SwitchCast Nov 3, 2025

Is a Cheap Porsche Actually Cheap?

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

52:21

Car

Chevrolet Express

The Chevrolet Express is a big van that can carry a lot of people or stuff, making it great for families or businesses. It's known for being tough and reliable, so it's a good choice if you need something spacious and practical.

Concept

retail sales

Retail sales are when cars are sold directly to people who want to drive them, instead of selling them to other car dealers. It's how most people buy their cars.

Concept

wholesale

Wholesale is when cars are sold to other car dealers instead of regular people. Dealers buy these cars to sell them again, usually at a lower price than what you would pay in a store.

Car

Porsche 911 Turbo

The Porsche 911 Turbo is a special version of the Porsche 911 sports car that has a turbocharged engine, which gives it extra power. The '930' is the code used to identify this specific version of the car.

Term

$24,000

$24,000 is the amount of money the speaker paid to buy the Porsche 996. It gives an idea of how much a used sports car can cost.

Term

IMS bearing

The IMS bearing is a part in some Porsche engines that can break and cause big problems. Upgrading it can help avoid these issues.

Term

IMS solution

The IMS solution is a repair for a specific problem in some Porsche engines that can cause serious damage. It's important for buyers to know if this repair has been done to avoid future issues.

Term

winter tires

Winter tires are special tires made for driving in cold weather, snow, and ice. They help your car grip the road better when it's slippery.

Car

Volvo

Volvo is a car brand from Sweden that makes safe and reliable cars. Many people use them for everyday driving.

Car

Maserati MC20

The Maserati MC20 is a fast and stylish sports car made by Maserati. It has a powerful engine and is designed for high performance on the road.

Car

Maserati Mc

The Maserati MC12 is a very rare and expensive sports car that is built for speed and luxury. It's not just a car; it's a piece of art on wheels, but owning one can be costly in terms of maintenance and repairs.

Term

IMS retrofit

IMS retrofit is a fix for a part in some Porsche engines that can break and cause big problems. Many owners upgrade this part to avoid future issues.

Term

RMS

RMS is a seal in the engine that stops oil from leaking out. If it wears out, it can cause oil leaks, so it's often replaced during maintenance.

Term

maintenance costs

Maintenance costs are the money you spend to keep your car running well. This includes things like oil changes, tire rotations, and fixing broken parts. Some cars, like luxury or sports cars, can be more expensive to maintain than regular cars.

Car

Ferrari Testarossa

The Ferrari Testarossa is a famous sports car from the 1980s and 1990s, known for its unique look and powerful engine. It's a luxury car, so keeping it in good shape can be very expensive.

The pressure plate is a part of the clutch that helps it work properly. If it breaks, it can cause problems with changing gears.

Car

Toyota Camry

The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many people choose because it's dependable and easy to drive. It's a good option for families and is known to last a long time, which means it can be a smart choice if you want a car that holds its value.

Car

Porsche Boxster

Car

Porsche 944

Car

Porsche Mans Porsche

The Porsche Macan is a small luxury SUV that offers a fun driving experience while still being practical for everyday use. It's designed to be stylish and comfortable, making it a great choice for people who want a fancy car that can handle daily activities.

Car

Porsche 968

Car

Porsche GT3

The Porsche GT3 is a fast version of the Porsche 911 that is built for racing but can also be driven on the street. It has special features to make it perform better.

Cash for Clunkers was a program where people could get money for trading in their old cars for new, more fuel-efficient ones. It helped people buy new cars and was good for the environment.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a well-known sports car that many people admire for its speed and style. It's like the ultimate American sports car, and there are lots of different versions, which can lead to interesting discussions among fans about what makes each one special.

LIVE

You might have thought it would never happen, but Switchcast is endorsing a transport company.

Whether you're moving a rare collectible, a high-end sports car, or your personal luxury

vehicle, Shaughnessy Overland Express delivers with precision, privacy, and respect.

This isn't just transport, it's white-glove care from pickup to delivery.

For over 14 years, they've earned the trust of collectors, enthusiasts, dealers, and owners

by offering unmatched service and personalized attention.

You'll work directly with their experienced in-house team, ensuring a smooth and private

experience without middlemen or surprises.

Every shipment is protected with up to $3 million in cargo insurance, offering peace

of mind for even the most valuable and rare vehicles on the road.

In addition to their enclosed fleet, they've also established a trusted auto transport

brokerage service, giving you access to a nationwide network of vetted, open, and enclosed carriers.

Whether you need transport on a route they don't currently operate, or their carriers

are at full capacity when your schedule demands, they'll still get it done without compromising

the Shaughnessy standard of excellence.

Same professionalism, same personal touch, expanded flexibility.

We are proud at Switchcast to endorse Shaughnessy Overland Express as the official transporter

of Switchcast.

Visit SOEXInc.com and tell them Switchcast sent you.

Welcome back to Switchcast Season 6.

I'm your host, Doug Tabott, here with my co-host, Tyler Sanders.

Hattie.

Ethan Huffnagle, our problem solver and executive producer over here, figuring out-

I haven't solved anything yet.

Whatever.

We are here and it's recording and people won't even know that anything happened behind

the scenes, or didn't happen, or whatever.

Switchcast is the podcast that's not just for car people.

The automotive podcast is not just for car people.

And it's also the podcast where we seek to edify, educate, and entertain in no particular

order.

Ooh, I like it.

That was my pause.

We should not drink sparkling water immediately before an episode.

I was trying to emulate Tim Neely with his soft, silky voice where he kind of whispered

into the mic mysteriously.

I think he did say on one of the YouTube videos we posted with him, like, could the guy whispering

everything stop?

He has such a soft voice.

And I think too, he like doesn't get close enough to the mic.

A lot of people seem to struggle with that though.

That's Tim's a great deal.

It's not like just his problem.

I think the mic picked him up fine, but he is very breathy with his articulation, certain

thoughts.

Breathy with his articulation.

It's a good contrast to me.

Pretty sure they're playing at House of Blues next month.

I'd love to go see them.

What am I saying?

It was a good thing when the mic wasn't working.

Dude gets married like two months ago.

Hey, keep it clean.

Keep it clean.

Turn the mic off again.

Man, get me out of here.

Oh my goodness.

If you enjoy this podcast still help us out with the algorithms, like, subscribe, share,

review.

It all helps us out with that AI stuff and it helps other people see the podcast at no

cost to you.

Please also support our sponsors and or sign up for Patreon at some cost to you.

But then you're like a sponsor almost.

Right.

Patreon.com slash switchcast where you get to see all the behind the scenes technical

difficulties.

I know that you think that this just runs like a, you know, military ship.

I think tonight is our showcase as to why it does not.

Well, you know, when they hear the podcast, it's just smooth.

It's like everything's magical, but it's not quite smooth and breathy.

Let's take our warm up lap before we go 10 tenths.

Tyler, what is fueling this podcast?

And I'm going to answer that.

I was going to pull a bottle.

Well, I was going to load bearing for our sign here, our plate to sample sign from

Ed.

Yeah, this is going to be some Mikters barrel strength rye that our technical advisor has

brought.

I don't drink barrel strength anything.

So I'm drinking some James B beam distillers share musket wine finished rye whiskey.

Oh, that's going to be sweet years in American and French oak barrel 105 proof.

So that's my upper limit of what I spicy people.

I shouldn't have read the proof.

I should have tried to guess.

I can't believe you got this Bardstown just like bang on screw top mini bottle too.

Wait, isn't a screw cap not fancy Dan?

Cheapy boy.

Oh boy.

I'm reading the notes from last week.

I almost started off with Elaine Benes being part of the Ferrari.

Oh boy.

We talked, I think it was Iowa that passed a law a number of months ago to shield race

tracks from neighbor complaints over noise, especially when the racetracks had been there

before the neighbors were.

There's many, many frustrating things about this world.

But I think the fact that people move next to a racetrack and be like, wow, it's noisy

here.

I hate it.

We should tear it down is insane to me.

Go live somewhere else.

This was a known quantity.

You don't move next to an interstate and do that because you can't.

Yeah.

They all know the consequences of your actions.

Deal with it.

Right.

So North Carolina also followed suit.

Yes.

No pun intended.

And the General Assembly passed HB 926 to catch all bill covering everything from wastewater

treatment exemptions to how much whiskey a restaurant can keep on hand for cooking purposes.

The bill protects race tracks.

Well, I think if you don't have a liquor license, maybe from nuisance claims, specifically

in cases where the motorsports facility had legally established development rights and

received all necessary permits and approval to bring begin construction and operations.

A real quick producers note the next 12 or so minutes of this episode might sound a little

bit weird.

For some reason, there was a buzzing sound on both Tyler and Doug's mics when they would

speak for a portion of the recording.

So I had to run it through an AI audio enhancer.

Shout out to Adobe to clean it up.

The result, the audio is buzz free, but it's a little bit muffled.

So sorry about that.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the podcast.

So this is courtesy of auto week.com.

So we're very, very happy about this, especially as we're seeing kind of the opposite phenomenon

happen where car culture is being ruined by a bunch of idiots trying to, I don't know,

just act childish, both in their driving and in their antics, not in the car.

Most notably recently in, was it the Slammed Enough Car Show in Gatlinbury, Tennessee?

Where they banned that car show from coming back?

There was crazy racing on the back roads.

There was just, you know, taking over parking lots, whatever, general semi-riding, but not

really.

And then just recently, another post in Anne Arundel County, the county police shut down

the cars and coffee events and had nothing to do with the cars and coffee there.

It was basically just a response to what had happened in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with the

Slammed Enough and the police had been instructed, as this post says, to shut down any gatherings

of modified vehicles in all of the county, which they perceive as quote, staging the street

race or disrupt the surrounding areas.

Don't, yeah.

You know, the old saying goes, take it to the racetrack.

But then, the Carons and the HOAs want to take the racetracks away from us.

So, it's really great that North Carolina and Iowa and some other states are actually

protecting the racetracks.

Now, obviously some people still will do their shenanigans on the street.

You know, it's semi-prohibitive, expensive, difficult safety equipment, all that crap,

to go to the racetrack and, you know, sometimes you just want to put your foot in it and do

a little pull, you know.

But anyway, it's one small step for mankind.

A sparkle, a glint of hope in a time that it's a bit unfortunate to be a car enthusiast.

There's a lot of positive stuff we talk about, I think you and I and our friends still love

being car enthusiasts, but the public shows and the stuff isn't what it used to be, and

it kind of sucks.

I hate to see it.

I was on my way home from Tennessee, speaking of Tennessee, this weekend, and I had a detour

off the highway.

I was not down there first slammed enough for any...

At least story does.

Music knows.

But anyway, I got routed off the highway because there was a car accident, and as I'm getting

off the exit, what do I see?

But Craig and Landryth called me out.

You didn't do...

I just wasn't on purpose?

No.

Like Chick-fil-A, though, they are closed on Sunday, so I had to turn around in their

driveway anyway to get back on the highway on the ramp that I wanted to, anyway.

So, I just...

I pulled in, I took a selfie, and left.

And down there, if you want to buy a car on Sunday, you ain't got shit.

I was going to do the money, or Monday, I guess, yeah, with a contract and a deposit.

Anyway, but I wanted to touch on that for a moment, not to keep, like, beating this dead

horse, right?

We've made our videos, we've dragged their name through the mud for their actual...

They did it.

We've just told the story.

Here's what they missed, is dealer relationships are really, really important for dealers to

have.

A lot of dealers get arrogant and say, I don't need other dealers, whatever.

We only sell retail.

And this was absolutely the case during COVID, like 2020, mid-2020, to, like, early-2023,

maybe 22.

Most dealers refused to sell to other dealers because it was so competitive, nobody could

get inventory.

Even if you gave them the money they wanted, they were just like, nope, we're wholesale,

not wholesaling.

Oh, like how you...

We still did, if the number made sense, because we knew that these relationships mattered

in the long run, and this market won't last forever, and it will come back around to where

we'll need them.

But when we were trying to, like, buy a car for a client, it was just pointless.

It was pointless to even ask, to put out the word, to send out our texts, emails, whatever,

and try to find other dealers that might have a car there a client wants.

It was just like, Matt, if we don't have it in inventory, we can't get it.

But that's crazy.

That's come back full circle, and dealers need each other.

And that was going to be my, like, plea to Joey Craig, is when I called him up before

the deal went totally south, I'd be like, hey, there could be a relationship here where

you guys sell a lot of trucks, we sell a lot of sports cars, like, let's start a dealer

relationship because we could probably benefit each other.

And he was too short-sighted to see that.

And I was thinking about this because I was going through our numbers last month.

We typically sell 75% of our cars retail 25% wholesale.

Now the 25% quote unquote wholesale just means it sold to somebody with a dealer license.

Half of those are either dealers buying for a retail client or just a private collector

with a dealer license, but, you know, still about 75, 25.

Last month, 49% of our sales were to dealers, but that wasn't because we're quote unquote

wholesaling or because we were in trouble or anything.

It was our third most profitable month of 2025 out of nine.

So like, it just goes to show that those relationships matter.

100%, even in my line of work, the leadership at the company I'm at always goes for do

right by the customer.

We do a lot of contract work, you know, for the sake of the relationship, you know, we'll

take one on the chin if we have to for the long game for the customer and it almost always

pays off.

Right.

And people appreciate it.

Yes.

But at least in my customer, the customer should not be predefined as a retail customer.

It could be someone else in the industry.

As long as the numbers make sense, you might do a web development job for another web development

company.

And whoever the customer is, whoever we're doing the work for, it's for the relationship

because they will usually come back and that is so much better than more profit today.

Exactly.

Soul and spine wants everyone to have a higher quality of life.

They specialize in non-surgical options for those who have been told that they need injections

or surgery.

They offer state of the art techniques that help over 90% of patients become pain free

in just weeks.

Starting with thorough medical history and comprehensive examination, you'll work one

on one with Dr. Hoover to meet all your treatment goals.

Their mission is to unleash your body's own healing potential to avoid drugs and surgery.

Visit www.soulandspine.com to learn more, located in Solon, Ohio.

So you recently sold your 996, not just because it was a 996, you know, or scoring IML, Ray

Interior Friday, right?

Eggs, all this.

Hold on, Gray Interior, Doug, we're listing negative things.

Gray Interior is a pie.

It's beautiful.

Anyway, you had that car for a lot of miles and a lot of years, but you sold it to get

a GT3.

Yes.

But let's talk about that because automotive media does quote unquote long term tests usually

on new cars and they have them for like a year, but we don't always get a real picture

into what it costs to own the quote unquote cheapest 9-Eleven that you can buy.

Is it really cheap or is it like owning a real exotic car to own a cheap, unloved bastard

child 996, 9-Eleven?

The Stockholm syndrome really just took hold.

I love 996s.

So I did like to, I purchased my old 996 in 2017, I was newly out of college, had a job

and I was like, I can have a car payment, but I don't want to daily.

I want something up and dreaming of since I was a kid.

So that's when the relationship with my Lord and Savior Pentagon Federal Credit Union started.

We're off to the races.

So I bought that car in 2017 for $24,000.

Nice.

Somebody else's money.

But because it was 2017, I paid like 800 bucks for the privilege.

It was great.

Those days are behind us and it had like 61,000 miles and I bought it.

It was completely Southern owned.

I did everything right.

Sure.

Southern owned fully serviced.

Did it have the IMS bearing upgrade?

IMS was done.

I was ready to go.

Well, was it done?

Did it have the IMS solution or the retrofit?

The retrofit, which I was fine with.

Well, but this was 2017.

Every five years you got to do it again.

Well, not anymore.

Anyway, not for me.

That's my problem now.

All right.

So I had that car for eight years and I put 47,000 miles on it in that amount of time.

I took some winter driving.

It was kind of a daily driver for you.

Yes.

So I had winter tires.

I didn't drive it in salt, daily it in the salt, but I would take it out in the salt

in the snow to go play around in a parking lot with you.

So it did see some salt, but I took care of it, cleaned it off afterwards, whatever.

So it but I drove it in the cold as long as there wasn't the salt all over the road.

So drove it all the time, took it on road trips.

I daily did to work in the summer that I was in that more than my Volvo daily

for many years during the summer.

So in that time, I had spent and I just calculated this from the service records

that I handed over to you a couple of days ago.

In those eight years, I spent $27,388 on service in eight years,

in eight years and 47,000 miles you put on it.

So that equals out to 58 cents a mile just in maintenance, just in maintenance.

Yeah, that's how we do our on this show.

We just calculate maintenance because gas is kind of an equal thing.

Insurance is variable, not on the car.

It's on, you know, how many cars you might have on your policy.

How bad you are driving all those different things and depreciation.

We kind of, I don't know, it's just separated out.

So we just compare as a baseline, how much does it cost to fix these cars

and keep them running based on use and the maintenance is usually the surprise.

You're not surprised by insurance or gas and an oil change you're not surprised by.

But it's like, oh, I need to have my passenger door latch replaced

because the window doesn't go up and down anymore and that's $700.

Don't ever have to do that on a Maserati MC 20.

I saw one where the whole rear of the car was apart to get to the button.

Terrifying. Yikes. Yikes.

And I did a lot of the stuff I had to do.

I put so many miles on it.

Well, actually, it wasn't because of mileage.

I had it for long enough that I had to do the IMS retrofit again.

I had the RMS done at the same time.

I put on the ultimate air oil separator, so I didn't have to deal with the AOS.

You know, this is acronym hell, Doug.

This is just I lived in the forums and like what acronym is going to kill my car today.

But I had a wonderful experience with this car.

It cost me a lot of money.

Just I haven't even I calculated the 2025 maintenance costs.

It cost me $6,700 this year and it's only October.

Wow. I had I put that's you're welcome.

10 years ago, when people asked me about buying a Ferrari and the maintenance costs,

I was like, eh, you need to budget like 2,500 a year

for the engine and timing belt ones and like a 355 or Testarosa,

one of those high maintenance ones, like five G's.

But that's for like high maintenance Ferrari supercar level.

I will say pre-COVID numbers.

But you bought the cheap 9-11 that is the entry level car that everybody wants to get into.

You need to be ready for some doozies.

I will say the average per year was 2,800, 2,800, which is still a lot of money.

That's it. I mean, that's the same.

So let's compare mine.

So I recently sold my 997 and I daily drove that.

I drove it in the winter, a lot more than about 10,000 miles on it.

And I had it, I think three years.

And a 997 is allegedly better than a 996.

It's certainly more desirable.

Yes, we'll say that.

But still can have IMS problems, still can have bore scoring issues, AOS, RMS, all the same issues.

Let's see, in 2024, I put 6,700 miles on it.

It cost me $3,800, so $0.57 a mile.

Sounds about right.

And in 2025, I only put 1983 miles on it because I sold it in August, $1,500 in maintenance.

So it cost me $0.77 a mile.

So right along the same numbers as you.

Well, and I think I do believe, and I don't have data for this, I've never owned a Ferrari or a Lamborghini,

but those, the numbers can escalate much more quickly, I feel, with something like a Ferrari or Lamborghini.

And I think a lot of that, like obviously the mechanics are more expensive, the parts.

The random parts costs is what kills you on the Italian cars.

And with the Porsches from what I've noticed, there's usually an option.

So I did have to put this year a $700, I think, a $5, whatever, many, many hundreds of dollars door latch in the car.

But from what I read, all of the other ones flaked out in another three years.

So I was like, this one has lasted 22 years, we'll just put another one in, and we won't have to worry about it for a long time.

So you get to make those decisions, but for the most part, nothing that I did was crazy expensive.

It was just stuff that needed done.

I put four new shocks on the car this year, upgraded to Bilstein B6s, because the old ones at 109,000 miles,

or seven or whatever it was, were just tired, leaking, and it's like, that kind of stuff adds up.

Had to put a clutch in it, you know, that's expensive, I did do that twice.

Pressure plate broke, kind of sucked.

Now I own it, and I don't have to do a thing.

It's all, it should be good, but you know, I did all new brakes this year.

Yeah, but when you bought it, it had been maintained well too.

Yes.

But it's just, it is the ongoing cost of using a high performance German car.

And I think it's, I genuinely think it's worth it.

You know, I, it's not like I'm just swimming in cash and this is nothing, like this maintenance is a lot.

My 968 kind of killed me for a couple of years.

I spent 18 grand on that car, or maybe 14 grand in like two and a half years.

That was excessive.

Yeah.

But it was like, and I was like, I don't want to do this anymore.

But it's kind of like, I make that sacrifice with my finances while still being

responsible and investing for my future appropriately, because the car stuff is so

important to me.

But even with the cheapest car, it's going to cost stuff.

Should I add up how much if you invested that maintenance cost and drove a Toyota

Camry instead, what it would be worth when you're 60?

I mean, that would be great and all, but I don't think I'd care.

That's good.

Because this is not, I don't know how much longer I'm going to, you know, nothing is guaranteed.

Right.

None of us may make it till 60.

Or, you know, something, maybe they...

Any of us may not make, I don't know, that was not a doomsday prediction.

But you know, anything can happen.

And I want to responsibly enjoy a passion of mine that I've had since I was a kid.

So this is a ton of money.

I was kind of surprised that I crested over the purchase price of the car in maintenance.

Well, and but, you know, I also feel like at the end of it, I have a, what I think is

a great had, what I think is a great spec 996 that's been maintained very well and only

needed a couple of annoying things.

You know, you can't say great without gray.

Yeah.

So hopefully the next owner of this car can enjoy it without much big stuff coming up.

I mean, I guess you sound like you're trying to sell the car for us now.

I mean, I wanted to go to a good home.

Yeah, it is funny, though, right?

So 996 is the cheap one.

997 is the better one.

968, 944, like the poor man's Porsche is the Boxster.

But we've done like you've calculated out your 968, you kind of daily drove that car.

You put a lot of miles on it, had it long enough to see how much it really cost.

There is no cheap Porsche when it comes to maintenance.

And that's why some of them are so cheap is because.

And 987 Boxster, their entry level cheapo, this is saving the company costs as much

to maintain as your GT3 that you just bought.

Yes.

So if you can afford to buy the better one, just buy the better one, because it's

almost like the maintenance cost is just like it's flat.

It's the same across all of them when you extend it over enough period of time.

Not a Carrera GT, but just about everything else.

And there's now if a GT3 specific part goes, I'm going to be in for a world of hurt.

And I know that going into this.

But for the most part, I think you and John Sabre were joking.

They don't go.

Yeah, that's true.

It's like it's pretty fine.

But you guys were joking that on a GT3 might be cheaper to maintain than my car

as it is today, because it's just like I bet you it's going to be in two years

when we have this conversation, I bet you they'll be cheaper than the 968

and the same cost as your 996.

And honestly, I'm OK with that, I think.

And I didn't necessarily maintain this with an open checkbook.

But when something needed done, I did it.

And I did it with what I felt was the the best part to put in there.

I didn't go overboard and like, don't put a metal impeller water pump in your car.

Don't do it. It'll score the block if it goes.

But it's like, so certain things I didn't just always go with the upgraded thing.

I went with what was known to to be a good replacement and just understand service intervals.

Like this car never once left me stranded.

It almost did in Tennessee once because the the.

Oh, my goodness, the the coils were cracked.

The plastic was cracked and it was wet.

So I started misfiring on like half of my cylinders.

And then I let it dry out and still drove eight hours home.

Very stressful.

Put a towel in your engine.

Yeah, just like.

But I think, you know, when stuff makes a sound or starts going a little wonky,

don't wait, just get it fixed.

So your car will repay you and stuff.

I still could have this still could have stranded me at some point.

And that's just kind of what happens sometimes.

But I think it was the biggest lesson is replace with good parts and replace

when either by time or when stuff just starts telling you that it's time.

Well, Tyler, you traded your car in, but some people choose to

shrewdly negotiate their selves on Facebook.

What a segue marketplace and try to sell their own cars.

And in particular, this is a Porsche 997 for sale.

Well, it's not the title of the ad is Porsche 997 S audio head unit.

Also car for sale, 39 K.

Wait, is it a thirty nine thousand dollar head unit with a free car?

No, the head unit is priced at one, two, three, four, five, six.

Oh, but the description reads, this is an original Porsche big screen

audio GPS Navi multifunction head unit from my Porsche 997.

Oh, three to twelve.

That's not how that works.

Nope.

Sell also the car, make offer.

Everything works fine.

Just changed today for car play unit, pulled it today, changed all rubber

push buttons with new ones.

See that picture also selling AC unit.

What's underneath for extra two hundred dollars, no pixel or any damage.

Don't.

So you could buy the car for thirty nine grand.

I don't know if everything works just fine on the car or on the head unit.

But anyway, the car is a doozy, though.

He has identified this thing as a nine, nine.

It's a it's an O five, I think.

So it's a nine and seven dot one.

He's identified it as a Carrera four S GTS based on all the stuff.

He's got the reflective strip across the back trunk, but it's red tape.

Yeah, that is only on the four S's.

He's got the aftermarket LED tail lights and he's got GTS badge on the rear

steering wheel, which is done in red Alcantara.

And it looks like they just like did it over.

Oh, yeah.

Like they just kind of, yeah, they did this in actually places.

So he's got about eight different GTS badges on it, which it is not that.

And the paint, the calipers that have like GTS painted on.

I guess it's maybe a sticker.

Tronic always a tip.

It's over modified.

Here's the here's the best part on the red strip across the back.

That's supposed to be a reflector that's only on the C four S's.

It has in script avalanche.

Why? I don't know.

It's a GTS avalanche.

Maybe it's oh, maybe he thinks it's a he's trying to convince people it's a

gambola modified because they did the gambola avalanche, something or other.

That might be check me on that while I Google these like auto zone.

Yeah, it was the 930.

OK, way back when I don't think this guy knows

what a 930 is, this is wild.

It's always the tip guys, man.

Just the tip guys, just the tip.

Every time, every time I see one of these, it's always a tip.

Tronic that's just like way over modified up badge to heck and back and just

very poor choices in these LED tail lights.

Get him out of here.

Everybody puts them on these.

I don't understand.

They look like crap.

He's got red tape trim strip on the dash and on the ring.

The other rings around the gauges so bad.

It's hurts my soul.

So bad.

But if you want a 997 GTS tip S

four S dot one dot two cab with an aftermarket head unit, 39 grand.

Next pass me a bag.

The Sheffield brand was recently revived by Jake Turkbus, an owner of an original

Sheffield All Sport Diver he received from his parents in 1970 when he was just

11 beginning his love of watches.

As an adult, Jay used his extensive expertise in product development

and marketing to revive the brand that started it all.

He set out to develop watches with a high level of quality

and specification at a value price.

His first effort and a successful one on July of 2023 was the debut

of the Sheffield All Sport Diver one.

It had the kind of build and movement that much more expensive watches use

and his debut price of $108 was equivalent to the $13 his parents paid in 1970.

Since that debut, Sheffield has expanded to a wider range of

automatics and chronos, many designed around vintage Sheffield dials of the 60s.

The Sheffield well of clever and unique design remains his inspiration

as well as maintaining the goal of high quality, very affordable range

of automatic and courts watches.

Sheffield watches value on merit, not just price.

I love mine, so get yours at Sheffield watches.com and be sure to mention

you found them on Switchcast.

I don't mean to.

Reveal when I hear news stories that companies are losing billions

on their bets on EVs.

But, you know, it makes me feel a little bit better about being so wrong

about carbon stock.

All right, we bring it up again.

I got to go look and now I got to be 355 bucks a share.

Oh, my God, if I were CarMax, however, is losing share value.

It's Ethan said that it was one of the worst performing stocks

of this year, down 46 percent year today.

At 46.25 as of like five o'clock today or whenever I looked.

Whereas Carvana is up like 78 percent year today, which doesn't make sense to me.

Well, I'm sure there's ways to explain it, but they're almost direct competitors.

So the fact that two people in the same industry in the same niche of the industry

can be so opposite.

That, you know, unless CarMax is just running their business terribly

or Carvana's numbers are not accurate, who knows?

Anyway, GM loses one point six billion dollars on EVs.

That is a staggering amount of money, staggering amount of money.

And this coming from the CEO, who's still the CEO,

Mary Barra, who back in 2017 made some statements saying,

we are basically all in on EVs.

And this is the future.

They she was committed, here's her quote from 2017, thanks to NBC News.

No more gas, no more diesel, no more carbon emissions.

Oh, bold.

Yes. Another quote from an analyst at Morningstar says, penetration has stalled.

Well, you never want to hear that.

Yeah. Well, GM is struggling with sluggish sales on EVs.

Do in part to the Trump administration's

elimination of the $7,500 tax credit for purchasers of EVs?

Well, I think the industry in general is struggling.

I think that the Trump administration's change, you know, obviously doesn't help

anything, but the adoption rate has been slowing pretty significantly.

And, you know, a lot of companies are looking at, you know, maybe the targets

that have been set are not attainable.

Correct. Yep.

We've covered Porsche losing a lot of money and rolling back on some of their plans.

And Ford also lost about a hundred, not a hundred, one point five billion dollars

in essentially canceled future EVs, you know, the cost of development and stuff

like that, that then they said, eh, we're not ready.

Or, you know, we don't think that the demand is there.

But the problem is, this doesn't just hurt the companies that make the bad bet.

These are publicly traded companies.

This hurts the shareholders.

This hurts the average person who has a stake in this company.

It hurts the employees.

Yeah, because, you know, who are the jobs that people got hired for in developing

some of this stuff still going to be relevant?

Is it the same people that would develop an ice vehicle as would develop an EV?

Are they going to need to find new jobs now?

It's like a lot of this stuff.

It's a big shakeup that does affect a there's a ripple that affects a lot of

absolutely, absolutely.

Well, and just like, you know, their employee compensation, their stock packages,

whatever, they're worth a lot less when the company is losing money.

Yes. The company can't afford to hand out bonuses and give raises and stuff like,

well, I guess they're union, so it doesn't matter.

They just negotiate contracts.

But regardless, the interesting thing is though, so we've talked about EVs a lot

and the counter is that or the county argument is, oh, well, they're gaining

market share, they're gaining market share, record sales, record sales, record sales.

And that's been true until now because you can only gain market share for so long.

And when it's, in my opinion, artificially propped up by these massive buying

incentives, the manufacturers are claiming that, oh, well, it's the Trump

administration's fault.

They changed their policy.

They removed all these incentives.

Okay, right.

So they just made a level playing field.

I don't get $7,500 back when I go buy a used car.

Nobody gets $7,500 back when they go buy a new internal combustion car.

So if the EVs have to compete on the same level as everything else, let's see how they do.

That's what I've been advocating for the whole time is not no EVs.

It's just let's see how they do when they're put up against real competition.

And hopefully enforce the innovation that can come from needing to be competitive

in the market, the positive aspects of the economic system that we live in,

hopefully positive that can drive to a better product that is better for the purchasers

and then has the benefit of being better, potentially, hopefully better for the environment as well.

I just think that.

Vertex out on that one for me.

I don't want to get into that argument right now.

We're talking about numbers.

Potentially, yes.

Yeah, the overall footprint, not just the tailpipe emissions.

Yes.

The funny thing is, though, although EV sales globally are down slightly

year to date from last year, September was a record 2.1 million sales.

It was the first time global EV sales had ever eclipsed two million.

So what happened?

Well, it's because these credits are ending.

Oh, it's like the the the GM employee pricing back in 2008 or whenever it was.

Yeah, everybody's going to run out and buy.

They're going to break all sorts of records.

And then the salesman better bank some money because they've just created

a lot of rainy days because ain't nobody buying a car the month after the employee

pricing for everybody ends or cash for clunkers or whatever.

So essentially, everybody's running out to buy before these these incentives expire.

And then it is projected by the experts, not just me, that I'm not saying that I am an expert.

I'm saying it's not just projected by the guy with the opinion on the internet,

but the real experts who have degrees and finance titles and stuff and get quoted

in articles, they are saying that the sales are going to essentially fall off

a cliff after September, which is I mean, and it happened a little bit

with the the panic buying pre tariff earlier this year.

I have someone close to me that works in a main

like a like a pretty popular brands dealer and things are so slow right now.

And it's not just because there is maybe some struggle in the economy.

It's like everybody bought cars like three or four months ago,

whenever that was when everybody was scared at the tariff increases.

You used up all of the demand for a few months.

You know, if you were thinking about buying a car later this year,

we'll just do it now before it's more expensive.

And it takes a while for the market to recover from such a shock.

Correct. Everybody's sleepy.

They've already spent the money. Correct.

But GM and Ford are not the only ones that are reeling from this, not just Porsche.

Tesla is also struggling.

Their sales are down, especially their cyber trucks.

And I read an interesting note surprise there.

They're frigging ugly and they're a hundred grand.

And this article from Electric.co

called out that hundreds of Tesla's cyber trucks have been spotted

being delivered to Elon Musk's private company, SpaceX and XAI.

And they quote that it's because Tesla is having issues selling the electric

pickup truck.

They said after planning for production capacity of over a quarter million

units per year, Tesla is currently selling the pickup truck at a rate

of 20,000 units annually.

Some number of Rivian would be jealous.

I know. Oh, God.

I can't believe they're still selling that many.

Yeah. So they're basically saying, well, Elon Musk has this solution.

He's going to have his private companies buy up hundreds, if not thousands

of cyber trucks, as this article says.

And I'm reading this going, OK, yeah, no surprise at all that cyber

trucks are selling or not selling.

But it's not like some secret, you know, machinations for Elon

Musk to sell his cyber trucks to other of his companies to prop up his share

price. That's just smart business.

It's what was the Carnegie principle of horizontal integration.

Vertical. Vertical integration, both.

OK, thank you. Vertical integration.

But why would you not do business with your own companies versus like,

why would you buy a bunch of Chevy trucks when you can buy your own trucks?

For sure. I do think it's funny that this is happening when it's selling

like hot garbo, which is, you know, but I agree.

You know, if you need trucks to wait until the demand has waned.

Yeah, you know, maybe they had a few trucks that they weren't really aged out

of service yet. I'll be interested to see how quickly these age out of service.

Well, they can service them because they are Tesla.

So anyway, I just I with every news article, you got to understand

the perspective, the bent, and there's two ways to look at things.

And I just I thought that was interesting.

Yes, cyber trucks are failing.

But why would why would you not do business with yourself?

Versus giving money to another company.

If you have the trucks, you sell them to your companies.

Makes sense to me. It's good marketing, too.

Yes, a bunch of your crappy cyber trucks ever.

You might find the like one or two people who haven't seen it yet

and think it's a good looking, especially at a space company.

Well, yeah. Yeah.

Looks like something a space Martian would design

if they were seven years old and not very intelligent.

This brings us to the props and flops brought to you by Switch Cars

and Switch Cars is the enthusiast dealership where we buy and sell cars

that we like ourselves.

Check out our handpicked inventory at switchcars.com

and mention switchcast for special pricing and available.

Find more information online at switchcars.com

or come visit our indoor showroom in Twinsburg, Ohio.

Doug, I think you know what the pick of the week is or I swear to God, I quit.

I'm out of here.

Tyler, why don't you tell us what the pick of the week is?

It is a more about it than I do.

Beautiful 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera in dark teal metallic over a graphite

gray full leather with 109,000 miles on it, serviced to the nines.

Couple of cosmetic bits and bobs here.

It has 109,000 miles on it, but it has been fantastic for me

for the last eight years, and I hope it can be fantastic for one of you.

And thank you, Tyler, teal.

It is dark. It's pretty cool.

It's got the cool multi spoke.

Oh, yeah, the sport classic twos that are a pain in the bum to clean,

but they look so good. They look so good.

All right, our flop of the week.

The courtesy of rodentrack.com, Kia Telluride irony.

A Kia Telluride gets a tourist driving one gets stuck

on a trail near Telluride, Colorado.

Amazing. This looks so depressing, too.

Like it just kind of slipped off the road a little bit.

It's like, oops, at least it didn't fall further.

I guess that, you know, thankfully it didn't fall further,

but it looks a little silly.

I think it's a rental too, because it said it's a South Carolina man

and the plate is a Colorado plate.

So this guy went to Colorado, rented to Telluride

and was like, I'm going to be an off-roader.

But yeah, he went off a trail on Black Bear Pass.

They said it's a trail that's best navigated on foot

or with a dedicated off-road vehicle, and people had advised him

to stay off the trail, but he did not heed their instructions.

And it was closed for about a day

while they extricated the Telluride from Telluride.

I like this done at the end of the article.

Perhaps the driver should pay more attention to the fine print

shown at the bottom of the screen on Kia Telluride commercials,

particularly the part that says a professional driver

on a closed course do not attempt.

Yeah, he ain't getting his security deposit back.

Nope. Our prop of the week, Jay Roberts

and Jake Dwinell set the roundabout record

or the rotary record, if you're from New England,

has nothing to do with vehicles that burn a lot of oil.

This is five hours and 38 minutes.

I think it was continuously circling around about,

which beat the previous record held by any NASCAR race.

Yep, they literally drove in a roundabout continuously.

There's rules to this, of course.

There's a maximum of one minute stop for driver changes.

They held their bladders the entire time.

They did get accosted by police twice

once they stopped in the middle of the roundabout

because if they left the roundabout, that would be, you know,

it would be over.

The other time another person kind of distracted the cop

and engaged them in conversation and said,

here's what they're doing. It's for charity, whatever.

And so the cop ended up just like watching the whole thing and laughing.

Yeah, they live streamed the whole thing,

which would have been interesting.

But, you know, they tried to have good conversation,

but they just kept talking in circles.

Oh, hey, hey, yeah.

There is there's so much wrong with this whole thing, though.

There really is. I mean, there's there's nothing right about it.

Unless you're in England.

And then it's all right.

Ethan, pull the plug.

Get us out of here. Get us out.

You know, there's a saying that applies to NASCAR

and also applies here.

Four lefts don't make a right.

Yeah, I like the first one.

He kept going with it.

And I don't know.

Anyway, congratulations, we think to them.

That's that's a very obscure random record, but they had fun.

They raised some money.

Good good money for a good charity, Brock Gates Memorial Fund.

And I guess didn't get dizzy, which is amazing.

I'd throw up after five laps.

I know, just like, oh, I mean, I don't know how fast they're going, but still

12 miles an hour, I think was their average speed for the whole thing.

Boy, howdy.

It really is incredible.

But I mean, it has to be boring live stream of all time.

I know it's like, yep, that car is still going around.

I don't think it's incredible.

I think it's just a thing.

Yeah, I mean, it's awesome.

Like you have the record for the most time in a roundabout.

That's awesome.

And the charity component is sweet.

Like that's fantastic.

And we love Jay with like more power to him.

But holy smokes, I pulled up.

We were at that bonfire and I pulled up the live stream and it's just like

guys in a car.

Well, and what made them stop?

Because you would have been bored at like 15 minutes in, so it wasn't boredom.

It was like you could have you could have just gone forever.

Well, no, it has to be one tank of gas.

Oh, is that OK?

Yes.

Which Jay could do like 73 hours at that speed.

Yeah, I know.

He's previous with all his tanks.

Just guys in a car.

It's like a prop and flop at the same time.

If you if you actually tune into that live stream and you stuck around for more

than Doug, you and I maybe watched it for 15 seconds combined.

I don't even remember what I thought it was a photo.

would you, Tyler, do you have any interest in

driving in a circle for five being around him?

No, look, Doug and I were just on a road trip.

I need to pee after like 30 minutes.

I got the my bladder is the size of an acorn.

How do you even know what the current record is?

Like it was four hours, something.

There's a record for everything.

I think this one is in the Guinness Book of Records because it's legal.

Right now, I hold the I hold the world record for longest, you know,

podcast producer for Doug Tabott.

I think you've identified on issue too tightly that record.

Whoa, I think you've identified the problem with a lot of well, not a problem

anymore, but with a lot of news.

Sometimes I felt like the Cannonball Records had like one too many

qualifiers. It's like the Corvette owner thing.

It's like you drill down far enough.

Of course, you're the only person to do this.

I think it's awesome and freaking hilarious at the same time.

And from the little bit I know of Jay, I love that he's the guy to do this.

Of course, there would be no other person to do this other than Jay.

I mean, the man is a madman.

He probably was just like, well, yeah, I could do that and just didn't love it.

He probably caught wind of this record.

It's like, you know, mine from a friend of a friend of a friend.

And he's like, yeah, I got that.

I got that in the bag.

He's just perusing Guinness.

Just like with a Guinness, you know, just let's work on that one.

Thank you for joining us for Switchcast with Doug Tabott and Tyler Sanders

produced by Ethan Huffnagle.

Switchcast is an automotive entertainment and opinion show,

and nothing we say should be taken very seriously.

We do not give tax, investment, legal, emotional or professional advice.

And the only licenses we hold are driver's licenses.

The opinions expressed on this show are exclusively held by the people

pontificating at that moment and do not reflect the values of our producers or sponsors.

Is a Cheap Porsche Actually Cheap?

$24,000

Volvo

Porsche GT3

About this episode

Original notes