Episode 6 - Tyler Hoover Of Hoovie's Garage

How was Hoovie's garage born? How did that happen?

So I graduated college and then opened my own car dealership.

That was the end goal. So I opened it up and I was in a good location.

But I was so bad at it because I wanted to keep everything.

The first person I ever walked up and talked to is a new 07 Chevy Silverado.

And you don't want to test drive it. You know what he wanted.

And you know, it didn't make any sense.

So I was like a drug dealer doing too much of his own stuff,

getting high on his own supply and just the great downfall like Starface,

you know, with the big mountain of like that. That was me as a car dealer.

That's how Hoovie's garage was born. I didn't know YouTube was a thing.

The dream was to have like a TV show or something like that.

And I didn't know like YouTube became the destination and my timing was perfect.

I was just very lucky.

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Welcome to The Doug Horner Show. My name is Doug Horner and I'm here today with Tyler Hoover of Hoovie's Garage.

Tyler, thank you so much.

Hello. Thank you.

I took a lot of time to prep and like how do I prep to do a Doug Horner podcast?

I couldn't figure it out.

So I went and I checked all my car's brakes and saw what their wear was.

And I figured I'd report it back to you.

The Goldwing's brakes are brand new, by the way.

So you don't have to, you know, hit me there.

But everything else.

What is the sort of brakes on Goldwing cost, even?

So the Classic Center, $14,000 for the drums, the Hughes and all that stuff.

So, and then Dummy got brand new brakes from the Classic Center and then left his parking brake on

and roasted the brand new drums on a 1,000 mile rally and had to buy two new ones again.

Oh boy.

So that's how dumb I am.

Yeah.

Well, how would you have known?

I mean, drum brakes are not something that you're dealing with or anyone's really dealing with on a regular basis anymore.

No, no, certainly not.

I mean, they don't feel like drum brakes.

That's the amazing thing about the 300 SL.

It's a car from the 50s, but it drives like something very modern.

So you wouldn't think, you know, you drive a car, drum brakes,

it's like, oh my God, are we going to stop not like that at all with this car?

Yeah.

But they are big and they're, you know, huge vents on them.

And someone has the molds and makes them and they, you know, they pay up.

Yeah.

And $14,000, that's up there.

That's more than a G-Wagon, but not that much more.

Good to know.

Okay.

When the G-Wagon has become hoopties, if that ever happens and depreciation with those,

I guess it doesn't, then I'll find out.

Yeah.

So how, what's the status of the rest of your cars?

If I were ever going to take one on trade, would I need to replace brakes?

You would, unfortunately, a lot of them you would knock for the brakes.

And yeah, I would argue with you that MMR is MMR, you know, it's going to go wholesale anyway.

Most of my stuff, you wouldn't want to inventory it.

Sure.

Yes.

I'm always fascinated with the break argument as you're taking your trade ins and it's just

like the drum breed of the brakes.

I guess it's your corner of the internet, I suppose.

Well, I never ever thought in a million years that my affinity for asking about the brakes

would become a thing.

I mean, basically, yes.

Exactly.

You're not the first one to bring it up, but you're probably the most famous person to

bring it up by far.

And just to put a little bit of color on that for anybody that might care, when you are

reselling used cars at a Mercedes-Benz dealership, the halo effect that the brand has, unfortunately,

well, one, if we're selling a Mercedes, we want to certify it.

And to certify it, it has to have brakes that are 50% or better in their life or we cannot

certify it.

But even if it is a car, let's say we take in a used Hyundai, for example.

You might not think that it would be that important, but when people are buying a used

Hyundai from a Mercedes-Benz dealership, suddenly the expectation, and I can't tell you how

many times in my life I have heard, well, are you going to be fixing this scratch?

It's like, well, it's a eight-year-old Hyundai with 80,000 miles.

I mean, it's in pretty good condition.

They're like, well, but this is a Mercedes-Benz store.

And it's like, well, what does that mean?

I live that life.

It's been almost 15 years at this point since I've lived that life that you live, but I

definitely know where you're coming from on that.

And I have Porsche, a Panamera 4S 2010, 115,000 miles on its original ceramic brakes, and

they're fine.

Yeah.

So you did work in a dealership at one point in your life.

That was a real thing.

So I opened a CarMax in Wichita, Kansas.

And this was a new concept, no Haggle concept that nobody really understood in the Midwest,

and they just got really angry at me when I couldn't come off a car of $5 at CarMax.

So what are you talking about?

So that I was one of the last people to sell a car of the 100 or so people that they hired

for it, so I didn't do very well.

But I translated over to a very odd store because they had Chevrolet Cadillac and BMW,

all on the same campus.

Interesting.

And the first person I ever walked up and talked to is a new 07 Chevy Silverado.

And he didn't want to test drive it.

He knew what he wanted.

GMAC, which was the bank at the time.

This was before GM went bankrupt.

Auto approved this guy with $10,000 in negative equity in 2006 or 2007 on his truck, and full

sticker on that.

I made $1,500 the first person I ever talked to at this dealership.

And I thought that happened every day.

So I went to the Ultraman electronic spot.

A plasma screen TV is like, OK, ready for tomorrow.

And it didn't happen the next day or the next day or the next day.

But learned a lot for sure.

So your very first day, you got hooked kind of in a way that a lot of people do in the

industry, right?

They get that big commission, and it has this effect on you, right?

Where you do sort of think that that's how it's always going to be.

But it definitely is not if you stick around for a little while.

Right.

I mean, it was sort of the last of the glory days as far as before that recession in 08.

Gas prices were getting up to $5 a gallon in 2007, 2008.

And that was causing a lot of people to want to trade in their big, guzzler, you know,

suburban zescalades.

And unfortunately, we didn't have very many options back then as far as something that

was more of a fuel sipper.

Like the Equinox was a terrible car compared to a CRX or a Highlander.

The X3 was kind of it, and it wasn't that economical.

So it was a weird time, but still did really well.

But I didn't have the flexibility.

It was either quit college and be in the car business, or they weren't really willing

to dance with me very much on being able to still finish college.

So I quit to do that and then went into the car business.

What did you go to college for?

Political science.

Okay.

It was the easiest way for me to get out when I realized I couldn't pass business calculus

after the third or fourth try in the business school.

Okay.

So that was really just a, were you at college because you were kind of told to be there?

Yeah.

I mean, that's what everybody, our age, feels like you go to college where you fail.

Of course, that's not the expectation.

Nowadays, people are kind of figuring out how much of a burden it is if you're not doing

something professionally that really requires the kind of education.

Yeah.

And that sort of happened kind of quickly, by the way.

I feel like even when I graduated, it still felt like you go to college.

Not just what you do, but now fast forward economics.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now, same sort of thing.

I was a very mediocre student.

I was not much of an academic.

I was intelligent, but I did not like doing homework.

I didn't really like attending class unless it was required for me to be there.

And business school wasn't an option because I couldn't get into business school.

So I picked the next best thing, which was econ.

I did at least have a fascination with the economy in the stock market and just how business

in general works.

And I felt like that was the closest I could get.

And it's served me pretty well, actually, in the car business.

But you and Doug Demiro have the same degree.

Yes.

I learned that, which I thought was pretty cool.

But yeah, I don't think that you need, in fact, I don't think, I know you don't need

a degree to do what you or I are doing.

Certainly not what I'm doing.

But maybe you're actually doing some mechanical type stuff in your world, pulling cars apart,

rebuilding them to a little bit.

It's very, very cool.

And I'm curious, how did you pivot from working in a dealership to suddenly, how was Hoovie's

garage born?

How did that happen?

So I graduated college and then opened my own car dealership.

That was the end goal.

So I opened it up and I was in a good location.

But I was so bad at it because I wanted to keep everything, everything interesting I

got.

I was like, OK, I'm going to hold this for my driver, even though it could have made

me a lot of money.

And then I would just over repair things because I was just so obsessed.

Like, I got to make this car as nice as possible.

And it didn't make any sense.

So I was like a drug dealer doing too much of his own stuff, getting high on his own

supply and just the great downfall like Starface with the big mountain of like that.

That was me as a car dealer.

So it makes sense for me to go into some other business and there was an opportunity.

Freddie's frozen custard and steak burgers, which started in Wichita, Kansas.

They were franchising.

And I got together with a group to open stores.

I didn't realize I was like in the operations and just literally teaching people how to

flip burgers for years, you know, get these stores up and running, getting them operational

and moving on to the next one.

You know, kind of like a really not glamorous version of Patrick's Hoisey in Roadhouse,

you know, where he's going up and like, okay, I'll get this all going and everything.

And then, then, you know, leave and go on to the next one.

But it's just, you know, it's just it's just burgers and fries and custard.

Right. How complicated could it be?

But on the stuff, it's tough, actually, because it's such a big store and there's

like a front half of the house with with the custard and the back house with the burgers

and all that stuff.

So it's like having two stores and it's a lot of people.

It's harder to run, actually, than say, you know, a normal Taco Bell or a Derek

Queen or something like that, because it's so big and complicated.

But, but on the side, I was like, I got to do something with cars.

So I had a small salary and there was, you know, there wasn't a payout for a while

as far as the, you know, as the investment.

So I was still sort of flipping cars on the side.

And then I started riding.

I got my foot in the door, riding for AutoTrader and all that stuff because I met

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, the Grand Tourist.

They're at their very first episode.

That's amazing.

If I, if I went there dressed up as the Interceptors, which was a thing that

they played on Old Top Gear and had great conversations with two of them and then

tweeted Jeremy Clarkson afterwards and he replied to my tweet and everybody was

wondering what this new Grand Tour was going to be like.

And I was trying to get my foot in the door with riding.

So rather than do an interview, I was like, Hey, let me write an article.

Let me, let me, let me tell the story.

And so I did.

And then asked if I could do more and that just led to more riding gigs.

Eventually they said, Hey, can you start making videos?

And I guess the first video I submitted was so terrible that they said, you know,

why don't you just put it on your own YouTube channel or something?

So that's how, that's how Whoopies Garage was born.

I didn't know YouTube was a thing.

The dream was to have a TV show or something like that.

And I didn't know, like YouTube became de-destination and my timing was, was

perfect.

I was just very lucky.

So what year was it then that you made that first post?

2016, there were some other attempts in years past some little things here and

there, but 2016 was, was Whoopies Garage starting?

Okay.

And did you ever in a million years think that it would turn into what it is now?

No, no, not at all.

Ten years in, I've been, it was all the things that I've been able to do as far

as, you know, the shows.

And right now I'm in Arizona getting ready for the Barrett Jackson collector

car auction.

I've been doing their live TV coverage on the history channel for six years now.

And they've got a goldling selling.

They've got some, you know, other amazing stuff.

So it's crazy to be a part of the stuff that I would go to or watch when I was a

kid and to be in the mix of it.

It's, it's wow.

Yeah.

How quickly after that first video did you realize, Oh, this is

going to like change my life.

It's going to become like its own business.

Was that right away or did it take time?

2016 August, so thanks for when I started.

It was Super Bowl Sunday in 2017 when I had my first viral video and it was the

2007 or 30s, that 600 that I got for 4500 bucks with a blown motor and fixed it up.

And, you know, just, just did a video reviewing what it was like and what it was

like to own this car for 95% off of its original MSRP and going through and

finding engine and fixing it, just really talking about it.

And I posted it two or three days before and it did okay.

You know, I don't want to have 10,000 views.

And then I'm at the Super Bowl party with my parents and watching like it's

getting a thousand views a minute, 2000 views a minute.

Like what, what is this?

And it, and that's my, that's my first kind of blow up.

It's like, Oh, okay, this can, this can be a thing.

Yeah.

So was it always from the very beginning?

Was it, let's find an old hoopty and talk about it, what made it cool and sort of

bring it back to life?

Or did it sort of evolve into that?

It was pretty much always that, mostly from necessity.

So buying a Porsche 911 for $9,500 and all that stuff, that's all I could afford.

I mean, that was the, you know, the, the champagne on a beer budget was how I

operated before all this.

And, and yeah, just continued in my YouTube and it turned out to be a genre

that people credit with inventing this genre that is very copied now.

But yeah, it's a, it's what I was already doing.

Well, that's, I mean, I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

But it doesn't look like your views have suffered even if there's a lot of other

people that are doing the same thing.

So.

Oh, you know, it's, it's, yeah, I'm still doing fine.

I'm, I'm very happy with where I'm at considering 10 years on, you know, back in

back TV shows, you know, like, like cheers being 10 years old and, you know,

the views kind of drop off as far as, you know, back in network television.

So yeah, I still have a very devoted audience and to still be, you know,

growing not at the crazy levels of the pandemic, like everybody was, but to

still be, still be hanging in there is great.

Yeah.

Do you have a favorite episode that you've ever done that comes to mind?

This going series is, I mean, pinch myself.

Holy crap that I'm doing this, you know, just my ultimate dream car for sure.

So that's, that's definitely, even though it's fresh in my head, I imagine if I did

this, even five years from now, I'd be talking about it being a pinnacle moment for me.

Yeah.

So is it safe to say that this is probably your favorite car that you've ever had?

I mean, how could it not be?

But yeah, I saw one.

So I saw one of Barrett Jackson for the first time when I was 16 years old.

I begged my dad to go after watching these on TV and we were there and there was a

goal wing and it sold for I think $250,000 in 2003.

And I thought, one day if I work really, really hard, that's a lot of money, but,

but I can buy one.

And then, you know, prices, you know, now it's $2 million, $3 million for an ice one.

So it never seemed like something that was in the realm of possibility.

And it was, it was all kinds of horse trading to get myself into one.

Yeah.

That, you know, a coontage led to Veyron that led to, to a goal wing.

So it's unimaginable that I have this car.

It's crazy.

Now, what do you do with, do you keep, how many of your cars have you kept and how many,

and then what do you do with the rest of them that you don't keep?

I usually, so I sell most of them.

There's a few that are long terms that are four or five years.

My Mybox 62 is going on five years, I think that I've had.

Yeah.

That's a crazy car for $450,000 new.

I bought it for 40 grand with a partition in the electrochromatic roof.

It's crazy money.

It's actually my first car I still have.

Yeah.

That's great.

I first sold my first car that my grandmother got new.

And it was a 1985 Mercedes 500 SL.

And my dad helped her order it.

She wanted a Chrysler to bear in him.

My dad was, he knew about the gray market and he ordered this thing.

Gray market imported it in.

She had no idea.

She just picked the color and he picked the fastest production Mercedes in 1985.

Aluminum V8, limited slip, spoiler, all that stuff.

And she had it.

I worship the thing.

My cousins and my sister all got cars that were gifted by her.

So one got a Kia, one got a Saturn SC2, one got a Chevy Cobalt.

And I was the dumb guy that got the 20-year-old Mercedes.

They're like, why, don't you want a Chevy Cobalt?

I'm like, no, I want that.

I agree.

Right.

Well, one of my cousins was embarrassed to be dropped off in an old car.

My grandmother would tell me, actually, I'd have to drop her off down the block

because she didn't want to be seen in this old car.

It's weird.

It's a beautiful, classy Mercedes.

So I still have that.

I didn't crash it.

I didn't do anything too stupid with it.

I have this horrible senior photo with the car in senior high school

where I have these modern AMG arrows on it on an 85 Mercedes.

It looks so ridiculous and out of place.

But if that's the worst thing that I did as a teenager in that car,

like I'm very lucky.

You probably thought it was cool at the time.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I thought it was hot stuff.

Yeah.

I had really long hair at one point in time.

And my mom used to tell me, you look ridiculous.

And I was like, you don't know what you're talking about.

And I look back at those photos and I'm like, you know what, mom?

I did look ridiculous.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's cool.

How many miles are on it now?

Yeah.

I couldn't quite pull that off.

It just sort of was like an Afro.

So it was bad.

Yeah.

I know.

Maybe I'll bring it back and see what the Internet thinks.

But I think they'll agree with my mom.

But yeah, how many miles are on it now?

130,000 on that car.

I think I started driving it right around 100,000.

So really even put a bunch of miles on it.

Yeah.

So have you ever bought a new car?

It's the special thing that I need to cherish.

You know, so it's pretty.

I like that.

And then when she passed, I didn't drive it very much

because it's kind of like a sad thing.

I need to kind of get over that because it's been almost six years now.

Do you think you'll ever get rid of it?

No, no, no.

No.

It's not worth a whole lot.

But just send a mental attachment to it.

And you know, that's my whole life tied up in a car.

You know, it's just that it's been there.

It was one year older than me, you know?

I have pictures of it like I'm a toddler

in her driveway with new cars in the background.

So no way.

Well, I think there's a lot of people that have cars like that

that they could think back on and they did get rid of it at some point

and wish they hadn't.

So that's it's nice that you've decided it's not going anywhere.

And I'm sure you've got places to store it.

Not everybody necessarily has extra storage for cars, but.

What was your first car?

My first car was an 05 Ford Mustang GT.

You were okay.

See, you'd had it pretty good.

All right.

I did.

I had a nice first car.

So the retro style in the first year of that, 4.6 or V8,

that you thought had all the horsepower in the world,

but really wasn't much.

That's cool.

And hindsight, no, it wasn't.

But it sounded good.

Yeah.

It did.

And it looked good.

I didn't pick it out.

Man, you used the air and that Mustang.

I mean, oh man, that must have been a good period for you.

I had no high school hope and high school

of ever getting a girlfriend ever.

So I'm already jealous.

Yeah.

No, I was a huge dork.

I still am.

But back then, for sure, the car was, I think,

the best thing I had going for me.

And even that wasn't working.

It was a legend lime green and it had white racing stripes on it.

Yeah.

You remember the color?

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Kind of like for anybody who doesn't know,

it's like a faded lime green kind.

It's got a vintage look to it.

It's lighter than your time right now.

Yeah.

Yes.

It was kind of in the same color way,

but it was not probably anybody who was, I don't know,

between the ages of 18 and 21's first color choice.

But that's what I got and I was very happy to have it.

And you grew up in Ohio too?

I grew up in Ohio.

Yeah.

So a real world appearance was like,

yeah, he needs a real world drive V8 for Ohio winters.

That's yes.

Your influence, were you influencing that purchase

or was that their idea?

Not at all.

It's actually funny.

So my dad is a total gear head and always has been.

And his thing has always been motorcycles mostly,

but he even now, not so much anymore,

but races vintage motorcycles,

vintage flat trackers on dirt tracks specifically.

And so he just has always, if it has an engine, he's into it.

And many times over the years,

he would just sort of impulsively buy these cool cars.

Never anything that was like outrageous,

just always stuff that was kind of like he bought

one of the very first FJ Cruisers when they came out.

In the bright blue, like the electric blue color,

voodoo blue, probably is what it was.

And my entire family hated it, except for him,

because when those came out,

I mean, they were funky for sure.

And should have never gotten rid of it

because it's probably still worth what it was new today.

But and then one day,

he had a really good relationship with a Ford store in Cleveland.

He had like the definition of the best car salesman of all time,

like the kind of guy that would come to his house,

pick up his car, bring it in for service,

leave his own personal car as a loaner,

like just made you feel like the most important person in the world.

And like we had been a family forever

until I got into the business and I ruined it for everybody.

And now I've made them all drive, you know, Mercedes-Benzes.

But he just would always just bring cars over to the house

and say, Hey, what do you think of this?

And my dad, just being the impulsive guy,

he was would occasionally just say,

Yeah, you know what looks good,

take my old one and leave that one here.

And that's how kind of the Mustang sort of happened.

And then it was gifted to me and I was thrilled to have it.

I lost it.

I lost it in college for bad grades and then got it back again.

But oh, but yeah, that was my first car.

In fact, I'll have to tell Doug DeMiro this story.

I took it to Nantucket one summer.

This is the last summer I owned it.

And I, my friends and I, we got a place on Nantucket

and we lived and worked out there for the entire summer.

We worked at a restaurant, spent every dollar that we made, right?

It was just a totally unproductive summer, but it was a lot of fun.

And I would take the Mustang down to the beaches,

like not on the beach, but like pretty close.

And if you've ever been there, a lot of unpaved roads,

a lot of dirt, a lot of sand, when I then, no, not a good place for a Mustang.

I traded it in.

So I'll back up real quick, even though I've been with Mercedes for 15 years,

my very first job selling cars was at a Ford store in Cleveland.

I was there for two months before I was like, I want to sell luxury cars.

But a family friend came in and traded in an O2 G-Wag and a G500 at the time

that had been a lemon, a buyback because of, and here was the reason for it.

I don't know if you remember the days of, I know you do, but the days of car phones,

like actual cell phones in cars.

And those older Mercedes had those, those like Motorola V90 or V,

whatever they called them, flip phones in the armrests.

StarTax, yes.

Well, it didn't work properly.

So some lawyer in Florida complained long enough and loud enough and got Mercedes to buy it back,

which branded the title, but I'm like, who cares?

It's a, it's a cell phone, right?

So I get my hands on this thing for 20 grand, which.

Very Nantucket car.

Perfect, yes.

Right.

But this was right after Nantucket and I traded in the Mustang.

I traded in the Mustang for it.

And then as soon as I buy this G-Wagon, I quit and I moved to Columbus and started working

from Mercedes-Benz.

I get a phone call two days later from the pre-owned manager at the store I was working at.

And he goes, hey, we just put your Mustang through the shop.

What the hell did you do to this thing?

I was like, what do you mean?

He's like, there's sand and dirt everywhere under, like that, like the undercarriage,

the suspension, the car was just destroyed.

I didn't need, it wasn't intentional.

I didn't even realize it.

But yeah, don't take your Mustang to Nantucket is what I'm trying to get at here.

Sounds like a YouTube video.

Then the crazy part of your story too, buying a G-Wagon back was this 10, 15 years ago for 20 grand?

It was in 2010.

2010.

So yeah, 15 years ago and a G-Wagon of that, a 2002 G-Wagon, still 20 grand no matter what,

with 250,000 miles on it.

That's a crazy world.

It really is.

I would have never expected that vehicle to still six, seven years now.

Sorry, I didn't do that intentionally.

After it got completely redesigned to still be going for over MSRP on the secondary market.

It's actually kind of the bane of my existence, but I don't know.

Have you ever seen anything kind of like that before?

Something that for this long was this out of control from a market perspective?

No, no.

I mean, I was in the era where cars depreciated normally and I got out of the car business in

2014 before everything went all whack-a-doodle.

So it made everybody look like a genius in 2020, especially guys like me with these car fleets on

YouTube and like, look at me.

I'm making money on the videos.

Yeah, I'm making money on the car.

It was so crazy.

I just can't imagine the people coming with their trade ins and the expectations of a few years ago

versus now and you having to deal with that on a daily basis and do it with a smile on your face.

So you've been around the industry long enough to know and may help me here because sometimes

I feel like I'm crazy and I can never quite articulate this, but it does feel like at a

point in time and I don't know exactly what year it was.

Maybe it was 2016, 2017, 2018, somewhere in there.

But there was a time where things like G-Wagons, 911s, Lamborghini's, Ferrari's,

yeah, people bought them, but in limited numbers they depreciated pretty normally.

They weren't that desirable to the masses and then all of a sudden it seemed kind of all at once.

It's like, oh, you want a 911 now?

Yeah, not going to happen.

You want a G63?

Good luck.

You want whatever the new Ferrari is that's coming in?

You better know somebody.

I mean, did that just seem to kind of happen overnight?

Pretty much with the pandemic money.

I feel like a lot of the modern classics as far as those 90s and 2000s,

Ferrari's and Lamborghini's and things where they were just used cars and it became like,

okay, these seem like stable investments.

I can buy and hold these cars and it became something reachable for people.

I think creative financing also got people into these cars that normally wouldn't have

as far as the flexing and things.

I also think social media didn't help where everybody's, if you've made it,

you got to have one of these things where that wasn't a consideration, I think.

So yeah, the world has just completely changed.

I also think manufacturers are purposely keeping the scarcity kind of,

they like that.

I'm sure you would love to have a lot flooded with a hundred and G53s and

there's not going to do it.

Well, but I also do understand that if they made too many of them at a certain point,

you would probably ruin the appeal.

If there's that kind of mystique of like, can I get one?

Will it be hard to get one?

And same with 911s, any of the GT cars especially, it's like,

if all of a sudden you could just show up and go get one today, would you want one as badly?

I think the first one probably is the 911 R where the speculation went wild on it.

I don't know if you remember all this where there's one point where they thought,

this is going to be the last GT engine manual Porsche in 2017 or whatever.

And they did some sort of heritage interior and stripes and all that stuff.

And speculators were flipping them and they were bringing a million dollars on a car,

you know, it's about two or three hundred thousand dollars.

And Porsche hated this and then, you know, decided, well, we're going to make more manual,

you know, GT engine cars and just completely smoked them, just blew them up.

So there's manufacturers that don't like it as well.

But that's the first one I can recall of thinking this is really, really stupid.

It's just so many other examples from then on.

Yeah, all of those special edition Porsches.

And I, again, are you familiar with how the VIP program with Porsche kind of came to be?

No, no.

I've had it explained to me, and I can't say this came directly from Porsche,

but as it was told me, and this is actually genius, and I think it was part of the problem,

was that when the 918 launched, they couldn't get anybody to buy it,

because nobody wanted to spend a million dollars on any car, let alone a Porsche at that point in time.

So they decided, we're going to create this VIP program.

And if you buy a 918, then for the next 10 years or however long it was,

we're going to do one special edition car a year, some 911 variant,

and you will get first red refusal to buy one as a 918 owner.

And they're all going to be numbered limited cars.

And so then they were able to move all the 918s.

And then you had all of these crazy cars that started to come out like the R

and all of the heritage cars that they've done over the last several years.

Now, the program's over now, but anybody that ended up buying a 918

suddenly now had access to all of these crazy special cars that they were doing over the years.

I thought it was kind of a genius.

And now everyone's trying to copy it, right?

Mercedes-Benz and everybody else.

They want to do VIP limited special run cars.

And it's very cool, but it certainly doesn't help the problem.

Like this G-Wagon Cavalier-Lay.

I already know how bad, when that finally does get unveiled,

it's going to ruin my life for a short period of time for sure.

It's just funny to see how the car can get to the public guy with the Internet and the DMs.

Everybody's going to think of you, oh, that's the guy at the Mercedes store.

I'll ask him and then your DMs will be that for the next six months.

Yeah. I apologize in advance.

Yeah, exactly.

So just a kind of a fun question to ask you since you're around these kind of older cars all the

time and you like to maybe speculate on them a little bit, repair them, whatever.

Is there a car that you see today that you think is undervalued versus where you see it going?

Like what's going to be kind of the next big car for maybe collectors of older cars?

I still think there's probably a lot of potential with the SLS,

even though they've had gone up a little bit.

I think that car is something where still you can find one for under $200,000.

That seems like for a short span of that car existed and the engine that it has and the

doors going up. I had one sold it three years ago and they've gone up quite a bit since then,

but I still think there's a ways to go. And also, Mercedes is being very inclusive with

the Gullwing groups and all that stuff with the rallies and things that are Mercedes through NSL

only. They're opening up to SLS as well. And that's just to be a special car in a period.

But as far as something that's more attainable, I feel like it's going to be that naturally aspirated

V8, the last of that 6.3. So like a C63 507, amazing car, amazing looks and all that. And

they're still not terribly expensive to buy. But just a nice C63 is going to be one where it's like,

poof, they're gone. You can't find that anymore of that older engine.

But currently, I'm just rocking a 2016 AMG GTS that they're incredible values for what they are.

I don't see them getting any cheaper than they are right now. I don't know about appreciation,

but a car like that, that you can buy in the 50s for a nice example, they're not going to be

something that's going to sell for 20 grand five years from now. They're always there. They're

that halo level and that sort of seems to be, I think the bottom for that kind of performance,

especially not being a hybrid and is more sports cars and more halo level enthusiast cars become

hybridized. I think people will kind of look back and not want to mess with that stuff.

Like the current C53, not that you want to knock your new inventory, but there's been a lot of

backlash with the new four cylinder hybrid C63 that not many people really wanted that.

Yeah, they pulled the plug on it already. So that's, yeah, I mean, look, we can all agree that

the engines that we used to have, Trump, the engines that we often have now for a variety

of reasons, they've sounded better. They, you know, they just were simpler in a lot of ways.

But so is it safe to say, is Mercedes your favorite brand? Can I go as far as to say that?

Yes, well, by far a lot. I've had more Mercedes than anything else. I think I have

five of them right now or six something like that. So yeah, it's a problem.

What is it about the brand that you like so much and what drew you to it originally?

Well, I mean, obviously my grandmother having that one and giving me that for a first car and

then just, just realizing it. And I think the next one, so the next car I bought, because I wanted

to keep the 500 a cell nice, but I wanted to, I wanted something that I could daily drive

and something classic, something cool. And I found on eBay for 2,500 bucks and 1985 Mercedes 300d

in petrol blue green metallic. So pretty, pretty close to your tie. I mean, a little more blue to

it and drove that home and it had no air conditioning. The motor mounts were collapsed.

The car wouldn't shut off with the key because it was vacuum controlled.

Are you familiar with it? So everything on that car was vacuum controlled to where there's a valve

that would shut off the engine that was vacuum controlled. So if your door lock failed, then

it would kill the vacuum system and then your car wouldn't shut off. You'd have to open the hood

and push a lever to turn off the injection pump. So we had all these problems and, and I learned how

to, to, you know, I, I took, took the mechanic once and the bill was $1,000 for like a little

things. I was like, dang, I need to figure out how to fix some of this stuff myself. Otherwise,

I'm going to get smoked and just drove that car to both coasts multiple times was there for the

Mercedes classics center basically when it opened and saw more goalings and just, just became

obsessed. Went from that to a 95 E 320 wagon and thought that was the most amazing thing.

My first modern one was that I traded my, I had an X five that was really not reliable. It was,

it was, it was falling apart at 75,000 miles in a 2003 and traded that into a 2004 E 500 wagon.

And that was still, I think it probably just one of the all time greats as far as the generation

of E class of what they were doing there with, you know, that E 55, the transition to the E 63,

the 211 chassis. It was just so good. So good. And yeah, I've just always been crazy about

Mercedes. Yeah, it's never stopped. Yeah, those early 2000s cars are, I think, when I fell in

love with the brand, specifically the CLK, I just thought was such a good looking car. And,

but yeah, no, I mean, it's, I don't know. It's funny how little things can happen

along the way, whether it's maybe a car being gifted to you or just being around you and it

sort of starts to draw you into a certain brand. But it's, I think it's an easy brand to love for

a lot of reasons. The history and the heritage, all the cool cars over the years, it's, I don't

know, it, I don't really have to sell the brand very hard. It just people are well aware of Mercedes

Benz in its history. But yeah, yeah. Have you, what's your favorite non-Mercedes you've ever

owned? Probably 200 or 300 Mercedes, not counting like ours in my dealership, in that, you know,

now it's like, I've had SLS, SLR and AMG GT and, you know, own them all for a long period of time.

And it's like, oh my, like all these cars, you know, I was just crazy about it. When I graduated

college, I like, what do you want to get for your college graduation gift? I was like, please

let me go to the Mercedes Benz Museum and go see the factory. And the SLSs were just coming out then

and C63s and then going through, have you, have you been to the museum in Germany yet?

No, I haven't actually. So you go up the top floor and you get off the elevator and it kind of,

you know, circles down like the Guggenheim, I suppose. And, you know, you open the elevator door

and you're immediately, you know, just greeted with this beautiful display of the, of the patent

motorwagon, the very first Mercedes. And you just get to see the evolution of the brand as you go

down and through. And it is an unbelievable, amazing museum. And I just, I haven't been back

since 2010. So that's, that's the goal. The goal is actually probably going to get shipped there

for PREP to do the Milmia race in Italy, 1000 miles, the revival of that. And Mercedes is,

is, is helping me out with that. So that'll be a crazy life moment to be able to do all that for

sure. That's amazing. Are you going to drive it? Yeah, I'm not going to let anybody else drive it.

So I might have a co-driver hop in the passenger seat for a bit, but yes.

Have you, have you done races like that before? I've done the Milmia once. Mercedes invited me

out. So that's, yeah, I got very lucky with, with my social media relationships and Mercedes classic

getting on their radar. And I had never driven a 300 SL before, I mean, you know, four or five

years ago, and they invited me out to drive one of the cars. And Michael was their, their social

media guy at Mercedes class when we're doing a drive on a pedal beach, 17 mile drive. And at the

end of it, like, I'm visibly upset. And there's this like a single tear running down my cheek,

because it's like, I've never driven one before. And it was so good. It was one of those meet

your hero moments. And there is amazing in person as the, you know, as you think they are. And he's,

and I'm just like, I don't want this to be over. And rather than the guy thinking I'm a total

nut job, because I am like trying over driving a car for a first time. He's like, I'll get you

another chance. And that second chance was in the Milmia in Italy, with a goaling, a race cam

goaling with a Formula one X, Formula one driver is my co-driver. And what just like whoever

would have thought, and, and now I have that car, and I just did a race cam in it. And they're

saying, Hey, why don't we put this car on a plane and have you do the Milmia, the whole thing in

your car? Wow. And I hope from the whole thing, right? That's the plan. Yeah, that's the plan.

But then I do dumb stuff. Like, I don't know, you saw my post from yesterday, I just about

ripped the door off my goaling. I didn't see yesterday's now. But so I put it in my living

room for Christmas, when the car finally arrived in Kansas after four months of the class are

getting worked on. This whole, you know, gift unwrapping that people do, you know, but I put

it in my living room because I'm so I didn't want to start it up cold started my living room after

it's sitting in there for a week, because I left it in there for a week, because I thought it was

cool. So I thought I'd push it out. But I didn't realize the going doors, they stick out way past

the car. And so I started pushing, and it hits my house. And then I panic and push it back in.

And that's worse. It's going and now one's like, So it's the my ultimate dream car. And I almost

ripped the door. I've gouged the paint. It's misaligned. It's at the body shop right now. And

so that, yeah, that's, that's the yin and yang, I guess, of like, I'm a total idiot and I have no

business owning this car. And that happens. Good for content, though.

I don't know. That's the yin and yang of it, right? Oh my goodness. I mean, so what was the

inspiration? I mean, it had that you're going to put it in the house, right? Because it makes

for good content. And but then this terrible, terrible thing happens, where you nearly rip

the door off. Yes, that's unbelievable. They told me stories. So they're trying to make you feel

about a class scanner of people who have actually ripped their doors off. Because it is a thing,

like you're backing out with a door open, you don't think it sticks out. And if you're using

the car, and you just clip the garage, like the door will just go, and it'll it'll rip off.

So yeah. So at least I didn't totally do that. I just really scraped the bejesus out of it.

Yeah. Well, my God, that would be terrible. How long is it going to be at the body shop,

do you think? It's supposed to be done when I get back from Barrett Jackson. So I'll be doing

the live TV coverage then. There's a Goldwing spelling for charity that's a really, really

nice restoration. So it'll be really fun. It's a rich wheel. It's a knockoff wheel car, too. So

it should. Barrett Jackson rung the bell with one two or three years ago for three and a half million

dollars for a non-alloyed body, just a beautiful restoration Goldwing might be a record for a

non-alloy Goldwing they did. So when that happened, I thought, okay, I'm never getting one of these.

So it was very lucky that I found someone that wanted my Veyron to take on trade. They didn't

ask about the breakware on my Veyron, by the way, it was a dealer. And they just they just took it.

But it was conditional on an inspection. And so I had to get the thing

inspected at a Bugatti dealer and he shipped it out there. And they reported back that the Veyron

was leaking. It was leaking oil. It was leaking coolant. And it was leaking transmission fluid,

my Veyron. And if the transmission fluid, they want another eight hours to diagnose. So about

$5,000 or something to diagnose. And they said, if they need to take out and reseal the transmission,

you're looking at maybe $200,000 in repairs. And this is why you don't get it.

Mercifully, this dealer who's become the same as Matt Ivan, the cultivator collector,

he has sources to fix Bugatti's cheaper and all that stuff. And he's trying to figure out

how to be the independent guy to fix Veyrons and all that stuff. And he still wanted the car.

And he knew how important the going was to me. He got this thing out of the state. And he still

wanted to do the deal. So I'm forever grateful that, you know, because even if he said, hey,

I need another 100 grand or something like that, I didn't have the money to do it. It was like,

I'm shaking myself upside down to get this deal done. Like, you have everything. You have everything

I own. I gave him one of my Ferraris. So just, you know, just crash and burn the plane barely

landed to get this, this going. And I, but I got it. I did it. That's amazing. That's amazing.

And so that you, I, you know, we already kind of touched on this. Was that probably a keep forever

car? Would you imagine? Or, you know, I hope so. I hope so. It's, it's, it's such an expensive thing,

though, that, you know, once I've done all the things and like, it could be something, I feel

like I could keep it forever if I'm able to do it, but it would be okay if I sold it because

it's like, okay, I had the car, I experienced it. I did all these things. And like, what,

like what's the left one that starts to get parked? Because I never thought I would sell

my SLR McLaren because I thought that was like amazing thing. But it, there was like, holy smokes,

that car hasn't moved in six months. It just, so when it gets to that point, you're kind of like,

well, I mean, what's the point, especially when a, the AMG GTS is $56,000, what I paid for mine,

and you get this incredible experience versus the 300 grand that the SLR is worth, you know, so.

How did you like the SLR, by the way? It's amazing. And so, you say that in the same

breath back in the day as a, as an Enzo Ferrari and a Porsche Carrera GT,

the Mercy Lagos, I suppose, that are now more expensive. And it's still, that's, this is the

only car in that group of Halo mid 2000s cars that sells for under what it was new, dramatically

under. Because it was a $500,000 car new and everybody, people didn't get it because it,

you know, it looked too much like an SL and McLaren built the Mercedes, you know,

designed it and gave the engine and stuff. And people just don't understand how special that

thing is. And if a Carrera GT is now $2 million and an Enzo is now $4 million, these were the

same, these were in the same world back 20 years ago. And it's a $300,000 car. It's

best bang for the buck. No, it's, you're exactly right. Nobody can seem to really figure this one

out. Like, is the SLR always doomed to be the kind of like stepchild of that those mid 2000s

supercars or will it eventually be like a Carrera GT where it's, you know, rockets in value? I don't

know. I mean, it gets debated constantly. The Carrera GT has the manual transmission, the last

analog supercar and all that stuff, but it was depressed for a while. You know, the whole Paul

Walker thing and him dying in one, you could pick one of those up for, you know, have three, four,

$500,000 for a long time, and they just exploded. The Enzo's were all expensive, but they got

a crazy expensive. But I think it's the maintenance and it's really, I think, not deserved on that

car where they say, oh, the engine has to come out for the spark plugs. That's not true. And you

never have to change the spark plugs. Like they last in normal Mercedes with that engine 100,000

miles. It's not a thing with that car and brakes. But then again, ceramic brakes,

this is not a car that you're daily driving to where you're wearing these brakes are tracking

it a lot. So you've got realistically 50,000, 60,000 miles of normal driving on these ceramic

brakes. And none of these cars have that kind of miles on it. They all have, you know, 5, 10,

20,000 miles on them. So that argument isn't there. I get that the automatic transmission is

sort of a thing, not being dual clutch, and it being sort of a normal Mercedes slash box of that

era. But it's fine considering it's sort of like a muscle car. Like that instant, you know,

where you're able to downshift and get that into the supercharger and the torque and everything.

And of course, the brake by wire system that was early and kind of funky is not as weird as people

say it is. It's not that bad. But thankfully, it's still under warranty. So I have the same brake

system in my my box 62. And it's been to the dealer twice to have both brake pumps replaced

to the tune of I think, $7 or $8,000 each and Mercedes is paid for under warranty. So

thank you for that. Really? Like a super extended warranty on those? That's cool.

Correct. Because they it was an early break by wire system. And they calculated like how many

brake depressions it would take for this pump to wear out. Because obviously they don't want the

fail. Right. But they just calculated like this is how many depressions we think it would take.

The problem is they'd really miscalculated and the cars were like having failure messages

very early into their their use, you know, at three, five years in. So Mercedes warrantied it

for 20 years. And and updated software and all that stuff to me actually made it a good system.

But they ditched it in 2007, 2008, like the SLR still had until the end. But yeah,

you think Maibach will ever make a return as a standalone brand again?

Dude, yeah, that would be pretty cool. I mean, I get what they're doing. And obviously,

the Maibach GLS was a really cool thing. It still is that people were crazy after going over MSRP

for a period. But it is kind of a shame that, you know, the the Maibach, I get that it didn't

work because it was so expensive. And they didn't make it visually that different from

from an S class. But I've had the Rolls-Royce Phantom was this main competitor in 2004. And I've

had the the Maibach, the Maibach is million miles ahead of the Phantom in terms of the luxury and

the quality and the tech and all that stuff where the Rolls-Royce is kind of old school and like,

you know, like, okay, we'll put a few gimmicks in there. But but the thing is just groundbreaking

what it's able to do. And it's so cool. Oh, it's wild. I encourage anybody here. I don't know if

you ever did one. But I know that Doug did an amazing review of one years ago, where he really

showed all of the things that make it special. And it you would be shocked at what those cars have,

especially in the rear seat compartment. Just I mean, it's truly yeah, I mean, Rolls-Royce has not

taken anything away from them. But it was special. Yeah, I made mine a little different from Doug's

video when I got it because I had my my kids at the time and taking them to school in that car,

you know, they start to get annoying and I put the partition up and close the things. But then

they still have the intercom to be able to call me and start seeing baby shark through the intercom

to me and that kind of stuff. So we were goofing pretty good with it. I love that. I'm going to go

find that. That's awesome. Well, Tyler, this has really been a pleasure for me that it's kind of

surreal for me to I never thought that I'd get anywhere with short form car content. But it's

still I feel like there's these two worlds that exist where you've got people who kind of do the

short form and then people who do the long form. And, you know, me and a lot of my friends,

the long form came well before, in my opinion, the shorter stuff. So watching your videos

years, it's just cool to see what you do. And it's, you know, because you really are

giving people behind the scenes look at what, you know, it's like to rip apart

an old car. And it's nostalgic for a lot of people because a lot of the stuff that you have in there,

maybe somebody is owned at one point in time. It's just fun. It's just fun to watch.

Had someone to try and do shorts and things. And like, no, I like I guess the turn attention span

of young people where it's like 30 seconds and they swipe, like I need to figure that out.

So I am jealous of what you have and what you've built. And you have a built in business to be

able to, you know, get people to get traffic now over to, you know, as far as, you know,

bidding and buying cars for your dealership and other things. And to where it makes,

to where it's an amazing source of leads for you and your business. And that's amazing.

And for me, like, you know, I wanted people to come back and watch my long videos. And I don't

really have, I wasn't smart enough to start cars and bids or have some kind of business to be like,

hey, you know, let's get some more cheese there. So, so I'm very, it's been cool to watch, watch

your rise and how you've managed to do that and not do it in like a gimmicky way of, of like,

you know, being annoying, basically. I mean, you're still professional and you're still obviously

principal, your dealership and all that stuff to where it's just cool to see someone just,

you know, maybe with a little bit of sass, but otherwise, you know, just a very professional

guy doing his job, you know? Yeah, no, it's, it's been a lot of fun. I didn't think anybody would

care, but, but here we are. And yeah, it's, it, I don't know, they're two different worlds. So,

I guess I'm trying to figure out how you do what you do and you're trying to figure out how the,

how I do what I do, but it's, you know, they're, they're still, it's, it's just cool to have these

communities of people that show up. I'm sure you see names, familiar names that always are there,

commenting and engaging with you. And it's like, who would have thought, right? And for you,

you've been doing it for a long time. I think what my, my short form when I'm going and shopping

for cars, I'm just going to start asking people about their breaks. And then I'm going to guess

that my short form is just going to blow up. I mean, almost all of a sudden, it'll be like,

there's the, there's the sauce. There's, there's the, the beautiful bean recipe, right?

Yeah. Well, I, I'll give you, you have one little hint and I think you're, you're onto it, but

what I have found unfortunately works very well in short form is they're

a little bit of sass and a little bit of controversy is what the people like. If they're,

if it's too educational and boring, they probably aren't going to be able to hang around and watch.

But if there's a little bit of conflict, and that's I think why car dealerships and inherently,

there tend to be conflict, even when we're trying further or not to, because I like,

I don't want conflict, but still it finds me, right?

Well, but yeah, so it's hard years ago, it was, you know, raging alcoholics, you know, just,

just the horrible things that, you know, that really don't exist as much today.

Car dealerships that were, that were back in, you know, in the 2000s.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. If only a camera crew was following around and doing short form content

back in the late 90s early 2000s. People would have a field day with that.

Yep. So, well, awesome. When does Barrett Jackson officially kick off?

Monday. Yeah. Monday's first car is crossing the block. I'm not on air till Tuesday on FYI in

history. And hopefully I stay out of trouble. That's the nice thing about doing this is I,

the live TV coverage usually keeps me out of trouble to where I don't end up buying like

five cars, maybe only one. So, but no promises. No, no, no promises. I mean, I'm a little broke.

You underlying anything? No, I mean, not really. No, no, I'm, I, I'm licking my wounds from the

going, purchasing the repairs still. So yeah, yeah, I need to behave myself.

Okay. Well, I'll look forward to tuning in and following along and Tyler, thank you again

for being here. I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future, but I do appreciate you

carving out some time for me today. Yes, I will be calling you for the G-Wagon Crab Bear Lays.

I better be at the top of your list. I will take that call. We'll figure something out.

10 grand under MSRP. Yeah. Okay. Well, with appropriate trade-in, I'm sure we can make that

work. All right. Thanks so much, Doug. It's a pleasure to meet you and congratulations on all your

success. Thank you, Tyler, likewise.

Episode 6 - Tyler Hoover Of Hoovie's Garage

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