The Great Carvana Resurrection
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Car
Gordon T50
The T.50 is a very special and fast car made by a famous car designer. It is very light and has a powerful engine, making it one of the coolest cars in the world.
Car
Mclaren F1
The McLaren F1 is a very special and rare sports car made by McLaren. It was designed by a famous car designer named Gordon Murray and is known for being very fast and unique.
Car
Subaru Brat
The Subaru Brat is a small truck made by Subaru a long time ago. It drives more like a car but can carry stuff like a pickup truck, making it special and popular with some car fans.
Brand
Hoonigan
Hoonigan is a company that makes videos and stuff about cool cars and racing. They show people doing fun and wild driving tricks.
Concept
Utah 12
Utah 12 is a special road in Utah that many people think is one of the best places to drive because it has nice turns and pretty scenery.
Car
Ford F-150 Raptor
The Ford Raptor is a special kind of truck made for driving on rough roads and trails. It has a strong engine and special parts that help it handle bumpy and difficult places.
Concept
off-road
Off-road means driving cars on rough ground instead of smooth roads, like dirt or sand, which needs special vehicles.
Concept
rock crawling
Rock crawling means carefully driving a car over big rocks and rough ground without getting stuck or breaking the car.
Concept
Baja
Baja means racing or driving in rough desert areas with special cars made to handle sand and rocks.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a smaller truck that can carry things and drive on rough roads. The Raptor version is a special model made to go fast and handle tough dirt paths.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that can drive on rough and bumpy roads. The Raptor version is a special model made to be even better at driving off-road.
Car
Ford F150
The Ford F-150 is a big truck that many people use for work or fun. The Raptor is a special version that can drive really well on rough and rocky roads.
Term
OBD2 scanners
An OBD2 scanner is a tool that plugs into your car and tells you if something is wrong by reading special codes from the car's computer. It helps you understand what needs fixing.
Term
OBD2 codes
OBD2 codes are special codes your car uses to tell you what part might be broken or not working right. They start with a letter and then have numbers to explain the problem.
Term
OBD-II trouble codes
Cars have computers that tell you when something is wrong. They use codes where the first letter shows which part of the car has a problem, like the engine or body. A number after the letter shows if the problem is common to all cars or special to that car brand.
Term
misfire code
A misfire code is a warning from the car's computer that one part of the engine isn't working right. It tells you which cylinder is having trouble so you can fix it.
Term
clearing your code
Sometimes your car's computer shows a warning light because it found a problem. Clearing your code means erasing that warning, but it doesn't fix the actual problem in the car.
Term
P0133
P0133 is a code your car's computer gives when a sensor that checks the air and fuel mix is not working quickly enough. This can make the car run less smoothly or use more gas.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of very fast car racing where special cars race on tracks all over the world. It's one of the most popular and exciting car races.
Concept
Drive to Survive
"Drive to Survive" is a TV show that shows what happens behind the scenes in Formula 1 racing. It helps people understand and enjoy the sport more.
Brand
Audi
Audi is a car company from Germany that makes fancy cars. They also race in Formula 1, which helps them make better car parts.
Term
hybrids
Hybrids are cars that use both gas engines and electric motors to save fuel and pollute less.
Term
carbon ceramic brakes
Carbon ceramic brakes are special brakes that work better and last longer, especially when cars go very fast or race.
Term
aero
Aero means how air moves around a car. Cars with better aero can go faster and turn better.
Concept
F1
F1 means Formula 1, which is a top-level car racing series where the fastest and most advanced race cars compete. It helps car makers learn how to make their cars better.
Car
McLaren P1
The McLaren P1 is a very fast and special car that uses both a gas engine and electric power to go really fast. It's made in small numbers and is very high tech.
Company
CarMax
CarMax is a big used car store where you can buy cars at set prices without negotiating. They check the cars to make sure they're good before selling.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
The Corvette ZR1 is a very fast and special version of the Chevrolet Corvette, made for people who want a really powerful sports car. It's one of the best and fastest Corvettes you can buy.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette Z06
The Corvette Z06 is a fast and sporty version of the Chevrolet Corvette that is good for both racing and regular driving. It's a popular choice for people who want a powerful car that's still practical.
Concept
car stacker
A car stacker is like a big machine that can hold many cars by stacking them up, so they take up less space. It's useful if you have a lot of cars but not much room.
Company
Carvana
Carvana is a website where you can buy used cars without going to a dealership. You can choose a car online and have it delivered to your home.
Car
Cadillac Escalade
The Cadillac Escalade is a big, fancy SUV that many people use to drive around in style. It’s roomy and has a strong engine, making it popular for both families and luxury buyers.
Company
Copart
Copart is a big online place where people buy cars, often ones that need fixing or were in accidents. Many people buy these cars to repair and sell them again.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a famous fast car that people have loved for many years. Older models from the 1960s are special and many people want to own or fix them up.
Car
Toyota Supra
The Toyota Supra is a fast and sporty car that many people like to customize and make look cool. Some versions have wider bodies which make them look bigger and more powerful.
Car
Acura Tl
The Acura TL is a comfortable car that looks nice and drives well. The Type-S version is a sportier model that is a bit faster and looks cooler.
Part
side skirt
A side skirt is a piece that goes along the bottom side of a car. It helps the car look cool and can make it go better by moving air around it.
Car
G-Class Gwagon
The G-Class is a fancy and strong SUV that can drive off-road and looks very boxy. Some companies add special parts to make it look cooler, but these parts don’t always fit perfectly.
Car
Dodge Challenger
The Dodge Challenger is a strong and fast car that looks like old muscle cars. The Hellcat versions are very powerful and go really fast.
Car
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a sporty and fast car made by BMW. Some colors, like Yas Marina Blue, are special and make the car look unique.
LIVE
Welcome to the Avant Podcast, I'm Dan.
I'm Nick.
Nick is swimming.
I'm glad I live on a hill, I'll tell you, this is something.
I don't think, everybody's unfortunately reporting records of rain and where we live,
obviously the fall city carnation, it's getting bad, I'm praying for everybody right now,
but it's pretty bad.
Yeah, this is no joke, this isn't like, oh, it's raining in Seattle as usual, no,
this is like, pretty, and if you're not from here, you're probably seeing it on the news
all over, and it is as bad as it looks, a lot of people from work have been sending me photos
about how bad it is, I was going, are you all right, because they know I'm in Snoqualmie,
well, my house is in Snoqualmie, I am not in Snoqualmie, I am now in Utah, and my house
is way up on a hill, so you would all, everybody in Seattle would be dead if my
house was under water, so take comfort in that.
There are bigger problems, yeah, I'm okay, but man, this is pretty insane, watching
I-90 get closed for a giant mudslide is twice.
Two days in a row, yeah.
Yeah, that's saying a lot, I mean, obviously I-90 being the main thoroughfare from Seattle
to the east coast, it's a pretty well protected highway from things like this, so you know
that's a lot of water.
Well, yeah, especially, I mean, I understand where it is, right now with I-90, the latest
mudslide, everybody is coming off, going east on I-90 is getting off in Snoqualmie,
on a two-lane road, going down into Snoqualmie all over to North Bend, so it's a little, it's
a little bit hectic right now, I'm glad I'm kind of at home and safe and dry for now.
I want to give a shout out to a listener.
Great.
So, I don't know if you've seen, obviously, you know, Google gives you a review of the
things you've seen and done this year, but we have a listener, I think he's
in Portland.
He's in Portland, yeah.
Toby Butler-Brown, who has streamed 4,182 minutes of this podcast, and that's just amazing.
I want to give him a shout out.
I think that's just so cool, you know, we don't do it for the fame, so it's nice
to see that people are listening, but that was, that guy got posted up, he posted that
up on his, you know, Vaughn's Portland page and I was just like, like in my mind
I'm like, that's a lot of episodes, like I don't even know if I've listened to
that many episodes.
Very cool.
Well, the good news is you've participated in that many, so.
Well, yeah, I was going to say, I've been there, I just, as far as listening
after, but it was really neat.
Another really cool thing that's happened this week in the middle of this
snowstorm, it's a rainstorm, is the first Gordon Murray Automotive T-50 has
been delivered to the United States and it's been delivered here in
Seattle to a good acquaintance of ours, Roy Katz.
And actually it's delivered, I didn't realize this, that Cantrell Motors
here is the Gordon Murray Repair Facility.
Yeah, crazy, Cantrell, this is really cool work.
But yeah, it's, I'm not surprised they were chosen.
I'm just like, that's just so cool.
I think they're going to make a hundred cars, but you know, and this has
been, I think like a seven or eight year journey for Roy and we've kind
of followed it through Facebook and things like that, but it's really
cool to see the car.
I've seen photos, I should say, of the car here on American soil.
So I'm sure we'll get plenty of, you know, seeing it with exotics and
things like that.
Roy likes to drive his car, so that's really cool.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward.
That's probably an exotics I'll come out to.
That's a car we're seeing.
You don't see cars like that even at, you know, outside of maybe
car week, you might see one or two and it'll be in the show.
It's rare to see anybody driving one, but you know, thanks
to people like Roy for doing stuff like that because that'll be, that's
an incredible car.
And just if you're not clear, Gordon Murray designed the McLaren F1.
That's all you need to know.
Yeah.
It's amazing to see something that's such a big, big car to be seen here.
So thank you, Roy, for working so hard and being able to afford that car.
Yes, we appreciate you, and that is very cool to see.
Absolutely.
In other automotive fun news, did you check out the new Hoonigan?
Travis Sushant did in Australia?
I've watched like five minutes of it and then I got pulled into work again.
That happens, that happens.
But if you haven't, it's always great to see that the group get out there.
They built a, well, it's loosely a Subaru brat.
Yeah, it's brat-ish.
It was cool to watch.
Those are always neat to watch.
I think the Hoonigan brand is always fun to, they always do cool stuff.
And then, you know, with Travis kind of, I don't want to say taking over,
but stepping in for Ken Block, it's been a really fun thing to watch.
Yeah, that's a nice fit.
I mean, Travis has always been out there doing crazy stuff his whole life.
So this is a good fit for him.
And I'm glad to see the brand to live on in spite of all of its controversy.
And after that, after Ken, so it's cool.
I don't know if it's just now, but because of that, like,
people have been circulating like the full body scans of Travis Pastrana
and that shows like all of the things are holding him together.
I can't that I don't know how that man doesn't have.
He's going to be the tin man from the Wizard of Oz when he gets up in the morning.
He should have just implanted some claws at this point
because he's pretty close to Wolverine.
I mean, the dude's half metal and a man skeleton.
Yeah, yeah, they'll probably stop him from breaking.
But, you know, I hurt and I haven't even done
a one hundredth of a tenth of what he's done.
So yeah, it literally hurts to look at the the skeletal scans of Travis.
Yeah, yeah, or guy.
I can't imagine what his I mean, I shouldn't the poor guy.
He's, you know, that's the ultimate pay to play.
Lucky guy.
He has played harder than anybody ever.
I mean, him and evil can evil, I guess,
but he's a lot more successful than evil people ever was.
I don't know if he was more broken than evil.
Who knows? Yeah. Yeah.
And how are things with you?
Sunny, sunny, cold in the mornings, warm in the afternoons,
dry, beautiful.
That's right.
We people really don't know where you are.
We've been hiding you kind of.
Yeah, I'm in Utah now.
Traveled down here for the winter and just, you know,
clear my head, get out of the Seattle
darkness, I guess, and the rain.
I didn't expect it to be that bad when I left.
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, sorry.
Took the most beautiful drive.
I think I've ever been on last Sunday.
We went over through, through Zion and Bryce Canyon
and then up to, through Escalante and up to Torrey,
which is a little tiny hole in the wall.
No reason to really stop there, town in Utah.
Nice place, nice people.
But the road that gets there is, I've often said,
Utah 12 is the best road in America.
And I mean it.
It's overly busy most times of the year.
This time of the year, it's freezing.
And virtually no one is at Zion or Bryce.
In fact, there's snow in the hills in most places,
but the road was clear and dry and took it over two days.
One way, one day to Torrey, one day back.
And it was the most perfect drive, I think I've ever been on.
Passed like two cars, the entire trip.
And this is 400 miles, 400 plus miles round trip.
Literally two cars.
And there's just nobody.
It's literally the most beautiful road, I think, in all of North America.
Oh, and you guys took Shawna's car down there too,
so that's probably even better.
I mean, coming to the canyon in the Raptor would be fun,
but the R8's a lot better.
Yeah, it's still a nice drive, because it's just incredibly scenic.
There are no bad views, but I mean going up with Grand Escalante
and then back through Zion, no wait in Zion,
no traffic in Zion, no people in Zion,
like it emptier than I've ever seen it.
Emptyier since I think the emptier than the first time
I was there, way back in like 2009.
And so it is literally the perfect time to go.
There's, if you wanted to do Angel's Landing,
this would be perfect because that's one,
it's you know, 1500 feet straight up and over like a mile.
So it's incredibly hard of a hike, it's rated extreme,
but that cool air would be your friend
and it would be easy to get permits right now
because nobody's out there.
It is still, permits are still required,
but getting into the park, no wait.
It's just, I've never seen it so beautiful
because there's so few people.
And you can just enjoy the road.
Like normally this is a road I tell everybody,
everybody needs to go on, but they should expect traffic
and drive like there's traffic and bicycles
and things that will slow you down.
You know, you don't go out there and go nuts
because this is a very heavily populated area.
It's a very popular drive.
It's Utah 12 Scenic Byways, very famous.
But man, this time of year, it was just heaven.
I've told everybody for years that this should be
the top of their list of roads to drive.
And this is the time of the year to do it.
Once you get in here, yes, it's freezing.
You need to understand that it's gonna affect your tires
and the way you drive.
Like you can't go balls out across the mountain passes
and there are your, but I think almost 8,000 feet
and a couple of the passes out there.
So there's snow and there's ice in the shadows
and you're gonna watch out for stuff down trees that'll fall.
But you can still have a pretty spirited drive
because there's nobody out there.
I did see police actually several times on that route,
but it's one of those roads that's, you know,
it's a 55 to 65 mile an hour road
with corners as low as 10 and 15.
So you don't really have to go crazy over the speed limit
to enjoy the drive.
Like you're not out there, pedal to the metal.
It's just nothing but beautiful views
and lots of great scenic overlook stops.
Yeah, I'll post some pictures with the episode,
but I mean, I can't tell you all to the audience
how much you're missing out if you haven't done this drive,
but even more so if you haven't done it in the off season.
It's not like they get it a lot of rain and snow over here.
So, I mean, they do get snow.
Don't be wrong, after December probably,
like as we get into January,
it road will probably be pretty impassable
until March or April.
I think I've done it in March,
but they can have pretty heavy snow through there.
It's pretty high up in the passes, so.
You were mentioning, we were talking about,
because you're in St. George,
which is sort of what Southwestern Utah,
as Southwestern you can get.
And what a different place it is down there.
I was, we were laughing because we were talking
about the fact that your rented next door neighbor
left his garage door open all night,
and you went over to tell him like,
hey, your garage door is open.
And he's like, yeah, that doesn't happen here.
Yeah, they're like, that's not a thing here.
They're not worried about it here.
There's so many police here, it's ridiculous.
They're all nice.
I mean, and sure, just like any city,
you're gonna have your problems here.
And it's just the way it is,
but people coming around and getting into places
they're not supposed to is not high on the list here.
There's a whole lot of don't tread on me flags
and the risk outweighs the reward
for pretty much no matter what you have in the garage.
Got it, okay.
Everybody's looking over everybody's shoulder.
Everybody's friendly, as the old saying goes,
an arm society is a polite society.
And this is actually kind of proofs out here
because everybody's really, really nice.
There you go.
And I often go back and question myself.
I'm like, are people really nicer?
Am I just in a better mood?
And that's a good way to tell you.
It's like, am I more approachable?
No, they are just flat out nicer here.
People see you come and they grab the door for you.
People, you got a cart, they'll ask,
hey, can I take that for you?
People wait when you go to turn into a street.
It's like, if you're gonna parallel park,
the traffic doesn't just go around you
and try and run you off the road.
They're gonna wait.
It's a really different way of living down here
that, and I wish we had more of.
I wish I knew the secret sauce down here.
I have many theories, but it's just a nice place.
Holy crap, are there vehicle enthusiasts?
Down in St. George's, so we're right outside
of San Joraholo.
So your hurricane is where San Joraholo is,
which is there's like St. George, Washington,
and Hurricane, and they're all like just right next to Clara.
I think, right?
Yeah, Santa Clara, yeah.
They're all just like these cities
that are just mashed together now.
And San Joraholo is right here.
And San Joraholo, if people don't know,
is one of the biggest off-road areas in the world.
Matt's Off-Road Recovery is based
right up the road for me here.
APG Off-Road, I believe is here as well.
So like the hardcore guys that are setting up
Baja teams are testing down the road.
Like literally a mile from where I'm staying
is I'm seeing side-by-sides all day.
And I'm not just saying like out of the box side-by-sides.
I'm talking like side-by-sides
with the 100 grand in mods side-by-sides
because they're getting ready to brace prep these things.
So they're everywhere.
And you know, full-tube rock crawlers
is everything you think about here.
There's Baja, rock crawling, side-by-sides,
motorcycles, like you would be hard-pressed
to go by an open garage and not see
at least some kind of dedicated off-road vehicle
because it's paradise for that here.
This is just a big car community in general.
Utah always has been kind of like Washington
where they're kind of low-key about it.
But if you know people here, you know they're probably,
there's a lot of car people in Utah
and a lot of supercars in Utah.
Mainly of course around the Salt Lake City area
but this has been kind of like,
there's probably not a block on here.
There's not some kind of new construction going on
and big garages are sort of essential.
Everybody's got their standard two or three car attached
plus the fully enclosed RV
plus the carport next to the RV parking
for another trailer.
Like that's bigger than the house
and it's every single house out here.
So if you're a car person, this is, I mean,
just down the road for me is another thing.
There's, you know, they have the man cave set up,
they call them, where you buy like the,
the basically the man cave
and it's got a living area above it
just so you can take your off-road vehicle out
or whatever you want, so.
Which you can drive on the road.
And I mean, for anybody that's a social person,
social media person, Stradmans in Utah,
Supercar Ron is in Utah.
There's a lot of car collections in that area.
It's a really fun place to be.
It's always fun to drive down the road.
Raptors are like, we thought we had a lot where we are.
I can't go a block without seeing a twin of my truck.
Everybody's got a Raptor here.
I've seen so many Ranger Raptors, Bronco Raptors
and F-150 Raptors and, you know,
all the Colorado, ZR2, AEV,
it's like all those trucks
that are hard to find are just everywhere here.
It's pretty fun.
Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself
and you seem to be smiling, so that's good.
Yeah.
Honestly, I've been working more than I ever have in my life.
It's been one of the busiest times at work ever.
So there's been quite a few days,
I don't even see the sun except through the windows,
but the weekends are pretty amazing.
It's there, you're outside the door, yeah.
Yeah.
Cool, how's Theo doing?
Needy, he has not been to the park today
and we take him to the park usually once or twice a day
because there's so many parks here.
There's parks everywhere
and they all have their dog friendly zone
like nobody really cares.
You can go to restaurants here easily
and just bring in the dog
and it's like quite literally,
we were in Torrey and we're like,
can we just bring in the dog?
Like we don't care, nobody cares.
It's like, yeah, they're like,
if the dog's not a problem, it's not a problem for us.
So like if your dog's gonna be annoying,
you're not gonna take him to the restaurant
and Theo just take him in and just tell him to shut up
and go to sit down, he's fine.
So it's a really cool vibe here.
If you're a car person, an off-road person,
a motorcycle person, this should be a destination.
Most, it's funny how people just have never heard
of St. George, they never think about it.
The only people that I really know
that have been down here or thought about it
are really, really in off-roading
and there's so much more than that here.
The back roads around here are just incredible for drives
and it shows, I mean.
I didn't hear about it till you told me about it.
So, you know.
Yeah, and I mean, I sort of discovered it by accident.
If I hadn't been going to Zion,
I never would have thought about it.
And then like I said,
Doug Perry had some investments here
from Driver's Club about,
I don't know what happened with that,
I don't have any direct things there,
but I knew he was looking at some property
or he was doing some development here.
So, yeah.
Nice, yeah.
Well, I was gonna tell you from an Avant standpoint,
and this will kind of lead into our Carter Automotive.
We had the Avant's Toy Drive this weekend,
which was awesome at One Drivers Club.
I actually ran into Mr. Carter there.
Oh, nice.
It was a lot of fun,
but I know we have a good Carter Automotive tip
this year, or this year, this week.
This week?
Yeah, so this is the one we were mentioning last week.
I wanna talk a little about OBD2 scanners
and just a little bit about the codes that come with them
because they're not just random numbers
and letters, obviously.
But if you're having trouble deciphering your code,
this might help you a little bit.
So, if you're looking at OBD2 codes,
a letter always comes first.
It's either gonna be a C, a B,
I say C isn't Charlie, B isn't Bravo,
P isn't Papa, or U is in uniform.
And so, C, B, P, U.
B stands for body, C for chassis,
P for powertrain, and U for network communication.
So, this tells you which part of your vehicle
is throwing the code,
and then after that will be either a zero or a one.
So, zero means it's just a generic code.
It doesn't have an exact source to tell you,
and then one means it's manufacturer-specific.
So, it'll be, that was much easier to figure out.
So, let's say if the code includes a one
and you drive a Ford,
it's no use reading up
when someone with a Honda did to get their car.
Like, if you've got a one in there,
look for a Ford-specific code.
You've got a zero, that could be lots of things.
Then the number after that includes a two
for the fuel system, or a seven,
or a four and eight for the transmission.
And then finally,
the last two numbers indicate the exact problem.
So, like a misfire code would be,
it can be P0301,
suggesting a misfire in cylinder one,
or P0304,
which tells us that the misfire
can be found in the four cylinder.
So, it's just a guide.
It gets a little overwhelming,
but obviously that's what the internet is for.
But just keep that in mind
when you're looking at scanners.
Like, there is a rhythm to the rhyme
about what the codes that give you are, so.
And will a lot of scanners kind of tell you
what the code is
if you don't know how to decipher it?
It gives you a generic, like.
Yeah, so the more you pay for a scanner,
the more you will find out about those codes.
So, like the really expensive ones
can, you can type in your VIN
to like the really nice ones
and they will help you like diagnose completely.
It'll go really into detail.
It'll tell you if it's generic.
It'll tell you exactly what the code is
if you have your VIN in there.
So, and then from there,
clearing your code does not fix your car.
Just so you know, we've all tried it.
Myself included, but just keep that in mind.
Yeah, that's, it's not gonna go away.
It's just going away till the car runs the scan again.
So.
Yeah, exactly.
So.
Nice.
Well, that's awesome.
Yeah.
That's what I got about that.
Now you know a little bit about codes.
I can go into more,
but I just want to keep it light for now.
It'd be really, it'd be like the whole,
the whole show who went into that.
Just totally nerd out P0133.
That's it.
Yeah.
That's what this code does.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll tell you.
I've been noticing obviously a lot of automotive news
lately with, with F1 wrapping up and Lando,
by the way, big Lando fan.
Glad to see him.
Yeah.
He'll be a world champion.
Gonna have, gonna be seeing a lot of interesting stuff
with Cadillac coming into F1.
They're already starting to test
with Valerie, Valerie Votos and, and Czecho.
It's funny to have the two backup drivers
from the two biggest teams
where they used to be are now running this team.
So I'm really excited to kind of see that.
I think F1, obviously we've talked about this
has really taken over America.
I think it's always been here for us car individuals,
but the rest of America is starting to see it.
Obviously with the F1 movie
and then drive to survive and things like that.
But it's fun to see that the fact that he's,
you know, everybody's like, oh, the season's over.
And I'm like, no, they're just starting.
Like they, little, these guys got out of cars,
went home, got a good night's sleep
and came back and started testing.
So it's really gonna be an interesting,
I think year with Audi coming in and with Cadillac.
Yeah, you know, more F1 is always good
and more manufacturers in F1 is always good.
Like I said, that helps drive technology to us,
hybrids, curves, systems, all that fun stuff,
carbon ceramic brakes, better aero,
that all trickles down eventually.
The more people in it, the more we get it,
especially in the workable that love F1
helps drive performance markets.
So maybe you should like F1, just saying.
I mean, you know, it's in the P1.
I think, I think, you know, push the pass button
in all cars, which should be just fine.
I had to read.
That's what we need.
I mean.
Some cars do.
Some do, but.
Yeah.
I want to see it in the Hyundai.
That's what I want to see it.
Yeah.
Just juices it up and goes, what?
Okay.
Oh, it's gonna sit.
Yeah.
That'd be great.
Have you been following the news
on Caravana of all things?
The news of?
So Caravana like in 2022 pretty much died.
They were basically worthless.
The business idea behind them sort of failed,
but it didn't.
And that's what the news is.
This is the car vending machines, right?
Yeah, basically.
Really easy way of buying a car.
So since 2022, talk about missed opportunities
that we could have retired from.
Their stock has surged 8,000%.
They are worth more than Ford or GM at this point.
Market value is about 97 billion,
putting them above Ford at 52
and General Motors at 71.
So pretty wild.
What's caused it all of a sudden?
I mean, obviously we knew about it.
I'm definitely seeing more cars being delivered
on the back of the little white trucks.
I think I've only seen one of the vending machines
in my life, maybe in Arizona.
But what's causing it?
So basically car sales.
It's not like cars are getting any cheaper.
Basically they've just done really well
at selling cars from what I can tell.
It's just, I'm just still kind of surprised.
Like at Caravana I'd kind of written off
as a dead brand.
And now they're everywhere again.
I mean, it's an interesting, you know,
I think like when I think of that model
like CarMax and Caravana and the fact
that you don't really have to leave your house.
Like you can literally go online, get financing, get a car.
I mean, but you and I want to go drive a car.
I think what we always have.
And obviously I think you can do that with them.
I think, I know with CarMax you can.
I don't know with Caravana.
But it obviously, something changed.
Obviously there was a change in leadership
or something because you're correct.
Now that I think about it, I'm seeing a ton more.
I guess in my mind I just assumed
it had always been like that.
Yeah, what I wanted to talk about here
is the bigger conversation this leads us into
is we've hinted at this before a couple of times
on the show, but I'm wondering
with this explosive growth of Caravana
if we are leaning more toward the market
going more toward a click here and buy model
because that's how we buy everything.
I'm wondering how that affects dealers.
We should talk to Brian about this again.
I mean, and I'm gonna use the generic term,
the normies that would buy cars.
I think it works for them.
I don't think it necessarily works for you and I.
Like you're not gonna go on,
I'm not gonna buy a car that I haven't driven,
I haven't seen, I haven't sat in.
There's plenty of cars I've looked at
and thought, oh that'd be perfect for me.
And then I go drive it and it either sucks
as a driver or it's uncomfortable and I couldn't own it.
So I think for somebody that's going,
I need a commuter, I need a car from 10,000 to 50,000.
My credit's good, I don't care what it does,
I just need to get me from point A to point B
and I need to show up at my door
because I'm too busy to go to the car dealership.
I think Caravana works for them.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I wonder if it's a step in the wrong direction.
Unfortunately, I think it's the step
in the direction of the market,
but it hopefully doesn't create a sad outlook
for car enthusiasts.
Because I mean, like you said,
I couldn't do that if I wanted to determine
if a car was fun to drive or not.
If I'm looking at, especially performance cars,
the last thing I want to do is, I mean,
I'll go drive a model, like if I'm gonna go look
at a new ZR1, I can go drive a Z06 and be like,
hey, if I crank this thing to 11, it's gonna be better.
That's probably gonna be enough for me
and I can order my ZR1.
But yeah, I wonder if there's gonna be a model
like that where you just go,
like, you know, you get pre-approved
and they deliver you like, okay, here's your test drive,
but I don't know.
Because I think there, obviously,
there's something built in the contract
where if they show up at your house
and you drive it and you don't like it.
There's gotta be some claws in there.
I think you couldn't just drop something off
and somebody's driving and be like, well, good luck,
you know, your credit's now dinged
and you have a new car.
Yeah, I think it, when I think of Carvana,
when I first started thinking of it,
it was a gimmick because people could,
they gave you a giant coin
and you went to the vending machine
and put it in the coin, which meant nothing,
your car came down.
Which is cool, like, don't get me wrong.
I mean, I think it'd be a really cool way
to store a whole car collection like somewhere.
Yeah, a giant stacker.
Yeah, absolutely.
But I don't think it necessarily works
for the real automotive enthusiasts,
maybe unless they're buying a car for your kid
or, you know, a commuter car.
Because you're not gonna go to Carvana
and be like, okay, I wanna,
because it's gonna be used,
you know, a used GT3 RS, YSEC package, you know,
I might buy that car from there.
I think I could survive on that.
Yeah, so you wouldn't have to twist my arm on that.
Yeah.
Yeah, has anybody bought a car from Carvana, listeners?
Yeah.
If you have, let us know.
Shaq is their official spokesperson, by the way,
which always makes me laugh.
But if you're a listener and you've used Carvana,
let me know, let us know.
Come and tell us about it.
I would love to hear your experience.
I will say this, the last one I saw
was one of the really little,
like cabover design trucks
that they were delivering an Escalade.
And those trucks that they hauled them on are not big.
And this Escalade was tipping back and forth.
And I'm like, maybe you just drive it to the customer,
like this just seems dangerous.
Another one that really has,
I think this has surprised me
and I was talking to somebody about this a couple of days
ago is Copart.
Copart is everywhere.
And I didn't realize that they were worldwide now.
Like they are just, you know,
I think I've seen it come to blossom
with a lot of these YouTubers that are,
they buy cars off Copart,
like Matt Armstrong that are buying them,
fixing them, selling them kind of thing.
You know, they're buying either stolen cars or wrecked cars.
Yep, so I actually have some information about that.
So one of the, Copart was blowing up,
the reason Copart exists the way it has
is they were one of the only wrecking yard businesses
that were actually truly able to utilize online.
They were the ones that were the early adopters
of we're going to go all online.
We're going to inventory all of our stuff.
And you know who uses that more than anybody?
Body shops.
You go get LKQ, like kinder quality,
which is going to be aftermarket
or you're going to get used.
And we've talked about this a long time ago,
actually remember this,
used is often better than LKQ.
Aftermarket headlights, aftermarket fenders,
they mostly suck until you get into the specialty market
of high end carbon fiber stuff
or rest-o-mod parts.
Quite literally you need to buy your three-body,
65, 66 Mustang, whatever you can buy the whole body.
That kind of stuff, that specialty market stuff
is not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about if you buy a fender for your Accord
after it's been wrecked
and that fender is aftermarket,
it's not going to fit as well as the OEM one, period.
And it's, it'll never be the same.
The metal is lower quality, the primer,
they come usually factory-primed, sucks.
So usually if you get a good body shop,
they'll reject them and say and know why.
But a lot of insurance companies are insisting on it
because aftermarket Chinese metal is cheaper for a reason.
So these co-part, thank God for places like co-part
and wrecking yards,
because if you can find a used one that has like
just a ding in it,
that's no problem for a body shop to fix.
And it's going to fit a hundred times better
every single time.
I used to send back headlights.
They give me an LKQ headlight,
it'd come in and have a plastic lens,
the plastic on the back never fit as well as the stock one.
It didn't fit in the fender.
Like if you think about a fender specifically,
there's a lot of parts that connect to the fender,
the bumper, the headlight,
and it connects on the inside of the body
to the strut tower.
The door has to align to it perfectly
with the same spacing all the way around.
But headlights in particular were the worst,
but fenders, there's so many angles to them.
So when you don't get that factory dye,
that factory press, they just don't fit as well
because it's somebody's taking a cast of a fender
and then trying to make it as good as the OEM one
and they never do.
They don't have Honda's facilities,
they don't have Ford's facilities
and you can knock cheap brands all you want,
but you've never seen cheap until you've had to try
and put an aftermarket fender on something.
And if you're rebuilding a car that's been wrecked,
like a total loss, you're doing a rebuild for fun,
whatever, or you're just trying to get it back
to the street ability, nothing wrong with that.
You might want to cut some corners
and that can save you some money,
but man, used parts are the way to go.
I mean, it makes sense.
I think we kind of experienced that
when we were in our teens and 20s in the fact
of like a lot of the wings West body kits, they never fit.
It took so much work to make those horrible.
And the APC tail lights you could get from AutoZone
that fit well enough, but they leaked and things like that.
So, you know.
Yep, you know, it's funny,
I dealt with some pretty high-end body kits
back in the day working with Jeff at JMI Motoring.
Shout out to those guys.
He's still technically exists.
He pretty much takes only clients he wants
and cars he wants and nothing else.
But I mean, he was doing stuff like that fortune,
the fortune wide body Supras, like the real high-end stuff.
And you know what?
It fits like shit.
It's still like, it doesn't matter how much you paid
for it at the time, all aftermarket body kits
even now fit like shit.
Unless you're buying something from Singer,
which isn't, there's just gonna be a whole car.
It's not gonna fit.
It's all in the body guy to make that fit and work great.
And a good body guy can take a really crappy body kit
and make it work,
but you're gonna pay way more than the body kit.
Like, you know, aftermarket bumpers, you know,
and body kits would be, you know, 2,500 bucks, 3,000 bucks.
And then to install it, seven, eight minimum,
if you want it to fit.
That stuff doesn't fit from the factory.
It just doesn't.
Even the stuff from the factory doesn't fit half the time.
Now you get aftermarket or not aftermarket,
but like now it's much better.
But you could get like,
for example, the Acura TL had the Type-S body.
You could get the Type-S parts and put it on the car.
You could get it as a kit.
They still didn't fit that well.
Like they were in, those were plastic and, you know,
totally formed and that's from Honda and Acura.
Like this is top quality stuff.
Even that, you were gonna have gaps between,
you had to like kind of sand down the inside
of the side skirt a little bit
to get it to fit just perfect.
There's always fitment with that stuff.
So just keep that in mind.
Well, and I've seen it a lot with people
that want to order aftermarket parts that are now carbon
and you know, with bare carbon.
That's the worst.
There's not a lot of place you can work with things.
Like if it's warped or something like that,
you can't really make it work
unless you're gonna paint over it.
Yeah, even really expensive carbon parts
don't really fit that well.
I mean, the Porsche stuff is sort of out
like the exotic car stuff.
That's a different story
because that's coming straight from the factory
and you can order those cars
from the factory with that carbon.
So you're getting a perfectly fitted carbon piece
because it's a factory, it's like a factory hood.
It's not an aftermarket car.
You're getting it straight from Porsche.
Well, I mean, like you said,
how are you in Manti racing for the GT3 RS?
What's the one that's all over UAE Mansori?
Mansori makes them, but I mean, that's, I mean,
it's hideous, but it fits, so yeah.
Sort of, have you seen the aftermarket stuff
from who was it?
I think, I don't want to throw a name under the bus
because I don't remember the name of it,
I don't think it's Brabis,
but the G63 stuff, the G-Wagon stuff,
it fits like trash and it's super thin carbon fiber
and it's just, good carbon is not cheap.
It's funny because I was looking at some APG stuff, carbon,
and they make real carbon off-road racing stuff.
If you've looked at real carbon
for like performance use, street or off-road,
that stuff is thick, it's thick, heavy
and it'll take a beating.
Are you talking about the wide-body kits
for the Broncos, that carbon, the APG, the AP...
Yeah, the stuff where they do the overfenders
and stuff like that, that stuff is not cheap.
That stuff fits like skid plate thick.
It's a lot of carbon, so yeah.
Yeah, it's also like $30,000.
Yeah, oh yeah, I get that.
Yeah.
Anyway, shout out to Copart for getting
on the internet game early and doing well
because that's where all the junkyards,
all the junkyards closed to get back on track,
all the junkyards closed because they were either
selling a ton of stolen items
or they were money laundering.
True story, go look it up around Western Washington.
Almost all of them got shut down at the same time
due to FBI raids.
And so that's why you saw a ton of them
just suddenly disappear all over the East side
is because they all got shut down
for FBI raids, money laundering, selling
and they were all chop shops.
Well, Copart, Europe, in fact,
this is in the latest video of Matt Armstrong's
is having issue with people cloning cars
and then they're selling them
and not realizing that they're cloned,
which I didn't know was a thing,
but there was a recent issue with that.
They do that with Hellcats
and Hellcat challengers and chargers a lot.
They complete, they'll clone them,
they'll make them into demons or whatever
by stealing them, putting this stuff
in regular V8 cars and all of a sudden
they've got like, yeah, it's a Hellcat demon.
No, no, no, I'm talking about this European cloning
where if you have a Yasmin Marine Blue BMW M3
and you're in Cincinnati,
they will steal a Yasmin Blue M3 here
and then they swap all the data on all the tags
and everything over and make the new car
a clone of your car and it's a thing.
It's a lot of work.
It is a lot of work,
but if you're stealing something for $5,000
and you're putting a few thousand dollars
and then you're selling it
for what would be retail on that car,
you're making a lot of money.
So I don't wanna give people ideas
but this is, if you're really curious about it
and you reach out to me
and I'll send you the video link from Matt Armstrong
because he's going through this right now
and it's a detailed video of how they do it
and it's kind of interesting.
Yeah, and just a hint that if you do do that,
you've got some stiff competition
that will get rid of you if you're good at it.
So keep that in mind as well.
And you won't go out of business.
They will get rid of you.
Yeah, you will wear cement shoes.
Oh, he sank with the car.
It happens, it happens.
Yeah, you guys got any other fun drives coming up?
Probably do that drive again.
Honestly, it was so good.
I wanna get it in before the weather turns on us.
And then of course, there's the off-road stuff.
I wanna get out to Sand Hollow.
I just haven't had the time yet.
There's been zero time during the day.
I said I've been working pretty much
set up to sundown every single day.
And then I have some,
but we have some time off coming up of course.
So I'm packing my days until that time off comes.
So nothing yet, but there's a lot of exploring to do.
Devil's Backbone is a really popular scenic route.
It's, the name says a lot,
but it's really just, if it was summer,
this would be a gravel road scenic by way.
You could take your stock super route on it and be fine.
But it sort of goes next to Utah 12,
takes you up through Grandescalante
and it's just an absolutely beautiful drive.
Some people have reported snow.
It's on Onyx and, but it's still passable by most accounts
and it hasn't snowed up there in a while.
So most of that snow is gone.
So I'm hoping to give it a shot.
And hopefully somebody else will do it before me
because I don't wanna go up there alone.
But I've been dying to do that route my whole life.
I think you could go up in Sand Hollow
and go up to Santa's mailbox
and top of the world and all that.
I mean, I'm sure the route would be fine.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
I'll probably stick to the threes and fours, but yeah.
I also want you to go check out that.
I think it's on the east side of Sand Hollow
as you come out of there is that new like water park
that they put in there.
Like it's like a, it's, I wanna, yeah.
It's down the road for me.
It's, yeah, it's right down the road for me.
It looks really cool.
Obviously none of the parks are open now.
At the truck is iced over the morning when I wake up,
but there is a ton of infrastructure blowing up.
There's just down the road for me.
There's a ropes course.
There's like mini golf.
There's golf courses all over here.
You know, it's, it's crazy the amount of boom
that's still going on here.
Like I said, you can't go a block
without seeing something new going in.
I have to get it out.
It was great.
You know me, I want a multimillion dollar home
on a fake lake that I can wakeboard on by a fake line.
So that's what I want.
So, you know, that's what we all want.
Yeah, I mean, that's what we all want.
With a wave pool.
Yeah, excellent.
I want the wave pool more than I want the wave pool.
Yeah, there's a lot of boats down here.
I just take a cold plunge right now.
My back's killing me.
Yep.
Definitely going to do some, when the time comes,
definitely going to do some hiking.
Like I said, the cold is actually kind of nice
for that out here because, you know,
I'm probably going to take it pretty easy,
but there's still so much to enjoy this time here.
Yeah, so.
Cool.
Well, good.
Glad to hear it.
Well, I miss you down here.
I wish you were in, you wish you and Kate were here.
You guys would love it.
It's a beautiful city.
I mean, usually I wish I'm there,
but I really wish I was there right now
because it's, this is not, this is, I mean, it's,
in fact, as we record this,
I'm slowly waiting for Kate to get home.
She left Bellevue at 4.30 and she's, it's 6.30 now
and she's still not home.
I can track her, but she's just getting off the exit
at our house because everybody's getting off there
to go through our roads.
So lucky us.
Yeah.
Yep.
Well, good luck and stay safe.
I know there's more rain to come,
so I will catch up with you next week.
Yeah.
All right. Well, for this episode of the Yvonne's podcast,
as always, I'm Nick and I'm Dan.
I don't just get there.
Enjoy the drive.
About this episode
The hosts discuss the severe rain and mudslide conditions affecting Seattle and surrounding areas, highlighting the challenges and safety concerns. They celebrate the delivery of the first Gordon Murray T-50 supercar in the U.S., emphasizing its rarity and significance. The episode also covers the latest Hoonigan project featuring Travis Pastrana, noting his extreme motorsport career and resilience. One host shares a scenic winter road trip through Utah’s Utah 12 Scenic Byway, praising its beauty and tranquility during the off-season. They reflect on the contrasting lifestyles and community vibes between Seattle and Utah, touching on local friendliness and safety.
Original notes
Carvana came to the used car market with big promises and a unique buying experience, but loose spending habits took them to the brink of bankruptcy. Now seemingly out of nowhere Carvana is back and has a market value exceeding Ford and even GM! Will this change the way dealers sell used cars so they can compete? Have you bought or sold a car from Carvana? Let us know!
The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle!
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