To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History Aug 19, 2025

Paramedic to Sheriff: Why This Cop Collects VW Beetles & JDM Kei Vans

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Brand

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a car company from Germany that makes many popular cars, like the Beetle and Golf. They are known for their unique designs and engineering.

Car

Alfa 164S

The Alfa Romeo 164 is a stylish car from Italy that was made for a little over a decade. It's known for looking good and being fun to drive, with a focus on comfort. People talk about it because it's different from many other cars and has a cool history.

Car

Volkswagen Beetle

The Volkswagen Beetle is a famous small car with a unique round shape. It was very popular and has a long history, being made for many years.

Car

Honda Acti Street

The Honda Acti Street is a small van made by Honda, designed to be efficient and easy to drive in tight spaces. It's part of a category of vehicles in Japan called kei cars, which are small and economical.

Term

three-cylinder engine

A three-cylinder engine is a type of engine that has three small cylinders inside it. They are usually more efficient and use less fuel than larger engines.

Term

660 CC

660 CC means the size of the engine in the Honda Acti Street. It's a small engine size that helps keep the car efficient and economical.

Car

Oldsmobile Cutlass

The Oldsmobile Cutlass is a car that was made by the Oldsmobile brand. The 1986 version is known for being a comfortable and popular car in the 1980s.

Car

Ford Crown Victoria

The Ford Crown Victoria is a large car that was popular for police and taxi use. The 1994 model is known for being tough and spacious, making it a favorite for many drivers.

Car

Ford F

The Ford F-100 is an old pickup truck that Ford made for many years, and it's known for being tough and useful for different jobs. The 1975 version is a bit newer and has some nice updates that make it more comfortable to drive. People like to talk about it because it's a classic truck that many collectors love.

Car

Toyota Crown

The Toyota Crown is a big, fancy car made by Toyota that people like for its comfort and nice features. It's been around for a long time and is known for being reliable, which means it doesn't break down often. People talk about it because it's one of the nicer cars Toyota makes.

Part

Welcome back, listener land, you have found the best car podcast, it's creating a lot of

buzz out there, you have found to all the cars I've loved before, carslove.com.

I am Christian at carslove.com, he is Doug at carslove.com, you know, it's just great

to be back in the saddle, we record these sessions every few days seemingly, there's

a little bit of a, you know, sometimes we try and schedule these things, they don't

work out, sometimes we can go for days without doing one or several in a week, and it's

really, I'm not going to say it's an addiction, but it's really sort of a high, meeting

great people, fun people who are passionate about what they drive, most importantly, passionate

about life, and we've got somebody on the hook today, but before we introduce him,

let's pivot as we always like to do to new listeners, neat today, because we have two

new international listeners and two new domestic listeners, I believe one is in India and another

is in Germany, and we seem to be big in the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic, am I tracking,

am I on the right course partner, good morning, welcome, thank you.

You are, you are indeed.

So who do we got?

Who would you got?

First off, I love saying the names of these places.

Okay.

What do we got?

Okay.

Hang on, let me check the stats.

Oh, we just hired a bunch of geographers.

We hired 10 geographers the other day, and they're really coming in handy here.

Just got handed a note, Bengaluru, Karnataka, Bengaluru, Karnataka.

You said that's in India.

Karnataka is a state in the Southwest region of India to be mentioned.

Love it.

And then, Frankfurt am Main in Hess, I believe that's the same in Germany, correct?

Yeah.

And so, as we were saying, let's see, oh, North Liberty, Iowa, welcome, Ashburn, Virginia,

welcome.

Ashburn, I would say is an excerpt of Washington, D.C., on the Virginia side of the Potomac,

but maybe it's grown to be a suburb in itself.

So welcome to these four listeners, and hey, if I knew exactly who you were, I'd

call you, welcome you, and send you an email.

But hey, let us know what you think.

Please feel free to write a review on the show, or again, just reach out by email.

Love to hear from international listeners.

Still waiting for somebody to Ireland to call me, because I had the wildest time driving

in Ireland over the summer.

We definitely want to get somebody on to chat about the rock walls they're in,

and also Sweden.

Welcome to everybody who's listening in Sweden.

Doug, what you got?

Say something.

Or maybe not.

I was agreeing with you.

No, what I was going to say was, more specifically, if you like the show, please do a review on

ideally Apple podcasts, but whatever your preferred platform is.

As Christian said, we are on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and then, of course, all the platforms

as well as our website, carslove.com.

Christian, you've been working on a newsletter, and that's what I was going to say for any

folks that want to be included on that.

Just drop us a line.

It's going to be great.

Hopefully, coming out by the time you hear this, maybe before, depending on when this

awesome episode comes out.

Yeah, I forgot to tell you, I hired a bunch of reporters this morning.

We're going to have international reporting bureau desks.

It's going to be fantastic.

So we'll have to ramp up the revenues.

That's your department.

Indeed.

Yep.

We're hiring like crazy.

So if you need a job, let me know.

Yeah.

I talked to a few people in my family to give me a review, and they gave us reviews

that sucked.

So that's what you get when you ask family for something terrible.

Yeah, you don't ask family or friends.

You ask listeners.

We need our lovely listeners to give us some real deal reviews.

What else was I going to say?

I want to throw out there the link tree, which is Doug's done a lot of work.

It looks so good.

It looks better and better.

He just keeps tweaking.

It looks better and better.

L-I-N-K-T-R.E-E-slash-cars-love-c-a-r-s-l-o-v-e-d.

And that will get you to all of our social media presences.

Yeah, our social media presences.

Everything we're up to on YouTube.

We're out of platforms.

Exactly.

Our website.

It's a great index.

Oh, hey, I just had a thought.

Could we have some kind of way for anyone who goes there to plop in an email address

for the newsletter?

There is a subscribe button.

I believe it's in the upper right.

Awesome.

Perfect.

Yeah.

So the newsletter I'm shooting for next Monday, which means I will start doing

it Sunday night at about 1146.

So yeah, looking forward to that late night.

Make it happen.

What else do we have?

Reviews.

We don't have any new domains to throw out there.

We talked about that last time.

Other than that, I think we should dig in today's show theme and yes, sir, let's

do it.

All right.

When is enough enough or how do you know too much is too much?

Okay.

How many careers are too many?

How much is enough?

How many cars are too much?

How many VWs are enough?

How many JDMs are enough?

How many hobbies are enough?

Because today's guest is a true polymath and I don't think that we're going

to be able to shoehorn all of his life experiences and fun and just his zest

for living into one 30 minute episode.

But without any further ado, let's queue him in.

Deputy Dave.

Hello.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

I'm so happy to be here.

Man we are thrilled to have you and as I look, we're on a zoom set up here and

hopefully we'll get this.

Oh, so we just launched our YouTube channel and so Dave, Deputy Dave said it would

be fine for us to throw a lot of the content that where there is a lot of our content

onto YouTube.

But look at that VW Shrine.

The dude is broadcasting from a VW Shrine and it's just all over.

He's got, he even has, and this drives his wife crazy, but he's even got the

original toys and cars inside of their packaging and you know, I can relate

because I've got three boys, the teenagers now, but every so often I will do this

all by a toy and it will blow their minds.

Well, dad, aren't you going to open the toy?

Well, no, we keep it not exactly.

It's hermetically sealed.

Once you break the seal, it can't be redone.

It's there, you know, it's, it's, you can't do it.

All the value is gone.

In my mind, at least it is.

That's what matters.

Tell us about that shrine behind you because I dig it and pan if you can

like you did early so we can get it.

We start with this wonderful wall that I have behind me.

It actually goes higher too.

As you can see up there, yeah.

So those are all the 124 and 118 models.

And then we have a boatload of the 164s, including one of the ten signs down

here right over my shoulder is my little shrine to my current career, which

is the sheriff's office.

My wife made me a bobblehead that looks like me along with some of the patrol

cars and some awards that I've won over the years.

And then we're going to pan slowly.

We have more 164 sizes and some of the weirder stuff like the monster

trucks that happen to be a beetle in a van down on that bottom shelf.

And then if we keep scrolling or it keeps ban, yeah, what is a panning?

There's the word.

You got it.

Yeah, so we have even more Volkswagen memorabilia on the wall up there and

down even down here in that shelf, including I'm sorry about my water bottle.

I have a decanter that was made by Jim Beam that's in the shape of a

Volkswagen Beetle that I found at auction and had to have.

So and it's actually still sealed with alcohol in it, which is fantastic to me.

Why not?

And I don't drink.

So enough, enough is never enough.

No, you never have enough.

No, that's yeah, man.

That might be the last word.

Enough is never enough.

I did that.

Good. The other thing that drives my wife a little bit crazy is we'll be

out in the store and like Walmart or, you know, the, you know,

like the little side shops like Marshall's or big lots and we'll see

another Volkswagen and she'll look at me and go, do you have that?

And I'll be able to say, yeah, or no.

And she's she thinks it's crazy because she'll tell me something 14 times.

And I'll be like, you never told me that.

But then you bring up a Volkswagen.

I'm like, oh, yeah, I have that one.

And it's sitting on this shelf by this one.

Yeah, yeah. Top of mind.

Top of mind.

Oh, man. Too good.

I'll try.

So you would you had alluded to your current.

Line of work.

Yes. If you can.

Briefly tell us when we say in that.

So in sticking with today's show theme, what are a couple of other

things that you've done in the past?

And you can mix in hobbies as well as careers.

I just can't get enough of all the stuff that you've been into acting,

paramedic, sheriff, these days.

Death investigators, voice acting, voice acting,

person acting, physical acting, two TV shows.

I was in a training video for the American Red Cross

where I portrayed a paramedic and we did a bunch of, like,

mock scenes for them for a training video.

I was a flower delivery boy.

I delivered newspapers.

I was a watch salesman.

I I was a sandwich artist at Subway for years.

I've been a personal assistant.

I've been a lift driver,

door dasher, a courier, just a just a roundabout courier.

I actually delivered racing pigeons for a couple of months.

Wow. Yeah.

So like random stuff.

So the racing pigeons is actually kind of funny because everybody goes,

what do you mean by that?

So if you think about it, the pigeons have a roost and they have a home

and that's where they come back, right?

But you take them right.

You have to take them somewhere to release them to fly home.

And that was my job.

I would drive a trailer full of racing pigeons.

And it was a legit race.

They it was very technical.

I had to give the exact coordinates, the weather, the time,

and I would release all the birds at the same time.

And they would like mark at home.

And these all these birds would fly to their roosts

and they had little trackers on their legs.

And when they crossed the pathway into their roost,

they would mark that they made it home.

And it was a race.

And there was there was like big money in this.

I didn't see any of it

because I was just a delivery guy.

But yeah, so it was it was a big time thing.

And I had a lot of fun with that.

You don't look old enough to have these many

notches on the resume, but let's let's leave it there.

So that address is one of today's show themes.

So what do you think, Doug?

Are we ready to take this this gentleman,

this deputy back in time to see where it all started for him?

Because you guys are going to love this.

Well, I, you know, he touched on the acting and I heard

there was a car connection there.

Oh, good catch, good catch.

She wouldn't mind.

Yeah, so tell us about the show, the car.

Well, I think your car wasn't in it, but there's a good story there.

I tried to get my car.

That was that. That's how it all got started.

I tried to get my car.

I own the car in question was a 1967

beetle isn't is a 1967 beetle that is affectionately named Alice.

Yeah, so I'm a part of a car club and there was word from the production company

that was filming the show that they wanted 60s models cars

because it was a 60s era show that they were filming

and having a 67 beetle.

I said, oh, I can get my car on this show.

It's going to be great.

And so I followed the links of all the things that they sent out

and I tried to make a profile for the car for the production company.

And they're like, you know, time out.

You need to make a profile for the person before you can make a garage for the person.

So I made a profile for myself and then I made a profile for the car

100 percent expecting the car to make it on the show.

And so then I started getting emails for availability for the shoots.

And I thought, awesome, you know, Alice is going to make it on this show.

I'm so excited.

And and then it got closer to the day and they started sending more information.

And it turns out they didn't want the car. They wanted me.

So I I showed up and I was just a guy sitting at a table during a party.

I was a background actor and I really kind of digged it.

Like it was so different than what I was used to.

I was like, wow, you know, it was a big production.

It was it was an Apple TV plus show.

It's a show called Lady in the Lake.

It stars Natalie Portman and I I hate to say this on camera

and recording, I can't think of the secondary actress's name.

Great actress, though, the show is great.

And so I went to that first shoot and I really liked it.

And then they were like, hey, you know, you want to come back?

And I was like, absolutely.

So I shot a total of about seven or eight scenes

after the second, after the first day, actually, I got typecast as a cop.

And so the last the last six or seven scenes that I shot

were all I was a cop in the scenes.

I never actually found myself on the show.

I watched the whole season.

Actually, I take that back.

I saw my face once during one of the parties that we shot on the first day

sitting in the background because it was background actor.

And but I made a lot of friends and the show the car never made it on the show.

But I did.

And through that process, I made a lot of friends and talked to a lot of people

through that and talked to them about how they, you know, got into acting

and because I'm a talker, if you hadn't figured that out by the end of the show.

And so I found out which production companies they dealt with.

And then I started making more profiles.

And then I ended up getting asked by another production company

to star in a show on Lifetime called Meet Mary and Murder,

where I portrayed the killer in the reenactment segments.

And so I knew there was something sinister about I knew it.

Yeah. So it went it went just like my my real life.

It went from one side to the other.

I went from being a cop in a show to being a killer in a show.

And so just like in my real life of going from a delivery boy

to a sandwich artist to a paramedic to a cop.

But yeah, so like I had great time with that.

And now there's currently nothing shooting where I live.

So there's nothing really to work on for acting.

But I will 100 percent go back and do as soon as production companies

come around, I'm going to put my name in the hat to be on shows

because being on a set and watching things happen, you know,

like the the filming of things is amazing to me.

So I just had a great time.

It's amazing period.

But that's that. Yeah.

That's an interesting observation.

But yeah. Yeah.

So we do want to talk about Alice,

but Alice was not your first car.

We will get back to Alice.

Alice. Alice has been in my life for a very long time,

but she wasn't the first Saturday.

I wish I wish that the romance was that strong.

My first car was an eighty six Oldsmobile Cutlass

that had been previously stolen.

It had been recovered.

It wasn't hot, if you know the lingo, right?

It wasn't stolen by you.

No, I didn't steal it, right?

Of course not.

I'm just. Yes.

Add thief to his his right.

Professions.

So the the funny thing about that car was

because it had been previously stolen

and the thieves had broken the steering column,

you had to start it with a screwdriver.

So we had a towel laying across the steering column

to hide that.

So if you were just driving down the road,

you couldn't see that the the gear shift

and everything was all kind of broken apart

and it didn't have a key anymore.

But yeah, I was I bought that car when I was 14.

I got an itch because I love cars.

I always have and I was I had a little money

in my pocket from all my side jobs that I was doing.

When I I got my first job when I was 12 as a as a yard boy,

I just went out and did yards, you know, typical American bring up.

Yeah. Right.

So I had some money and I saw this car

and it was kind of a family friend that that it was stolen from

and he had recovered it.

But by the time that they recovered it,

he had bought a new car and he didn't want a second car.

And I, you know, I bought it for eight hundred bucks.

And I then started driving around illegally.

I hate to say this on camera again, but the police department knows.

So I started driving around and the one day

of one of the town cops kind of gave me the the side eye

and the little like, you don't quite look old enough to drive.

And it freaked me out.

And so I turned around and I sold the same car for eight hundred bucks.

And it was slow and it was ugly kind of, to be honest, it was ugly.

But that was my first car.

And yeah, I was carless up until I was 15,

which I know that sounds like a crazy amount of time.

And I was gifted.

I was gifted a car by my grandmother who left it to me in her will.

She passed away when I was 11.

But she had a car that I absolutely loved back in the day

when we would drive around and it was a 94 crown Vic.

I don't know if I mentioned this one before yet.

But yeah, so she she had told everybody in the family

that when she died, the crown Vic went to me.

And when I turned 16, my grandfather handed me the keys and said,

she always wanted you to have it.

So here's your car.

And it was it was all beat up and ragged out by then

because my grandfather was using it as a daily driver at the time.

But I absolutely loved that crown Vic.

And it that sparked my crown Vic obsession.

We'll get back to that in a second.

So I had that car and it started breaking down.

And I found a 1975 Ford F 100

single cab, long bed, two wheel drive camper special

that I bought when I was I was still 15 at that point,

I think, because I bought it before I turned 16,

but it didn't run.

Yeah, so that one was parked.

So by the time I turned 16, I had two cars.

I had a 94 Vic and a 75 Ford F 100.

Her name was Penny, the Ford.

And so I was working on the truck while I was driving the crown Vic.

And then the crown Vic broke down to the point where it was unrepairable.

So I had to get rid of it.

Then I only had the 75 Ford, which got

and I'm not exaggerating nine miles to the gallon on a good day.

I was traveling for work at the time

and I needed something more reliable and something more economical.

And so I turned around and bought a 67 Beetle.

And so, yeah, Alice came into my life.

So I had pennies and for years, those were my my vehicles, my dailies.

If it was a nice day and, you know, like it was worth driving the truck,

I'd drive the truck at Penny.

And when, you know, like the weather was kind of bad or I needed to drive

a smart, I would drive the beetle.

And there was multiple times in the Beatles early life with me that

the only thing that would keep it running was a penny and a piece of duct tape

because one of the vacuum ports on the carburetor had blown out.

And if you you had to tape the penny just right,

that when you hit the gas, the penny would suck itself to the vacuum port.

But if it didn't have slack when you let off the gas,

it would backfire and blow the penny off.

So that's her name.

Very nice. Yeah, right.

So there was a multiple times where I'd be driving and you'd hear a backfire

and then the car would die and I know that the penny had blown off.

So I'd have to get out and put the penny back on the carburetor

and then we'd go about our day.

And then finally I got a new carburetor that didn't that had a port

port that hadn't blown out.

And she's been driving with me now and then ever since.

Sadly, she sat for a couple of years, but I, you know,

our romance was re reunited a couple years.

OK, I know Doug wants to get in here, but that to me is so interesting.

So when did you get?

When did you get the beetle?

When did you get it?

I was I was 17 when I was when I when I first bought penny.

I bought her from a friend of a friend.

He was moving. He had.

Wait, OK, OK, go ahead. Sorry.

No, it's fine.

He was moving and he didn't want to take the beetle with him.

And me being me, I had talked to him multiple, multiple times about this car

because I loved it.

And he so he came to me and was like, hey, look, I'm moving.

I don't want to take this beetle.

You know, do you want it?

And I was like, well, it depends on what the price tag is, honestly,

because I was 17, like, yeah, I didn't have my money.

And I think if I'm not mistaken,

I think I bought her for eighteen hundred dollars at the time,

which she was a running, driving car.

It had a crate motor in it that had like less than 500 miles on it

that the the previous owner had put in.

And he didn't drive it much because he was driving around.

And I don't know why I remember this.

He had a Subaru Baja that was his daily.

Yeah, right. Love those.

And so like that was his daily and he would take the beetle now and then.

But overall, the beetle was just kind of a long ornament

that got driven a couple of times.

And when he was like, yeah, I'll take I'll do eighteen hundred.

I was like sold and I bought Penny or Alice.

Sorry, Alice is the beetle because I knew Penny was bad on gas.

But yeah, so it was one of those like I bought her and I started driving it.

And I love I I fell in love with that car when I was younger.

But you kept it. That's the thing. You kept it.

Yeah, you kept it from that.

That's what I can't get over.

And yes, it's that she sat idle for a time, but you kept it.

And so low these decades later, you and I wish I would have done that

with my GTI because I had mine about the same time you had yours

killing me that I didn't keep it.

That is such a feather in your cap that you kept it. Sorry, Doug.

I interrupt. No, no, no.

It's it's a story and keeping keeping a car like that.

I mean, I'm guessing it's going to be with him another 15, 20 years.

Yeah, I will need to get rid of it now.

I was to say, I'm going to keep fixing her until I can't find parts.

That's the thing like I have a lot of other things that I want to do

that are minor because she doesn't have a lot of body rust that the frame is good.

We've already reinforced the floors, the normal areas that rust out on the beetles.

We've already fixed a lot of those areas, and a lot of it is just

the mechanicals that are that fail over time.

And well, I mean, coming from a guy who started his first car

with a screwdriver, I'm going to say that car is going to be on the road

for a long time, partner, a long time.

I hope so. Yeah.

So kind of moving moving forward because you've had so many cars.

And I think at last count, I was at 17 or 18 cars in the last 22 years.

I might have to be but not by many.

No, but it's but I'm older to that car, right?

But I'm older too.

Yeah. So we wanted to talk about the Japanese K car, which is a class of cars.

K E I and I'm interested in one every week.

It's a different one, of course.

We're talking about the Nissan pow a couple of weeks ago was Auto ZAM AZ one.

I think Christian was interested in the Honda B.

But tell us about the the K car and your specific one.

Maybe. Yeah. So I have I have a 1996 Honda Acti Street,

which is the technical name.

It's actually a street V as in V is in Victor.

It's a van.

If you're not familiar with what these these Acti's look like, they come in

two two configurations, they come in a pickup and a van.

I have the van.

It is a three cylinder, six hundred and sixty CC, which is the normal K variety.

It's a five speed right hand drive.

Oh, five speed.

Yeah, it's a five speed.

I I was looking at pickups because I love small and quirky.

I think Alice kind of started that with me.

And so anything small and quirky, I love.

And so I was looking at these micro trucks that are out and about.

And I thought, wow, those are really cool.

I would love to have one of those.

And I found out they're they're pretty budget friendly.

And so I started looking at trucks.

And one of my other side jobs, I don't think I mentioned this.

I'm a CPR instructor.

Kind of goes along with the job of being a paramedic and whatnot.

But yeah, yeah.

So I have a little side business where I teach CPR and I have a bunch

of CPR mannequins and equipment that I need to haul around.

So I was looking at these pickups thinking, hey, that could be my go

around car. And then I found this van, this van in particular.

Because and this is side note for people who who don't know me.

Alice is army green, has been since the day I bought her.

And I was looking at these these vans online

and I found an army green Honda Acty van.

And I said, that's the one.

That's got to be the one, right?

And it turned out this van had all the amenities that are add-ons

that you, you know, they're kind of hard to find.

It has the air condition.

It has the tachometer.

It has the cloth seats, not the vinyl seats.

It's got the split rear bench instead of the the full rear bench.

All these different amenities, the power brakes, the power steering,

the five speed made it not all automatic.

Yeah. So these are all things that are different in different K cars.

And this one had it all and it was in my budget.

And so it was still in Japan when I found it.

I found it through a company called B Ford.

And I I took a five thousand dollar gamble

and sent them sent them PayPal for five grand.

And I thought to myself, I hope this isn't a scam.

And and yeah, so they they, you know, they were like, OK, you you bought it.

And and then it took about seven months for it to come over from Japan.

And finally, did you track it at all?

Was there any way to? Oh, yeah.

So they probably daily tracking every day. Yeah.

So well, before it shipped, there was no tracking.

It was just that, like, yep, you bought it.

It'll ship at some point, right?

And they got to put it in a container.

They got to somehow.

Well, that's the thing.

I thought it was going to be in a container.

And this one never went in a container.

It actually went on one of the the car carrier ships.

So the, you know, like the ones that are like a floating parking garage.

Oh, well, it came over in one of those.

And so I think that's actually what delayed the the the shipping a little bit,

because when they put it in a container, they can put it in same day

and they put the container on the ship and it moves its way through the the track,

you know, the path.

But yeah, so this one sat for a long time and I kept, you know,

getting freaked out and I would I would check in on them.

Like, when is it supposed to ship?

When is it supposed to ship?

And like, they would get back and like, oh, soon, soon, soon.

And there's a mobile app.

I can't think of it.

Something marine, something that you can track ships.

And I found out the name of the ship.

It was it was shipped on.

And every day I tracked the ship to see where it was.

And it made so many stops before it made it to the east coast

of the United States that I started thinking it wasn't coming.

And but yeah, and it showed up and thankfully the B forward company

that I bought the van from has United States counterparts.

And one of those is right here in Baltimore, where the ship to.

So they went and got the ship out of the port and took it to their garage,

gave it a once over through the B forward company.

And then they called me and said, hey, your van's ready.

And I went over and picked it up.

And other than pictures, I had never actually seen the van in person.

And I got there and I was so pleasantly surprised

because there was no rips in the seats.

This is going to sound weird to some people.

But if you've been around old cars or bought a lot of cars,

it didn't have a weird smell, which was grandiose for me.

Like I turned the key and it started right up.

And like it's just been perfect ever since.

But yeah, and they handed me the paperwork.

And I took the paperwork to our Maryland version of the DMV

and they handed me a title and some license plates.

And I slapped them on and she's road legal.

And I drive that van probably more than I drive anything else

because it's just real fun.

And it doesn't matter if it's zero degrees or 100 degrees,

you go out there and you turn the key and she starts right up

because it's a Honda like you can't kill it.

It's it's wonderful. Is it at heat?

Car has heat. Yeah.

So heat air conditioning. You said air conditioning.

Yeah, both the so because it's it's got dual size dual sliding doors.

So you can enter it from both the passenger side of the driver side

or, you know, if you're American driver side or passenger side

because they're on flip sides because it's right hand drive.

But yeah, you can enter both sides.

The seats fold flat.

It makes a wonderful platform.

I can fit all of my CPR equipment in it.

I used it as a tax write-off for transportation for my side business.

Or I mean, yeah, why not, right?

So and I do use it for my CPR business,

even though it's technically not illegal because it has historic tax.

But anyway, coming around to that.

So yeah, I love that van.

Everybody loves the van.

My I put it in a bunch of Christmas parades.

I always dress up one of my CPR mannequins

and put them in the passenger seat in the in spooky season.

I have skeletons that I put in the passenger seat

because it freaks people out because they always look at that seat

thinking that's where the driver is.

And they see a skeleton in the winter or in the Christmas season.

I have one of my CPR mannequins dressed up as Santa and they sit there.

And I love that van. I drive it all the time.

I've replaced all the lights on the outside with LEDs.

So they're super bright and it's noticeable.

And it gets a lot of smiles.

It gets a lot of laughs.

And some of them are good-hearted.

Some of them are probably not very good-hearted, but I don't care.

I really can't care that people.

That's a neat little car, but that's a neat little car.

Oh, did that price include shipping?

I wanted to ask. Yeah.

So all in all, I I started.

I started looking online and I found the BeForward company

because they included shipping in the purchase price.

And so as it sits right now outside of my house, that's road legal.

I'm about 6,500 in completely after the import fees and stuff like that,

because those can't be included because you never know what the government's

going to charge you. That's right.

But you love it. Oh, yeah. It's functional and you drive it all the time.

That's a steal. That's a steal.

People pay way more to have something just sit in the garage.

Oh, absolutely.

And that's the thing.

Like it was super budget friendly because like here's a $6,000 vehicle

that I can literally drive anytime I want for any reason

and it doesn't have to be fair weather.

It's four. Oh, that's another thing that I did.

It's four wheel drive.

So even if it snows, it's not going to get stuck.

Like, you know, granted, it only sits really 12 inches off the ground.

But yeah, it's four wheel drive.

So like I'm I'm blessed.

I'm I'm I'm on that site and I already put a Nissan pow and manual.

Oh, boy.

So we showed up.

Why do I feel like Frankenstein and we've created a monster?

Yeah, you guys.

All we need to do is get him to to lay down on a table

and have lightning strike him one last question.

Yeah, absolutely.

Go ahead, Doug. No, go ahead.

No, no, I was going to say, well, earlier today,

I'm looking at a Cybertruck and now I'm looking at a Nissan pow.

So you'll be happier.

You'll be happier with the Nissan than the Cybertruck.

I guarantee you, probably.

I think his acty would fit in the back of your Cybertruck.

But look, Doug wants to probably one last question.

It's been a while since I've driven a right hand drive car.

And it's a standard, correct?

Yeah. And you don't get hand confusion, foot confusion.

Do you have to know so that the gear configuration,

the gear shift is in the same the same gear

configuration as if it would be if you were an American side.

So right.

First is up and over away from you on the right hand drive,

but it's up and towards you for American, right?

So, you know, if you ever were driving

in the passenger seat with a friend with a manual

and there was like, hey, put it in fourth for me

and you put it in fourth with your left hand, same concept.

And then the gear or the pedals are also same configuration.

Clutches all the way to the left, brakes in the middle.

Got you. That's on the right.

So other than using your left hand.

That's what I was going to ask. Yeah.

OK, OK. It took a five.

It took a good five minutes to, you know,

be the only person doing everything.

But if you're used to a manual transmission car,

yeah, it's so easy.

And Roger, this one shifts so smooth that it doesn't, you know,

like I most of my time, I'm driving from

I go second four or five because of course,

it's only a three cylinder motor and it doesn't have a lot of top top end.

But it also has a lot of really low torque, which is surprising

that you can start in second gear all the time.

It doesn't it doesn't mind. Sure.

And that's like a motorcycle engine.

Yeah, exactly.

And it's it's for being for being as small as it is.

She cruises at 55 miles an hour on the highway.

Perfect. And now, granted,

it sounds like it's screaming because it's around forty five to five thousand

RPM, but it red lines at seventy five hundred.

So five grand sitting there for a while doesn't bother it at all.

It's got its liquid cooled, so you don't have to worry about the air cooled.

And so it doesn't it doesn't run hot on me.

And she I've taken it

probably if I had to range mileage, I've probably driven it

well over two hundred fifty miles in a day and she took it like a champ.

No complaints.

By the way, the the van, her full name is Midori,

which is green in Japanese because it's nice.

But I call her Dori for short.

Yes, even nicer.

Yeah. So my van's name is Dori.

And yes, I'm one of those weird people that name their vehicles.

And not every vehicle's had a name, but the special ones,

the ones that really have a place in my heart, they will they will always have a name.

We're finding that we've had a lot of people

on the show that have named their cars, so not a rare thing at all.

In fact, I named my current MDX Maddox.

Yeah, in honor of all the people that do that.

So I tell you what, as we as we guide the podcast

gently towards the off ramp and we wind down here, Deputy Dave,

I got a question for you and you can only give me one.

Let's have a dream car.

You you spout it off several in our pre chat.

But that's that's the that's the like the hardest question

for a gearhead is I'm asking you to dream, buddy.

Yeah, I'm going to have small.

Yeah, I know.

I'm going to have to go with the the car

that would probably make me the happiest for the longest amount of time

without being a fad would probably be the sixty eight to seventy two.

VWT two transporter double pickup.

Yep. Yeah, because I know it would be functional.

It would be fun and it would also be eye catching, but also,

like I said, functional, plus rare and rare.

Right. So it kind of checks all the boxes for me where I could drive it any time.

And it would, you know, it get looks.

I drive things that gets looks if I don't care.

But yeah, it would be it would be fun.

It would be functional, but it would also be rare and fun and all of the things.

It would check all the boxes for me.

Plus it's something about the bay window,

front end Volkswagen's that I love the vans.

I love the trucks.

But yeah, the T two transporter double choice.

Yeah, good choice.

Well, this has been a distinct pleasure, Dave.

It was fantastic meeting you.

We're going to keep the conversation going.

I appreciate appreciate you taking the time.

If my mouth would work, this would go a little easier.

Thanks again, Dave. We really had a great time.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Dave.

Yep, we can't thank you enough.

And Andrew, you're your good friend who referred you to the show.

So looking forward to having his out very soon.

I can't wait to listen to it myself.

So absolutely.

You had just heard the high revving, low mileage, late bottle heard around the world.

Yes, true around the world.

Just today, new listeners from across the globe heard around the world.

Authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia.

He is Doug at cars, love dot com.

I am Christian at cars, love dot com.

And he was Dave.

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Keep the rubber side down and we'll see you next week.

0:00

40:10

Paramedic to Sheriff: Why This Cop Collects VW Beetles & JDM Kei Vans

Volkswagen

Alfa 164S

Volkswagen Beetle

Honda Acti Street

three-cylinder engine

660 CC

Oldsmobile Cutlass

Ford Crown Victoria

Ford F

Toyota Crown

carburetor

backfire

crate motor

Subaru Baja

Volkswagen GTI

K car

Nissan Pao

Autozam AZ-1

five speed

Honda Acty

tachometer

power brakes

power steering

air conditioning

Tesla Cybertruck

manual transmission

torque

RPM

red line

Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter Double Pickup

About this episode

Original notes