

I think that's what I've seen a lot recently of people branching out to other things.

And, and that's why they're selling certain things that they have.

Maybe to change it up a little bit. Maybe they have something that's new in their mind that

they haven't told anyone about yet either. For sure. Yeah. Uh, cast system performance says

how many deers will Danny hit in 2026? I hope none. I don't want to,

but I mean, it's, it's, it's inevitable at this point. Well, hopefully you don't.

Yes. I'll give you that. Yeah. Um, I got one more beef wish, which is, uh, he says,

do you prefer this is actually a good one. Do you prefer a car that looks like junkyard trash,

but is fun, fast and performs, or a car that is visually beautiful show queen with a dog shit

stock motor that runs like garbage and is undriveable. I think it's going to be the,

the fun fast car that looks like crap in a ship box. Because again,

I think you have more fun in that kind of car. You don't care about as much. Like you do care

about it, but you, you, you're not going to be like, has it sent to beat the balls off of it and

just fucking rip it around? I think this is like a deep question because I feel like there's two

ways to enjoy cars. Sure. And I think we kind of, we all in some ways like ruin our cars in some

ways. Definitely. So like when someone does have, say like a show queen that I think there is fun

and maybe pride in just taking that car out and say air it out. And it's like, say it's a mark

two big turbo VR aired out. RS is all flashy, whatever. And you like walk away from that.

You look at it and you're just like proud. No, there is a sense of pride having a show car

car. You put a lot of time and money into something. I think with that, how he, how he

asked the question, if you have a show car with like a two liter motor in it, say a mark four,

go on. All right. I'll take, look at the, I forget who had this now off top of my head,

but it was like the mark four that was done like a hot rod style back in the early 2010s. That was

the blue one that was in PVW and stuff. It was like, it was a shade that all this stuff done

fully shaved engine bay. It was flat blue color. I had a two liter turbo on it or two liter,

2.0 in it. Just a two liter. Yeah. So it's not a fast car. It's a mark four. It's not going to

handle. Wait, you mean the, the, uh, the golf? Yes. The flat blue with like the big like moon eye

kind of like, yeah. And the white walls and shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a two liter

in that. Yeah. It's a Jersey dude. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. So like that car, show car, because

he had a lot of work done, shaved all this stuff, painted, um, not a fast car, not a great handling

car. Right. Um, but it's something like that. Yeah. Spent a lot of time, a lot of money on

and made his own. Yeah. I don't think you have to even spend a lot of money on like a car that

dude, that's kind of what I was saying about like the mark two also, like not that it's a piece of

shit, but it's a runner. Yeah. And it's not like it's just like you get in it and you're like,

this is fucking great. Yeah. And you can just enjoy, um, a car. I think sometimes say it was

like a, a ratty mark one, say it's a fucking old rusty kind of pickup truck. Yeah. Sorry.

I'm having indigestion from eating earlier, but, um, say it was like an old pickup truck and

but like you can fucking, you come out of, you go to get fucking coffee or pizza or something,

you could put the shit right on the truck and then you get in and you fucking just throw it in there

and it's a runner. It runs good. It feels good. It's like a, a worn in baseball glove. No, it's

true. Like I get that. Yeah. And it's probably going to be more fun in the law. Like when you're

actually driving the car, I mean, that's what they're there for, right? I always said,

there was a couple cars, like nice cars, really nice cars that I had and that I was getting ready

for someone else to come and buy it, but they needed it ready for a transport. Sure. So,

and they didn't say necessarily want the wheels that I had on the car, whatever. So,

you know, the conversation goes back. Do you have stock rollers? Do you have something that

you could just throw on and then you end up jacking the car up? Like, you know, I mean,

just like raising the coil overs and then putting some stock wheels on it with like balloon tires

and you do one last drive. Yeah. This has happened to me a number of times and I'm like, oh my God,

it is so much fun that way. Yeah. Like why do we fucking ruin these cars with fucking ditch

finders and fucking wide stupid wheels and so low and everything else. And you know, like it does

ride like shit, but it's a different kind of fun. It is a different kind of fun. And I love doing

that too. Yeah. There's something about like narrowly missing something that is going to take

out your oil pan and fucking run it dry and destroy your motor and you just making it. Oh my

by a fucking con here. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah, there's potholes the size of Mark ones that will swallow the whole car into it. Yeah,

exactly. Yeah. But we all know that very well. Yeah. Um, I think I think

in there's a call for both. Yeah, there is. Um, I don't think for me personally,

like the show car that is strictly show is ever going to be in like my

radar, so to speak, because like I, I want to be able to drive myself and enjoy it and have

fun with it because I like driving. Yeah. You know, but to be strong. Yeah, for sure. Um,

well, that being said, I think, you know, not having the guests we were supposed to have and

having us just figured it out worked out pretty good. Dude, it's almost an hour and 40 minutes.

Dude, that's pretty good. Yeah, just came out of nowhere. Sweet. So, uh, hey guys, thanks for

listening and we hope you guys have a great New Year's Eve and happy New Year to everybody.

And hopefully 2026 is good for y'all. Yeah, we'll catch you on the flip side of it. That's right.

Peace.

161. Happy New Year!!! (a 2025 close out)

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