AutoAlex on The Backlash For Buying His Dream Car | EP47

Probably a couple of years ago, you bought a certain McCann,

but I kept thinking at the time, it probably wasn't well received.

Was that the case?

What gave you that feeling?

I don't know, just certain vibes.

Was it all the negative comments?

People just don't like me, don't like seeing me drive nice cars.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Talking Shot.

Today we're joined by Alex of Auto Alex.

Please make sure to like, comment and subscribe

and let us know who you want on Talking Shot Next.

Okay, well, thank you so much for having us down.

No, yeah, welcome.

But finally with Alex.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, how you doing?

Yes, very well, very well.

Third time's a charm, right?

Yeah, so we say it took us four hours to get here, but I'm sure it'll be.

At least you've not complained about it too much.

No, definitely, no, we don't complain.

Give us it for those who don't, which will be few now,

because you've done so well out of YouTube.

But who is Auto Alex?

Who are Auto Alex, shall we say now?

So also, Alex, I used to work for a company called YouTube channel called Car Throttle,

as you know.

And then in 2022, I decided that I wanted to go alone,

because everyone I met, including the likes of Mike Brews of this world said,

so is this your channel?

And I said, no, he's like, well, why not?

And then it kind of got me thinking.

And then 2022, at the time, long-term girlfriend, wasn't married,

didn't have any kids.

We just moved into a house that was a renovation project.

And I was like, do you know what?

As mum would say, shit, we'll get off the part.

It's now or never.

Now is the best time really.

It was a calculated risk.

So I started a new channel called Auto Alex.

I didn't know where it was going to go.

Didn't know what it was going to turn into.

Launched a channel, I think, in May 2022.

And then within three weeks had 300,000 subscribers.

And I had a bit of a meltdown.

And I was like, oh, OK.

Yeah, because I was always planning on doing freelance work

for Carthrottle and Auto Trader as well,

because I did a lot of stuff with Rory Reed.

And then it quickly transpired that no,

Auto Alex has to be the main gig really.

So I started that with Rory.

He was my videographer at the time.

And then everything has just grown.

And now he's like, effectively right-hand man to me,

business partner, everything really, advisor,

all that kind of stuff, because he's very good at business.

And yeah, just looking around me at a Disco 2 on a ramp

in quite a nice unit in a secluded part of Reading.

And yeah, had you told me that three years ago

that this is where we would be with two other channels

that we started as well for Friends of Ours?

I'd probably have cockpunched you and said,

nah, that's not really going to happen.

Yeah.

But yeah, here we are.

And we're genuinely having the time of our lives.

We've got obviously Auto Alex, Top Dead Center,

all the gear.

And on Sunday, in six days' time,

we're flying to Vietnam to shoot a 10-day multi-episode series.

So I'm like, yeah, this is mad.

But yeah, what really is life at the moment?

Are you now living the pinch me moment?

Yeah, I think so.

I think so.

But it is a lot of work.

And I'm always very bad at pulling myself out of a situation

and just looking at what we have around us

and what we've achieved.

So I live really in the moment.

So it's always like one series, one episode,

move on, keep going, track the numbers a little bit.

Am I happy?

Yes, no, keep going, keep moving with the times really.

But yeah, it's only until I sit down with guys like you

or when we did Matt Wood or Shedfest

and people literally take me out of a crowd

and say, look at all of these people.

Only then do I really realize it's like, holy shit,

like this is, it really is a pinch me life at the moment.

So yeah, it's great and I'm loving it.

And yeah, we all have a lot of fun together.

We go on adventures.

And yeah, I'm very satisfied at the moment.

Yeah, very satisfied.

Amazing, amazing.

Yeah, look, it's an absolute beast what you've built now.

You only have to look at your pit of cess pits.

Yeah, pits of doom, pits of cars.

I can't bring myself to let go

because they all have a story

and I'm very sentimental when it comes to cars.

So they will probably just rot there,

but I'd rather them rot there than be scrapped.

You all are like that.

Like you all feel like cars have their own little personality.

Obviously on the next video,

obviously tell us how this has been for like 11 years.

And yeah, clearly never getting rid of it.

Even for that 9-11, even I was like, oh no, that'd be gone.

That'd be gone.

Yeah, for me.

Oh yeah, no, dream car definitely for me.

So, started off to Alex.

You're going to Vietnam.

What's the favourite sort of project for you?

Is it the builds and restoration

or is it these sort of the trips,

the road trips that you're doing now?

What's favourite for you?

It's all of them really.

I mean, one of my kind of top series was a recent one,

probably one you guys will have seen as well,

which is the hot hatches.

So, me, for example, buying a Katzi written off Cleo Williams

that hadn't been on the road for 14 years,

taking it to my unit, looking at it,

thinking, oh God, what are we going to do here?

And then creating an entire series out of one car

is really cool and that's really exciting.

That's what I like doing.

Like I've got, for example,

on the trailer back of our Land Cruiser,

I bought a Porsche 911 996 last week on a whim

because I was messaging on Instagram

and it has 387,000 miles on the clock.

That's the highest mileage one in the UK.

And off the back of that,

we're going to get another series from it.

But it's buying a car that should be scrapped,

that no one loves, that's been sitting for a while

and tarting it up, fixing it,

giving it a completely new lease of life

and then taking it on an adventure.

And then that for me is where it kind of cements its place

in my kind of quote, unquote, forever garage.

So I have a storage unit about 20 minutes away

and there's, I think like, I don't know, 12 cars in there.

And I've driven all of them quite extensively

and done videos and made memories.

And then I just tucked them away

and I will use them at some point.

But you know, people often take the piss and say,

oh, you never drive your cars.

It's like, I don't care.

They're my cars and I will use them at some point

and I love each one in their own way.

How could you sell that afterwards?

Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No one will cherish it as much as I do.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And no one will love it as much as I do.

Because yeah, people maybe aren't wired the same way

that the Taylors or the Alexes of this world are,

or you guys as well.

Yeah.

Well, it'd be typical that you've done all that to a car,

you've enjoyed it, you've loved it,

you sell it for it then to go back into the same situation

it was when you found it original.

Yeah, it undoubtedly will sit outside because a fan seen it

and they want that kind of car or that, you know,

they think they're going to go on an adventure

and take it out with their mates,

but reality is we're also busy, like, you know,

coming up with road trips and getting a group WhatsApp together

and then going to the Nürburgring.

It's, for a lot of people, it's really unrealistic.

Like, for me, I'm lucky because that is literally my job.

I am forced to go on adventures in shit cars.

Yeah, this one's got to do it.

A long way to live, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Where did it all start with yourself then?

Obviously, where did the passion for cars,

where did it come from originally?

So it's definitely my mum.

So I'm from, yeah, just a very, very small family.

My entire family, except for now, was me and my mum.

My mum's German, so always grew up around German cars.

My earliest memories of a car are Mum's old green E21 BMW 316i

that had a rust hole in the passenger foot well.

And I remember just looking at the floor

and just seeing the road going by.

And, you know, she'd let me steer as a six or seven year old

going through the local town and stuff like that.

And she was always just very, very happy to nourish

and encourage my love of cars.

And I'd always be able to recognise what a car was,

just from the rear tail lights and stuff like that.

So I think you're either,

I think you are born into liking certain things.

It's very rare that you'll find someone who's as passionate

of cars as they are a football.

It's either one or the other.

I like playing football.

I liked playing football and never supported a team.

And I always had those really awkward conversations

with people, oh, what team do you support?

It's like, I just like cars.

And then they'd completely turn off and I'd be like,

yeah, we're not going to be friends anyway, so it doesn't matter.

But yeah, just growing up with Mum and her passion for cars,

she's always been passionate.

Her first car, actually, was a carbon gear in Germany.

And she was massively rear-ended and nearly died.

But yeah, she loved that car.

She also had a Porsche 944.

When we went to Germany, we were driving an old Granada

and the four-speed automatic gearbox broke.

And then we went to a second-hand car dealership

and I just spotted this 944 in the corner.

And then we drove that back to the UK

and that was like an amazing adventure.

So interesting old cars have always been

something that I've grown up with.

And obviously just watching and obsessing over

top gear, fifth gear, driven.

There are so many others, like just obscure channels

and TV shows that came and went that I was always watching.

So yeah, cars for me have always been like a constant.

Sure, yeah.

And did you then live in Germany originally?

Or was it just your Mum is German and you were born here?

Yeah, Mum's German, born here,

but I was brought up as a German kid living in the UK.

Right, right.

So yeah, until the age of like five or so,

my main language was German.

Was it really?

Yeah, and then I went to primary school

and then my English wasn't developing as quickly

as it should have done.

So Mum was like, okay, you're falling behind a little bit.

So then we switched more to English.

Ah, interesting.

But yeah, every summer and Christmas

used to drive with Mum to Germany

in whatever shit old car it was.

And then I lived in Heidelberg for a year,

did a year, uni in Heidelberg as well.

And yeah, part of me was thinking,

maybe I should end up living here at some point.

But then yeah, came back, did uni?

And yeah, a few years later, I've got a job and here we are.

Yeah, the rest is history.

Yeah, exactly.

So you must have moved with CT for some years then.

Yeah, I was with Carthrop from September 2012.

I started and then yeah, it's pretty much like December, January 22.

I quit.

Wow, yeah.

Yeah, so almost 10 years.

I did my time.

Yeah, sure, sure.

But it was amazing.

I learned so much and, you know,

Adnan, my former boss, very, very knowledgeable,

especially when it comes to business.

And he gave me a lot of freedom and just let me do my thing really.

And I kind of fell into YouTube,

although I always wanted to be in front of the camera

because I'm inherently lazy.

And writing and typing and stuff is just so boring.

If I can say it to a camera and just give a bit more of my personality,

then that's what really excited me.

Sure, yeah.

So when Adnan sold the company,

was that then the point where maybe there's some frustrations there?

And that probably then spurred you on to eventually wanting to do this for yourself?

Yeah, exactly.

So we were sold to Dennis Publishing in, I think, 2019.

And then we would move to an office in London,

which was all very fancy and very nice.

But we were sitting pretty much on the ground floor, no windows.

And we were amongst editors for Auto Express and the likes.

And there was a cycling magazine and all that kind of stuff.

And we were kind of all amongst it.

And we were just trying to rub along.

And the reason that we were bought by Dennis

was because we were seen to be top gear for the Facebook generation.

And we were supposed to breathe a bit of life into Dennis

and show them how it's done on social media and stuff like that.

But we were so hamstrung and so pigeonholed into something that we weren't.

And we were given a manager,

just a random lady who had no interest in cars whatsoever.

And I remember on a daily basis, pretty much arguing with her about,

we're doing this because, and she said, no, you don't have the budget for that.

And I'm like, give me the budget.

I promise you, it will be good.

And I remember arguing with her just, it was during COVID times, actually.

I wanted £150 to buy an E39530D that had been offered on Instagram.

And she said, no.

So I went out and bought it anyway and did a video and it did like two million views.

And I was like, yeah, what's going on?

Yeah, I told you.

Yeah, yeah, we need to have a bit of a shake up here.

But there were always so many frustrations.

And it just wasn't what it once was.

And Carthra all really lost its spark.

And you could tell like everyone there just, it just wasn't working.

And we were trying to be pulled and pushed in different directions.

And oh, come and give us a hand with this auto express shoe or this.

It's like, we just want to concentrate on doing what we've been doing for 10 years.

So leave us alone.

And then I permanently made them leave me alone.

Yeah.

That was a good, good show.

Yeah.

But I had spoken to Ethan and Jack extensively.

Okay.

By that time, I'd done it already left as well.

And I basically said, this is what I'm doing.

And I said to Ethan, come with me.

Leave, leave Carthra will come with me.

I think we'll be all right.

And he at the time had two kids, very young kids.

And he said, I can't.

And I said, I respect that.

But one day I will employ you.

Yeah.

I said, here we go.

And here we are.

Yeah.

Amazing.

At that point where you sort of announced that autoics was a thing,

I remember the time following the channel and that sense of being overwhelmed, I suppose,

did that really play on your mind to the point where you thought, I can't do this?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

The, I got messages, I was inundated with messages and just seeing the views tick up.

Every single view felt like more weight on my shoulders that I need to give this like the

best go possible.

And I just, I hate disappointing people.

So I was always thinking, you know, if, if I'm not going to be weekly or regular,

they're expecting this of me and I don't want to be a flash in the pan.

I want to make this my career and I want to make friends and family proud.

I want to make myself proud.

And I want to make, you know, 15 year old me super, super proud of what I can achieve.

So it was, it was a lot.

And I remember saying to girlfriend at the time, wife now that I don't know if I can do this,

but yeah, she was so supportive and I just got my head down.

I remember spending pretty much all of my money on the videos buying stuff.

So, you know, buying equipment or buying bits and bobs that we can make videos with,

you know, going to IKEA and buying bedding and getting a free van and,

you know, putting a homeless man in a van and stuff like that.

And he's on a great path and stuff like that.

But I remember spending 500 quid at IKEA thinking, holy shit, like this is a lot of money.

I don't know if I'll be able to recover from this.

And then the views followed.

And I was like, okay, yeah, on YouTube, you've got to spend money to make money.

And yeah, we're spending money, we're spending money like water.

All for the great good.

But I think the big thing with auto addicts as well is

helping people along their journeys.

I think it's a big thing with yourself and well, the motive about with you already is

helping people in their journey, you know, with the whole,

again, the van thing you just mentioned and the whole Mattwood event.

And I think people respect that whole, yeah, you just want to help people.

Yeah, because, you know, without the audience, I would have no audience and then I would have

no YouTube channel.

So if I can help people along the way, then I will do that, especially in the early days

when there was a bit more time to do that.

At the moment, because we're so series based and going away and stuff is a little bit more

difficult, but speaking of Mattwood, we're going to have our third Mattwood event

on the 23rd of November as well.

So we land from Vietnam and two days later, we're back into Mattwood.

Yeah, we unfortunately lost Matt last year to cancer,

but he completely outlived his prognosis.

So I'm super, super happy, you know, in any small part that we helped in that.

Yeah, it's, yeah, if, you know, I can help people, you know, I've bought cars for friends

and family and stuff like that.

So it's just, it's good.

Yeah, it's great being in this position and be able to just say, yes.

So it's good as bad as things as possible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good on you.

When you're at Car Throttle, obviously you mentioned that the sort of

content creation being limited on what you can do or whatever, or them not grieve you.

Was that BMW, was that the one where you thought, you know, did you have a particular

project that you pitched that maybe didn't go through?

I think it was just the daily battle and always having these silly meetings.

And the focus on money was my biggest issue.

It's like, I don't think, you know, if I was told, I don't think this series is going to do well.

And I'm like, no, it will.

It's like the money won't stack up.

And I'm like, just, just give me the money.

It's literally hundreds of pounds.

So it was just always arguing and it just always got in the way.

And then it got to a point where I thought, you know what, I can do it better.

And then, and then here we are.

But yeah, it was just, we just had this silly management and too many meetings.

And then actually the turning point for me, actually, I remember now the turning point for

me was when there were kind of rumblings of me leaving, management always tried to

give me a promotion, promote me, promote me, promote me.

It's like, now you're the manager of everyone, like everyone at car throttle.

And I was like, I don't want to manage people.

I want to be a YouTuber.

I want to be out.

I don't want to be HR.

I don't want to tell people off or anything like that.

This is not what I'm about.

I'm crap at managing people.

That's why I've got glory.

He manages me.

So the more they promoted me, the less attractive it all became.

And the more I just wanted to have a factory reset.

So I think that was a turning point.

I think BMW gate was maybe just the start of something.

If you want to keep me, don't promote me.

Do you have like an end goal?

One of the questions we're asked is what sort of like, what does success look like to you?

Is it what you've built on the road?

What's the success for me is being comfortable,

being able to support friends and family, everyone to live well and to give them the freedom,

the financial freedom to do what they want and achieve their own dreams.

That for me is like, I'd say we're here now.

Everyone earns well for him from it.

Everyone's super happy, super motivated to come in.

I think if you asked any of the guys and he said, are you unhappy about anything,

they probably would say no, we're super happy, which for me is success.

You mentioned that you might not be great at actually managing people.

You clearly have a bit of an eye of what's going to work because you've built a great

dynamic between the team. Everybody seems like you've known each other,

that your whole life and you're like your best mates and obviously everybody's passionate.

But you clearly have a good eye of, you'll work with us.

Yeah, I think so. I think I can read people quite well.

And I'm quite quick at being able to judge if a person is a good person.

So I would say everyone around us here are good people, they're hardworking people,

and we all have the same goal of doing the best that we can.

No one here is lazy and we all get along and we all have similar personalities

and we just rip the piss out of each other. No one here is particularly serious,

but when it comes to work, we crack on and we get the job done.

We always get the job done. It was apparent on your last road trip when I think you finished

at like half 11 at night to go on your road trip. We're finished now, we're going.

Let's go home to have a sleep off and we'll carry on tomorrow.

Yeah, we've just got to crack on.

Just at the beginning of the previous video as well of Taylor and Rory,

you can clearly see outside it's like early on in the day. And then like halfway through the video

or whatever, it's pitch black outside. You know it's really late on that. They're rushing to get

this Aston Martin finished so you can go. Yeah, I think I got back from alignment.

I think it was like half nine, 10 o'clock or so. So yeah, shout out to Gino from GeoTech.

And that's supposed to make the difference. You've got people around you that are

just I suppose friends and willing just to help you do whatever you need to get done

to allow your videos to go out really. Exactly right. Yeah, sure. And the Porsche is mega as well.

It's cool, isn't it? Yeah, I really like it. It's lovely to do that. Yeah, yeah.

When you were doing the kit and the wheels, I thought, oh, I don't know,

not sure how this is going to look. No, it looks. Yeah, it looks meant to be. It sits really nice.

I still don't have those bloody gas coilovers on there yet. I still need to get the top bounce

for that. Yeah. But the way it is at the moment is great. Yeah. And you had some of the Porsche

staff at the museum liking as well. Yeah. Oh, they loved it. Yeah, they came out,

I think they were having like a smoking break or so. And then we were just chatting away in

German. And I showed them the odometer. Yeah. And then they really latched on to it. And they're

like, oh, it's so cool. You wait until I show them the 996, 387,000 miles. That's crazy. That's

going to be wicked. Yeah. I'd love to get back there then. It probably will. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Sure. What was the favorite car in the museum for you?

Favorite car. So there was a 928 with four doors and four seats. And it had like suicide doors

on it. That was really cool. That was really interesting. I don't know if we really focused

on that. But you know, my greatest loves are Carrera GT, Porsche 959. They for me are like

poster cars. Yeah. Would I want to own one? I don't know. But I would like to just experience it.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, what are the Carrera GTs like now? Over a million? Yeah, I think they're like

1.4 or so. Which is bonkers. I think if you had bought one probably four or five years ago,

I think you might be fairly pleased with what it's done. Yeah, I think they were four or five

hundred grand. I mean, I only bought seven at the time. So yeah. Yeah. The very doubled

since then. But it's probably a good job that not anybody could go out and buy them because

that can kill you. That's it. That's a proper beast. Yeah. We said we had the same conversation

with Taylor last week, but you just can't buy those cars anymore. They just don't make them.

V10 manual, roadwheel drive. You know, it's just what a recipe that's been stitched together.

Exactly. It's like they did go in the music. Can I kill them? Yeah. Exactly. Double tick.

But what an impressive place that Porsche. We went earlier this year. Oh, what a place.

I get the feeling it changes as well. It does. Yeah. I was watching last night actually a

Haggerty video with Larry Chen. Larry Chen? Larry Chen. You know, the photographer and

he was going around with the curator of the museum and like the storage place as well.

And the storage guy was actually showing that 928 with the four doors and stuff like that. And I

was like, oh, I saw that actually in the Porsche museum like two months ago or one month ago or

whatever. So they do switch them out quite often, I think. Yeah. That's good because that means every

time you go, it's it's a different story. Yeah. Yeah. Just a museum. Exactly right. Yeah. It does

change. Yeah. Yeah. You forget as well what and they're even it's mad now that the range of cars

that Porsche do. Yeah. Like what? And sometimes as well, I do look at it again. They've got the

Taycan, then they've got the Panamera and I'm like the same cars. It's not, but it's like

the same sort of purpose. You can get both as a saloon or an estate. Don't say the E word.

Yeah. But you know what I mean? Like, but then they are looking at, I don't know if they've

they've actually gone through this, but aren't they looking at actually giving customers the

option of having like an engine or an electric. Ah, he's done it.

I was doing it last time.

Yeah. Sorry. I see where they are. Are they looking at like? I think that basically the

dabbling. Yeah. Taycan will be available with, I don't know, with the petrol engine.

Okay. That's nice to me. I don't really follow modern car news to me. It's a good thing.

Going the right direction, hopefully. But you're right. I mean, Porsche has had a hand in many

cars, you know, Audi RS2, the Mercedes 500e and all that stuff. Yeah. Because even I thought,

I was like, why is that in here? Surely that should be like sacrilege. But no, they obviously, yeah.

Also, the, I hate to bang on about it, but you know, the Jaguar V6, you know, that was originally

a Porsche developed engine in the 80s. And then they were like, no, we don't, we don't want that

anymore. We don't want a V6. And then they sold it to Ford. Was that one too reliable then?

It was probably too reliable. Too powerful. No, no, we can't have this. We don't have this

back for recalls. Whilst we're on the topic of Porsche, there was a moment, and I think probably

a couple of years ago, you bought a certain McCann, Black McCann. Yeah. I have one. Yeah.

I do. Yeah. The topic is, so we've, we've both got one, both cars are all the half's drive,

but so mine is probably similar age to what yours was. But I kept thinking at the time,

it probably wasn't well received. Was that the, was that the case? What gave you that feeling?

I don't know. Just say it's been five years. It was all the negative comments.

People just don't like me, don't like seeing me drive nice cars.

Because, you know, the point where you're done well, the channel was, was stable. It was a bit of a,

you know what, I'm going to go and treat myself. It wasn't even me saying go and treat myself.

It was Rory and Taylor. They're the ones who partly ruined my life with that McCann.

They said, go treat yourself. And I, you know, I never, ever, ever live above my means.

If I'm driving a car, it's because I'm going to afford it. And at the point, you know,

the McCann was, I think I paid 28 and a half. And that for me is the most I've ever, no, it's not.

The Porsche 911, that's a different category, but at the time it was the most amount I'd ever

paid for a car. And yeah, I kind of fell in love with it. And also at the time we were like,

we need a video this week. If I don't buy this car, then we're in the shit. So I'm going to buy

this car. And I'm going to hopefully fall in love with it. You know, I was kind of, I was really

enamoured by it and everything, but always at the back of my head, in my mind was like,

is this really an Alex car? And I always knew it's not really a me car. Because it is quite

flashy. It's an SUV. It's got a three liter V six twin turbo with 340 brake horsepower.

Do I need any of those things? No, I'm up and down the M four. I like to fly incognito.

And sure enough, after I think two or three weeks, I was like, I've made a big mistake.

But we had a video. And then the second biggest mistake was, you know, releasing that video

and everyone seeing it. And yeah, people just didn't take kindly to it. And maybe they saw

through the bullshit that this really isn't an Alex car. And maybe we were just releasing

that video because we needed a video. And yeah, it's just one of those things. So I lived with it

for like, I don't know, two or three months or so. And then I bought the car that I should have

always bought, which is a G 31 530 diesel touring BMW. And I've had it for over a year. I've done

nearly 20,000 miles on it. It's got a massive crack in the windscreen. And I love it. I absolutely

love it. I can nearly get 40 to the to the gallon in the McCann as well as 22. What's going on?

Even if you try. Yeah. And this is the funny thing. So as so yours was 17 18 as is an 18 plate.

Yours is like a 23. It's not got any better. Yeah, it's still exactly with it. I know. Also,

the size in there is literally it's just a jumped up hatchback. The boot is okay, but it's fairly

small. When you look at the size of it, like it looks big from the outside, you get in and it's

literally a hatchback. Also, baby seat as well. This is stuff that I've got to think about these

days. Yep. I've tried to put a baby seat even in my seating position. I've got hobbit legs.

It's touching the back of the baby seat. And I'm like, what? Something's not wrong here.

Like maybe the rear seat slides back. Like how is this even a thing these days? I can I can

echo that. We I've got a four month old now. So this car was bought for baby. And you're

absolutely right. You're an idiot. Yes. Did you not see the video? I thought, yes, I want that.

But this is because it sounds nice. You're right. Bus chair, the boot,

boot's done. You've got the iso fix base thing in the seat, passenger seat all the way forward.

Luckily, my wife's short, but you know, that's that's another thing, but you just couldn't live

out of it. So it's just not a very versatile car. Yeah, it's got crap MPG. It's small.

And also for me, especially I'm going up and down the motorway,

I could literally be in a transit van. It doesn't matter what I'm driving. I'm still

driving at the same speed. It's a wealthy wife's car. Yeah, exactly. It's a stay at home mom.

Not even say mom because you can't get the kids in. So forget that. We've just devalued every

single one now. So I will admit though, I thought the same. I think this about like

cause I X fours, you know, they slope back to SUVs. I don't get the point in them. If you're

if you're buying it for sort of like that purpose is great for the two in the front,

like the X four, the X six, those platforms, have you ever sat in the back of those for

like a good amount of time? You feel awful. Like they clearly just went, oh, yeah, really,

really nice. Yeah. And the back. Oh, don't worry. It's just stick three seats in it. Forget about

it. You have no room. It feels like just buy an X five. Yeah, just yeah, exactly. Yeah. Don't buy

an X five by a five series touring. I also had an X five. It was a 2014 or 2015. I also had that

for two months. I was like, this is shit. It's a pattern here. Yeah. It's really, it's, it is

massive. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. It's massive, but I was getting like nearly almost 30 MPG and

I was like, hold on. This is a three litter diesel. It should be doing better than this.

And also the interior on that was shocking. It was really built for the Americans and it shows.

It rattles and it's just big and cumbersome. And I was just like, I like driving. I enjoy driving

and I really enjoy driving the five series. I love driving the McCann. Don't get me wrong.

But when can I put my foot down? It's like literally when you come out here, do that little

wiggle road and I've got 30 seconds of fun. And then I'm doing 10 MPG. So I recently bought a

Boxster GTS, the four liter one. And now I am four liter or four cylinder, four liter, four liter.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. I'm like, I always scratch my head like a two liter Porsche, four cylinder

put that. No, no, no such thing. No such thing. In my mind, they're not no such thing. It doesn't

exist. It's a paperwork. And yeah, it was, it sort of has got me questioning the reason why we've got

them. And it was a bit like a, we need a bigger car. We don't need a bigger car, but we need a

practical car. It's all wheel drive. It can do pretty much everything. If we wanted to take it,

we did a little bit of a road trip in it. You know, it's, it's great for what we need. But then

now I've got that, which is a toy. I don't really need to have that as a toy.

So, so question. Why didn't you get a three liter diesel V6 KN?

Correct. Correct. Yeah. I definitely should have. Well, because it doesn't start that,

it doesn't sound that nice when you start. My neighbors, my neighbors won't be going.

You are such a tart. Impulsive tart. I am an impulsive tart. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. So now I've

got two of these great toy and which I bought at the wrong time of the year. And then this, you

know, this non practical, practical car that's terrible on fuel. And then you're only like

you really realize when you get in the box then you're like, this is using like no fuel.

How is the McCann? I don't know. I get it. It's heavy and all wheel drive or whatever. But

yeah, they did. Yeah. I know we're rambling on about it. But yeah, that, that generation of

they were just awful on fuel. Yeah. So I'm out of that now. So I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah.

Stick to the B under B. Yeah. Yeah. Enough about McCann's. I do like it. We bought everyone to

know. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

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premises also included. Thanks Eclipse. Now, back to the show. Obviously, with the channel

starting up, you mentioned Mike Brewer, but you've mentioned how supportive he was. Was there a lot

of other people at the time going, yeah, go for it, do it and sort of helped you on your journey?

Yeah, pretty much everyone I spoke to actually. Mike was helpful and he also believed in me so

much that he said, if you need money, I will give you money to start the channel. I never took his

money because it just worked out and I would never take his money anyway. But when someone

that I've been watching for like 20, 25 years or so says that and he's a proper big dog, I was like,

okay, I should probably just give it a bloody good go. But yeah, friends and family, everyone and

by that time as well, I had, I don't know what, it was like 150,000 followers on Instagram. So I was

like, if I can even translate 10% of those people, then I'd be super happy. And I was hoping at the

end of the year that I'd maybe have like, I can't remember what my target was. It was either like

10 or 50,000 subs by the end of the year, then I'd be, I'd be satisfied because I'd still be

getting money from freelancing for car throttle and auto trader. So auto trader at the time actually

tried to get me full time there. And then the more they tried to get me full time, the more I kind

of thought maybe I should really go it alone because they believe in me as well and they want me. So

yeah, it just all worked out. And like I said, at the beginning of this podcast within two or

three weeks, I was at 300,000 subs. And yeah, before, you know, by the second video, I'd already had

the first 100,000 play button sent to me. And it was just like mental. Wow. Yeah, it's crazy. I never

expected it. Never ever expected it. But it got, it got picked up everywhere, like in America and

stuff and James Pumphrey even messaged me from doughnut and he said, yeah, you started a movement

because then he left and then other people left doughnut and yeah.

So you get what you were following from Germany then? Like a lot of people know?

No, following from Germany is quite small actually.

Do they even have like a bit because obviously we're mad on it over here. There's loads of

car journalists and, you know, YouTubers, etc. But what's it like? Do you know if there's much

of a trend? Yeah, yeah. So in Germany, I'd say the biggest YouTube is a guy called JP Performance.

So JP has like a tuning shop and he's kind of got, it's in Hamburg, I think I've been there before.

And he's got like either side of the road, he's got like his big kind of tuning shop with Dino

and everything like that. On the other side, he's got Boost Burger, like a burger joint that

people come to like thousands of people every single week. So he's built himself a brand and he

does daily vlogs. Every single vlog will get half a million views, every single one. And he's just

so interesting and so knowledgeable that you just really get like sucked into his world.

And you're like, he's so cool. He's like the coolest man in Germany. And shares that passion.

He does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's a few others as well. There's like

Halle Sieben und Zipsisch. It's like a similar sort of thing to JP, but like a smaller version

of it and a few others. But JP Performance, it's like, yeah, I've met him before, he's great.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, do you think because of us losing the Grand Tour top gear,

all these well-known car programs, that sort of helped people want to recreate something

similar? Because it's certainly the way I can see the Autopilot channel is, it is new age top gear

really. The, you know, the sort of relationships you have, the laughs you have, that is what we

used to watch five, 10 years ago on top gear. It's just that you're actually doing the mechanics.

It's like when they, when they've done like a full build, like they did on the, with the Aston,

the Maserati and the Jag. It's like, yeah, this is what I've, these are my modifications. I was like,

no, I can't believe that. We've seen you with a hammer. You just told the man to do it.

So actually funny story. So you can hear the sanding. I don't know if it picks up on the mic,

but that is our landlord. That's Trev. Okay. And Trev was actually instrumental in creating

some of the top gear cars. No way. So, you know, the, was it the Fiat Panda limousine? Yes. So he

helped build that. So we've come full circle now. Yeah, you are literally working with him.

I don't employ him. I pay him to actually be here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which that you never

see those anymore. My, my dad always goes on about it. When he, when he goes to New York, that,

you know, back in the day, it was cheaper to get a limo than it would be a yellow, you know,

a cab. Yeah. It's crazy. You literally never see them anywhere now. And I think that was the episode,

wasn't it? Like, let's bring back the limo. Oh, hilarious. Who did he take to the, like an awards

assessment? Chris Miles, was it? Was it Lamar was in another one? Yes. Back to front. Yeah.

Oh, that was a star. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there was that MG. I said,

oh, the old, like two. Oh, the MGF. Yeah. That was it. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah. And the

golden, golden era. But yeah, I think these days, genuinely, I think this is the new age,

what we used to watch. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely so. Yeah.

And I think people on YouTube, the audience on YouTube wants to see more of the nitty gritty.

Top Gear was very, very entertainment based. Sunday, 8pm, BBC Two, you could sit in front

of the TV with your family. And you'd know that, you know, millions of people would be watching

at exactly the same time. And there's a really nice sense of belonging with that. Yeah. And now

we've kind of all grown up and moved away from mainstream TV. And now we watch what we want

when we want. And we consume our own media when we want to as well. So there are so many different

niches that we are trying to fill the gap with every kind of niche, bike car, fixed car, road

trip car. And then we've got the three or four friends doing it together as well. So everyone

can kind of relate to either me or Taylor or Tom or Rory in some sort of way. Yeah. You mentioned

Taylor. He told us the story last week of how you guys met. And it's just a bit of like, wow,

really? You know, it's been the right place, the right time. But do you think Taylor Quinn on

on board now is is helped sort of broaden the channel? And I suppose that the relationship

with you guys have got between you know, the laughs and the yeah, yeah, massive, massive. I mean,

if it wasn't for Taylor, there wouldn't be a disco two on the ramp, for example. Like I, I spent a

lot of my uni years with my best friend, Gareth, working on cars in alleyways and stuff and messing

around with them when we were like 2021. And we've done that through the years. But Taylor is a

trained mechanic. He's very hands on. If a car breaks, I will always know that I'll be able to

rely on Taylor to fix it, which enables us to buy the shitest cars, you know, the shitest version

of a good car. Yeah, I'm sure he loves you for that. Oh, he does. Yeah, he does. But I mean,

he gets cars as well. So very happy. Yeah. So yeah, he's definitely helped broaden the scope of the

channel. I genuinely don't know which direction we would have taken had we not met Taylor. I guarantee

we wouldn't be in a workshop like this. Would we be happier? Don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Yeah,

it doesn't really, you know, matter thinking about, but I was amazed to learn that he hadn't been

behind a camera before the channel video. Yeah. So I think it definitely comes across in the

comments. So natural. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It turns on and it just yeah, I mean, the first time anyone

saw him, he was wearing a Burger King hat. Yeah, that really set the scene for Taylor.

Yeah, it's weird because I remember watching that video and you, you don't realize that

at that point you hadn't known each other for that long. No, yeah. That's how natural it was.

Second or third time we'd met. Yeah. We'd met once at the Ace Cafe a few years before,

and there's a selfie of us. And then obviously he sold me Barney, the 330i touring.

And then I think a couple of weeks later we went back. Yeah. And then just kept on going back

and back and back. Yeah, because I'm a sucker for retro BMWs. Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah. So I think we

all are. Yeah, yeah. He says driving to New Porsche. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what,

as well, it is weird. I do, I do, I don't buy it like I definitely back in the day would look at

the box and go, it's not a real Porsche. That's not a real Porsche. I don't like, oh, I go,

hairdressers car. And then I've bought what I used to, it's weird. Like I have sort of changed

recently. Yeah, I mean, I always used to buy SUVs. What do I want them for? Yeah. Like that's what,

you know, because you're a tarp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've literally bought how I always used to sort

of slag off if you like, I've ended up in both of them. Yeah, my tastes have changed as well.

It does really evolve. And, you know, car I think about now,

not wanting to own, maybe in two years, I'll be like, I really want to own one. Yeah,

like you've changed, man. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah. How, what is it like? I was going to ask you,

is it getting harder? But what is it actually like trying to buy these older cars now? Because,

well, they're not making that, you know, that's a long, you haven't heard about like,

Taylor's being blue, he's 40 years old. Yeah. Where are you getting them? Like,

how is that? How do you find? So a lot of the time, cars will fall into our laps. And last week,

for example, actually two instances last week, I was messaged once on WhatsApp by a man who I

spoken to, I think it was January, February or so this year, and he said, I've got this purple

Range Rover. Do you want to buy it? It's one of one. It owes me three, you can have it for three.

And I'm like, okay. Yes. So we bought that, we've done a V2 episode on it, it's done very well,

because I've always kind of thought maybe I'd like to own an L322 Range Rover at some point.

In purple? No, I didn't even know they made it purple, to be honest. But yeah, it was just,

it's always been an itch that I've wanted to scratch. And it fell into my lap. And I'm a

firm, firm believer of everything happens for a reason, massive believer in faith.

And then the very next day, I was going through an edit, the Dream Cars edit, just sitting at,

just in the office there. And I got an Instagram from a man saying, I've got the UK's highest

mileage Porsche 911. Do you want to buy it? And I was like, ah, shit, here we go again. So I was

like, Taylor, jump in, we're going to go collect this car. You're saying no when you're typing,

yes. But that was actually a car that I tried to buy two weeks previously, because I've been

messaged on Instagram again by dozens of people saying, have you seen what's on AutoTrader?

And I just got to it too late. And the lady said, sorry, it's sold. And then the new owner was like,

you want to buy it? He didn't even know who I was. He posted that Porsche, because he's got like

six 996s. He posted it on eBay. And then as soon as the listing went live, someone messaged him

on eBay Messenger saying, Auto Alex is looking for one of these, or he wanted to buy that exact

car. Why don't you message him? He happened to message me, I was on my phone, just checked my

message requests, and there it was. Massive, again, fate.

Let's go back to that. That was a phone call. I watched one of the recent ones.

The phone call you had in the car going somewhere, wasn't it? Where you phoned them,

and they said, yes, you said I was going to sell.

Yeah, when I was buying my pristine condition, EP3 Type R.

Ah, yes, yes, yes. That's a great car.

Yeah, what? I can't come back to that chemistry earlier. It's the moment where it's up on the

ramp and you're all smacking the back of your face. Ross is just falling everywhere.

Worst car that we've ever seen. It can be fixed. Does it deserve to be fixed? Absolutely not.

It's done high mileage, 186,000 miles. It needs a full respray as well.

So by the time we get everything done, we're looking at like six or seven grand.

At which point, I could buy a really nice one with lower mileage.

So we're going to pull the engine gearbox and seats out and put it in something a bit silly.

Yeah, to answer your question in a roundabout way, sorry, a lot of the cars fall into our

laps. We get offered loads of cars on a daily basis on Instagram and wherever else,

Facebook Messenger and all that kind of stuff. Spoiled for choice then in a way.

Yeah, really, yeah. But it's quite dangerous because you slash me slash I'll say yes to too

many things, which is why we've got a paddock full of shit, a storage unit full of nice stuff.

Yeah, all of these cars knocking about as well. Do you have like a holy grail project?

Like if there was one car, do you have one where you're like,

so again, it kind of relates back to for me attainable cars and attainable content.

And I don't want to go out and buy, you know, a Bugatti Chiron as my own.

Yeah, anything like that. That doesn't interest me. As soon as I do that,

people are going to switch off. Case in point, the Ferrari 360 that I used to own bought it.

I was like, oh my God, it was on the DVD cover of Clarkson's DVD,

Crino Christmas thing. I can't remember what it was called, Head to Head or something like that,

driven by Clarkson, owned by a criminal who crashed it. It's a cat, B, C, D, all of the cats.

It's like really, really written off. And I posted the video and we managed to get it started. And

I was like, you know, million views guaranteed. And then it didn't get a million views. And I was

like, ah, okay, I am probably being seen to be living above my means. Also, do I really love

that car? Was it a poster on my bedroom? No, it was a poster of an E30. Yeah,

you know, once you backed it into a toolbox. Yeah, everything's scripted today. So yeah,

yeah, that was, that was, yeah, that was a good time. Yeah, we did get a video out of it to be fair.

Yeah, I don't know what happened there. I just had a bit of a brain fart and also the brakes

didn't work. So what did I expect? Also, Paul Dips who's owned it now. I don't know if you've

seen what's happened to it. Yeah. So obviously, the rear hatch came up. But then he's also shown me

another video of CCTV in his unit of him crashing it into a parked car. Okay. Yeah, front end.

That car is cursed. It needs to go in the pit. It needs to be set on fire. It's another cat.

But yeah, the video didn't do as well as I expected. So yeah, and I never really loved it.

In terms of kind of holy grail at the moment, it's all like I said,

stuff that people can go out and buy like that 7,000 pound Porsche 911. I'm really excited

about that. That for me is kind of holy grail because I'm taking a car that is so leggy with

387,000 miles. It's rotten. It's going to get fixed up given a new lease of life. And I'm going to

turn that into a 996 GT3 replica. We're going to respray ourselves yellow, not in the unit.

We have a mate down the road with a... I've seen you with a rattle can.

I'm with that hand with a rattle can. I've had plenty of practice. But yeah, it's just taking

old unloved cars and giving them a new lease of life. That for me is a holy grail. Yeah,

buying from copart supercars and stuff will never be holy grail because I've never

wanted to be a supercar owner. Yeah. They don't seem, they do, for me, I obviously love them,

seem to watch every video when they bring it out. Like when they, McLean released the trailer for

the W1, I'm like, wow. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly to you. But I'm like, whoa. But they do seem like

so unobtainable that I'm almost not interested in them because it's just silly. Yeah. Like and

okay, this just shows you how much money some people have. But to be able to drive a car that's

worth millions and not even have to worry about what if the car in front throws a nasty stone or

it's bonkers or I curb the wheel or whatever. It just doesn't seem real to me. So therefore,

I'm not that interested. It's like Lamborghinis. I don't really get Lamborghinis. For me, I think

they're ugly and it's going to sound awful. I certainly think they sound great, but I think

they're ugly and they just look stupid. And again, unobtainable because you spend like 250

grand on an SUV. You're telling me you're going to take that off-road, take the kids to school,

like what? That much money to spend 200... Sorry, I'm ranting again. So you've got one on order?

No, of course not. So if I once had the money naturally then I would go with what I said I

shouldn't do. Yeah, I don't share that. I do find Armstrong's videos amazing. I watch them all,

don't get me wrong. But yeah, I do find them slightly stupidly unobtainable and therefore

not as interested. And the sports car, that's the thing for me. Yeah, older stuff. Stuff with

a bit of history and a story to tell. That's what I really, really love. And high mileage stuff.

That's so interesting. I've built my career on high mileage cars. Well, miles. Miles of high mileage.

He's it bullshit then. You know, when everybody gets in the car, like I do, I get like mileage guilt.

I feel awful putting mileage on cars. That's kind of what I thought with the McCann as well. The

more I drive it, the less it's going to be worth. Yeah. And at that point, I was like,

why am I putting miles on it? Buy something that's designed to put miles on like a diesel.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, miles was a previous channel car, wasn't it? It was sort of another series there.

And then it got sold. And then you bought it back. Yeah. When you'd started. I bought it back on the

podcast, a very early orthotics podcast. Yeah. And it still lives today. Yeah, still lives. I'm

not going to sell miles. Every time I look at it, I'm like, maybe I should sell miles. But then

it could fall into the wrong hands, be left outside, not be driven. And then it will get scrapped.

It's the scooter. Yes. With 467,000 miles on the clock now. Every single episode and bearing

in mind, we did like 12 episodes on car throttle did in excess of a million views. The one where

we actually opened up the engine had a look inside the rocker cover. That's done like four

point something million views. It's the car that keeps on giving. Yeah. We resprayed it, new suspension,

VRS interior, everything. It's dog shit slow. No one really likes it. But this is miles.

And, you know, I, you know, that helped build my career and get me known as the king of the

shitbox. Yeah. Do you know what it's like? It's like, he's your rescue dog. Yeah. Yeah. And the

gave me a winch for another project that we completely failed at. And then I said to the owner

of this is your garage. I want to know more about that car because he was driving it to and from

work. And then I mentioned a winch and he said, I'll take the winch. And then we swapped. That's

something's done. So that's one of my best swaps ever. Yeah, you're sure. Absolutely. If you,

truth is, I suppose it shows that if you look after them, they will go forever. 100%. Yeah.

The car manufacturers must love the UK. We spoke about this previously, but the whole plates thing

because no, but no other real country like has number plates that show years of cars. Like,

we're so red plate snobs over here that yeah, we, they must love us that, you know, we're like,

Oh, I can't keep my car. It's three years old now. Let's get rid of it. Then you start to think

recent, like I'm thinking more recently as cars have become so much more reliable, like who cares

about warranty? You know, like it's a great thing to have. But in reality, these cars are going for

ages, especially if you buy like a Beamer. They're here forever. And I always say all it's about

Porsche 75% of all Porsches ever manufactured are still on the road. Is that right? That's

cool. That's really cool. That's really cool. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Statistic, but it just shows you how reliable they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, if you love

them and keep. Oh, 100%. Yeah, if you keep, well, I would say if you keep to the service intervals,

but don't do that because many new car manufacturers say, Oh, every 20,000 miles is fine.

And you're like, what are you meant? I know. Yeah. Honestly, on mine, on my M3, I looked at the service.

I saw it was a year old, I think in the service life, it's not come on yet. It says it's done

another 15,000 miles to the service. I'm like, no, what, what person's going, yeah, that'd be fine

after 25,000 miles. It's crazy. Yeah, it's ridiculous. So do you think maybe they're doing

that in such a way to let cars develop problems and then throw them away?

Oh, yeah. I mean, I would say modern cars these days are white goods. Yeah. They've only got a

shelf life, you know, like mobile phones, they've got a shelf life of six, seven years these days,

in some instances. And then, you know, you chop them in lots of finance and everything. And then

they go into the trade and then they get scrapped and blah, blah, blah. But the older cars, you know,

don't make them right. But, you know, people cherish older cars because, you know,

people like me, car enthusiasts, we know that they've probably had quite a hard life. They've

worked hard all of their lives. And we want to keep them going. So we will be kinder to them.

And we have more mechanical sympathy with something that is a bit old and a bit shit,

versus something that looks all nice and shiny, you know, like on your M3, for example.

Yeah. But yeah, no, I'm guilty to drive. I feel awful. I can't take it out. It's, you know,

slightly well. And also people who buy new cars like new cars, right? So they do chop them in

quite a lot. So I don't think people look after the cars particularly well, because they know

after three years, after three years, they're going to get a new one anyway. All these finance

deals and stuff, you know, you get kids buying M140s and whatever else and stage one, stage two,

stage three tunes. And, you know, the warranty company doesn't know anything about it. After

three years, take all of the tunes off. They've not been serviced, they've been racked about,

and then they go into general public. And then, you know, people are surprised when the engine

blows up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. We start buying, we are always used to like a brand,

brand new car. I haven't done that for the last few cars now, like don't like them anyway. And

yeah, you just lose an absolute fortune on that. But I have started to buy

older and older and older. And especially now. I am, I am, I am, I am getting older.

But you know what, it's like we always talk about, but you're getting into a car now and you feel

like you are a fighter pilot, speed limit, walling off, lane change off, turns up. And

by the time you've actually done that, you're five minutes into getting in the car. Alex doesn't

even know. Honestly, it's ridiculous. And no buttons as well. It takes me so long to figure

out anything. And then I just get pissed off with it. And then they do have it, the car has the

audacity to go, no, no, no, you won't be changing the aircon. You've got to look at the road for

the next 20 seconds. You know, say you want to just turn the climate control off. But then,

yeah, I was, I did say on the podcast for Taylor, like somebody said to me recently, yeah, Louis,

did you not know there's a button on the steering wheel? You can talk to it and tell it to turn

it off. I'm like, that's not a car. That's good for you to then. It's just tech. Yeah,

tech on wheels, which is just such a turn off. Yeah. Yeah. What's your thoughts to the car community

now? Because I think times have old, it was Carl enthusiast, enthusiast, I can't speak,

all come together. They share the same passion and experience for the car. But these days,

it seems to be quite sour out there. You've got people, you know, what do you like them for?

They're rubbish. And all of a sudden, that can create a bit of a, you know, an atmosphere if

you like, but social media can be so vitriolic. Yeah. And people just love to hate and try and

bring you down. And, you know, if you buy a car and do certain mods, then, you know, some people

will like it, but overall, people will hate. It's always the people who are angry that shout

the loudest. And it's so easy to get caught up in that. And then just, you know, just get really

unhappy with your car, because you've shown it off online. And then people are like, Oh, no,

that looks shit because XYZ. And then it changes your mind mentality. You think, Oh, it does look

shit. Yeah. So people, yeah, people can be, yeah, people can be like really harsh. So I would say,

you know, with, with social media expanding so much, TikTok, everything else like that,

we consume so much media and it's so easy just to tell people that you don't like them. And it,

there is, yeah, there's just a lot of hate. But when you go to a car show, and you meet people,

you chat to people, and you can see how passionate everyone is, then that's completely the other

side of things. Yeah, you don't really get the keyboard. We get loads of keyboard worries. But

when we meet them invariably, they're just so positive and just again, good people. We've got

a really good community of like really nice people that love cars for the right reasons.

Yeah, sure. Does it affect you when you do see some comments that are just unwanted? You know,

does it, how does it sort of affect you? Yeah, I mean, it can kind of change your mood. It kind

of depends on what mood you're in already. But the older I get, and the more time I want to spend at

home, you know, with wife and daughter and stuff like that, the less attention I pay. And then

sometimes, you know, I'll look at a comment, I'll be like, you know, that's that's good constructive

criticism. And I will take that on board. But sometimes, like I said, people are just really

mean because they want to get a rise out of you in a reaction. And interestingly, actually, I've

been seeing, you know, we've been doing all of these series recently, and it's been really good.

People have really enjoyed it. And I've been reading quite a few comments now from people saying,

um, oh, a few months ago, I was, I think it was one person in particular, a few months ago,

I was really horrible in the comments. I was going through a really bad time. And I just want to

apologize. Like, what you're doing now is fantastic. And I don't take it to heart. I was just, you

know, just in a really bad place. And I'm like, do you know what fair play? Yeah. And also, you

have to remember, people in the comments, you know, they're watching you living your best life.

Lots of people want to do that kind of stuff. So if they call you a piece of shit, or they say,

what you're doing is terrible and that you're a bad person, you always, always, always have to

remember, what are they going through? Are they depressed? Are they ill? You know, what's their

family life like? A lot of people just want to make you feel as bad as they do. So you can't

really take it to heart. But sometimes it does get to you. And then it does, you know, you read

100 really nice comments, you read one, and then you like, you forget all of the 100 good ones.

So it's taken me years, actually literal years, to not get too bogged down by that one negative

comment. Because there always will be because, you know, people have got lives that they might not

want to have at the moment. So it was quite refreshing. Recently, we've met some people who

like for us, we watched as kids, you know, growing up on the telly and stuff. And to see that actually,

they're still quite bothered about it. Because you do look at these people, you think, well,

it must literally just be water for ducks back for you. Because, you know, who cares, you know,

who's that guy and the comments just, you know, you've been doing it for years, you've been on

the telly, you're so famous. And to actually see, yeah, it's still, yeah, it's still absolutely

refreshing, but also sad. It is. Yeah, but it's human nature, isn't it? Everyone wants to be

liked and respected. And everyone wants to feel what they're doing and spending their

life's work doing is helping people. And then when that gets taken away from you, you're like,

oh, shit. It's just, it's frustrating. Because people don't see how much we put into everything

that we do. Yeah. And they don't have to watch it. They don't have to watch it.

They don't have to watch it. There's so much crap on social media. But I don't feel the need to go on

every cut and just go, you know, this is crap. I just go, crap, next one.

But some people just go on a social media rampage. Yeah, try and bring you down.

That's it. Yeah, I just don't use, in fact, to be honest with you, I have recently deleted,

re-downloaded it, which I sort of want to shoot myself for. But it has become this super toxic

place. Or if it's not toxic, you just doom-scrolling rubbish.

We're talking about tin. No, no, just watch it.

So I was just thinking, she'll never watch this. Don't worry, she'll never see this.

Don't make a shot on it. It's going to be a next shot, isn't it? Yeah.

Go on then. Dream three car garage for you.

Oh, okay. Oh, bloody hell. I'm a three. It changes so much. It changes like every other week.

Okay. So for me, two cars I mentioned, I'll have to choose between one of them,

Carrera GT, Porsche 959. I'm going to choose the Carrera GT because I think it's even more exotic.

Then... Oh, bloody hell. Okay. So that's my super car. That's super sorted.

Oh, God. It's got to be a daily in there somewhere. Oh, yeah. There's got to be a good daily in it.

Oh, go. Maybe it's got to be something. I kind of feel like I've got some of them.

Like my dream daily is going to be my E46 M3 touring. A car that shouldn't exist

because it was never made. I've spent a lot of money getting it made and I've made some

really good memories in that. So that's my daily... What a car, by the way. That's...

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, sorry to sound naff, but my kind of sports car of choice

would be Phil. Yeah. Yeah. My V6, MX-5 that I absolutely love. Where it all started.

Yeah. Where it all started. Exactly. Yeah. I've got a lot to thank that car for,

but then I've got other cars that I'd love to own, like a Range Rover Classic.

I don't know why I want to own one, but I just want to own one. I will at some point.

But again, these are all, like,

obtainium cars for me because as soon as I'm driving stuff like a Bugatti or a Pagani

or a Lamborghini or anything like that, then I just know I won't enjoy it. There is one car

that I'm actually strangely enamoured by, which is the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.

Yeah. Yes. The Xavius to the 812. Yeah. It's like more like the new era of V12.

Because it's... I'm thinking of the right one, hopefully. It's like the kind of hatchbacky...

Is that the one? Or am I thinking about the...

I think that's an F12.

Or the F... You know, the FF. What's the one that came after the FF?

Okay. That one. Yeah. That's it. Okay. Yeah. I should really know.

I don't know the name of it. I just saw it on a video. I saw it doing doughnuts and stuff like

that. And I was like, that's really fast. Yes. It's got a V12. It looks fantastic,

and it's practical. I love practicality. That's it. It's got isophics in it. So that's it.

When the wife tells you to go buy a family car, that's it. Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Yeah. Like a GT4 Lusso would be fantastic at some point. Yeah. He's on Google. Just check it out.

It is the one. It is the one. There we go. There we go. Yeah, brilliant.

F40 and F50 for me. Oh, really? Yeah. And if I was going modern,

you're going to, again, probably dig me for it. But I do like the piece that's, you know, the

striker. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a tart, honestly. It's a tart. Honestly. You can just say a tart.

I was about to announce where you lived there. I was like, no, drive around a certain village

somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Okay. You will hear. Find the big gates. Yeah. Yeah. You've come to the

right place. But I love like all the old school hot hatches as well, like 205s. And I love my

Clio Williams. That's going to get cams and, you know, tune and all that kind of stuff. So

basic older cars is what gets me really excited. So first time we're here, we had the Renault,

you had the Clio Williams. And it was just, I remember Taylor said,

remember how they look now? We're going on Monday, they will be on the road down to

Monaco. I remember thinking, hmm. But I mean, the Clio was just so much fun to work on because

Taylor and I got the engine out in like two hours or so. And then he did all the ancillary

stuff. And then we just slammed it in another like hour, and then just connected everything

and did all the brakes and suspension. It was just really pleasant just to work on. And yeah,

it was rusty as shit and all that kind of stuff. But seeing that car transform from what was a

parts car into something that I drove to Monaco and back is just such a special feeling for me.

I just love all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, no, it does show. Yeah.

I would love to buy an old 911 one day, an old XJ Sovereign. Okay, yeah.

And I tell you what, I don't know why it's probably the Bond films, but a DB7 as well.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just love them. I don't know why. I don't think it's like no one really

ever mentions that aspect as well. But I don't know that in the nineties or like a 2000 just with

like an old man's spec interior probably breaks down every time you start it.

Oh, that's right. You mechanically mind it. So yeah, that's it. I'll be fine.

No, I'll just roll my sleeves up and get it straight down.

What's this? Yeah, yeah. I'm actually really excited about a car that's getting delivered

tomorrow. So we're going to be doing a classic luxury car series in the new year. And I've

already bought my car, car and classic. Nice. It's Rolls Royce Silver Shadow.

Oh, wow. It's purple. Oh, wow. And the interior is fantastic. And that's yeah,

getting delivered tomorrow. So I've never looked at one of those cars and thought,

oh, I really want to own one or, you know, I'd love to own a Rolls Royce or a Bentley.

But when we decided on doing that series and when I saw the car and car and classic, I was like,

I really want to own a Rolls Royce and I want to own that exact one. And I remember taking

screenshots of it because I was going to buy a really cheap one for like three grand and try

to make it look like that. And I was like, why don't I just buy that one? Because it's still

within budget. And I'm really excited about that one. But again, like a year ago,

had you told me I'd be excited about a Rolls Royce, I wouldn't have believed you. But here I am.

Older, wiser, fatter. With a Rolls Royce on the side. Problems. Oh, God, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cough and I've got a hernia. It's a true story. Now you need the comfort.

Yeah, exactly. I don't think there's any iso fix in there.

Car for weekend. What's next for the channel then? Where is it going?

What's next? So we are very series based at the moment. So, you know, we'll think of what we want

to do, where we want to go. And then we will just go and look for those cars and we'll buy those cars

and fix the cars and then go on an adventure. So we're going to keep going on that kind of

vein. Away from, is that the Porsche dealership saying?

It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. Yeah. Or you've been selected. You've been chosen to buy

your car from us. Yeah. Away from YouTube. We've also got the events company, which is Food and

Fuel. So we're revving up for that. We've got a Christmas meet in December. We've got Mattwood

in November. We've got Shedfest, which is, which we're going to announce

hopefully this week. So it's getting all of that organized. Then there's

auto Alex merch as well. So yeah, lots of, lots of things going on really. And at some point,

I would like to buy a pub. Yeah. And yeah, have a pub as a kind of destination for car

of the uses to go to a bit like caffeine machine, but just somewhere else in the country and just

put our spin on it. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that is a bit of an end goal. It's a really cool idea.

It's somewhere everybody can go. Everybody can meet. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's like an every day

event really, isn't it? Yeah. And it all ties into what we're doing. We could have

meets there. We could do some filming there. We can sell merch there. So it would be great to

have really good food would be fantastic as well. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. No. Well done. Yeah.

I'd like also like to get to six foot by the end of the year.

We've been waiting 40 years for that. It's possible.

Tell me about the shoes that you can. Oh, yeah.

So yeah, another thing I want to invest in that company. Yeah.

I have to start my own height. I was not blessed with height.

Not that we ever take the micky out.

No, of course not. Do you take the piss out of it? Yeah.

Anything to do with cars? I'll tell you just briefly, this is my level of mechanical knowledge.

So naturally, the mechanic uses a lot of oil. You didn't own it for long enough to realise that.

But you probably knew that anyway. So I'll need you topping up. I ring Aaron. First mistake,

I would have put the whole bottle in, but he's like, no, no, no. It's not telling you he needs

a litre. He's telling you it's one quart. There's your first mistake. Anyway, so I said, no,

I've got this now. I've got this. Meanwhile, I'm at home shaking thinking. Yeah, he's going to do it.

I was just more concerned. I rang you because I was like, I've just got this.

No mileage on it. Why? I didn't need oil. Other than the fact that I was bragging the absolute

shit out of it. Yeah, yeah, of course. Anyway, so I topped the oil up and I needed tinnier

power to put the bonnet out and I go out and... What have I done? I put too much oil in it.

What have I done? What have I done? I'm on the phone to Porsche. I'm on the phone to the Paner King.

Thinking, what have I done? Yeah, that's like a really lumpy eye. He just goes, have you put the

oil cap on? That'll do it. Is he your Ethan? Yes. I feel like he is more of a responsibility.

Thankfully, I just, I've managed to, I don't know, I just put it somewhere where it wasn't going to

go anywhere. So when I did lift the lid, oh, there it is. Oh, yeah. No, I didn't. You've got away

with it. You're very lucky to find that. That is my level of mechanical knowledge. I don't know.

Yeah, I, yeah, I'm terrible. I love driving them. No, good at it. As I thought, I always thought

I was. Well, you're a fantastic podcast. There you go. Yeah, terrible at anything to do with

cars. And choosing them clearly as well. Yeah, no comment. Although I chose the same car.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although I am do, I think I am going, at least I've got at least the Porsche,

you know, old or new or expensive or, or not. Porsche are amazing. They're amazing,

MPM as well. They do good stuff. Yeah. Those are my two. Even the KN's great. I love a KN.

Yeah, yeah, sure. You've got a few. There are a few. There you go. Well, yeah, thank you.

No, you're very welcome. Thanks for having me. There you go.

Any time you don't want to mention anything else? No, I'm all right. I need a wee. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Of course you do. You get older. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's too bad.

If you've enjoyed this episode with Alex, guys, please make sure to like, comment,

subscribe and let us know who you want on Talking Shop Next. Thank you very much.

AutoAlex on The Backlash For Buying His Dream Car | EP47

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