Ep. 317: Here Are The Lessons We've Learned From Buying 6 Cars In 6 Months!

This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of showstopping moves, and 100 years

of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once-in-a-century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of showstopping moves,

and 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once-in-a-century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Music

Hey guys, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and this is Joy's Festivus, Andre.

What's the Festivus one?

All of the above.

Thank you for joining us on this podcast.

Yep, if you're watching this live, then it's just before Christmas,

and if you're watching this not live, we hope you've had a wonderful and

merry and joyful Festivus, or whatever you celebrate.

Yes.

So today we're going to be talking about six lessons we learned from the six cars

that we bought in the last six months.

Wow, that's a lot of sixes.

That's a lot of sixes.

That's a lot of cars we bought.

So we bought some very interesting vehicles,

spanning from 1965 all the way to 2025, Andre.

So yeah, we don't discriminate.

No.

We purchase, you know, classics.

We purchase old beat-up cars.

Brand new, amazing cars.

All of the above.

Yeah, and I'm going to throw in a truck because you're usually on the truck

podcast at the end of this.

I'm going to pick one of our trucks, or maybe you can pick the truck,

but I've got a truck I want to put in there

that you should also comment on because obviously this year we also

bought some trucks.

And where's Tommy, by the way?

Tommy's doing a video because we're short staffed for the holiday,

so you're stuck with me and Andre.

Okay, there you go.

All right, so let's start with the one that you drove the most

recently, or most recently, and that is, of course,

we traded in our Corvette, sorry, the C8.

And we just got a sugar cookie from Mazda.

Mazda sent us sugar cookies, and I just ate one.

It's stuck in my, thank you, Mazda, for the sugar cookies.

They're very yummy, and we've been eating a lot of them this way.

Yeah, so we bought, initially we bought a Chevy Corvette Stingray

earlier this year.

C8.

Yes, C8.

And then it was the 2020, and then we traded it on a Z06

because Z06 prices have come down dramatically.

So the regular car we bought was like $65,000, or maybe $70,000,

and then we got $65,000 for trading it in.

And our car, which is this mistred Z06, was $138,000.

It's top of the line, 3LT, so it's got all the bells and whistles.

But because everybody wants to upgrade to the Z01,

the Z06s are now gettable and affordable, which is nice

because I kind of feel like it's the sweet spot in the Corvette lineup.

And just to recap, there are now four Corvettes, C8s.

There's the basting ray, then there is the e-ray,

then there is the Z06, then there is the Z01,

and coming soon is the Z01X fulfilling the promise the GM made

that they're going to sell us a car with 1200 horsepower.

I don't know if they promised that,

but does anybody need 1200 horsepower?

I think Paul Gerard, our race car driver, does.

And so if you're watching this video,

or if you're listening to this, you can go over to TFLCar

and you'll see that we brought back a video series

we used to do called Hot or Not,

where we went to our local IMI race track

and we set track records using Paul, our race car driver.

And the fastest that a car had ever gone was like 101,

I forget, like point.

And change.

Yeah, point like five or something.

And guess what?

The Corvette beat the track record.

Yeah, it's a new record holder.

It was amazing.

I was there too, helping with some filming

and it was super, super day.

Yeah, I mean, the sound of that car is incredible.

And the difference, of course,

between a base Corvette and the 06

is that the 06 has a V8 with a flat-plane crank.

In other words, Corvette kind of benchmark Ferrari.

And so instead of having kind of this lumpy American V8,

which I love, think of like a Harley, right?

It's like a heartbeat, like boom, boom, boom.

Yeah.

Now it's got more of a much higher screaming kind of,

let's call it Le Mans sound.

And it's a very different car.

It's much more alive.

It's much more of a sports car,

much less of just a grand tour.

And it's pretty cool that the Corvette

can do both of those things, depending on which one you choose.

So what did you think of the Corvette when you drove it?

Well, first of all, the 06.

Yeah, so the record that we said you could watch that

was just under a minute.

And the sound, like you said, was incredible.

And it doesn't matter if it's traditional V8 versus not

traditional.

Basically, this car has a high revving engine, right?

That's kind of what it means to be really a flat plane crank.

That means, what, 8,500 RPM?

I mean, it's possible.

This is a naturally aspirated engine, right?

Which is amazing.

It makes, what, 670 horsepower?

So you go from almost 500 in the regular sting rate

to now 670.

So you gain 170 horsepower.

A substantial amount.

Yeah.

Huge amount.

You lose torque though.

It's less torquey.

Yeah.

So it's not really a truck engine.

No, it's not a truck engine.

It's not a truck engine.

So don't expect a Silverado to have this engine anytime soon.

But I don't know, Roman, if I was ever able to really get

all of the performance, you know, just driving from

Fort Collins to Boulder, right?

It's really hard to get all of the performance

out of a car like this or even a fraction of it

driving it every day.

So taking that to a track, even like a short session

like we did in this video, I think it's really, really key

to really enjoy this car.

Yeah.

And so it's just, it's almost like a completely different car.

I can't, I don't know any other model of car

that has these dual personalities.

When you get the base sting rate, you've got kind of

this grand tour because you've got the magnetic shock.

So they, you know, do a good job and

I kind of ironing out the imperfections in the road.

The steering's a little slower.

The engine just kind of lopes along a lot of bottom and torque.

And then you go to the Z06 and it's a completely different car.

The steering just is alive.

You've got much fatter tires.

So on the back, you're at 335, which is incredible.

Humongous.

So it kind of tends a tram line.

So you got to kind of stay on top of it.

And that engine just loves to scream.

You just want to be up there in the 7 to 8,000 rpm range

and just like, you know, just want to throw in those shifts.

And it's, it's like two different cars.

And like I said, the lesson I learned is I don't know of any other car

that has these dual personalities, maybe a 911

because they have so many variants.

I want to say there's at least 25 variants of the 911.

But, but even the 911, I think if you go from like a GT3 RS

to like a 911 T, which would be kind of the base,

they're still very similar.

Whereas the Corvette, like I said,

it feels like two different cars.

I got to say, Andre, at first it took me a little bit

of time to get used to the Z06 because I kind of got used

to a Corvette being a much more American style of performance.

And now you go to a European style performance car.

And the change is dramatic.

Exactly.

So I have a request.

Yeah, Roman, I need to borrow this car tonight.

Okay.

Why?

Well, I'm going to go into the canyons.

No, I'm going to go to the canyon road.

Help Santa.

On Christmas Eve.

You think people are going to be out there driving.

It's a small request.

It's not a very big request.

Yeah.

No, no, but like a really nice canyon road

or maybe, you know, just a twisty road.

I'm in this car.

You can enjoy this car tremendously, I think.

But legally, doing everything legally, of course.

And the other thing about the car is it's such a super car bargain.

Right.

So this was sticker on this is 138.

We didn't have like all the track package stuff.

So we didn't have the arrow on it because, you know,

I don't like race cars for the road.

I like sports cars for the road.

This is the sports car of the bunch.

And it just for, you know, we got a substantially,

we got a substantial discount.

It was discounted $8,000 because, you know, everybody wants a ZR1.

And so I don't think there's a 911 or a Ferrari or a Lamborghini

that you can touch that provides this kind of performance.

Double this price.

Not just this price.

Double this price.

Oh, yeah, no, no, no.

Yeah, it's incredible what this car offers.

And yet the thing that always is a headscratcher for me

is just how much the Europeans, you know, diss the Corvette.

Every time I hear Europeans talk about it,

and I'm talking about the Brits who have a wonderful think

of Top Gear heritage of, you know, reviewing cars

and kind of understanding what sports cars are.

None of them take the Corvette serious.

And I think that probably has to do with the fact

that for a long time, of course,

the Corvette was front engine and any serious sports car

had to be mid-engined.

But now that it's mid-engined,

they're still having hard time with it.

They can seem to wrap their head around the fact

that GM could build an incredible world-class performance car,

which is what you get.

We haven't driven the ZR1 in the reviews I've seen,

and you've probably seen them too.

Everybody is over the moon.

That's got 1,000 horsepower.

But I have this firm belief

that anything over 600 horsepower

is probably too much for the road.

It just seems like, and yes, of course,

all you Hellcat people out there

and all you TRX people out there,

you're like, no, there's no such thing.

There's no replacement for displacement,

but I don't know if you can use more than 600 horsepower.

So I kind of feel like this is a sweet spot.

Yeah, I agree.

And a good example of that would be

anybody who has a Tesla model that's plaid

or anybody who has a Rivian quad-border

where you're over 1,000 horsepower.

How often do you guys now be honest

if you have one of those?

How often do you actually use 1,000 horsepower?

And those are four-wheel drive cars

or all-wheel drive cars versus two-wheel drive.

Do you like it?

I don't know.

It's hard.

So after you drove the Corvette,

do you want one?

Yeah.

Which one did you like better?

Did you trade the other one?

I did.

Yeah, tell me your take on it.

I'll take the Z06 all day long.

So the other thing what I didn't,

I wasn't in love with,

with the base car, the Stingray,

is kind of its styling, its look.

It was a little bit narrower, right?

So Z06 is a wider body.

It's a wide body and it's got those wheels and tires

that really fill out those, you know,

those corners.

And I think it looks a lot more attractive.

I am not a huge fan of blacked-out wheels.

I think I would have gone with maybe a silver or polished.

Yeah, for a long time black-out wheels were the thing.

I didn't really have a choice with this.

I didn't spec it.

It was, Johnson's, when we bought it, had ordered it.

Yeah.

And so this was sitting on the showroom floor,

so I bought it from the showroom floor.

I can paint the wheels for you if you want.

Don't paint the wheels for me.

Okay.

No, I-

And it's also TFL colors.

Look around here.

Red and black.

Yeah, so that was another reason I went for it.

Yes, that's another reason why I need to borrow it tonight

for Christmas, because it is red.

No, no, I think it's a super car.

And I mean it in every sense of the word, right?

I love the way it looks, way better than the base C8.

The sound it makes is really almost exotic.

It makes exotic exhaust noises and actually fit inside of it.

Do you fit inside of it pretty well?

I fit kind of.

It's like maybe I'm excelling and the thing is large.

Okay.

So I can kind of get into it and you're taller than I am.

But yeah, it's a little tight.

I think both of us drove it together and you can fit in it

if you're a big dude.

So I don't know with a helmet, maybe you would struggle.

Well, Paul certainly did struggle.

Well, Paul is not quite as tall as you and I.

That's being nice.

I think you would admit he's a perfect race car driver size.

Exactly.

That's what you want to be.

Yes, you want to be lightweight.

Like he is very muscular, very handsome.

You know, that's what Paul really is.

True that.

And what do you think of the styling?

You like the styling?

It's supposed to be like a fighter plane, right?

It's got that kind of fighter plane.

There's a lot going on in a Corvette and it might be

less elegant and more fussy maybe.

You know what Corvette I would buy?

If not this, I would buy an E-Ray actually.

Oh, you want the all-wheel drive?

Yeah.

So I think I, because the E-Ray also has the wider body, right?

So it also doesn't.

It doesn't?

It's got the smaller engine.

No.

Yeah, the E-Ray doesn't have the wider body.

Only the 0601 and 010X.

Because you need the wider body according to Chevy

because you need those bigger air intakes

to cool the bigger engine off.

And the E-Ray has the...

Can you look up an image of an E-Ray?

E-Ray has a Stingray body because it's got the front-wheel drive.

It's electrified so it's got the battery

and then it's got the two in the middle.

And it's got a motor in the front.

Anyway, I like the E-Ray.

It is $108,000 according to this site.

Starts at $108,000.

Starts at $108,600.

But two and a half seconds because it's all wheel drive.

It looks wider, doesn't it?

You might be right.

It might have the wider stands.

I thought it was.

And I know a lot of people kind of poo-poo the E-Ray, right?

They say it's not the real Corvette.

It's not the real this and that.

But I think it's more of an all-season,

all-year-round car.

And I think if I was buying a dream Corvette,

it may actually have to be the E-Ray.

First of all, you're never going to find one for $108,000.

So forget about that.

Well, are they gettable?

Are they used?

I mean, there could be some used ones, too.

Yeah, maybe I used them, but on a new one.

The dealers never order the base ones.

Okay, Chevy Corvette E-Ray, let's go rear wheel size

because that'll tell you whether it's got the bigger

wider stands.

So let's see what the rear wheel size is.

Can you build one, Cole?

Can you do a build and buy?

If you're watching us, we're kind of on our Chevy.

So must, yeah, because it says it's wearing a 345, 25R21.

That's what AI says.

Wow.

Yeah, 345, 25R21s.

Those are big fat tires, Roman.

Big fat tires.

And I don't think I would do a convertible.

Where are you at on Coupe versus convertible?

Because in the Coupe, you can remove the roof section,

and I think that's plenty for me.

I'm not that fancy.

I don't want to push a button and have something fold,

and I can lose.

It's going to be a heavier car, a more complicated car.

The problem with the Corvette Targa, which is what it is,

when you remove that rear panel, is that it's pretty loud.

You get a lot of wind buffeting, and you get a lot of wind noise.

My neighbor had the convertible.

So I don't know.

I have never driven a convertible.

Or if I have, I've forgotten because I went on the program.

But I would say with the Targa Top, it's not a very comfortable.

The trick about convertibles and Targas,

and we'll get to that when we talk about the Bentley GTC,

is when you take the top off or down,

you want it to be quiet so that you can have a conversation.

And in the Corvette, it's just a lot of wind buffeting.

And so it's kind of cool.

And if you're driving like to a Supercruising Golden,

where you're putting down the road at 25 miles an hour,

it's fine.

But on the highway, you would not

want to drive it with the top off.

Unless, of course, you really enjoy having

a lot of wind in your hair.

So yeah, I think I would go E-Ray, actually.

Because it does have that look that I really like.

It does have that fat tire in the back.

And especially in this blue color with polished wheel,

I think that's the ticket.

OK.

That's my ticket.

All right.

There you go.

So the E-Ray is the one for Andre.

The 06 is the one for me.

Because even though you get 1,000 horsepower with the ZR1,

those are going to be over 200,000,

which is kind of above.

Which misses the point, right?

The Corvette is kind of every person.

Probably the cheapest 1,000 horsepower sports car you could buy.

Sure.

But I could dream about a $100,000 car.

That seems attainable.

But I could stop dreaming about $200,000 car.

I'm saying it's almost.

It becomes unattainable.

It's moving into this unobtainable level of vehicle.

This isn't just a game.

It's a once in a generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-Year Tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks,

100 years of showstopping moves,

and 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-Year Tour.

This isn't just a game.

It's a once in a generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-Year Tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks,

100 years of showstopping moves,

and 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-Year Tour.

Let's move on.

The next car that we bought, and this was just kind of...

Some cars, you go hunt down, and some cars come to you.

This one came to me, and you're never going to understand this

unless you've had it actually happen to you.

Have you had that happen to you, where a car has actually come to you instead of you?

Yes.

Tell me.

Remember a couple of years back?

Oh, yeah. We've also through Charlie.

The Volga.

Yeah, it was through Charlie.

Both of us got these cars.

Charlie is a mechanic here in Boulder.

Yes.

Both of these cars.

So, yeah, the Volga came to you.

So, the Gaz GAZ-21, Charlie texts Tommy and says,

Tommy, look at what's in my garage right now at my shop.

And I look at the picture.

Tommy shows me his phone, and it's from the 60s.

It's a Soviet car, the Gaz GAZ-21.

And there it is.

There it is.

So, Charlie, the car found me through Charlie.

Yeah, and the sports 800 found me through Charlie as well.

So, what happened to the Gaz?

I forget now.

What did you do with it?

Well, my family wasn't in love with it as much as I was.

Yeah, well, I mean.

Even though I ran to the bank, the instant Tommy showed me the picture.

Yeah.

And I...

You ran to the bank to buy it.

Yeah, I grabbed five grand out of the bank and I bought it.

My family wasn't in love with it.

They didn't like Soviet era cars.

But I think I got it out of my system, right?

I had it for about a year.

I drove it around and had the...

It was a V6 swapped.

It had a Buick V6.

So, you experienced it, it's what you're saying.

Yeah, I experienced it and moved it on.

It now lives somewhere in Los Angeles.

So, about two years ago, I went to Japan with Toyota,

and they took us to the Heritage Center, you know,

like Porsche has, like Mercedes has where they fix...

And I saw this little tiny sports car,

and I always thought that the first sports car that Toyota built

was the 2000 GT, which is this million-dollar...

Unobtainium car.

Unobtainium car where they built 300 of them,

and Akiyo Toyota has two, one in Japan, apparently one here.

And it was in a James Bond film as a convertible

where they actually had to cut the top off.

Can you Google that picture?

So, sports 800, James Bond...

No, 2000.

2000 GT, James Bond, yeah.

And you'll see this picture.

It was, I think, the first Toyota ever to be in A.

And so, I went to...

There it is. That's the picture.

Oh, wow. Was Sean Connery?

And he was tall, so he didn't fit,

so they had to chop the top off.

Anyway, so I went to their Heritage Center,

and they had this little tiny sports car

that they were working on.

I'm like, what the heck is this?

And they said this is called the Sports 800,

and the Sports 800 is Toyota's very first sports car.

And just like you, Charlie bought one five years ago.

It was imported from Japan.

And I had no idea what this thing was

until, like I said, it went to Japan

and saw it being reconstructed there.

And it's very much loved in Japan.

It's called the Hachi, the Yota Hachi...

Hachi Yota, which stands for 800, I think.

Yeah.

Either Yota Hachi or Hachi Yota.

I don't know Japanese, but it sounds good.

It's one of those two, yeah.

And what makes it so unique and so...

It's Toyota's first sports car, and it's a target.

It's got three distinctions.

So number one is the first sports car.

Number two, it's a first target.

Really?

Yeah, so before the 9-11 target,

this came out like a year before then.

And it's also the first Toyota to be sold

both in a left hand and a right hand drive

because they built them

for American servicemen living in Okinawa.

And so when Charlie said that he had one,

and he was thinking about selling it

because he was having some medical issues,

I said, well, why don't you trade it

with me for the...

We have a Citroen 2CV.

Well, we don't have it.

Charlie has it now.

So we gave them the 2CV plus another $10,000.

And we ended up with this car as,

I think, a piece of Toyota history,

an iconic piece of Toyota history.

Now, they're not worth that much yet

because people don't know what they are.

They're like $40,000, give or take.

And what makes them unique is the fact

that they have a two-cylinder boxer engine.

Imagine that.

It puts out 44 horsepower.

It looks like a motorcycle engine.

It does.

It's that small.

It's so tiny.

Yeah.

Well, it's 800 cc, right?

Yeah.

Maybe you could find the...

There's probably a shot of it

in that video somewhere

where we go under the hood.

Well, when you said we just traded

four and bought an 800 Toyota,

I had no idea what it was.

Nobody knows what it is.

Yeah.

And Toyota had a problem at this time.

Datsun, which of course became Nissan,

had a sports car.

I want to say, I don't know what it was,

but they were selling it.

Look how tiny that is.

It's tiny.

But they only had a car called the Publica

which had this power train,

which only produced 44 horsepower.

And so they had to come up with a sports car

that would actually be quick

because this car will apparently

do 100 miles an hour, 160 kilometers an hour.

And so what they did was they came up

with a very tiny and a very light sports car

so that it would be quick and fast.

So this car, get this,

weighs 1,290 pounds

because the hood, the target,

and the trunk are made of aluminum.

And they actually borrowed...

The chief engineer came from the aerospace industry.

So if you look at it,

the car is very aerodynamic.

And of course they learned about

the use of aluminum from aerospace.

And so you can have a 44 horsepower car

that is relatively quick

if the car is super light,

which this is.

It's amazing.

I haven't got the chance to drive it yet.

I know we're just kind of moving it

from our ranch over here to Boulder.

And I really wish I could take it for a little drive.

We'll take it for a spin.

The fear I have, of course, is they only built...

Well, they only built,

I think about 1,000 of them, 900 of them.

And apparently there are only about 300 left in the world.

And so I am terrified to drive it

because if you crash into something,

every part of that car is going to have to be fabricated.

You're not going to be able to actually buy it

because there are no parts exist for that thing

unless you find one from another sports 800,

which only a few of them exist in the U.S.

So that's going to be a tricky thing to do.

I just wanted to give a shout out

to a few people who are here live with us.

So first, Bryce, Jason, Chris and Love Lund.

Thank you for joining us, Merry Christmas.

There is also nothing to see here.

I'm here in the chat room as well.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us very, very much.

Yeah.

And so I bought this car as kind of an investment

because I figure to this first sports car

has got to go up in value,

especially since there are less than 300 of them in the world.

So at some point,

people are going to realize that these things exist

and they're going to want them.

If you're a true Toyota collector fan

and if you're a true Toyota sports car collector fan,

all roads lead to the sports 800.

There's no other way around it.

And so I'm hoping that it appreciates.

We're going to put it in our studio.

It's kind of a little bit of office furniture.

So we had the Fiat Cinquecento sitting in our offices.

It's the only car that actually fits

through the double doors.

And now the car...

And this one should fit also.

Well, the double doors are 58 inches

and the car is 58 inches.

So we're going to put some Crisco on the side.

And we're going to...

I think we could always, it's so light,

we could just pick it up and put it on two wheels

and scoot it in.

Yeah, 1,200 pounds is amazing.

I mean, there's some motorcycles that weigh about the same.

So you're saying if I do drive it, not to crash it.

Basically, that's what you're saying.

Yes, please don't crash it,

because it will not be replaceable, Andre.

All right.

Now, I also bought a Bentley.

Well, that's quite a change.

You went from a 1,200 pound car to a 1,200 million pound car.

To a 5,000 pound car.

And apparently all Bentley Contis,

let's go, the British call it the Conti.

It's short for the Continental.

And they came in two flavors.

They came in the Continental GT and the Continental GTC.

And the GTC stands for convertible.

So GTC for convertible.

And they all apparently are either in Southern Florida

or Southern California.

This is where they all live.

At least the convertibles.

Makes sense, makes sense.

Now, ours is a 2007.

And it is when Volkswagen purchased Bentley.

So what makes it unique and what I thought we needed to own

as TFL was a 12-cylinder.

And this has a W12.

This has a W12, which is an iconic engine.

Volkswagen under Pierre decided to take two VR,

what were those sixes?

VR sixes, yeah.

And combine them into a W shape.

And it produces over 500 horsepower.

Here comes the engine.

And I think it's going to be an iconic car

because 12 cylinders are far and few between.

I think Ferrari just came out with the 12-cylindry.

Don't chase a cylinder, I think.

But for the most part, 12 cylinders kind of came out of favor.

And the reason for that was not only are they thirsty,

12 cylinders, but because while they do provide

a lot of power and torque, they're also very heavy.

And so there are better ways to get horsepower

in a touring car that doesn't have the penalty of weight.

So the newest version of these Continentals,

of these Contis, have kind of the Volkswagen Group's

traditional VA twin turbo, which is lighter

and produces more horsepower.

So you've got this big kind of boat anchor

sitting at the front.

But the upside to all that weight is this car is substantial.

I mean, you can really feel the heft of this thing

and it feels very safe and very secure.

And it's got this kind of magic ability,

just like a Range Rover does,

to just make you feel like everything is okay

with the world once you're behind the wheel.

Like you're in this kind of cozy little world of your own.

And what's happening on the outside doesn't matter.

It's the fact that you're just in a very secure,

very happy and very luxurious place.

And these cars, this car was 200,000 when it was new in 2007.

And we bought it for 35,000.

So it did depreciate quite a lot.

Yes, because of course.

But it's been almost 20 years, 18 years or 19.

So I have a confession to make.

I have been lusting after one of these two.

Well, you and I took, well, not this year car,

but a little bit later version, ice racing.

Remember this?

Yeah, the speed.

Yeah, the speed version of this.

And just the presence of it, I mean, the whole car,

like you said, it exudes,

it has a lot of presence inside and outside

and getting a convertible version of it.

I think what I'm pointing to is the generation.

There's the speed, right?

Yeah, we took this ice racing, which is an odd thing to do,

but we did it anyways.

It didn't turn out really well.

Why didn't you buy this one?

I mean, this one looks nicer.

Well, first of all, I think it was black,

or it's the dark blue, I forget, black or dark blue.

Secondly, it would have blown the budget.

I think that one was like 70,000.

So it went up in price quite a bit.

The lesson, the thing about these expensive Bentley's

that people are terrified of is exactly what happened to me.

Maintenance.

Yeah, so first of all, I had this happen twice.

We'll talk about this in the Porsche too.

I just did a video on it.

So I called the dealer and I said,

does everything work?

And he said, yes.

And then I said, just to make sure I'm going to have it

do a pre-purchase inspection.

So I said, will you please take it down to the shop,

a Bentley shop, and have them do an inspection.

And they charged me $500 to do this comprehensive inspection.

I think I got like 50 pictures.

And they said, really, the only thing wrong with it

was the trunk doesn't open and close very well, which is true.

And it needs an alignment.

So I had them do the alignment.

I had them try to do the trunk.

And that didn't necessarily fix it.

But it did kind of open better.

But you had confidence after that inspection.

Yeah, and I bought the 2007 specifically

because they have these vacuum lines.

And the vacuum lines go bad, obviously, after 20 years.

And for some reason, Bentley or the Volkswagen group

had decided in the earlier ones, the pre-2005s,

to route them under the engine.

And to get at them, to replace them,

you have to take the engine out.

And so if you take it to your Bentley dealership

to have those vacuum lines replaced,

it's a $13,000 pair.

Yes.

And so I specifically had them check the vacuum lines

and they said they were fine.

Great.

So pick up the car, pay for it, pre-purchase inspection done.

Dealer says it's good to go.

And the first thing I noticed immediately

is that the memory seats don't work.

Oh, I mean, the memory feature or just moving the seat?

The seat works.

The memory feature doesn't work.

OK.

So that's done.

Second thing I noticed, and I'm pretty good at finding

these things immediately, which means I probably

should have flown down and inspected it,

the little button that unlocks the car

on the door handle doesn't work.

It works on the passenger side, not on the driver's side.

So if you're leaving it, you've got to use the key fob to lock it.

You can't push the little button.

That's two.

Number three, soft clothes.

These cars have every conceivable feature.

Soft clothes, I love soft clothes.

It's one of the, you know what?

That's my soft clothes is like my Kryptonite.

It's my Kryptonite.

I just love soft clothes so much.

And it's stupid, right?

It's completely, why do you like soft clothes?

You can just close the door.

You don't have to just jet.

It's actually harder in some ways,

because if you push it too hard, it closes anyway.

So with soft clothes, you just got to get used

to just gently getting into it.

And it tightens up.

And it tightens up, yeah.

But there's something about that that makes me so happy.

Every time I see the door, go, pfft, get sucked in.

And on this one, the driver's side door does not work.

The passenger side works.

Oh boy.

But in order to chase those gremlins,

I mean, that could be very expensive,

or undoable.

Well, there's more to the story.

If you guys can hang out with me.

So that's three.

And then I start driving it.

And I notice that the passenger side mirror shakes

like a scared poodle.

There's something about just vibrates.

Just vibrates.

So everything in the world is like all vibrates.

No, that's nauseating.

Every time you look over on there,

outside passenger side mirror.

So I'm like, okay, well,

I can live with these three things.

These are not mission critical.

It's an old car.

It's got 50,000 miles, right?

Here's the rule.

And I think a good rule of thumb to know

when you buy a car like this,

you have to set aside money

because you're going to have to,

and I usually set aside at least $5,000.

We'll get to that in a second to fix it.

And even if you buy the nicest,

most sorted Pebble Beach car,

it's always going to have like

seven things wrong with it.

If you're buying classic cars,

that's just the way of the world.

Maybe somebody out there has,

maybe Jay Leno has a perfectly sorted car

that where everything works,

but I've never run into one.

Never.

Well, maybe we learned that actually.

This is not on our list.

Maybe the last car is this.

But the ZR1.

Oh, God, yeah.

I know you put that on the list.

But the ZR1 had low miles,

looked amazing,

but it was one of those cars

that probably sat around not too much.

Yeah.

Right?

So sometimes buying a driver

is better than buying a car.

Yeah.

Buying a car.

So actually a few more miles

is actually better

because that car is moving

and being used.

And like with the car we'll get to next,

even though it's moving,

it's breaking and it's getting fixed.

If it just sits,

it just doesn't get fixed.

And cars age like we do

when they sit or when they sleep,

in this case.

Anyway, so those were the things wrong with it.

And I called my friend James

and I was going to drive it back to Colorado.

It's a long drive.

So I'm super excited.

The other thing that breaks on these

is the hard top.

It's very complicated.

I mean, sorry, the soft top.

Very complicated.

But I wanted the convertible.

If you're going to have a Bentley,

especially this car,

you should have convertible.

And by the way,

when the convertible is down

and you've got that wind deflector up

at 70 miles an hour,

I could talk to you in a whisper

and you would hear me.

Really?

So it doesn't have any buffeting problems?

No buffeting.

It's whatsoever.

It's absolutely whisper-cross-wide.

You could listen to Chardet.

She's got a very kind of low,

sexy voice.

You can listen to Chardet

and you would have a wonderful time

as opposed to AC DC

that you could barely hear in the Corvette.

You mean Ozzie's Boneyard?

Which Nathan uses.

That's Nathan Ozzie's Boneyard.

Yeah.

So the car has these little niggles

which are not a big deal.

So I'm driving,

and I'm driving to pick up James

and sure as you know what,

the check engine light comes on.

And I can't tell you how devastated I was.

Because now I've got a 2,500-mile drive

and at this point I was like,

should I go just return this car?

We'll get my money back

from the pre-inspection purchase

because I had done everything right

and yet the check engine light

still comes on

and that could be coincidence.

So then I pick up James.

I see it's right there.

It's on the dash.

Yeah.

And I'm so bummed.

So we get a code reader

so I don't have to spend 100 bucks

for a code reader

and it turns out that the code

is to do with the emissions

which also has to do with

one of the banks maybe

isn't getting the right amount of fuel.

It's either getting too much

or too little fuel.

And that is the issue that happens

when you have those vacuum line problems.

So specifically the question

I had asked about.

Your heart sank probably.

Oh, it sank so much.

Several feet.

Because now I'm looking at

not a 13,000 because I got the later one.

So you can replace the vacuum lines

on this car

without having to remove the engine

but you still have to remove

the steering box

so it's like a $6,000 repair.

So I call up the shop

and I'm like, hey guys,

what the heck?

And they said, oh, we checked the

vacuum lines on top

and those had been replaced

but they didn't check the

vacuum lines below the engine.

Oh, oh, they forgot.

Is that another $500?

I don't know.

I'm like, I just assumed

when I said check the vacuum lines

that you would check all of them.

Yes.

So I was like I was

because now I'm stuck

because I either have to drive home

or I have to buy a ticket

to fly home

within a day

which isn't going to be cheap.

So we looked at the ticket prices.

It was $500 for each of us.

So it would have been a $1,000

to fly home

and then I'd have to go.

This was

that was a holiday weekend

and then I'd have to go back

to the dealer

and try to get my money back

and then try to get my

and I'm like screw it.

We'll just try to sort this

out. Maybe it's something simple

because one of the things that causes it

is when the fuel cap

doesn't tighten enough.

So we go to the parts dealer

and we're like, do you have a fuel cap

for a Bentley?

$2,000 on the GTC?

They're laughing.

And then James is like,

didn't the Volkswagen?

Go ahead.

So Volkswagen used this engine.

Exactly.

In many different vehicles.

Didn't the FATON have the same engine?

And I'm like, yeah.

And I go, do you have a fuel cap?

Oh, and they said, oh, by the way,

if we could order it,

but it'll be 87 bucks.

Okay.

For the Bentley fuel cap.

And I'm like, do you have a fuel cap

for Volkswagen FATON with the W12?

And they're like, oh, we have one of those.

Seven bucks.

Oh, oh, how nice.

And it worked.

Okay, there you go.

So you're changing the fuel cap right now

where we're kind of watching now.

Yeah, seven bucks.

So it worked.

It still didn't, you know,

so then we clear the check engine light

and we decide we're going to go for it.

And we start driving back home.

So 200,000 miles,

that's like a two day trip.

Even with two of us try.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of miles per day.

That's a lot.

No matter who you are.

Actually, it was a three day.

It was like two and a half days

because you're doing basically

a thousand miles a day.

And you've done that.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

So the light comes back on later that day

but at this point we're kind of up by Atlanta.

So I'm like, okay, clear it again.

And so basically we drove it home

and kept clearing the check engine light.

And then when I got it home,

it hasn't come back.

So maybe it was just upset.

It didn't want to leave Florida?

I'm thinking it was just upset for a while.

Maybe the vacuum had something to do

with like the altitude up here.

Or maybe it's just the long drives somehow

when you're driving it for hours on end

that causes the check engine light to come on.

And then I took it to our local little shop here

and I said, hey, I've got some money.

You know, can you fix these things?

And they charged me $200 to say,

yeah, but it's going to be expensive.

And they did nothing.

What is this?

I know.

So is it true, Roman,

that when you pull up in an expensive car?

Actually, they made the trunk worse.

Now it doesn't work at all.

So the trunk used to open.

It used to kind of open halfway and then stop

and then open the rest of the way.

Now it doesn't even open.

Now you've got to click the button

and manually you've got to slowly open it up

and then manually you've got to close it.

Would you have to use your muscles

to open and close the trunk?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, you've got to,

it's not as a motor,

but you've got to kind of help it along.

So I just got charged $200 for nothing, basically.

So what is this?

Like when you pull up in an expensive car,

people assume you're stupid.

I mean, what is the deal here?

They assume you have a lot of money

and then you can spend a lot of money.

To be fair, they were like,

well, it's going to take a lot of,

you've got to get Bentley parts.

And I suggested to them,

I said, why don't you take like the door handle

from the one side and swap it with the other one?

I don't care if it doesn't work

on the passenger side, right?

That little button or the soft clothes.

It's probably not swappable.

It probably isn't swappable.

I don't know, but I'm just leaving it.

Okay.

I'm just leaving it.

But the light hasn't come back.

The light hasn't come back,

which is the main part.

Okay.

So the light hasn't come back.

The trunk doesn't work.

The little door button doesn't work.

But you know, everything else works.

And it's a joy to drive.

We also have Alan here.

Thank you, Adam and Tad.

So thank you.

Soft clothes to Roman is my CTIS.

So central tire inflation system.

Oh, that's a feature.

Yeah.

Well, that's that's a that's a unimog feature.

That is a unimog feature.

That's not a Bentley feature.

Yeah, I would.

I would think Bentley could do it

because they charge so much.

It'd be cool if they did.

Bentley, there's a free one for you.

Go central.

Hey, Bentley, on the next Bentega SUV, CTIS.

Okay.

If you're a maintenance supervisor

for a commercial property,

you've had to deal with everything

from leaky faucets to flickering light bulbs.

But nothing's worse than that ancient boiler

that's lived in the building

since the day it was built 50 years ago.

It's enough to make anyone lose their cool.

That's where Granger comes in.

With industrial grade products

and dependable fast delivery,

Granger can help with any challenge

from worn out components to everyday necessities.

Call click Granger.com or just stop by Granger

for the ones who get it done.

If you're the purchasing manager

at a manufacturing plant,

you know having a trusted partner

makes all the difference.

That's why hands down,

you count on Granger for auto-reordering.

With on-time restocks,

your team will have the cut resistant gloves

they need at the start of their shift.

And you can end your day knowing

they've got safety well in hand.

Call 1-800-GRANGER.

Click Granger.com or just stop by

Granger for the ones who get it done.

All right.

Before we go to another story of bull,

let's skip and I'm going to say this.

Per dollar, the best car we bought this year

we're going to the Fiat Cole.

Per dollar, the very best car we bought this year.

The most fun, the most fun to drive,

the most comments, the most entertaining,

the most joyful is the Fiat Spider 2000.

Here it is.

So we bought this car at our donated car auction.

Somebody donated this car

and as you can tell it's had a rather interesting life.

Well the paint has faded a little bit

on some areas of it

but also it's pretty clean.

Yeah, there's a dent on one side

but somebody replaced a roof, it's a convertible.

So this is a 1976 Fiat Spider

that looks like a baby Ferrari

because the same guy who did,

I think it was the old Ferrari California,

the old one, not the new one, designed this.

And so if you go back and look at

like 60s and 70s Ferrari without the bumper there,

this is a very much a Ferrari-like car.

And we bought this at this donated car auction.

This was definitely donated.

Somebody like had, you know, had enough.

It had just under 100,000 miles.

So somebody really appreciated this car too.

It's a five-speed manual and new top.

I think we spent just $4,000 for it,

new exhaust on it.

And it is so much fun to drive.

I can't even begin to express

to tell you just how fun this car is,

more smiles per mile

than any of these cars that we're talking about.

So when I heard about this first,

so when you said,

hey, Andre, we just purchased this Fiat,

at first I just kind of threw my hands up in the air

and I was wondering why,

because I didn't understand, right?

And then you're like, Andre, take it for a drive, right?

Remember, you came back at like,

it was like 4pm or something like that.

I took it for a drive,

kind of a short one, maybe five, six, seven miles.

And the transmission just always,

it's easy to shift, it just falls into hand.

Once again, it's an open experience, right?

It's a convertible top and it's, I understood.

Well, also it's not very expensive.

Not much to be paid for.

$4,000.

So for a car, for this experience,

I mean, it's a Fiat,

so people are probably making comments.

Assumptions about its quality.

Yeah, or reliability, right?

But I think we aired up the tires, right?

And it just became this really, really fun vehicle.

It's like this happy dog that you have in your life

that just loves you and just,

come on, let's go play, let's go play, let's go play.

It just keeps teasing you, you want to go out and,

you know, it's a very small car.

And for an Italian car,

you would think that it would be tight,

but it's not.

It's actually very roomy.

I was in this car with James,

who's also a big guy.

And the two of us, well, it's probably like,

I mean, we were driving it with lays in the back.

Wow, you probably overloaded this car.

No, I didn't overload it,

but it did look like, you know,

two gay men on a Sunday drive.

And he's married.

I mean, not that they're saying the wrong way.

I'm just saying that look was there.

Because a car is a little feminine in some ways.

But I can't think of a more fun,

more interesting car than this.

So it's got plenty of room.

It doesn't have any bells and whistles.

Zero, manual five speed, manual non-powered steering.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the other thing.

You feel connected to it.

Yeah, yes.

It's just, you know, it's pretty ratty

because a lot of the wood has now gone off.

I mean, it is from 1976.

And what they did back in the 70s is they created,

they had, I think the earlier Fiat was an 1800 CC.

So they boarded out, gave it a little bit more power.

There's also a turbo version of this,

made it a little bit more America friendly.

But everything comes to hand.

Like you said, it's easy to get in and out.

You don't care about where you park it, because who's going to,

you know, and I'm amazed at how many people

like comment on this car.

More than any of these other cars,

people like come up to me and they say, wow, what a cool car.

Yeah, I would have never guessed that.

That's very interesting.

Yeah, I did not guess it when you first told me about it.

It does have the software market stereo,

which is horrible.

Most used cars like this do.

That's my other pet peeve.

What?

When they put in that like that Ken, Ken, Kenworth.

Ken, Kenworth.

Yeah, when they put the Kenwood radio in,

where like the lights chase each other around.

It's a very 90s thing.

Yeah, and you take like this 70s car

and you give it this kind of 90s vibe.

You can see that the plastic is kind of broken.

Everything works on it.

So even though it's not good, the lights work,

the heater works, the turn signal works.

It starts and runs.

And I just drove it last week

because it was sitting there asking me to go play.

And I said, I can't turn you down.

There you go.

All right.

Amazingly fun car.

So let's keep going.

The latest purchase is Porsche 911 997.1.

And as you guys know, we've had G-Body,

which is a 1980s Porsche.

We bought this car kind of with the top down

and I never actually tried it.

Now I got it home.

I found out that the top didn't work.

Not this car, but the previous car.

Yeah, it's a G-Body G50 transmission.

It's an 87.

It's the one that everybody wants.

I'm not going to get into the weeds on that.

It's the change transmission 87.

And it's a much better transition.

Transmission than the previous car.

Anyway, I bought the car

and then I proceeded to put about $40,000 of work into it.

So I redid the top because it was broken.

I redid the interior.

I kind of redid the computer in it.

Just a lot of things got fixed on the car

because it was kind of abused and not...

A lot of deferred maintenance, basically.

We're selling it right now.

So if you're interested, it's over at...

Selton Motors.

Selton Motors and Boulder.

To replace that car.

And not because I put so much time and effort into it,

but we're selling it because I kind of had the experience.

I had the air-cooled 3.2 liter.

Here it is.

There it is.

I had the experience.

You can see the interior is really nice now.

The wheels.

Fuchs put fuchs on it.

New top.

The drivetrain was always solid.

But I've been there, done that.

And the problem is it's a classic.

It's just a little...

Well, I was afraid you weren't enjoying it very much.

I mean, it was sitting.

It was being repaired.

It was either being repaired or...

That top, it was probably in the dealership for a year,

getting the top fixed.

That's ridiculous.

And then it got too precious and I was too worried to drive it.

So I wanted something that could be a daily driver.

Now we've owned a 996,

which is first of the water-cooled cars.

And those cars are good,

but the problem with them is the interiors are pretty crappy.

They're kind of the fried egg headlight ones.

Yeah, I don't like that headlight.

So I found the next generation, which is the 997.

Okay.

Now this has issues.

The 997s have two big major issues.

Number one is bore scoring,

which basically means that the cylinders get kind of scores in them.

And then the compression goes around

and to the top of the piston and you lose compression and...

You lose power, you lose...

Yeah, it's an engine rebuild.

Basically very expensive.

And they also have the IMS bearing issue.

And I knew this about the 997, especially the first year.

This is a 2005, which is the first year of the 997.

But some people call this the prettiest 911 of all.

The shape is absolutely gorgeous.

It's classic 911.

It's also not as big as the modern ones.

Yeah, it actually feels compact.

Actually not much different from that 80s car, actually.

And the one you want is the S,

because that's 350 horsepower, so it's modern.

So the way, you know, there's that saying,

Andre, when the top goes down, the price goes up.

Yes.

Not in Porsches.

What?

In Porsches, it's the exact opposite.

When the top goes down, the price goes down.

So you can find 997s with convertibles and with automatics.

And you really don't want the automatic,

because that's a traditional automatic.

I think in 2009 or 2010, they went to the PDK,

which is basically the dual clutch.

But the automatic didn't pair very well.

You also want the S, which gives you that 355 horsepower

and gives you a locking, not a locking, but a...

Limited slip.

Limited slip, yeah.

It gives you bigger brakes, more, you know.

It's just a better sports car.

Usually the S means a lot.

Yeah.

That S batch on the back is really valuable.

It is valuable, especially if it's a manual

and if it's not a convertible,

because people want the solidity that the coupe provides.

So I found this car with 103,000 miles on Haggerty,

where Haggerty bought an auction company

called Broad Arrow.

So now they're kind of competing

with Bring a Trailer and Cars and Bids.

And this was for sale.

The color is dark blue metallic.

It's deep blue kind of.

It's almost black.

Yes.

And it's got the lobster claw wheels,

which 997s are popular for.

And they're black and people think that they're painted,

but you could get them black from the factory.

So those are factory wheels.

They're not...

Nobody took the silver ones and painted them.

And the car was very original.

I loved the look of it.

And it had everything that I wanted.

It was in two accidents, but no airbag deployment.

And I bid on it and I bid up to $29,000 and it was a no sale.

So the folks at Haggerty called me and they said,

hey, we know that there's an issue with this car

and that is that there was no documentation

because you do not want to buy this car

if the IMS bearing has not been replaced

or if there is bore scoring.

A traditional way you find out if there's bore scoring

is you...

What's that called?

You scope it.

You put a camera down and you do that.

Or you can do a compression test.

Compression test maybe, yeah.

So Haggerty calls me and they said,

if we can get you the documentation for this car

then would you buy it for $35?

That includes their fees, which are pretty high.

They charge I think 7%, which is a big number.

You know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a big number.

So it would have been like $2,000.

So I said, yes.

And sure enough, the guy had a documentation.

I got like a stack of records like two inches tall.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay.

And it included the fact that the IMS bearing

had been replaced.

The clutch had been replaced.

And when they did that, they did a compression test

and the compression came back good.

So it might have bore scoring,

but the effect of bore scoring is bad compression.

So if it's got good compression,

you could assume that it doesn't have bore scoring.

Well, plus it has 100,000 miles.

103, yeah.

So I bought it for $35.

But I was a little hesitant.

So I called Haggerty.

We had a phone conversation and I said,

is this a good car?

And the guy who...

The Haggerty representative said,

yes, it's actually a car by myself.

So I assumed it was going to be good.

And then today I put up a video

documenting the seven things that are wrong with it.

But are they serious things?

Can you give me at least half a hand?

Yeah, that video is on LTFL.com and you can see it.

So I'll walk you through.

Give me a little bit.

So the drive train, once again, the drive train is good.

Okay, well, that's a big check point.

Transmission is good.

The body is good.

All right, but the things that are wrong with it,

when I got in the passenger seat,

if you try to move back and forth,

it doesn't move back and forth.

It tilts left or right.

So one of the motors is dead.

So it just goes, eh, eh.

You see what I'm saying?

You see, it either tilts toward the driver away from the driver

because one of the motors isn't moving it.

Number one, number two, the passenger window.

And this could be an easy reprogramming fix

because people are making those comments.

The passenger window goes down.

It doesn't like to come up.

So you can end up with the passenger window open.

Number three, the heated seats don't work.

Okay, well, not...

Number four, the homelink doesn't work.

Okay, but that's technology from 20 years ago, I mean.

Yeah, that could have to do with a fuse

or it could have to do with the computer.

If the battery goes bad on these cars,

the computer forgets that it has some of these options.

So it forgets that it has heated seats.

It forgets that it has homelink.

And so then you got to reprogram it.

And so maybe the battery, you know,

and nobody reprogrammed it.

So homelink doesn't work.

Heated seats don't work.

The one that really is kind of a deal breaker in some ways

and is dangerous, especially in Colorado,

is a squeery thing that doesn't work.

So wipers work, but when you pull it, it squirt the...

That could be a big problem, actually.

And I filled it up with wiper fluid.

And so I tried that and that did not fix it.

Interesting.

So you know, it's a really great thing that here at TFL,

we do purchase a lot of these older vehicles

because we get these questions a lot,

even on the truck side, SUV side, anything.

Where, you know, people are saying,

why put so many features in a vehicle or a car?

You know, is it going to last?

And we're finding out exactly what lasts and what doesn't last.

Well, a lot of this stuff got replaced, you know.

And look, it's $35,000 for a 997 Carrera S manual coupe.

It is a good price.

And once again, I put aside $5,000 to fix it.

The body's in good shape.

I'm not blaming Hagerty.

Look, it's buyer beware.

You're buying this thing at an auction.

I don't like buying cars at an auction.

We can talk about that when we get to the,

if we ever get to the zero one, but I have no preconceived notions

that this car is going to be perfect.

Like I said, even if you buy a Pebble Beach car at 103,000 miles,

cars are going to get in accidents.

Things are going to break.

It's just, you just got to plan for it.

And none of these are mission critical.

If you never have a passenger, this car is perfect.

Because the window won't go down to stay up.

But we'll get, these are little things that hopefully I'll get sorted.

I found a different shop and I'm going to take it to them

and see if they can actually sort these things out.

Instead of just charging you for nothing?

Instead of charging me 200 bucks for looking at it and saying,

yep, it's broken.

All right.

Yeah, great.

Yeah, thanks.

I don't even blame Hagerty.

You know, this is not that, you know, this is buyer beware.

And so.

As with any old vehicle.

And I look forward to this because now it gives me a project.

So like apparently you can kind of figure out the window thing yourself.

Somebody in the comments today said it might be that the window has lost

the programming for when it's up and down.

So you can, I'm going to try to reprogram it and hopefully that'll fix it.

So let's move on to the favorite car that we bought for you, not for me.

Okay.

Which is our, what years of Dodge Viper?

It's a 94.

Okay.

First gen RT-10 Dodge Viper, the Widowmaker.

So you really clicked with this car.

Tell me why.

Yes.

I think I know why, but tell me why.

So, and I think there was this theme going through a lot of the cars we talked about

is that, for example, I said I've been lusting after that Bentley, right?

And oftentimes when you meet your hero, you know, that, that car or that person

that you've been kind of looking at from afar and you really.

This is not the car we bought, by the way.

The car we bought does not morph into different shapes.

That's the old Viper TV show.

So sometimes when you meet your hero and when you met your hero, the Bentley,

you know, he gave you an engine light, right?

So sometimes it doesn't work out.

But with this Viper, when I met the hero of mine, which, which is this Viper,

it delivered on everything.

It was, I knew it was, you know, you have to treat it with respect, right?

It was called the Widowmaker, not for nothing.

Well, it has no driver aids, no ABS, no stability control.

Just you and 400 horsepower and a 10 cylinder that will light up those rear tires in a heartbeat.

Exactly. So, so no airbags even.

I mean, it does have seatbelts, thank goodness.

And, and the car did come with, you know, that hard top that we now put on.

This was the one car where we actually had no issues with it.

This is the exception to the rule.

So spend $40,000.

And it's weird because Viper's, the older they get, the cheaper they are.

The first gen are cheaper than the second gen.

There's like really, there's five gens, but there's really three.

It's kind of like Porsche, where you got this like middle one.

Middle gen.

Yeah.

But really three gens.

The newest gen, the ACR, those are like $300,000 cars right now,

which is stupid because I should have bought one back when they were,

you know, when we were testing them.

Right.

But this car was $40,000, dude.

It's, it's, it's a hell of a bargain.

And it also had very low miles, which kind of scared me at first.

2018, I think.

It was like 18,000 miles, which at first scared me because we just said,

don't buy a car with two little miles.

Right.

Yeah.

But like you said, this car delivered on everything.

It starts.

Well, it does have a little, you know, you have to kind of coax it into starting.

Yeah.

So the Viper's have this issue where the fuel pump takes a little while to bring the fuel.

So you have to, you have to crank it a little bit.

But it wakes up, you know, with a, with a growl.

It has a very unique sound because you, you're listening to the five cylinders on the left

and five on the right.

It doesn't have a cross pipe.

So you only hear five of the 10 cylinders because they're coming out right next to you

because of those side pipes.

And the previous owner was also a pretty tall dude.

He lowered the driver's seat a little bit.

So you're not looking at the top of the eight pillar.

Exactly.

So it fits you and it fits me.

Yeah.

And the only thing we had to do to it was it had these goofy next generation wheels.

Yes.

And the iconic thing about these cars were those three spoke wheels,

which a lot of people hate.

But you have to do it.

And you did it.

You found original set, a set of original in Arizona, which was a really amazing great

condition wheels.

Brand new out of the box.

Small bar box brand new.

I found the three spokes.

We put them on.

And then Michelin.

Thank you.

Give us because you can't get tires for these.

Once again, they're like two 25s.

Three, three 25s.

Yeah.

They're three 25s.

They're so wide.

And so we got, we got a set of tires.

And the other thing that we did was it had that goofy Kenwood radio.

And when I was buying it, I'm like, I was so bummed because it had,

because it just takes you out of the moment.

You're, you're now you're in two different eras.

And I said, Hey, you still have the original radio.

And the guy said, Well, check in that box.

He had a box and it was, it was.

And so I replaced the original radio, which is a horrible radio,

but it belongs in the car.

So now we have the original radio.

Let's see if we can see it.

And actually, you got the speakers connected and working too.

Yeah.

Because the speakers weren't working.

Not that you can hear them.

Is the AC working?

I can't remember.

Yeah.

AC works.

I fixed the AC.

Yeah.

It was just, it just needed to be re.

Oh, recharged.

Recharged.

Yeah.

So.

And here's another shot.

So Tommy and Kase took it to the dyno.

And actually it's a very healthy engine.

The engine actually was producing more than kind of,

you know, what we expected.

That was our man, Jordan, who stuck a Viper engine.

And I think that was, was it a Fiat?

I think he stuck in a Fiat.

Yeah.

So that little tiny.

Yeah, he's an amazing dude.

And then you can see the three spokes.

Yeah.

So we got the three spokes back.

So I brought it back to stock, basically.

Yeah, which is amazing.

And now we have the hard top, the soft top.

A lot of people don't like the, what's the model on this one?

It's the RT10.

RT10.

People want the GTS.

It's a little bit more livable because that's the hard top.

That's the hard top and it's got not the removable hard top.

It actually has a coupe body on it.

And then the exhaust goes out the back in the first generation.

Yeah.

Because in this one you could burn your feet or your ankles

getting in and out of this car.

You can, yeah.

Because the pipes are right there on the side.

Viper will bite.

Yes.

And it delivers.

Like I said, so when you meet this one, especially this car,

it has the power.

The engine is very healthy.

It fits everything.

The dashboard, the interior is really cheap, right?

Oh my God, it's beyond cheap.

It's like Lego.

Like somebody did.

And it's not aging well.

Let's just say that.

No, it's not aging well at all.

It's not aging well.

But nonetheless, you kind of expect all of this stuff

with this particular car.

And the later generations got better.

They got nicer.

That's why I think people want the later generations

because they're more livable.

But if you want the lead in the pencil.

The OG.

Then this is the one that you have to get.

And I think we did really well with this car.

So out of the five here, we did really well with two of them.

Two were sort of problematic.

And one was a complete basket case.

And that's the one we should talk to,

where we also bought this.

This is our bonus.

And you'll see it in this video.

It's the Corvette ZR1.

The very first Corvette ZR1.

We bought this on Bring a Trailer.

That one is super disappointing in a lot of ways

because when I went to pick it up,

the guy said, be careful with first gear

before I drove it.

So me and Tommy flew to Arizona.

We paid $27,000 for this car, which is a good price.

The body's in good shape.

It's got both the glass and the hard top.

It looks good.

27,000 miles, I think, which isn't a lot.

And then we get in it and I put in first gear

and I'm like, dang, the synchro's gone.

The synchro is completely gone.

Is it just crunching?

Yeah, first gear synchro is completely gone.

And so I'm like, what do we do now?

Do we fly back?

Once again, brought it on auction site.

Nobody mentioned that the first...

I mean, you'd think you'd mention it.

Like, hey, the first gear is...

It's crunchy.

Yeah.

And then I love cars and we're TFL,

so we don't want to be like...

We're not car dealers, right?

I didn't want to get this reputation of flying down there

and then the guy posted TFL was here and they walked...

I didn't want any of that.

You just can't do that.

So we bought the car and then, of course,

driving it up from Arizona.

You got it to Moab?

I got it to Moab

and I was having some stomach issues

because I started GP1 stuff, the Osempic stuff,

and I was fertilizing Southern Utah and Northern Arizona,

so I was pretty miserable.

So the next morning, Tom and I decided to take it to Walker Drugs

to get some diarrhea medicine.

And while we're pulling up, all of a sudden,

Tom, he says the alternator light comes on,

which is a bad thing.

Usually that means the alternator's gone.

And I'm like, well, stop.

I open up the hood.

And the car is just squirting oil.

Like it's coming out of an artery.

It's just...

So the car fertilized the parking lot.

Seven quarts of oil when flying everywhere.

And I was having a miserable day to begin with.

I also didn't have an idea that these seats in this car

are the sports seats.

And they're like the Porsche sports seats

where the bolsters are very tight.

And very narrow.

And very narrow and have a big, big ass.

And basically either I sit with one cheek in the seat,

either the left cheek in and the other one out,

or the right cheek in and the left one out.

And it's very painful and very uncomfortable.

So we spent half the drive trying to find a pillow

that I could put underneath myself

so I would actually fit in the seat.

And then the problem is when I do do the pillow,

my head hits the roof.

So now I'm driving around.

So I was not having a good day.

And then both the oil lines let go

and the thing squirted oil.

And it's just been a kind of a nightmare.

And then we took it to Jordan.

And it turns out not only as a synchro not right,

but the car probably isn't making all the power it should be.

It's fairly slowish.

Yeah, we have quite the project with this guy.

Yeah, so it's kind of the basket case,

I would say, of the bunch.

Because you could live without a window switch working.

Yes.

But when you actually have an engine that's not healthy,

not maybe putting out all of its power,

and the transmission is crunchy.

Well, it's got this key

so you can get either 200 horsepower or what is it?

I forget what the full, it was like 350.

It's like 350 or three.

Yeah, so the car is really cool.

So people think that Lotus built the engine for this car.

It was actually, at that time, GM owned Lotus

and they wanted to do this world beating sports car.

So they asked them to design this very advanced,

it's got 32 valves per cylinder, right?

It's a very advanced engine, dual overhead cam,

which GM had never had in the Corvette.

And Lotus said, yes, we can do that.

But then GM didn't necessarily have the skill

to build an engine made of aluminum,

which was the first aluminum engine.

And so they went to Mercury and Marine.

And Mercury and Marine actually built those engines for GM.

So there's just a lot of cool history.

There's a great story behind it, dual power mode.

And unfortunately, this one isn't living up to its full potential.

So we're going to work with Jordan

and we're going to see if we can fix the engine,

see if we can get it healthy

and then we're going to have to find a new transmission for it.

And my rule of 5,000 is going to come to get blown out of the water.

Yeah, yeah.

And this one, you know, the Fiat is a lovely car

that hasn't needed anything for not a lot of money.

And this one, this is the opposite.

This is the opposite.

This is kind of, you know, used car, classic car ownership.

And I remember once when I was at the guy,

at the guys who were fixing the G body Porsche,

and I just spent $13,000 putting on a new top.

And they said, you're the right owner for this car, Roman.

And I said, why?

And they said, because you got the money to fix it.

Oh, great.

Like you said, I'm a piggy bank.

Yeah.

All right, last one.

Last one, we do have to do a truck.

Last one, well, Ted has a question.

Okay, go ahead, Ted.

And we'll do the truck.

So Ted has an interesting question.

He says, have either of you bought a car

without telling your wife?

He has a 17-year-old FJ Cruiser,

which is resting away and falling apart.

He said he needed to replace it.

So he bought a used Cayenne Porsche

without telling his significant other.

And I'm terrified of telling her.

Yeah.

The answer is yes.

Yeah, of course.

We're car guys.

Let me do that all the time.

So I think, well, first of all,

your old car is resting away.

So you tell her, hey, my FJ Cruiser,

which I used to love and was good.

It's not good anymore.

So I really, this came up,

so I really had to buy a Cayenne.

But it goes both ways.

So when next month, when she comes to you and says,

I just bought X, Y, Z.

What a great question.

You also have to be fine with it.

When she comes back and says,

you know what, I bought a palm tree for the yard

because palm trees, we have to have palm trees.

Especially if he lives in Colorado.

That's going to be quite the investment.

You say, yes, honey, your palm tree looks amazing

because she kind of has to be okay with your Cayenne

and you have to be okay with whatever she's doing.

So there's two ways to look at this.

I'll give you my answer in a second,

but there's two ways to look at this.

The first way to look at this is you're married

and you now have a budget

and you're probably taking your money

that you're earning and your wife's money

and you're putting the bank account

and so she has a legitimate say

in how you spend that money

as do you and how she spends it.

Exactly.

So that is, I think that is the way that

most many women and many people,

I don't want to be sexist, would look at it.

But there's another way to look at it

and that is she married a car guy.

She should have kind of known what she was getting into

because that's what we do.

Some people call it a hobby.

Some people call it a sickness.

Yes.

And it's both.

And so there's just, you know,

look, you can rationalize this

in a lot of good ways, right?

I spend money on cars.

I don't spend money on gambling.

I don't spend money on womanizing.

I don't spend money on traveling.

This is what brings me joy.

This is what fulfills my life.

And I was, to be honest,

I was a car guy long before I was a husband.

And I can't stop that part of me.

I can't like, hey, I'm married now,

so I'm going to turn that part of me off, honey.

And, you know, we're going to go buy a Honda CR-V

because it's practical and it makes sense

and it's the right thing to do.

That's just not going to make me happy.

And maybe you should have that conversation

with your wife when we're given advice.

But maybe you should say,

at some point, you're going to want me happy.

That doesn't mean I'm going to go buy a Lamborghini

or a Ferrari.

I understand, you know,

I'm not going to put my family in debt.

But like Andre said,

this car needed to be replaced.

This is what I do.

And I did the thing,

not just for me,

but I did it for a family

because I wanted you to be in something safe.

I wanted my kids to be in something safe.

And it's also kind of what I am.

So let me be what I am,

because if you don't,

I'm going to start to resent you

and that's going to have

all kinds of other implications down the road.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

So that's kind of the answer.

And with my wife,

I think we've gotten the point now

where she understands that this is my job.

Well, it's a little bit different

because it's also a job.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm very blessed that I get to fulfill my hobby

as my job.

And so when I buy these cars,

these are financial decisions

that I make for the business,

not for a family.

And I can separate the two.

But I was in your shoes

until I was doing this.

And so I completely and utterly understand

one of the ways that I mitigated around it

was oftentimes at Christmas time,

if we had the finances,

I would actually buy a car

and surprise her with it.

So it wasn't the car

that I wanted,

but it was a car

that I think she would have liked.

And it actually,

I think worked for the most part.

So one year,

I bought her a used one

because we didn't have a huge budget,

but I bought her a BMW X5.

And you can buy these used cars,

especially if you want to be financially responsible.

This one was certified by the dealership.

So I knew that you'd be worried about it.

I think that made her happy.

And so we kind of share the love.

I don't know if that's going to work

in your family,

but it's what we do.

You want to talk about a truck?

Don't be terrified.

Okay, just be honest

and explain this to her.

And if she loves you,

she'll understand.

And then when she buys a palm tree.

She's still going to be pissed off,

but at least she'll understand.

Yeah.

All right.

We bought a lot of trucks this year.

The one that I want to talk about

is kind of the most interesting one.

And that is our military truck.

Yes.

That's very unique.

We call them Gigi.

We call them General Giant.

Yes.

Boy.

I'm going to let you talk about this guy.

Yeah.

So there's this really side culture

where you take military vehicles

that were meant for one purpose,

which is fighting wars

and carrying soldiers and things.

And you can make them into fun vehicles,

right?

A little bit more fun.

So there's a company Boy's Equipment

and that's what they do.

They buy or get old surplus vehicles

and then they modify them in this way.

So basically it used to be a six by six.

Now it's a four by four.

It's on larger tires.

But it's a Bob Dooson half.

Exactly.

That's what it's officially known as.

So Bob Dooson.

So Dooson a half really is a nickname

that soldiers gave to some of their big

two and a half ton trucks,

which meant it could carry two and a half tons of weight

over any terrain.

Basically that's kind of how they were rated.

Now it's a four by four with gigantic,

what is it?

46 inch.

Time to just slam on the gas tank then.

Diesel tank.

Yes.

So and we got it

because it looks like just amazing tonkatory, right?

Yeah.

And Boy's Equipment, they paint them.

They can do all kinds of options.

We got air conditioning in this one.

Yeah, these are not very livable trucks.

No, they're loud.

They're slow.

So they try to make them a little bit more livable,

which is what this is.

And this is definitely like a one use vehicle.

It's a toy.

There's nothing, this is not something

that you're going to use as an everyday driver

unless you're really like loud diesels.

So Tad, if you brought this for your wife.

That might be that.

Probably would have been a problem.

A Cayenne is less of a problem, I would say.

So yeah, so this was what about 45-ish

thousand to close to 50,000 depending on,

you know, if you do have a deal or not,

basically what you're buying.

But we did get a winch,

electric winch on the front of this thing.

Dude, it looks amazing,

but it's still kind of tough to live with.

Yeah.

I mean, for the most part, it sits in the barn.

The good news about it is it's got the same footprint

as like a Dooley.

So it's very usable.

So you could use it almost as an everyday driver.

You could park it in any parking spot.

Yeah.

And everybody, of course, comments on it.

And Voice has done a great job in making it,

you know, as livable as possible.

But it's still a military truck

and it still has all of the downsides of a military truck.

So, you know, think about that conversation

that you're having in the convertible Corvette.

This is like.

This is the opposite.

This is the exact opposite.

Yeah.

This is times 10 worse.

And people say, oh, you have an exhaust pipe

on the passenger side.

That's why it's loud.

No.

The engine is loud.

It's a caterpillar.

Yeah.

It's a straight six caterpillar diesel.

Turbo diesel.

It's loud any time.

It doesn't matter if you're, you know,

idling it or driving it.

It also has that compressor, right?

So when you turn on the air conditioning,

the compressor is very loud.

Every aspect of this thing is very loud.

And it's top speed, what we registered,

what, 57 miles per hour?

And the world's coming to an end.

Yeah.

And because you're revving, you know,

you're kind of, it has a four-speed,

Alice in transmission.

So even if it had one additional gear,

it could be a lot more livable.

But yeah, it's just a big.

So we towed with it.

Case and I took our skid steer on a trailer.

We took it down to a fueling station.

And the thing didn't care.

When the great flood comes, we'll be ready for it.

Yes.

The thing didn't care.

It drove the same with a 10,000-pound trailer

as if it wasn't towing,

didn't really care what was behind it.

So that's the truck.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a YouTuber, you know.

It's a YouTuber truck.

We were kind of in this weird space

where we're journalists, but we're YouTubers.

This is definitely the YouTuber truck.

It's not the journalist truck,

because no one's buying these.

You know, we're not going to review it,

but we are going to have fun with it.

And it didn't, you know.

Oh, we had a flat tire on it.

We did have a flat tire.

We had to have it.

That was also a.

Which scared us.

Yeah.

It was getting those tires.

There's 44?

There are 46s.

Oh, 46s.

So changing a tire, you know, usually, you know,

it's a no problem get a modern spare.

Yeah.

Our friends have modern spare.

They don't make a spare for this.

You got to go take it to heavy equipment.

Yeah.

So, but the tire itself weighs almost 150 pounds.

Yeah.

That's also tough to take off.

So.

For those of you thinking of buying an earth roamer,

just keep that in mind.

Changing a tire on an earth roamer

is not a easy thing.

Be prepared to lift 150 pounds, basically.

So we ended up, so we got a bottle jack,

you know, to help lifting up the axle.

It was an afternoon.

But you and I ran out of stroke on this jack.

So we had to bring a skid steer.

So we have a skid steer on the property.

So we're actually able to use the skid steer

to lift up the truck a little bit more.

So we could take the tire off.

It was a hole.

It helps to have a skid steer in a ranch

if you can have one of these.

That sounds really like, like, like, like uppity.

And but it does.

It's the truth.

There is no practicality here.

There's no practicality.

There's no, it's just fun.

And let's close on this out of all of the vehicles.

And I'm going to include trucks that we bought this year.

So keep in mind, we also bought an F-150.

We also bought a Canyon.

We also bought a Bronco.

We bought a lot.

We also sold a lot.

That's our business.

So not making money selling cars, but reviewing them

and of course making content out of them.

And turning them over.

Which is, which is, which is your favorite either?

Let's just go with the cars right now.

It has to be the Viper, really.

I mean, even though I do like the Fiat after I drove it,

I haven't driven the Porsche 997 yet.

So I think I could fall in love with the Porsche,

potentially as well.

But it has to be the Viper.

For me, I think it's going to be the Fiat

because it's the one that gives me the most joy

for the least amount of money.

And it's just such a surprise because I, you know,

we've had Porsches before.

I knew what that was going to be like.

I love the Bentley, but once again, you know,

it's an expensive car.

The Z06 scares me a little bit, to be honest.

Yeah.

No, it scares me too.

I like the Viper, but my issue with the Viper

is it's not an around town car.

It does not like stop and go traffic.

No, because the clutch is kind of actually,

the pedal is actually physically high.

Yeah, it's heavy.

And it's heavy.

So it's really not a car you want to be stuck at

with in Denver traffic.

Yeah, the Fiat surprised me the most.

How about all the trucks?

And we'll end on that note.

You know, in the truck, just the really honest,

I think, truck, I mean, really useful is the F-150, I think.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not too big.

It's not too small.

Yes, the V8, I mean, we kind of talked about it

during our truck podcast as well.

The V8 is good.

I mean, maybe it's not quite as torquey as,

of course, the twin turbo V6s that they have.

But I think the F-150 is probably my favorite.

I'm torn because also the Silverado HD.

So the Silverado HD is the most useful.

We've put the most miles.

We've got like 14,000 miles on it.

15,000.

In the year.

The F-150 is the Swiss Army knife.

It does the most.

But my heart is torn between two trucks.

I would say my favorite was a Maverick all-wheel drive

because it was, once again, there's a part of me

that's really cheap and it was cheap.

And it was very useful.

My mom passed away this year and I moved Oliver's stuff

with that one little truck and really grateful for that.

And then my, so that's my head.

My heart goes with the Canyon AT-4X

because it's incredibly good off-road

and it's got this incredibly gorgeous color,

this orange, they call it Desert Sun, I think.

But I love that orange color.

I'm just mitten by it.

And I love the interior.

It's got like red seat belts and, you know, red contrasts.

So from a style point of view, it's probably my favorite.

It's also kind of a truck that does it all in some ways

if you don't need the full-size capability

of towing over 6,000 pounds.

But I think if I had to pick, I'd go,

my head would go with the Ford,

but my heart would go with the Canyon.

Yeah, that's fair.

All right, guys, remember, head on over to all TFL.

Happy New Year to you.

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus.

Yes.

We didn't air any grievances, Andre.

We didn't do any feats of strength.

But we just had marriage advice.

We did.

Thank you for telling us to give marriage advice.

That's the first time.

And I don't know if that's the best place

to get marriage advice, but yeah.

Hey, we bought, we bought, remember, we had a Cayenne.

But we're still married to our wives.

We are.

We had a Cayenne.

It was a good car.

We had a turbo, first gen.

No, second gen turbo.

That's right.

Yeah, second gen turbo.

Hey, which kind did you buy?

Which year?

What was the year on it?

Yeah, let us know.

Let us know.

All right, we'll see you next time.

Ciao.

It's a once in a generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks,

100 years of showstopping moves,

and 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at Motor Center on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets

to the 100-year tour.

This isn't just a game.

It's a once in a generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks,

100 years of showstopping moves,

and 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at Motor Center on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets

to the 100-year tour.

Ep. 317: Here Are The Lessons We've Learned From Buying 6 Cars In 6 Months!

About this episode

ZR1

Dodge Hellcat

Bentley GTC

Datsun Publica

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from TFL Car Chat