Driven Radio Show #347: Greg Stanley of the Collector Car Podcast
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Term
three in the tree
“Three in the tree” means the car had a manual transmission with three gears, and the shifter was on the steering column instead of the floor. It’s a very old-school driving setup.
Concept
cannonball records
“Cannonball” is slang for those legendary, very fast cross-country drives where people try to set records. It’s not just about horsepower—traffic and timing matter a lot.
Term
four by four
“Four by four” means the car sends power to all four wheels. That usually helps it drive better on bad or slippery roads.
Concept
110,000 miles
They mention the car has about 110,000 miles. That’s a lot of driving, so you’d want to know how well it was maintained.
Company
Harley
“Harley” likely means Harley-Davidson parts. Getting the right OEM hardware helps the accessory fit correctly instead of forcing an aftermarket solution.
Part
washers
Washers are small flat rings that go under bolts or screws. If they’re missing, the bolt may not tighten properly or the parts may not sit straight.
Term
back rest
A backrest is the padded support behind you for the passenger. It has to match the bike’s mounting points, or it won’t fit right.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a popular American car that’s designed to look sporty and drive with more power than a regular sedan. There are many versions over the years, including special performance editions. People often talk about Mustangs when discussing which years and models are most collectible.
Company
RM Sotheby's
RM Sotheby's is an auction company for collector cars. If you’re trying to understand what a car is worth, auctions like this are a big reference point.
Brand
Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach is a world-famous concours d’elegance event in California that heavily influences collector-car attention and pricing. When cars are featured there, their perceived heritage and desirability often rise.
Car
Pontiac Gto
The Pontiac GTO is a classic performance car, often called a muscle car. The podcast is talking about a 1966 GTO that hasn’t been restored, meaning it’s still in its original condition. Cars like that can be especially valuable to collectors.
Car
Studebaker Avanti
The Studebaker Avanti R3 is a very rare version of the Avanti. Because only a handful were built, it’s especially exciting for collectors.
Concept
collector car podcast
A collector car podcast is a show about the hobby of collecting and caring for classic cars. People share stories, restoration tips, and how they choose cars to buy or fix up.
Concept
collector cars
A “collector car” is a car people keep because it’s special—maybe it’s rare, old, or has a cool history. People often care a lot about whether it’s in great condition and whether it’s the real original version.
Concept
rest-o-moded
A “rest-o-mod” is an older car that’s been updated—usually to drive better—while still trying to look like the original. Collectors debate whether that makes it more valuable or less valuable than an unmodified car.
Brand
Singer
Singer Vehicle Design is a well-known Porsche restomod specialist, famous for high-end 911 restomods. The comparison implies that, like Singer, a respected builder can help maintain resale value because buyers associate the name with quality.
Company
CarMax
CarMax is a used-car company that can buy your car and give you an offer. When they send an updated note, it usually means the market value has changed.
Term
ignition key
An ignition key is the key you put in to start the car. The speaker is saying that if a thief doesn’t know what to do with a key, they may not be able to drive off.
Term
JDM
JDM means “Japanese cars made for Japan.” People use it to talk about specific versions of Japanese models that weren’t necessarily sold the same way in other countries.
Term
pop-up headlights
Pop-up headlights are headlights that slide up from the front when you turn them on. They’re a cool, classic design detail, and the speakers say people love them.
Term
pop-up lights
Pop-up lights are headlights that come up from the car’s front when you turn them on. The speaker is saying later versions don’t have that feature anymore.
Car
1963 Corvette project
This is a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette that’s being worked on—like a restoration or build. In collector circles, “project” usually means it’s not fully done yet.
Concept
no frame, no drivetrain
They’re saying the car didn’t have the main structure or the powertrain parts. Without those, you can’t really drive it—you’d have to rebuild a lot of it.
Concept
budget
Before you fall in love with a specific car, you have to decide what you can actually afford. That budget will steer you toward certain models and conditions, not just the “cool” ones.
Concept
collector's ladder
Think of a “collector’s ladder” like levels in the collector-car world. Entry cars are easier to buy, mid-level cars are next, and “blue chip” cars are the expensive, highly sought-after ones.
Term
pre-purchase inspection
Before you buy a used car, a mechanic can inspect it and tell you what’s wrong or risky. It helps you avoid buying a car with hidden problems.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is basically how much power the engine makes. More horsepower usually means the car feels quicker or pulls harder.
Concept
money pit
A “money pit” is a car that keeps draining your wallet. You think you’re done paying, but something else needs fixing or replacing.
Concept
aftermarket
Aftermarket just means things made or sold by companies other than the car brand. For repairs, it can matter because aftermarket parts can be cheaper—or sometimes more expensive—than factory parts.
Term
black interior
That just means the inside of the car—seats and trim—is black. A lot of cars come that way, so it can feel less special or unique.
Concept
paid mileage
Paid mileage is when your job pays you a set amount for every mile you drive. It can make a cheap car feel even cheaper to operate because the company covers part of the cost.
Term
headers
Headers are parts in the exhaust system that help the gases flow out more easily. People often install them to get a different sound and sometimes a bit more performance.
Concept
torque and foot pounds of pressure
Torque is the amount of “twist” you apply when tightening bolts. The number (like ft-lb) matters because too little can loosen things and too much can damage parts.
LIVE
Quiet, numbskulls, I'm Broadcastin'. Hey, all you gearheads and car fiends, welcome
to Driven Radio Show, your weekly automotive happy hour. I am Brett Hatfield, here with
my co-host and engineer extraordinaire, Mr. Mark Groves.
That's me.
We are coming to you from Driven Radio Studios in... it's March.
Yeah, we were spritzing today.
Yeah, we're...
We're supposed to be having a little bit of spring, maybe still a little cool.
I remember when you used to wear like, you know, sweatshirts for weeks, yeah, three,
four weeks.
No, not here.
Not here.
No, not here.
It's either a coat or a t-shirt.
Yeah, well...
Depending upon the day.
Either... you either got a snow shovel or water skis.
And that's it.
That's a burden.
There's no in-between here anymore.
No.
It was 80 degrees today. It's going to be close to 90 degrees before we get through the weekend.
Is this Kansas kids?
And then it drops back to 60.
Well, no, no, no.
It's going to drop down to 54 one day next week.
Yeah, I don't get it, you know, but you know what?
It's all good.
It's all good.
Like we were talking before the show, as long as I'm not driving in snow, I'm good.
Yeah, well, this is absolute proof that Mother Nature is schizoid.
Yeah, she's...
Period.
I was going to say something and it would have... my wife would have killed me.
Yeah, well...
My beloved, may or may not, I can either prove nor deny is going through menopause.
And let me tell you, day to day.
Hey, listen, thank God for Xanax.
Well, luckily, she can predict that I'm a turd every day.
So, you know, she's got she's got that solidity in her life.
Rhonda is going through the same thing, but started...
Welcome to Driven Radio Show.
Hi, welcome.
You don't listen, right?
Welcome to Middle Age issues.
Good times, good times.
But she takes something that's very leveling and, boy, I highly recommend it.
Yes.
I just talked to you about the T-Bird a couple of days ago when we were talking to Rick Hunter
and Larry Way, so I don't expect that there's much on the news from there.
The weirdest thing, though, with the Nissan that I've got, I haven't had a stereo working
in it for like a year, year and a half, and I finally got off my lazy butt.
It was it was on that whole day.
I mean, that when I got the T-Bird running, I also took off, you know, the back end of
the little Toyota that I have, the Scion to try and plug the holes.
And I talked about that with the rear tail lights.
And then I even got inside the Nissan.
I pulled the stereo, looked at all the wires and I'm like, nothing's wrong.
That's I'm probably going to have to replace the stereo.
And it was, you know, it's a $35 stereo brand new.
It was 35 bucks.
Cranko.
Yeah, damn near.
And I'm like, I'll just buy another one off of, you know, not quite that nice.
So I get into the car and I got my I got my little Bluetooth earphones on
because I'm going to listen to a book on my drive in to work.
And it keeps hooking up to the Jensen media player.
And I'm like, why is it doing it?
Was it? And wait a minute, what?
Click the thing. Hey, look, stereo came on.
You're kidding. Why? Why?
Don't question the gods, except the gifts.
So I have audio again and I can play classic rock and weird books very loudly.
Hey, folks, by the way, if you want a really slick looking red Nissan X
stereo, yeah, I'm tired of shifting.
I thought it would be cool. I got that five speed.
You know, I had a I've had two five speeds.
I had a fight.
The first brand new vehicle I ever bought was a was a Nissan pickup
1987 and that was a five speed fun to drive.
I had that five speed geostorm fun to drive at a three speed.
My first car was a three in the tree fun to drive, blah, blah, blah.
I thought this would be really cool. I'm five years in going.
This sucks.
It's it's two words.
I know you're familiar with them.
Lifestyle creep bingo.
Lifestyle creep once you've had an automatic
and you haven't had to shift and you've gotten used to being able to
have a drink while you're driving or maybe take a phone call while you're driving.
Traffic isn't that complicated, you know?
Well, and traffic traffic here in Kansas City has gotten a hell of a lot worse
in the last five or six years.
Yeah, COVID driving and COVID was I don't know.
I don't want to polish a pig, but that was pretty nice.
Hey, if you're going to look for up to.
And that's why all the guys we know that have done cannonball records did
them during the whole year when it was in a stank and traffic out.
There's a chance nobody will ever touch Arnie and Doug's record
because how the hell are you going to get all the people out of your way?
Yeah, I try to drive fast, just going up to the airport and it's a pain in the
body. Yeah, you can't get out of the way.
How come you people don't know what the left line?
So somebody wants to buy a four by four five speed
2,000 Nissan with 110,000 miles on it.
It needs and a working stereo and working stereo stereo, the air conditioner.
But the stereo works and it does run like a top.
Well, four wheel drive works and it'll climb.
Yeah. Oh hell, yeah.
That four wheel drive was pretty sweet.
But, you know, I'm just tired.
So, yeah, if you send it to Brett at driven radio show dot com.
That's B R E T T at driven radio show dot com.
We're on dollar a holler radio radio.
Welcome to Tradio.
Hey, we talked about doing that at one time.
And so it begins and Luke really wanted to do it, too.
Of course, launch.
Yeah, I just I'm going to have to do
Tradio to get all the Corvette.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Yeah, you're practically Brett.
Brett's used goodies.
Yeah. Well, that's what is the home of it.
It's Hatfield's home for recalcitrant Harleys.
Or Hatfield Harleys, one of the two.
Hatfield Mercedes.
Hey, I've had I've had some good luck
with the road glide the last few days.
Oh, nice.
I when I got it, the docking hardware on the back,
the four point pins that you use to put back rest,
lug address and lug address, that sort of stuff was missing.
Oh.
And so I got the docking hardware as a couple
hundred bucks from Harley and I bit the bullet
and I got it from the real stuff.
Yeah, to make sure it would work.
Yep.
Instead of getting something from China.
Oh, we forgot to send you all the washers.
So anyway, I put that on there and then the back rest
that came with the bike, I tried to put on there
and was like, this doesn't work and it doesn't fit
and it doesn't it doesn't line up.
We know like he and a couple of days ago,
I was on Dennis Kirk looking around for motorcycle parts
for that heritage.
Yeah, because it's it's going to need some stuff.
And I decided I'd go ahead and check out backrests
for the road glide and started looking around
and looking at the pictures real closely and notice.
Hey, they kind of have that mounted a little differently
than I thought it.
And I went outside and it took the backrest
and it turns out the upside down.
No, no, no, no, no, the the front
Recepts for it are on the inside of the shocks.
And I didn't realize that's how that worked.
Oh, and put them in there.
Click. Sweet, we win.
And then the stereo worked and saved me hundreds.
Now, the stereo still works.
The ignition on the other hand,
your your boy may have screwed that up slightly.
And again, I'm seeking professional help, right?
Just like the commercial says at the end, just I'm looking
for somebody to come smack me with a rubber mallet.
It's what I'm looking for.
By the way, talk to John Ross yesterday from Watch J.R. Go.
Yeah, he called me about a moog glide
that has nineteen one nine miles on it.
What? And I believe the owner is a gentleman
who listens to the show in Wichita and has contacted me
about a couple of show ideas before and 19.
Yeah. And he said that the guy was interested in selling it
and he wanted to start it.
Yeah. And I said, no.
Don't do that.
And I explained to John, you know,
moog glides are nineteen ninety three Harley heritage
nostalgia and that makes it an EVO motor.
And EVO motors are notorious from leaking
from the gasket at the base of the jug.
So where the two cylinders mount into the engine.
And it's pretty common.
It happens on old EVOs.
You got to buy the bullet and replace the gasket.
But on a bike like that,
nineteen miles and it's thirty odd years old
and probably hadn't had fluids in a long time.
I'm guessing about every seal in it is going to be dry
and you start pouring a couple of hundred dollars
with the fluids into that thing.
And it's just going to pour right out on the hook.
The tank was drained.
I'm guessing was it prepped a little before?
I don't know. I'm just guessing at it.
Man, I'd really like to see a nineteen mile moog glide.
Yeah, that's pretty interesting. I can't afford it.
Oh, come on. You'll go down there.
And you're like, oh, OK, I've had two of them.
It'll look at you with its little headlight going, please.
I I scratch that itch enough that I'm not going to do it
unless some kind of a fantastic deal comes my way. Got it.
But I think nineteen miles, man,
that's got to be one of the lowest mile moog lides anywhere.
And they only made a handful of them and they only made them one year.
So ask him if he wants a Nissan.
Let's work this shit out of this deal. Come on, man.
Yeah, well, make it happen.
Make it rain, baby.
I got an older, worse condition heritage.
And it's heritage Nissan.
I'm guessing he would want to sell
that moog glide for most of what my F one fifty would be worth.
Yeah. And I just, well, we'll see.
Yeah, that's kind of exciting.
I'd love to see one.
And again, I don't want to own every Harley, but I want to work on every Harley.
So that's kind of where we are.
That's our special guest this week is Greg Stanley, a returning
a repeat offender, a returning guest, Greg Stanley of the collector car podcast.
Yeah, real patient.
Greg specializes in Enzo era, Ferrari's first generation Mustangs and Shelby's.
He is an IAC PFA Ferrari judge at various events across the US
from Cavalino classic to Concorso Italiano to Ferrari's annual experience.
Greg joined RM Sotheby's in 2020 with a background in trade management,
sales, customer relations and analysis.
He is the creator and host of the collector car podcast on which he interviews
experts and collectors about market trends with a bit dash of humor.
Greg, welcome back to Driven Radio.
I told you you could have cut that way back, right?
I did. Yeah, but it sounded so good.
Just car guy. I did cut that back.
I just wanted to make every let everybody know how awesome you are.
There you go. Well, thank you.
So there you go.
I wanted to start off by asking you for somebody who's new to the car hobby.
What's the biggest mistake most people make when buying their first collector car?
Yeah, I think the biggest mistake is not knowing what you're looking at.
Like just and I suffered from this as well.
So first car I ever bought was a 1968 Mustang coupe and it was like 1200 bucks.
And it was a good car, but I honestly didn't know what I was looking at.
And I joined the Mustang club shortly after that.
And I wish I had joined a lot earlier.
So I always tell people if you if you want to buy something that's unique
and different, especially a classic, join the club first, you know, like learn
what's right so you know what's wrong when you're out there actually looking at it.
So yeah, just being educated, you know, is probably the biggest thing.
So what was it about the Mustang coupe that you learned that you felt like?
God, I wish I'd known this beforehand.
So I trusted my cousin and I bought it for a thousand bucks.
And so he's he bought it from a friend and he's like, you know, it doesn't have an engine, right?
I'm like, wait a minute, what?
And he said, oh, don't worry about it.
I know where there's an engine we can put in it.
And so I bought it for a thousand dollars.
I was like, all right.
So we went down there and found a two.
It was a 250 straight six, because it was a six cylinder car.
I think 200 cubic inch was the first one.
Sixty eight, they had like the 250 cubic inch.
And anyways, so we found it.
We put it in the back of his 79 Dodge pickup truck on a flat tire.
And the better the truck to hold the to hold the engine is no school like the old school.
No school like the old school.
Exactly. Did it come to training at all?
Man, all this sounds familiar.
Yeah, yeah, I had to train at all.
And he's like, don't worry about it.
I'll install it, you know.
And I'm like, oh, OK.
So he lived like three and a half hours away.
And so I come back, I don't know, a couple, I don't know, a month later.
So to pick up my Mustang and it's sure enough.
It's running and it's driving.
And I drive it back three and a half hours while like 18.
I don't know anything.
And I get back and I say, I'm back.
He's like, man, I was surprised you made it.
Oh, my God.
Tell me why you see that.
Yeah. Yeah.
And by the way, thanks, Jackass.
I had it for like a year and a half.
And it had so the hottest day of my life driving is I work for Nabisco
as a cracker stacker and back home, home from college.
And so I'm stacking Oreo cookies in Jacksonville, Florida.
I was 103 degrees outside.
I had 101 fever and that Mustang had no AC and I went to work
and it had an exhaust leak.
So I'm covered up with, you know, carbon fumes.
And at least she had a buzz on and nothing felt that bad.
That might be how I made it through the day, honestly.
Yeah. So and I had about a year and a half
then I sold it to a guy that was in the Air Force
and he wanted to do a 302 swap.
And I'm like, well, those are four lug, you know, those are four lug,
not five lug wheels.
So I don't ever know what happened to that car.
But it would have been better
if I was a little bit more educated on it for sure.
And went and saw it in person.
You know, right before I went into went to college,
I had like two bucks to my name and what money I did have.
My mom and dad, I was so disappointed.
And as a kid, I was, I was even whinerer than I am now.
And there was a 68 Mustang in Hollister, Missouri
that I wanted to go by.
It was 800 bucks.
And I'm like, mom, dad, I really want to do this.
And they're looking at me like, are you nuts?
And they were like, no, no, you're not.
You're going to college. Remember?
Remember? Oh, dream killer, blah, blah, blah.
I am so frigging glad.
I still did stupid shit with that money.
But they, they were absolutely right.
And I really appreciate their wisdom now.
Yeah, that's why I didn't tell my folks before I went.
Oh, my God, you're such a turd.
Yeah, well, I was such a good boy.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
Hey, do you want a story or not?
Exactly.
So you've seen the auction market up close.
What separates a great car collector from just
or a great collector car from just an old car?
Yeah, it really comes down to so many things.
Obviously, condition, provenance,
if it's a preservation car, performance,
if it's a rare car, you know, you're going to have cars
that I think they're awesome and I might consider them a collectible,
but they're just not valuable because, you know, there's too many of them
possibly or, you know, it's like, I'd love to have a 1983 Zuzu iMark diesel,
but nobody wants that car.
I would love to have one in my garage, but it's not collectible.
You know, they make diesel iMarks.
Yeah. Strangely enough, it was based on the Ford.
No, Chevy Chevette, believe it or not.
Yeah. And had one of those in high school.
But I digress, you know, the cars that when the big shows
like at Pebble Beach and in Millie Island and everywhere else,
that's because of heritage, rarity, performance, scarcity, provenance,
all those things, you know, those cars, you won't see those cars
at your local whippy dip, you know.
So yeah, there are really some special cars out there that are one of one.
I have a 66 Pontiac GTO that's unrestored,
and that's a pretty special car because it clicks a lot of those boxes.
It's a unrestored, special ordered from new rare paint code, rare options.
It has an AC on a 389 Tri-Carb four speed, which is rare.
It has red fender liners, which is rare.
I have a picture of it the day it was bought in 1968,
66 with a stuffed tiger on the hood.
So a lot of cool stuff.
It could be, you know, a mass produced car,
but what makes it different than every other one out there?
What do you got under the hood in that?
389.
It's a 389 Tri-Carb four speed AC.
So that's AC makes it really rare.
That's a beautiful car.
You almost never see that.
As long as we're mentioning Pebble Beach, I have to take a moment
and congratulate our friend Dave Kenney.
His Studebaker Avanti R3, one of nine built,
and I think the first one constructed.
And number one was accepted for this year's Pebble Beach Concorde Delegance.
So congratulations Dave.
Oh, he heard the news.
That's good.
Congratulations.
That's really, really cool.
I'm very, very happy for you.
And man, that's such a journey to take with a car
to finally get it up to that standard.
So very, very cool.
All right.
You started the collector car podcast.
Now you've written the enthusiast guide to collector cars.
What motivated you to create both of those?
And what are you helping or hoping to share with enthusiasts?
Yeah, I think I'm a wannabe teacher.
I think that's what it comes down to is I want to share knowledge with others.
And it manifests.
My first podcast was called Learn from Others.
And it was an educational podcast for kids that would share career journeys.
So I would interview a doctor.
I would interview a lawyer.
I interviewed the director for Hamilton when Hamilton was really big.
And I learned from Mark Green's podcast cars.
Yeah, like he kept the same formula every podcast.
And only the guests changed.
And I thought, well, that's a great format.
You know, it makes it pretty repeatable.
And so I did that for like a year and a half.
But I always had a car part at the end.
So if you're a surgeon, what cool classic car would a surgeon, you know, drive?
So I always have a cool car thing at the end.
And finally, after I stopped recording, there was this.
He was the speechwriter for Ronald Reagan.
And he asked me, he's like, how if people were to describe you two or three words,
what would it be?
And I said, well, I'm a car guy.
He's like, we should probably have a car podcast.
And I thought, well, that's brilliant.
Right.
It makes a lot of sense.
And so I started up the collector car podcast, which ended up leading to a job at
RM Sotheby's, which ended up to a lot of stuff.
And honestly, my wife is really getting into cars.
And she would ask me a question like, what generation Corvette is that?
And I would start quizzing her about it and stuff.
And I thought, you know, there's not something that is just easy point of entry
to get your toe wet out there.
You know, I have a ton of books here, but they're all, you know,
broombows, porches, Japan's most astonishing automobiles.
But there's not like one book where you can give it to like either a new enthusiast
or like a 14 year old kid who likes Ferraris that kind of tells you, well,
what is a Brass Eric car?
What's a classic Eric car?
What's a muscle car?
What's a super car?
What's a JDM car?
And honestly, as my buddy Paul, he's like, why don't you write collector cars for dummies?
And I'm like, well, that's a good idea.
You know, but I didn't want to talk down to my audience.
So I call it the enthusiast guide to collector cars.
And it's really kind of exploded because it's 200 and almost 280 pages,
100 photos from RM Sotheby's.
I have 56 contributors as far as quotes from Sandra Budden with Pebble Beach to Jay Leno,
to Wayne Kearney, to Helio Kester Neves.
So everybody, you know, if it's a Brass Air chapter, I have a Brass Air expert giving a quote
at the beginning, then I have a Brass Air expert giving a quote at the end.
So people are really invested in it.
They're really quick to contribute because I think they, they see the need
for something that you could just kind of give as a Christmas gift.
It is paperback.
I mean, I want it to be dog eared.
I want to see it in a kid's backpack on his way to school and everything else.
So I think, I think it's going to be successful.
And it's the first, the next one's called the enthusiast guide to Porsches.
So it will continue as long as I can keep it going.
But so far it seems to be going well.
And I just like kind of helping people understand cars better
because I think there's a big need out there, especially, you know, collector cars.
And when I started reading about classics, I'm like, man,
I never appreciate classics like I do now when I did the research.
So don't be surprised when I give you a copy of that for Christmas.
I could use it.
And if you'd called it for dummies, I'd be spot on.
Well, I didn't want to be too on point.
Some people think mid-year Corvettes are still undervalued,
although recent sales of 63 split window coupes seem to be heating up.
What are a few cars today that you think are still undervalued
and could become future collectibles?
So, yeah, so it's interesting.
You said the split window, they have been a little hotter lately.
That's really confusing to me because you can have a rest-o-moded Jeff Hayes, Jeff Hayes,
Jeff Mays, split window that sells for $600,000 and the best in the world,
rare, fuel-y, rare color combo, Concord Condition will sell for $250,000.
You know, the pure ones are what I want.
Become very odd how rest-o-mod vets sell for so much more than the best in CRS,
top flight cars do.
Yeah, it's interesting because in theory, they're rest-o-moded, so they're better to drive.
But are they driven?
And then I think there's going to be a cratering of rest-o-mod prices if it's not a known name
in a known shop.
Like you can get a Jeff Hayes early car for like $300,000, $250,000.
He was still figuring out the magic formula, right?
But I think because he has that name and the quality of the work is so high, it's kind of like Singer.
The resale is going to maintain pretty high.
Now, maybe the earlier cars would sell for less, a lot of different things.
But to actually answer your question, I'll say honestly, 2000 to 2015, 2016,
I call it the last of the analog cars.
I mean, they were analog before that, but it's a really sweet spot where you have
pretty good performance, right?
And you still have buttons, you still have an ignition key, you still have all these things,
tactile feel, you can actually still work on a lot of them.
You still have analog gauges and you don't have big screens in them.
Right, yeah, all that, right.
And so my wife, I bought her a 05 Boxster S and it was from a collection.
It only had 1,900 miles on it, 20-year-old car, 1,900 miles on it.
Hey, man, I love that thing.
That thing is just awesome.
I mean, it's quick enough.
It's a lot of fun to drive.
Everything works, you know.
It doesn't have any of the weird, quirky steering and handling features the 911s do.
Well, and I want a 2012 911 S because that's the last of the RGTS, either one.
Like, I think the S was the last of the naturally aspirated flat sixes of that smaller body style
that you could get in a manual.
Now, you can get a 13 manual, but that's the newer, larger body style.
You know, so there's as funny as some of those little things.
And I think that'll be it.
I have a 2014 Toyota FJ as my daily driver.
I just got a note from CarMax has gone up in value.
You know, I paid something like 36 grand for it 100,000 miles ago, 10 years ago,
and now I could sell it figure retail is probably 26,000 because it's just nuts.
So I'm trying to hear.
I just made these stickers.
I'm going to have a little swag store.
And this is the future.
I hope you can see this.
I know we're audio only, but this is the future anti theft device sticker I made.
I don't think you can see that.
It's an ignition key.
Because if you think about it, cars without ignition keys, the thief is like stick shift.
Yeah, thieves don't know how to drive stick shift, right?
That's the anti theft device.
But even just 10 years from now, there will be no ignition keys.
And so the one thing that you were supposed to steal to drive the car is the one thing that
prevents them from driving the car now because they'll be like,
what the heck is an ignition key?
Where does it go?
What do I do?
What do I do with this?
That's why I feel safe parking my 65 stingray about anywhere with the top down.
It's a four speed.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
Good luck with that.
I want to see you.
I want to see you steal it.
And oh, by the way, even if you do know how to drive a four speed,
that sucker's got a heavy clutch.
It's going to wear you out in a couple blocks.
My leg hurts.
I'm not worried about somebody stealing that.
Stealing please.
So what are a few cars?
I mean, you mentioned your wife's Porsche and your FJ has gone up.
Do you have a few other?
How about insider picks?
You know, it's been going up lately.
I don't know quite why, but Ferrari F348s, F55s, you know, those are considered.
I call them, if you like those cars, it's engine out love,
because you don't mind having the engine for the spark plugs.
But those have really been appreciating lately.
Obviously, we can talk about the whole Kissimmee Bachman sale.
Yeah, we're going to create and we're going to.
I want to ask you some questions about that here in just a minute.
How has the collector car market changed with younger enthusiasts entering the hobby,
aside from the fact that there aren't as many manuals,
especially with the rise of modern classics and JDM cars?
Yeah, that kind of goes to that sweet spot, you know, the 2000s to 2015s.
Those will continue to appreciate because that's that's the car the kids are kids in,
right?
Or that's the car that was on their poster in their bedroom wall and JDM as well.
You know, I think, you know, JDM is from the the video games.
You know, they had no idea what Godzilla was a skyline.
If it wasn't for the video games, and that's only increased.
And now with the 25 year roll, you know, every year,
there's going to be a new crop of cars.
We finally got the R34, you know, they'll continue bringing over the rare specs.
Now that's going to be a little bit different because as we start getting our own GTRs here,
not that long afterwards, you know, we really want a right hand drive one, you know,
I also wonder, will right hand drive eventually affect the desirability of the JDM cars?
Like is JDM somewhat of a fad because they're kind of a headache to drive?
You know, I just curious if that will eventually have asked some JDM folks and they're like,
no, no, no, that's what they love about it.
I'm like, all right.
So yeah, those will continue to appreciate.
It's interesting though, because I think the more electronic we become,
the more self-driving we become, the more the next generation will go to tactile and mechanical.
And so we're actually seeing some young kids going back to the brass era, you know,
because they look at it like a nice Rolex watch, you know, it's like you can see the gears,
but you can actually work on this thing.
So believe it or not, we're seeing some really young kids going back into
prewar stuff, which is really interesting.
So and that's cool.
Well, you mentioned the JDM stuff.
I, you know, the one that I still have a real desire to get my hands on
is the first iteration of the NSX.
So the, let's see, they came out in 90.
So the 90 to 96 before they went to the 290 horse and 97.
Yeah.
And the 97 and later first gen NSX is seemed to be the ones that have
gathered so much steam.
I think the earlier ones are the ones that are kind of bargains.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, I agree.
I actually tried to buy a black with a cream interior on the other day that I was really good
price, but you know, the thing about those is somewhat the horsepower, you know, they're not
that quick, you know, but they're really beautiful.
You know, very light.
Yeah, they are.
And, you know, I do have another fun sticker that's a pop-up party because of the pop-up
headlights.
Everybody likes the pop-up headlights.
So, you know, get the earlier NSXs for that, obviously.
I just think those are wonderful cars.
I would love to own one.
I told my wife, can I say your boxer to get that NSX?
And what was red line on them was like 8,200?
Something like that.
So pretty fantastic music coming from right behind your head.
And as long as you watch for the snappering cars, and I guess that most of those have been fixed by
now, that's, I think that would be one of the ones to have years down the road.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I know like the very last year is very desirable because of the evolution and the horsepower,
obviously, doesn't have the pop-up lights anymore, but it looks good.
I mean, it looks really good.
And color makes a big deal on those cars.
I sold the Monaco Blue 2000, and it was one of 22 ever built.
And I was in love with that car.
Oh, gorgeous.
And they also in the later years had a terrific bright yellow that really popped well.
But yeah, I think the NSXes might be one to watch down the road.
At least they are for me.
I don't know if everybody else feels the same way.
Right.
No, I agree.
I totally agree.
They had their moment.
So I think they're down off their moment, but I think they'll have that again.
Well, that's fine.
I'll buy them while they're down.
Done.
Right.
I've owned several Hondas in the past, and I think they're fantastic cars.
And everything in them is always so precise.
And the shifters always go snick, snick, and everything feels just the way it should.
I can't imagine NSX ownership being disappointing after that.
Now, if you buy a second gen NSX, it might be.
But the first gen, not so much.
If someone wants to get involved in the hobby that feels intimidated by auctions
and high prices, what do you think the best way is for them to start?
You're really teaming me up here, because my answer is by my book.
Well played.
It was so natural.
I write the best interviews.
Yeah, it's exactly for that purpose.
And if you're a subscriber to Sports Car Market, look at the May issue,
because there's a review coming out.
It comes out, I don't know when this post, but it comes out on Monday for electronic.
And it basically says, I took the view of educating, not over talking.
I don't use a lot of jargon is what they said.
But really to make it approachable was the whole entire point of it.
So beyond that, beyond buying my book at thecollectorcarpodcast.com,
you can, I would just go to local car shows, get involved with the local club.
Especially car shows, find out what you like,
and then see if there's a local club that specializes in that.
There's a ton of Miata clubs out there.
There's PT Cruiser clubs that are probably the most loyal club out there.
Porsche, Mustang, it doesn't have to be something fancy.
I mean, we have a Chrysler 300 club up here that, I mean, they're a little gangster.
They're all writers.
Taking it to the more modern, more modern Chrysler 300s,
because I love the sixties Chrysler 300s.
They're gorgeous.
Yeah, that's what he's talking about.
Yeah.
We had an 05 and we loved it.
We had it for like eight years, you know, so.
Looking for the Chrysler Concorde club.
Oh, there is a one.
I thought that was a pretty car back in the day.
I had one briefly.
If only they ran.
What was it they called the new Chrysler 300, the Section 8 Rolls Royce?
Oh, Jesus.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I like that.
Wow.
That's rough.
I saw a video come out on him earlier today.
It was pretty bad.
The other reason with Rolls Royce grills on him.
Yeah.
And I have also the other reason you need to pick up that May issue of sports car market is so you
can see my profile on the 1963 Corvette project that went through bring a trailer.
That was insane.
Yeah.
The the 63 Corvette that wasn't quite a whole car.
No, not even nearly.
It wasn't even half a car.
Wow.
Did you see that one go through Greg?
I did not.
No, I'm looking forward to your article.
It sold for 70 grand.
There was no frame, no drivetrain.
The back window kind of fiberglassy part of it was there.
But the rear bonding strips were not nor were the rear fenders nor were the front fenders.
But it's have a good then.
Was it a had a clean then had a clean title went for 70 grand.
Yeah.
So also did Jeff Hayes by that car?
You know, I mean, if he's making 600 grand out of car, that's a cheap entry point.
You know, mid-year Matt bowed out of that bidding before it got to 50 grand.
I'm pretty sure.
Or mid-year Mitch, mid-year Mitch, the guy who does all the mid-years on
YouTube sobered up the next day.
You know, these two guys got in a huge fight over that and went back and forth and back and
forth from the 40s up to 70 grand.
It was incredible.
But hey, kids, you can read about it.
And you can read about it by the time this show comes out, it'll already be on newsstand.
So go buy you one.
What would you say, Greg, is the biggest hint from your book about now you said, you know,
go and figure out which car you kind of want, you know, get your focus.
And you even, Brett, talked to me about that after the dodge when I was kind of looking around.
What would you say is the next step when you finally find one that you're like,
okay, I really want this kind of car?
What's your biggest hint about what to do?
So I think budget's a big part of it.
So in the book, I have every lot of different sections.
Like, you know, why is this era important?
What's the design and technology?
What's the performance of the era?
What are some key models?
But I also have the collector's ladder.
And so it's like, what's an entry level car?
What's the mid level?
What's a blue chip?
So, you know, some people are like, I want a Mercedes going.
Well, you'll never, maybe you can never afford it, right?
But, you know, there is probably some sort of entry level car.
It's not a going, but you know, something that has the Mercedes brand from that era that's much
cheaper. Maybe it's a thin car or something that is achievable, is within your budget that you
should be able to check out.
But if you have your eye on a car, that's where I always go to the club.
Like the club, there's always a guy in there that he might have to let a car go.
And he's as meticulous about anything you've ever seen in your life.
And you know, like as I see a lot of collections, you'll know who you want to buy a car from.
Like, all right, whatever the price is, I'll pay it because I know this car has been kept pristine.
I know it's been serviced. I know it's been taken good, really good care of.
Now, if you're just going out there on, you know, an auction site or classifieds or something,
I would definitely do a pre-purchase inspection, get an expert pay.
I would highly recommend that.
Pay to 300 bucks, whatever it is, you know, just to get it checked off.
Now, I will have to say you need to find somebody reputable as well because
I've seen some horrible pre-purchase inspections and horrible appraisals.
Look at cars.com.
You know, I'm, this is not an ad for them. They do not advertise with us.
You're going to bring up Dave.
No, I was, I was going to say lemon squad. I've used them a few times.
Oh, okay.
And they kept me from buying a Porsche Cayenne that I really, really needed to stay away from.
Oh, yeah.
Last year, I got a report back from one that just kind of read along the lines of,
no, dummy, don't do this.
And it was well worth a couple hundred bucks to do that.
And they're looking at a car for Jayden right now.
Oh, nice.
So just.
It's like the Porsche Boxer I bought for my wife.
I bought it from a fellow friend slash collector.
And I knew is everything was up to date. Everything was perfect.
I didn't even turn the car on.
I'm like, I'll take it.
You know, and by the time we got it transferred, I drove it home.
That was the first time I actually fired it up and drove it home because I knew the guy
and he gave me, you know, a nice price.
Yeah.
So yeah, that helped.
How does an early box dress drive?
Fantastic.
Now this is second gen. So it's 2005.
Yeah.
But yeah, oh man, gosh, it drives so well.
Sounds so good.
It's right.
It's the ass.
So it's got a little bit more horsepower.
I think it's, I don't know what it is, 300 horsepower or something like that.
So 2005 was the first year without the runny egg headlights on it.
Yes.
Okay.
And what colors?
It's red with a red roll bar, black interior.
Not, not the colors I would have chosen, but, you know, it's pretty good.
I'm trying to find, since you just said runny headlights or what'd you call it?
Runny egg.
Fried egg headlights.
So I have another sticker.
This is going to be a t-shirt.
What's that one?
You can see it.
Embrace the egg.
And it's got eggs for the headlights.
See, there you go.
So it's embraced the egg.
And the background for the podcast logo is two strips of bacon.
Oh, there you go.
There you go.
Those will be t-shirts and swag stores.
That's similar to the t-shirts you see some of the military guys in that say, embrace the suck.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, there you go.
You know, we could put that on.
What car would that be on?
Oh, gee, there's a list.
Montay?
Don't tell Dave.
No, no, not those.
Dave's bigger than I am.
D.W. Bus, heard that in your conversations.
Pontiac Aztec.
Oh, yeah, but nobody's, how about a collector car?
Embrace the suck.
Embrace the suck.
How about a money pit?
Oh, gee, I know one.
How about a W140S600?
There you go.
Something you just get to throw money at.
Or, as Dad and I have a running joke about mine,
it's the home of the $2,000 oil change.
Jesus.
Because they're going to find something.
They'll find something.
We touched on the Kissimmee sale.
God, Meekam did such incredible numbers there.
In your opinion, was that a one-off or just a harbinger of things to come?
And can you discuss some of the bigger number lots at Kissimmee?
So it's frustrating.
It should be a one-off.
I knew the family, been to the collection.
It's those cars were unrepeatable.
And I know people say that a lot.
They're unrepeatable because Phil was doing custom luggage before they had a custom luggage program.
He was doing tailor-made before they had a tailor-made program.
So that's not repeatable.
You're not going to find an F-355 that had custom stuff to it with custom luggage.
Phil was the only one doing that.
And so it should be unrepeatable.
And I'm measuring my words here because I think it's...
I was not surprised at those results.
Well, I was a little bit.
I will say a little bit.
I knew they were going to go really big.
I was surprised how big some of the cars went.
Overall, I wasn't surprised.
Everybody knew that collection was going to explode.
I think the frustrating part for me is that there's a lot of folks that want to sell Ferraris
that are hyping it as the new norm for obvious reasons, right?
Because they can get a lot more money out of the cars.
And I don't think it is...
It shouldn't be the new norm in my mind.
Because the car they're selling is not as special as the car they're quoting prices from, right?
I would say there's exceptions.
I think the Enzo went too high.
But I think that was already proven to be a realistic point because we had that orange one.
Also at Mika, I'm at the same sale that also went really high.
And Orange Sotheby's had one that hit $10 million right after that that was red.
I think the Enzo market was going up strong prior to that.
I think Special Paint's been going up strong no matter the mark.
Paint the sample Porsche's.
We just saw that.
I forgot the color, but it was like a light blue Crere GT.
Brought Era sold at a million.
That was a world record by like $2 million, $3 million.
So Paint's really just so many different factors that were happening.
That Enzo I heard on your podcast with Dave, you're wondering if that was a one-off.
It was a one-off because not only because of the seats,
but it also had an Enzo signature as the logo on the back.
Had some other one-off stuff that only that car has.
So yeah, there's a couple cars that went nuts, but they should have gone nuts.
They would have gone nuts if it wasn't part of a bigger sale.
So I think it is a little bit showing what's coming, but not that it should be coming.
Does that make any sense?
Sure.
Do you think that the 250 GTO sold right?
I do.
I do.
I actually called it at $40 million on my podcast a couple weeks earlier than that,
and it sold for like $39.5 or something.
Yeah, so that's a very interesting car.
I represented the one that sold for 51.7.
That was a little different.
There's 36, 250 GTOs from the factory, and there were three prototype cars,
bigger leader, four-leader.
The one I had commissioned was one of the three prototypes.
So that was kind of out on its own.
It wasn't never going to be a $70 million car.
It wasn't one of the first 36, but you can participate in the GTO tour.
Now, the GTO tour is a really big selling point.
I don't know if most people know this.
There's only 38 people that are invited because one of the prototype cars was destroyed.
Yeah, it's rather rarefied air.
Very rarefied air, and they really participate.
I mean, it's like 24 of them go on that tour,
but there's also the McLaren F1 tour and the Alpha 8C tour.
Those are like the three biggest, most prestigious tours you could be a part of.
So it definitely is a club, and there's a ticket, and the ticket is a 250 GTO.
But that car, it got hit in the front right fairly seriously.
It had not the original engine.
Now, I saw a video saying that they had the original engine,
which I did not know that till after David Lee bought it.
It's right-hand drive, and it's white, which white's rare,
but I don't think it looks as good.
Yeah, it's rare for a reason.
It has all the other colors.
Great car.
It's kind of annoying.
I saw a video with his name that does the Texas show.
Richard Rawlings was saying, $60 million.
I'm like, it's not a $60 million car.
It's what it's sold for, and that's what it is.
And they've been soft.
When we sold the 330 LM 250 GTO for $51.7 million,
we knew that was pretty much the peak of the market.
We had the Israeli war started at that time.
Financial markets were difficult, and sure enough,
if it had sold a year later,
I would have bet it would have been $10 million less.
So it's not surprising at all what that car sold for.
I think it's worth more just because it's a Ferrari GTO.
People who are buying new Ferraris the next generation,
with the exception of David Lee,
they're not interested in that old stuff.
So you'll hear a lot of commenters,
and I actually posted this on his YouTube channel as a comment,
and I said, I'm so glad David Lee has this car,
because he's a younger guy.
He appeals to the next generation.
He's going to share the car.
He has the big five Ferraris.
Now I had a podcast called, It Should Be The Big Six.
You need to have the GTO.
I'm sure there's other collectors that have the big six,
but you never hear from them.
You never see them.
And so I'm so glad David bought that car
because he's going to share it with the next generation,
telling them why it's so special,
align it with the other five iconic Ferraris,
and hopefully keep the interest going for those 50s and 60s
Ferraris, because it's definitely waning right now.
Well, since we're talking about Ferraris,
what is in your opinion the best and the worst Ferrari to buy right now?
That's a tough question.
All right.
So the worst Ferrari to buy right now is probably almost any Ferrari.
Well, let me take that back.
Some of the lesser known Ferraris from the 50s.
So I'm not talking about a 250 Tester Rosa.
Those are up to $40 million now, something crazy like that.
But if you have some of the lesser known Ferraris,
Elenor, Buono, they're just soft.
And I would even say for cars in the 60s to a certain extent.
Now you're talking about what's the best Ferrari to buy right now?
Well, I would say the 550 Maranello.
And I only say that because they seem to be going on a slow rise
that I think is about to take off.
You know, front engine, V12.
Gated.
Or manual six speed.
And some people say the 575, I would agree with that.
A manual one.
But I know of a dealer, he has five, no, seven 550s in the inventory
that he's just scrolling away because he thinks they're about to take off.
And they're cool cars.
I want to mind having one myself.
And they've really increased in the last, geez, call it even six weeks.
Part of that was from the Bachman sale.
When they did the Super America, were any of those gated?
Yes, there was very few.
I want to say there were like 24 of them.
The problem with those cars, I think those are way down from their high.
You know, they hit up to $800,000 for a gated, rare color, low mileage one.
The top, if the top needs replacement, it's like $500,000.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's not that attractive.
And that's if you can find the parts and you can't.
Well, I think that's why the Barcetta has, those have gone up
while the Super America has gone down because people are kind of like,
I'd rather have this one.
And so those have really.
Well, the Super America has got a cool gimmick to it.
If for those of you who don't know, it has a, an electric, an electrophotochromic roof on it.
Oh, very good.
Which can be clear or can be tinted with a switch.
But also it's a, the roof is a flipper.
It's hinged at the back and it will flip over and lay on the rear deck.
In case you want to have that convertible feel to it.
So I helped a guy find one years ago and back when they were, you know, still only a couple
hundred grand and they're really, really cool.
And he got it in and he said, Hey, you want to drive it?
I said, not on your life.
No, thank you, sir.
I know better.
They're interesting because that rear window, you know, it curves around the back.
So when the window, when the, when the top is up, it pulls water where the top is stored
because it's concave.
I mean, if you're not moving and then when the top is down, if it rains, it's also concave.
So it grabs water.
So you close the roof and you get.
And it flips it over on top of you and there goes your hairdo.
Yes, which I'm very concerned about.
Well, most of the guys, most of the guys who can afford those don't have a whole lot of
hair to worry about.
And then hopefully their dates do.
But yeah, a really complicated car, difficult to find the parts when I help that gentleman
find the one that he has, the roof was only $35,000 to replace it.
Are they up to a hundred now?
I only quote that because I know that that's what one was sold for on the aftermarket.
Now it was an original roof.
I don't know of any body that's making those, but you know, you could probably get it repaired
by an expert for less than that, unless it's something serious.
Well, Ferrari had a certain number of seconds made for repair parts, but a year or so ago,
I saw that they were north of 50.
And then you said north of a hundred or around a hundred.
And I'm thinking, geez, that went up a ton.
Yeah, you know, that would not be a bad investment.
Honestly, is to go buy all of those.
Yeah, well, you know, or one.
I got one in my basement behind a Christmas tree.
So Dave Kinney had a great idea on my podcast.
And or when we were having a class of wine or something, I can't remember.
But you know, paint a sample is such a big deal.
He's like, you know, Ford will paint your F-150 any color you want.
If you buy 10 of them as a fleet program, you can pick whatever you want, but you have to buy
10 of them.
He's like, so let's all of us go in together and we'll get a paint the sample F-150 and
like a Porsche color.
I'm like, that sounds brilliant.
Well, Porsche owners need a way to tow their cars around and haul all their crap.
So yeah, that might not be the worst idea ever.
It's so crazy.
What is the Porsche color we have in mind?
I would find the Oslo blue.
That's not that light blue, is it?
Yes, it is.
Oh, man.
I don't want to.
No.
Like a water.
No.
I don't even like it.
What would your color be?
It'd be a darker blue.
I don't even like the Oslo blue on the Porsches.
I do like blue.
Is the Oslo blue close to the Mexico blue?
You're splitting hairs now, I'm not sure.
I'm happy with the metallic blue, darker blue, medium blue.
Yeah.
Well, something closer to the Nassau blue on my Corvette.
That's the one I like.
How about Viper green?
You on an F-150 with the matching car?
That'd be pretty sweet.
I'm colorblind.
I don't see green.
Well, that sucks.
I don't know.
What's a guard's red F-150 look like?
Like any other red F-150?
Fine.
And there it is.
So we've been speaking to Greg Steele.
I mean, how different is guard's red than red?
I don't know, man.
It's a little tomato soupy, I think.
I think it's like the original Corvette Roman red
on the first gen.
They looked a lot like tomato soup.
I want a guard's red 930.
Or I don't blame you.
I want one of those too.
Yeah.
I've got a client.
I don't know when he's going to sell it.
He's supposed to sell it sometimes.
But he's got a 79, 930, guard's red.
He bought it new, 6,500 miles unrestored.
And it has black sports seats and red carpet.
And I'm not crazy about the red carpet, but it's factoring.
No, no.
I'm crazy about the red carpet.
That's the black seats I didn't like.
I was hoping for cork or something.
Yeah.
But I'd love to have a shot of that car.
But I can't afford it.
Yeah, everybody's got a black interior.
That's the thing.
I've started to not like cars with black interiors so much
because they're just so common.
Everyone's got one.
Have a tan.
Have a red.
Have a blue.
Have something more exciting.
You've got to do red on red.
I mean, think of all the cars that I've had of recent date
that were red on red.
It's like driving a piece of meat.
It's great.
I love it.
Absolutely.
That's 64 very good.
That is red on red.
That thing's fantastic.
Make you look like you're inside a fresh road kill.
That's 64 Dodge.
It's like driving a prime rib.
There you go.
That's awesome.
All right, Greg.
Before we get too much further off in the weeds,
what's the worst car you've ever bought and why?
So I had a lot of company cars for a long time
and they were pretty crappy, but I won't count any of those.
You can include those.
What's the worst company car you ever had?
I'll give you the first answer.
So I had three Geometros.
Jesus.
I know.
And they were great cars.
By choice or were you held at gunpoint?
Well, so I got paid mileage.
I got paid 47 cents a mile.
And back when gas was $1.10, it cost me like $11 to fill it up
and they would pay me $47 per tank.
So I was making like 30 bucks a tank.
Anyways, I'd buy it from my dad.
He had it and I'd buy one from him for like $2,000.
I'd put a hundred thousand miles on it and I sell it for $1,500.
And he kept on buying them and he kept on selling to me,
but I did not date much while I had.
Is your date ain't interested in your $47?
Your date's not interested in that 37 bucks you made
when you filled it up.
But you got a convertible to be sexy.
But you know what I liked about it is
you knew when you were hitting 73 miles an hour on the highway
where I knew once the front end started to shake,
I was at 73 miles an hour.
So I would just accelerate until then and not worry about it
because I had like a 40 mile drive to work.
And then I got my first company car, which was a Dodge Stratos.
And that was much nicer, much better.
And I didn't realize it could go faster.
And so I was doing like 88 miles an hour before I realized
the front end never didn't shake like my Geometro did.
I drove a Geostorm for 11 years.
I had a five-speed and I put 160,000 miles on a bodied at like 36,000 miles.
And you know, the funny thing, that thing ran like, you know, spank monkeys.
It was a decent little car.
I did have to put a transaxle in it.
I did it myself.
And then I also put in two headers, not headers.
Yeah, headers.
And I would suspect the second one.
No, the first one cracked.
So it sounded like a tractor.
Two heads.
And then so I bought a new one just from a Chevy dealership.
Got it out of a gumball machine.
Put it on myself.
And that was back before I knew that there was a certain amount of, you know, torque and
foot pounds of pressure and stuff for the balls.
You realize we've come full circle with this conversation
because your Geo was in a Suzu I mark.
Yeah.
So we've come all the way back home, all the way back home, circle of life symbol.
Look how that worked.
I got nothing against Geos.
Even I had a guy that I worked with at the radio stations.
He was one of our engineers and he drove one of those metros until, you know, it just fell apart.
But try to find one.
They're impossible.
It's funny.
Well, they returned their hurt.
Well, because everybody drove them into the crown.
We actually had a car specialist with Arm South Abuse.
We have a private app that only car specialists can see that, you know, cars are for sale privately
or wanted.
And he put on there the Canadian version of it.
I don't know.
Plymouth Firefly.
I never heard of it before.
And it's like a convertible Geo Metro.
And I'm like, are you kidding me?
Plymouth got there?
He actually put that on a visible public app with other car specialists.
He said, oh, we've always wanted one.
And they found one.
Him and his wife, Beyonce, found one.
You know, I'm looking up the Firefly and it's not showing up anything on Google.
Google's like, what?
I sent it to a friend of mine who's got 200 plus cars and all immaculate, but he has rare stuff.
He'll have weird stuff.
He has a no mileage, you go convertible, you know, but he also has 40 Shelby's, you know.
And I sent that to him.
He's like, I must have that.
I must have a Plymouth Firefly.
Pontiac.
It was a Pontiac Firefly.
Pontiac Firefly.
Yeah, I'm still in the GM family.
He actually bought a low mileage, 6,000 mile.
This is a car that's on nobody's radar.
So I respect him for this.
What was it called?
The SVT 6 speed Ford, sorts of the C. Corvette, no.
The good looking little Ford that was in the 2000s, early 2000s.
They made an SVT version.
Probe.
No, no.
6 speed.
Focus.
No, starts with a C.
All the SVT ones I'm fighting don't.
Not a Corvette.
I'm going to let you two keep arguing about this for a while.
I'm really fascinated with it.
Conestoga, Concorde.
Conestoga is a wagon.
Canuck.
The Ford Canuck.
Was it made in Canada?
Contour.
Yeah, 1998 Ford Contour SVT 6 cylinder SVT manual.
There's a Doug DeMiro video on it.
Look at that.
That's like the little car that your grandpa burned a little rubber on.
At the time, they were kind of cute back in the day.
SVT Contour.
Yeah, he found it was like 6,000 miles and just bought it.
Because it's like, you never see this thing.
So there's a deep cut for you right there.
Nice.
Probably as you can't find them.
I'm glad you guys worked that out.
It's got a sunroof too.
That makes it cool.
And while you've been talking about that,
I've been thinking about the Geometro convertible.
It looked like a pregnant roller scape that had the top taken off of it.
Kind of had the Princess Grace treatment given to it.
Oh yeah, it's got awful.
Yeah, just took the top right off and took the head off.
I'm going to keep pounding it.
I don't care.
You know, looking at those two of those Geometro convertibles,
I always wondered if you open the doors
and two people jumped into it at the same time,
would it flex that frame down?
Yes.
Jesus.
Yeah, it absolutely would.
Here's the really remarkable thing.
Greg said he had three of them.
There's a guy out by Gardner Lake
who has three of the convertibles right this very minute.
Hell yeah.
And they take up about half of his driveway.
Never give up.
Never surrender.
My friends would kid me.
They would say, let me see the mouse in the engine,
like a little mouse on a wheel.
You know, and then they would say,
I get my tires changed at Toys R Us.
You know what I'm saying?
Now, the tires are only.
That's pretty good.
That's what buttholes, I respect.
Yes.
The wheels are only 13 inches.
Yeah.
And my dad went to like tire disc counter.
He got four tires, not with the stems,
just the tires new for like $46.
Now you had to get them mounted and installed in stems.
But man, talk about cheap tires.
Came with a free cheeseburger.
Yeah.
I have a whole list of cars,
like not that I can afford it.
But if I ever see this car in a state sale
or in a collection off to the side, you know.
Well, what's on your list?
You just have to try to buy it.
What's on your list?
Like any Toyota FJ that's under 40,000 miles.
Sure.
You know, I saw one in another collection
that he had 86 miles on it.
And I said, is that for sale?
He's like, oh, no, no.
You're talking about modern FJs?
Modern FJs.
Really?
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
I didn't realize that those were
bringing, those were garnering that kind of money.
One just sold for like over 80 grand
and bring a trailer and it had, I want to say,
6,500 miles on it, something like that.
Wow.
But you know, just anything.
Like if I see a 79 based Porsche that's unrestored,
even if it's a base trim, you know, a CRX.
My sister had a Nissan 200SX.
Where have you ever seen one of those?
Yeah, those were cool.
A buddy of mine had one of those.
Remember the Zuzu Impulse?
You know, like any of those little 80s, 90s,
six cylinder, rear wheel drive, manual things,
no matter who made it, you know, like you see one
that's running, driving nice, original shape.
You got to jump on it.
Well, and this kind of goes back to something
that I mentioned on Facebook last week.
And it's that almost all modern cars are too big.
And too awkward.
They're too, they're too fraught with crap.
They shouldn't have it.
And if you go back and you look at and Luke Channel and I
have had this conversation a couple of times,
Ford trucks kind of seemed to hit their sweet spot
between 1997 and 2003.
They ran really well.
They weren't overly complicated.
And they did everything pretty well.
But if you take one of those pickups from that era,
and I got one and you put it next to a new Ford Ranger,
they're about the same size.
New F-150s are bigger than old F-250s used to be.
And any decent pickup truck.
Yeah.
70s, 80s, 90s, early 2000s, like, you know, you're just going crazy.
Yeah.
And I think people have kind of gotten tired
of their cars being so stinking huge
that you can't fit them in a garage, can't park them inside.
They're just, they're a pain in the butt in parking lots.
And they're just too stinking big.
Everything modern seems to be way bigger than it should be.
And I know a lot of that is because of, you know,
crumple zones and safety stuff.
And, you know, they have to be that big to accommodate all that stuff.
But I think the other thing is they're just,
they've gotten too big just because people think they need bigger, better, better.
Well, that's why I want that 2012, 9-11.
That's the last of the small-bodied ones, you know?
But, yeah, speaking of Fords, I mentioned Broncos.
I don't want people to think I'm just now getting on the 1960s and 70s Bronco train.
No, I was referring to the Broncos of your era that you're talking about,
like the modern Bronco that had the Eddie Bauer edition, you know,
that was such a beautiful one.
I mean, you gotta worry about aftermarket parts and all sorts of things nowadays with those.
But there's a 2000, I think it's 2006 Ford Expedition everybody's chasing.
Not the 2005, the 2006 diesel like Triton V10.
Oh, the excursion.
The excursion.
Excursion, yeah.
It's one year only.
Like the year before it didn't have the good interior this year.
No, no, the year you need on the excursion
is 2002 or first half 2003 back when it still had the 7.3 diesel.
That's it.
Yep.
It's just like you get into the, you know, get your list.
And if you ever see one, whether you want to keep it or not,
but just bring it out of hiding, you know?
Those things on bring a trailer also bring pretty decent money.
Yeah.
But the 7.3 did not have the power the new ones have,
but it also didn't have the problems.
And they could be tuned and they could be built to, you know,
put out quite a bit more and run quite a bit more.
And they also smoke like a house on fire.
Right.
But the ones everybody chases is that 7.3, that 7.3 power stroke
before they went to the 6.0 that had such huge issues.
So yeah, I had a 2002 F-250 set with the 7.3 in it.
Fantastic truck.
I mentioned it to the right guy because you know exactly what I was talking about.
Yeah.
I really like mine.
I really miss it.
I don't miss the $700 a month payment I had on it.
So I was kind of happy when I sold it.
And again, it wound up being one of those deals where I bought a work van,
just a white plane E-150 with that, with the 300 cube straight six in it,
the 4.9 and it was got awful slow.
It couldn't get out of its own way, but it would haul everything under the sun.
And it had ladder racks on it.
I was building the houses at the time.
So it was fantastic.
I drove the thing for five or six years and put 40 some odd thousand miles on it.
You know, I was working not far from home.
And I decided to sell it when I noticed that the floor was rotten out underneath the driver's
side heel.
That doesn't sound safe.
No, Flintstone looking a whole starting to develop in the bottom.
And I took all my stuff out of it and put it online.
And I bought it for $1,000 and sold it for $1,500.
There you go.
Solid effort.
Yep.
Winning.
Sometimes those, sometimes those really cheap O-cars, man, there's some,
there's some great stuff to be had out there.
But you can't find plain white workmans with ladder racks on them now for anything cheap
because they quit making them.
And you sure the serial killers didn't buy them all up?
So many free puppies.
My cousin and I one time took a bunch of blue painter's tape and wrote free candy up the
side of it and took pictures of it.
But it's some of those, some of the older cars have gotten to be more desirable because
they're just less of a pain in the butt to work on.
And they're not so huge.
And there's just, you know, I've had.
Ah, jeez.
I think seven Ford trucks in a row that I've never had one any newer than 2003.
And it just won't.
Wow.
Nice.
I keep looking for the old ones.
So when you see a low mileage, well kept one, you need to buy it.
The one I got right now has got 21,000 miles on it.
Oh, perfect.
Great shape.
Done.
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg, it's been great having you on.
We really appreciate you being here.
We've been speaking with Greg Stanley of the collector car podcast.
Greg, please, if you could, tell us where we can find you online and on social media.
The collector car podcast everywhere.
And if you go to my website, you'll see all sorts of fun stuff.
I have the book link there where you can pre-order.
It comes out in about four weeks and all sorts of stuff.
I had, I was on Jay Leno's garage with my 66.9 GTO.
There's a link there so you can see that interview, which is a lot of fun.
So that's kind of my home stop to kind of tell everybody where to go.
And you get signed up for my newsletter every Monday.
I try to have something fun and entertaining every Monday.
Is that collectorcarpodcast.com?
Yes, it is.
There you go folks.
Find you on Facebook, Instagram, X normal places.
Not X yet, but soon.
Yes, all the normal places.
Greg, thank you so much for being with us.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Always good to have Greg back.
He's very kind and very patient because, you know, you and I are fairly chatty.
And we are not afraid to give anybody a bucket of crap and have him carry it.
And he, he, uh, well done.
He puts up with us.
So yes, congratulations.
Thank you for that Greg.
And also, um, one of the things I haven't followed a hell of a lot.
I have some, but, uh, as Ferraris and just
the new ones starting with about the 488, I can't tell them apart.
I can't tell you what makes them great.
I always had a problem with Enzo Ferrari cheating on his wife.
Well, you know, it's, there's a lot of reasons.
Hey, hey, you know, what's the meatball to you?
That's a good, uh, it's so good.
Uh, the thing in Toyota FJs, you know, earlier FJs did have problems with, uh,
uh, the frames corroding.
I thought about Ask about it.
Then I thought that would be really rude to do on the show because 2007 I'm looking at
on, uh, on Facebook marketplace because I'm looking for something for cammy.
And, uh, and also to replace the, uh, the Nissan to be quite honest.
And that was one of the things when I, you know, I looked up, uh, 2007 FJ crews or problems.
Googled that.
And yeah, uh, notorious apparently.
And some Toyota, some years of Toyota trucks also had problems with frame rot in the back.
And I think, uh, if I'm not mistaken, Toyota may have bought wound up buying a lot of those back
in order to kind of, uh, you know, preserve their reputation.
But the other reason I think that FJs may be so hot right now, uh, you know, first of all,
quit making them.
So Toyota doesn't really have a direct Bronco competitor on the two doors.
Yeah.
Uh, but the other reason is Toyota came out with a redesigned, uh, forerunner either last
year or this year and they're ugly.
They're really ugly.
They're, they look like they're making out of Lego blocks.
They really are.
If you look up new, uh, Toyota forerunner, they're just blocky and they look, the old
ones were kind of sexy and the new ones are really not.
So.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
That's, yeah.
So I think that'll probably drive FJ and forerunner prices for a while.
That's, yeah, that, that looks like everything else out there.
Well, and the other thing about forerunners is.
They're, they're kind of like Toyota Camrys.
They're automotive cockroaches.
You can't kill them.
You can't hurt them.
They'll run forever.
You know, it's not unusual to find forerunners for sale.
They got more than a quarter million miles on them.
People just drive the hell out of them.
Hey, Toyota, you got a little GM smeared on your front end there.
That's, that's not a, wow.
That's a lot of front end.
I wish they hadn't gone that direction with them because I really like the forerunners,
but I do not care for the new ones.
I think that's too bad.
There's a Lego emblem on there someplace.
That's about right.
I was telling you earlier today when I called and we were trying to figure some
things out for what's coming up that this is still my favorite thing to do.
And that is 100% true.
This is all your fault.
The show was, the show was Mark's idea and he had the format and, you know,
the ads evolved over time, but he knew how to put this together.
And I was just, you know, a nerd.
I was a chatty nerd and we've been doing this.
We're coming up on eight years and I still love doing this.
I still love doing this.
I never don't enjoy being in the studio and talking to people and guys like Greg
Stanley, who have been around and know a lot and they've seen a lot.
And I just can't imagine not doing this every week.
And this is a very long winded way of me saying, thank you to everyone,
Mark, especially you, but all of our guests and all of our listeners.
Thank you so very much for spending time with Driven Radio.
We absolutely, absolutely do love doing this and we wouldn't be able to do it
without the support of our listeners.
You can find us online at drivenradioshow.com, follow us on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram at Driven Radio Show and on LinkedIn as Driven Radio Show podcast.
If you have a story you would like to tell or a 19-mile mooglide you'd like to show me
or someone you would like us to interview, contact me at Brett.
That's B-R-E-T-T at drivenradioshow.com.
I am Brett Hatfield for Mark L. Groves.
Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time here on Driven Radio.
About this episode
Greg Stanley, returning from the Collector Car Podcast, joins Driven Radio for a wide-ranging chat on buying smart, what makes cars collectible, and where the market may be headed. He shares his biggest first-car mistake (not learning the details first), explains how provenance/rarity/performance separate collectibles from “just old,” and discusses undervalued eras like 2000–2015 “last of the analog” cars. They also debate restomods vs concours cars, touch Kissimmee auction fireworks, and highlight specific models (Ferrari 550/575, early NSX, 7.3 Excursion, and more).
Original notes
Brett and Mark welcome returning guest Greg Stanley of the Collector Car podcast to discuss his new book, the biggest mistakes most people make when buying their first collector car, the best and worst Ferraris to buy, and the worst car he's ever owned. All this and much more on Driven Radio Show!
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