The Truth About Car Collections, Cheap Enthusiast Cars Today, Young Enthusiasts Won't Make Sacrifices

Everybody's listening to this on Labor Day.

So shout out to all of you hard workers.

I'm going to go ahead and say that our audience, the hardest

working group of car enthusiasts in the world,

would you agree with that, Nick?

Got to be.

We got to go ahead and put that vote in.

Yeah, especially the way you guys work in the comments

against some of these hard-os, which we haven't said

in a while, man.

You guys work hard in the comments.

Yeah, no, it's been great, man.

I think what's cool about the comment section now

is that people realize that have

been listening to the actual long form,

that when we put a clip out, they go,

hey, man, I think you're misunderstanding this.

This is not what they were saying, which I always

appreciate because, again, go listen to the podcast, folks.

I mean, that's what this is all about.

So I got to thank everybody.

It's been so cool, man, a lot of fun.

Absolutely.

So we'll start a little bit unorthodox.

If you're new to the podcast, this

is the number one car-related podcast on planet Earth.

We talk about car news, trends.

But more importantly, give you a great hang every single

Monday.

So we have a couple of emails

to get to later on the show.

But I'll start with a DM that I got.

Recently, we were talking about another listener's email

about how to maintain black paint.

And this question was really simple,

but I thought actually kind of hard, maybe you could help.

So they like black cars.

And we were talking about how to maintain this husband's

and wife's car.

And you even said, I think, it takes

a special person to buy or decide

to buy all black cars, or black cars in general, right?

So they want to go another route,

but dude, they just can't decide on a different color.

Black is their thing.

That's always what they go for.

But they want to convince themselves

and persuade themselves to buy a different color car.

Any advice on that?

Yeah, I think the other, it depends on what brand, right?

So you got, what's that blue color that Ford does?

Grabber blue?

So let's say you're in the Ford family, right?

And you go, I don't want to do black anymore.

I want to do something new.

I'd be looking at that blue color.

And then each brand usually has something

that's not black, but it's not white, that they do very well.

Like what is the Toyota color, like Moonrock or whatever?

Yes.

You know, whatever that color is, that's

what I think Toyota does the best besides the black and whites

and whatever.

So I think you got to look at brand.

I mean, you saw the wagon, the blue wagon that's

for sale right now, the Mercedes E63,

like that's in that crazy blue color.

Everybody just so you know, I don't remember colors of cars,

but I think it was golf blue is the available color.

That thing's going to go for tons of money

because it's very unique.

So that's where I would start.

What does that brand do that's unique to them, right?

That's like their unique color.

That's what I would kind of go for.

If you like their unique color,

like if you say, hey, I just don't like that color,

I know everybody loves it.

I don't understand that.

But I think you just go brand specific as what

do they do as their cool color?

And then that's what I would hunt down.

That's actually a good point.

This totally wasn't me.

This isn't me asking the question as if it were a customer

or rather a listener because I am looking at Grabber

Blumock ones and the Jet Fighter Gray, which

is kind of like that Moonstone that Toyota does,

which are great colors.

But some cars, too, when you're looking at them,

they only made them in certain colors.

So the palette is only like three, four cars

or the colors to choose from.

So that makes it even harder if you're already not

really bought into one of the three or four colors

that they make.

So I don't know, dude.

Sometimes I just have multiple screens

and I'll put up both colors and I'll be like, that looks sick.

And then I'll come back the next day like, that sucks.

Why would I buy that?

Like, sometimes it's too hard to pick.

Yeah.

And also, some cars just look better.

Like, again, not everybody's a red fan,

but there's some cars that just look good and red.

You go, hey, man, when I walk by that or I see it,

the angles, the way that car is designed,

it does look good and red.

You see another car or truck in red

and you go, it doesn't look good and red.

Whatever the color is, that's, I mean,

but I would look for the colors that are special

to that brand before I would really try to say,

I want a blue car.

It's like, the brand you're looking at do blue well

or does it not?

Like we have, my GX is that dark, dark, dark Lexus blue.

And it looks great.

It looks very, very good.

Do I think that that blue would look good

in all of Lexus cars and SUVs?

No, it wouldn't.

It needed a bigger car, bigger frame,

and it's like, all that blue looks good

on all of this square footage.

If I boil that down to an LC 500,

I'm like, I don't think that blue looks very good on that.

Yeah, I wish I could think of a car

that looks good and red,

but it's not coming to mind.

I just don't know.

It's called Ferrari, dude.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, 488 looks terrible in red, right?

I didn't say it looks terrible.

I wouldn't drive that around.

I wouldn't drive that F8 around.

I just didn't say it looks the best.

Speaking of red cars though,

you wouldn't drive a 308.

Listen.

Perfect wedge shape.

I didn't say I wouldn't drive it.

It's just bonkers.

Nick's getting red like this.

Nick's getting about as red as that's a poster

back there behind his head.

For everybody, happy Labor Day,

and we've ended the podcast.

Thanks for coming.

We almost made it to a year, everybody.

Damn.

Speaking of red though,

question, we are talking about Mustangs,

talking about red.

Are you a fan of 60s Mustangs?

People are gonna really hate this opinion.

I can't think of other than Fox bodies

any Mustangs I really liked.

Wow.

I know.

It just wasn't my thing, man.

I get it.

I can appreciate it.

I had a neighbor whose dad passed down

one of those Mustangs as like their 16th birthday.

You know, just something he tinkered around with.

The car was not in perfect shape,

but it was good enough and so they drove it and I'm like,

and I got to drive it when I was like, I'm good.

Wow.

This isn't, I know, it wasn't me.

Hey, you know.

Let's be clear.

I respect it.

Sure.

Okay, I respect what it is.

I respect that people own them.

I understand it.

It's just not for me.

Let me just say that what Nick says,

I respect it.

That is like Ricky Bobby saying,

would all do respect in an insulting you?

It's like Ricky Bobby,

you can't just say with all due respect

and then insult.

That's not true.

I respect the heritage.

I just go that it's not for me.

With all due respect.

That car sucks.

All right, well, speaking of.

You ain't first year last.

Ricky Bobby there.

So you can come in.

I live and die by that one

if he ain't first or last.

Well, I got a fun little story here

that was sent to me.

We're talking about 60s Mustangs.

Well, how about a 60s Mustang

that was converted into a complete Tesla?

Is that more your style, Nick?

No, it's still not my style.

And by the way, there's a red color that it looks good.

That does look pretty solid.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's like a darker red.

So again, Rob getting just roasted about the red.

I hear you.

I do.

Exactly why we're here.

It's a complex.

I don't understand why I hate it.

But I mean, let's see if you can.

Yeah, you know, I kind of,

so I don't know how everybody feels about this.

And I get that every one of us

is going to say something like,

and you guys should go to YouTube

because Rob's showing the video,

walk around and how this thing works now.

One of the things, if this was going to the junkyard,

I really don't have a problem with this conversion.

OK, and I think that's something

many of us need to get over.

Again, it doesn't have to be your thing.

But here's my opinion.

A lot of these are not going to be restored

with a crate engine,

everything that needs to go into it,

all the drivetrain being gone through.

Guys aren't going to do that.

If they can do this for, let's say,

25 grand is what they were able to do this for.

They were going to spend a lot more to truly restore this thing.

This thing was just going to sit around

or it was going to head to a junkyard.

That's where I'll support.

Like, hey, at least you kept it out of the junkyard.

That'd be my take on it.

You know what?

That might be the most sensible take

I've ever heard on these kind of conversions.

And I'm totally in agreement with you.

I think that's a great way to look at it.

Yeah, because, guys, not everyone,

think about what it takes just in your knowledge.

Let's say you're not somebody

who knows how to drop a crate engine into this thing.

You got to go to a shop.

Then it's going to sit at the shop for months.

And I know everybody's like,

no, it can get done in a week.

Never gets done in a week, okay?

The bottom line of this is,

and this is what I kind of said about these old cars

that are in the boomer generation.

You got to realize something.

When they hand these down,

most of them are not going to be in good working order.

So now you're going to ask Rob.

Your dad just hands you a 60s Mustang.

For you to get it up to speed,

you're going to have to spend 60 grand.

You're not doing that.

No.

I know you.

You're not doing that.

No.

I'm not doing that.

Many of you listening aren't doing that.

So that's why the prices will come down.

Because I don't think you guys realize

even these cars that show up at car shows,

you're going, how'd he drive this thing here?

Yeah, it's true.

You know what I mean?

Oh, man, that kind of needs a lot of work

to really get up to road worthy,

but he got it here.

I don't know if he trailered it

or he just kind of white knuckled it here.

So it's like, we're not being honest that,

guys, what you see at Mecom or Barrett

or these $300,000 Resto mods,

that's not what's getting handed down to 99% of people.

99% of people are getting something.

The brake conversion has to be done.

The suspension has to be fixed.

The engine has to be gone through.

Maybe you got to take the carburetor out

and get a fuel injection put into it

to make it really enjoyable for you.

I'm not saying everybody,

but this is what you don't realize.

I'm in the age group that if my dad was into something

like this, it could be handed down to me.

If I got that and a $50,000 bill,

that thing's going to the auction block.

I mean, that's where it's headed.

And by the way, most of you are in the same position.

Yeah, plain and simple.

And I've been involved in collections

that the kids could have taken over

of a lot better cars.

They're like, no, sell that stuff.

I'm like, what?

You're going to sell it?

And they're like, yeah, I'm not into that.

Porsche's, Ferrari's, name it.

Where they're getting ready to hand them down.

And I've watched kid after kid go, I'm not into that.

That's what everybody needs to realize here.

You know what?

That's an interesting topic

because parents, right now,

you said you're in the age range

where that could be handed down to you.

I'm kind of also in that same,

but my dad's into other stuff

like trucks and jeeps and stuff

we're having this conversation recently

or anything in general.

And parents, bless their soul

or however you guys want to look at it.

They want to leave you something,

but there's a way to look at it sometimes

where you got to, you can't justify it.

You're just like, this is not worth me taking on.

It's actually more of a burden.

And it kind of like makes you feel kind of weird and bad,

but at the end of the day, it's just the reality of it.

So I've had to have this conversation

with my parents about things that they own.

Dude.

And I've had to have, for any of you

that haven't had to have this conversation,

it's a real conversation that you have.

Yeah.

And I've had to tell my parents, just so we're clear,

I don't want anything.

Yeah.

I have my own house.

I got enough stuff in there.

I don't want to have to go get a storage unit.

I don't want my house to be more cluttered.

Like just understand, if my siblings are into that stuff,

please by all means, let them have it.

Do not, don't let me get to the will

that you guys are about to send me

to be the executor of

and have me see a bunch of knickknacks on there

being handed down to me.

Because it's not, you're not doing me a favor.

And that's a lot of the car world.

Many of you out there think,

man, if my dad handed me down an F-250,

well, Rob, most of the old F-250s

that are going to be handed down to you,

guys like yourself, me, the listeners,

are going to take up space in your driveway,

which most of us don't have just extra space laying around.

You don't have extra spots in a garage.

It's being used.

So now it's become a burden that's on the street.

You got to move it.

You got to start it.

Also, you're not thrilled about driving it

because it's not up to spec.

So one of the craziest things when we talked about this

is everybody assumes that what you're going to be able to buy

are the two and $300,000 restomads.

Well, yeah, everybody will be in the muscle cars forever.

Well, guys, you complain about a $30,000 car.

What are you going to do when you go to the auction

and it costs $175,000?

You're going to complain more.

But what if you get handed down that $30,000 car

and you realize another 30 has to go into it?

Most of you aren't going to do that.

You just be like, why'd rather buy something else?

So I'll sell this for 30

and I'll go get this thing over here for 35, put $5,000

and I'll get the car that I actually want.

That is how these things go.

And a lot of times, some of this stuff

isn't my opinion, guys.

I've dealt with collections that had lots of money in them

and the kids had the same reaction I just shared.

They're like, I wasn't into those cars.

They're cool.

Can we get them to the auction?

That's how it goes.

So those are two things, two videos.

Because sometimes you never know

what videos you're going to take off.

So the muscle car rant that we had that went up

and then the EV, what's the justification for EVs

other than speed, those two videos just really sparked

great conversations because the algorithm loves it

when we're going back and forth.

But real quick, before we get into that,

the best winning comment on that 60s Mustang

that was written to a Tesla was, by the way,

this is the best.

I hope Bro's pillow is warm on both sides

in the middle of summer.

I was like, bravo, sir, you win the internet.

Yeah, I love great comments.

Yeah, and then other ones were way more horrific

and like, whoa, bro, it's not that deep, you know?

Like it's very, very odd.

Yeah, it's not.

And again, I think our opinion we shared is like,

hey, guys, if it was going to the junkyard,

we kept it out of there.

Again, it doesn't have to be your thing.

It's definitely not my thing.

It's not something I would spend money on to do that.

If it's not in the junkyard, is it a benefit?

Yeah, man, I mean, at least the cool body's still around.

At least you still got the nostalgia of seeing it.

Yeah, man, it's not the old Mustang.

I get it. I'm with you.

But I think you got to start getting realistic

of what it takes to take something that's not up to speed

and get it up to speed.

That's where people are missing the conversation

because how many kids today, and kids, I mean,

20, 30, 40-year-olds have the money

to bring their dad's mom's uncle's car up to speed

that's been handed down.

It's a very small percentage.

Yeah, and there's always an audience

for people that want to watch those things

get brought back to life,

but even that audience, I think, is also shrinking.

It's almost like, and I didn't mean to ask you about this,

because you guys, you work on a lot of great cars,

but also cars that are really already maintained well.

There's a reason for that.

They're constantly being maintained exterior-wise

and interior-wise in the whole thing.

So when people are like-

And mechanically.

And mechanically, of course, yes.

So when you don't see the disaster-style details,

people are kind of like, well, this isn't as interesting,

but also that's the point.

Like, you don't need it to get to where it's already falling apart.

I'll share it with everybody.

I mean, one of the biggest blows to me

when I get called in,

hey, can you come assess my collection?

I mean, it's real deflating

to see the condition of some of them.

Oh, yeah?

Oil leaking on the floor,

the condition of the just,

you know, every gasket and seal

is gonna have to be gone through of every car.

And you could be talking about millions of dollars in cars.

And I look around and go, how did we get here?

I mean, you have the money.

You just, you didn't know better or you didn't care.

And I don't say this stuff out loud.

I'm saying it to our audience.

Like, I think a lot of people see

the really great collections online.

You have no idea what the rest of that world looks like.

And I'm telling you, it is,

I mean, we've had car collections

that needed millions of dollars in service.

I mean, you know, just millions of dollars

had to be spent to bring millions of dollars of cars

just back up to normal.

Like, it is unbelievable what happens.

We just had somebody with an Enzo Ferrari situation

where they just kind of left it parked

for the better part of looks like the last decade.

I mean, you have no idea what is going to have to be done

for that car to be brought up

to operating fully at its potential.

Is this is an Enzo?

That's crazy.

And you guys have in your mind

that every Enzo out there is in perfect working order,

everything's great, nobody mistreats them.

That isn't the real world.

And I'm not saying that on the Enzo level,

they're all in bad shape either.

But there are Enzo's in the world

because we have one right now

that are in a position where you go, holy shit.

I mean, this thing is going to be at the dealership

for months and months and months and months,

waiting on parks, waiting on this, waiting on that.

This could be a full year to get this back up

to just operational to where it needs to be.

It happens all the time.

Yeah, it's interesting that people like,

there's a guy, so let's be honest.

Yeah, sure, guys, gals, whatever.

Mostly guys get a lot of money

and they buy the cars that they wanted to get

and then they start a mini collection or whatever

and how quickly the things that they really want

to kind of fall to the wayside

and they don't maintain them.

And they're just like hoarders.

Honestly, it's what it is.

You buy a cool thing and this is there.

And then eventually they were already going

to lose money on it anyway

if they ended up selling it.

But now it's also less desirable

because you have to spend so much money

to bring it back up to par.

It's really wild to say.

Yeah, and one of the crazy things is

just think of things around your own house

when you walk in your house.

Things that you wanted that now

are just in a corner somewhere.

Oh, at one point I really wanted this.

And then you look over there

and it's sitting in the corner.

Everybody has a thousand of those things

in their house, I'm sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

When you have things like guys being able

to buy whatever car they want

or just somebody that just buys cars

that aren't super expensive.

I mean, you've seen the,

you live in Texas.

It's not really possible out here on this level

but where I grew up it is,

think about the guys that have five, six, seven cars

in the grass in their backyard.

You know what I mean?

And at one point they wanted those things.

Now grass is growing around them.

They haven't driven it in 20 years

and 10 years and five years.

They haven't even started them all over the country,

all over the world that's the reality.

And sometimes we don't,

because you may be in a position where you go,

I have this one car that I love

but I explain this to people now.

Even when you get to three cars at your house,

one car doesn't get driven as much as the other two.

You think you could balance it all out

but you just end up grabbing that same key,

getting into a routine.

Now get to four cars, five cars, 10 cars.

It's the same exact thing.

Like we have a customer who has a car collection.

Like so we don't do basements here

because we have such hard land.

So to actually have something that's underground

is like pretty rare.

This guy literally used dynamite to build down

in his house.

So his car collection is under the ground.

He's got an elevator.

He can drive any car he has there.

The elevator takes him up to level and he drives it out.

We're the only ones that ever take cars out

of the basement.

I mean, he doesn't.

Now, did he when he first moved into house?

Sure, but now think about it.

He looks at like an inconvenience.

I got to take this off the battery tender.

I got to get in the elevator.

It just, that's how it happens.

And people don't realize how often that happens, right?

And if you just think of your own life on a small scale,

now make the scale bigger,

it's exactly what happens to these cars.

More times than not, by the way.

To go, you're right.

And to go back to the fields and the lawn and stuff.

Without those people though,

we wouldn't have the really cool field finds

and barn finds, you know?

Yeah, the barn finds you go,

do you really want to find that?

Yeah, yeah.

Can it, better just stay there.

Maybe, you know, get wiped off by Mother Earth.

This isn't a vintage Lambo.

Why are we, so we're doing this?

We're gonna do this on a VW Rabbit, huh?

Oh, okay.

Hey, hey, whoa, what's wrong with a VW Rabbit?

What are we doing here?

Hey, nothing wrong, but I'm just saying,

are you that interested to see a barn find?

You know what, I was, funny question.

We have poked and prodded at this before

and made fun of it in a bit,

but I can't completely let go of the fact

that I still think it's kind of cool.

If it's a cool vehicle, obviously,

if it is just like a whatever,

it's like, why are we wasting our time with this?

But. Yeah, a Jay Leno barn find,

I'm gonna watch it.

Because I'm gonna be like, oh, so Jay's gonna get

the steam engine, 1912, I've never seen this before,

but I've probably seen enough Camaros and Chevelles

and we're probably good.

I think Chip Foos with, what was it called, overhauling?

I think we're good. Yeah, I think it was.

You're good?

I think we've, they did like eight billion episodes.

I'm good, man.

I've seen enough of these brought back to life.

Well, okay then.

We know where Nick stands on a lot of things,

especially the barn finds.

People want me to come on the podcast and go,

Rob, I have no opinion.

No, no, no.

We love the opinions.

The opinions is what makes the show.

Here's an opinion on something that I'm sure you love.

2026 Tesla Model Y Performance

has blistering acceleration claims, Nick.

Can you believe it?

No, that's wild.

I never heard that EVs are fast or quick.

I never heard it.

I just don't know.

Like it's so, we're beating a dead horse here

because I figured they would come up

with a different way to kind of spin it,

but every distributor, every publication

is just like zero to 60 in three seconds, 3.3.

Yeah, so one of the crazy things that I think is,

I like what they did with the back end

of the they got rid of and kind of just cleaned it up.

I think the front looks really good.

Again, you wouldn't even call this a redesign.

This would be considered more freshening up.

This would be a mid-generation,

which by the way, this generation's like what,

10 years old now.

10 to 12 years old.

So I think when you look at this,

I just ask everybody out there again,

it seems like we've run out of sales points

pretty quick on EVs.

Yeah.

It's like, hey, it does zero to 60 in this.

Hey, here's the range.

Hey, do you want to buy one?

I mean, it seems like that's kind of what it is.

I'll tell you what, this looks like Iron Man's helmet.

Like it's just Iron Man's helmet.

Yeah, good call.

Dude, it looks exactly like that.

Like that should have been the selling point.

Like let's get the new Marvel movie going

and kind of hype it up with the Tesla.

What is it, Tony Stark?

Here's the Tony Stark edition.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, don't pretend like you don't know who Iron Man is.

Who is it?

Is it Tony Stark?

I've actually never seen it.

I've never seen it.

Oh my God.

You haven't seen any Avengers movies?

No, I have not.

Oh my God.

People will not believe this,

but I cannot sit around and watch a movie to save the life.

You can see Iron Man right there.

There's the other thing.

If it's a comic book movie, I'm definitely not going to.

Iron Man is right there.

I'm pointing at him.

See, this is how people don't understand,

like we are, Nick and I are,

we are like opposites, although we're very similar.

We're very similar,

but complete opposites in human beings.

Basically, if it's not like mixed martial arts,

we're pretty different.

That's not true.

Don't exaggerate.

How dare you?

Hey, what about, hey, we have to talk about this.

What about, and I know for everybody's assistant card,

what about the, that Raja Jackson thing is still...

Yeah, we haven't...

That's the craziest video on the internet.

Yeah, I don't think we've talked MMA on the show

in months, but yes, Nick and I both love

martial arts, Jiu Jitsu, you know,

a lot of people in those worlds, both of them.

Hey, I got a graduation tomorrow.

At the same time as Texas, Ohio State,

so that kind of hurt, but yeah, I got the first belt.

Let's go, all right.

But I just, for anybody that's into that stuff,

the Raja Jackson thing,

that's probably one of the most brutal things

that I've seen caught on camera in a ring.

Yeah, yeah, you know,

I don't care what kind of ring it is, by the way.

I realize it's a fake wrestling ring,

but like real stuff happened,

that was just a wild scene.

Yeah, I didn't know,

because there were so many different angles

and videos coming out when it first happens,

I didn't know exactly how to look at it.

Was it a work?

Was it a part of the thing?

Did it just go wrong or what happened?

But then all of the videos kind of have surfaced,

and it's just not looking good for the kid,

because he's in his mid-20s, I think, right?

He's not super young, but he's not old.

So, yeah.

It's pretty hard to follow.

I mean, Rampage in the MMA world is about as iconic.

For those of you who don't go back that far,

the pride stuff, the pride overseas stuff,

like the guys that came, the Mark Coleman's,

the Rampages, the guys that were big stars over there,

they've literally been stars long before the UFC.

I think most people realize that.

You think of Rampage in the UFC,

but he was massive in pride.

Yeah, you know, Van der Lea, all those characters.

Yeah, Van der Lea.

I mean, like I told you,

that's the gym that my daughter's at,

and still the coolest name in MMA history.

I mean, if you're called the axe murderer,

I don't know, man, I'm gonna root for you.

I mean, it's like, that's a great name.

Can I please go to that gym

and have like some name that's similar to that, please?

Dude, I used to do like internet deep dives

on what was going on at the gym, shoot the box.

Remember?

Yeah, oh yeah.

That was a big thing.

I would be like deep and I'm like,

hey, has anybody got a grainy video

of what's going on at shoot the box?

Because here's the thing, near my hometown,

they had something that was like that,

but it was called the Hammer House.

So as Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman

and all those guys had this really dingy gym

called the Hammer House,

and they were just in there just dropping bodies.

Dude, yeah.

So goal team on Houston, Macaco,

oh shoot the box, you know, legend.

That's where his school was

and a lot of buddies that grew up,

you know, training and starting at MMA

and like their teens went to that school

and that's where, you know, you see him

and he's still in silver hair.

I was just drawing a blank.

Brazilian fucking blonde hair helped me out here.

Jesus Christ, you know, dies his hair.

They died their hair blonde, the Brazilians.

I forgot his name.

Oh yeah, I know, what was his name?

He's a legend.

I'm just drawing a blank on his name,

but you always see him

and you see Macaco in his corner still.

So the guy's still in the world doing the damn thing, man.

And it's just like, that was a different time.

Like some might say a better time kind of an MMA

if you were like, because it's so,

everybody loves the underground times

where all of it's not so mainstream

and it's a little more dangerous.

Hey, it's about, hey, paper views gone away.

Oh, okay, yes.

What do you think of that?

Before we move on to more car talk,

what do you think about Paramount Deal?

And also you and I have talked about Off-Air.

Everything is just coming back full circle.

We're just gonna have cable again at some point.

It's just, we tried it.

Dude, ESPN, Hulu,

get this big Disney bundle and all in one.

And I'm like, wait, you're repackaging cable again.

For all of you that had to buy paper views,

I think this is a big win.

The only question you have is,

does Paramount have the following

that you need to drive this to the next level

where you could see their subscribers,

their social media is not anywhere on par

with an ESPN or somebody like that.

But what a great thing for the UFC.

I'm happy for those guys.

You know, we have some connections over there.

And I just hope we get to see great fights like that.

The thing is, my whole thing is,

I will literally walk out,

if two guys were fighting in the street,

I'd walk out and watch it.

So I'm not really the last,

I'm the last guy to ask

because if it's just on TV, I'm just watching it.

So I don't care what it,

I'll record fights and go back and watch them again.

So I'm not really the right guy to ask.

I mean, it's great for me.

Yeah, I don't think I've missed a paper.

Unless we were out of town

or something obviously was happening on a paper view night,

like we catch just about every paper view

or we watch all the paper views,

we watch all the fight nights,

we don't miss them.

And it's just one of those things

where some people watch Sunday football

and don't miss a game.

Same for MMA, like we don't miss a fight.

Yeah, well, I'm gonna have to miss Ohio State, Texas

at least a little bit of it.

Charles Oliveira, my God, sorry.

I was lost.

It was driving me nuts.

Yeah.

Shout out to Charles.

We can type in Google, Blonde Brazilian MMA.

That's exactly what I wrote.

That's exactly what I typed in, all right?

I got Brendan Schaub, actually.

I don't know why I brought up Brendan Schaub, Blonde MMA guy.

By the way, massive in real life.

People that talk shit about that, dude,

if you walked into the room,

he would just spin your head off your neck.

Yeah, Bubba's giant, Bubba.

Yeah, he's giant.

He's a giant man.

So yeah, that's the roundup on the Tesla, you know,

they're doing other things.

So we can't expect a whole new car from Tesla,

but these look cool.

So I'm sure they're gonna sell well.

Yeah, I mean, it's all price point game for them now.

Yes, speaking of EVs though,

and then we'll get to other cooler cars.

GM, do you hear about the temporary shutdown

of their zero plant?

So they're shutting down shifts

because of the complete lack of sales

and interest in EVs.

And I like how they spun it as temporary, right?

They're temporary layoffs for temporary shift shutdowns.

Are we believing that that's just gonna come back

and they're gonna hire these people again?

No, but we also have to be fair here.

There's always shifts cut, you know,

especially if they start to see sales slip,

they'll cut a third shift.

If they're running two shifts,

they'll cut back the second shift

to just mandatory parts that need to be made or whatever.

Is this a big deal?

I think you gotta think it's a big deal, right?

This isn't like shutting down,

hey, the truck sales have slowed,

so we're taking third shift

and we're cutting it to just necessary parts

and, you know, moving some people around.

This feels like it could be a very permanent thing,

because again, no matter what we wanna talk about globally

and BYD and this, you know, they need to sell cars here.

They need to take care of the United States.

The United States needs to buoy what they do globally

in a lot of ways, not always, but in a lot of ways.

And they just, again, I'll say this,

I don't think anybody, any manufacturer from Mercedes

to GM to Ford has done a good job positioning

why I should buy the EV.

And I was talking to somebody recently

about the Ford News, the Ford internal memo

that they made into a keynote speech.

The thing that people need to realize is the Ford Lightning

is the perfect example of,

and the Chevy Silverado EV and the Ford Lightning

are the perfect examples of,

you didn't provide the consumer anything.

You made them more expensive

than your average cost of a Silverado and of an F-150.

What did you, you've already not provided me

the biggest point of me buying it, okay?

If everybody who's buying an F-150 has price sensitivity,

asking me to buy an $80,000 F-150

when I can buy a $42,000 F-150,

or a $45,000 or a $50,000 or even a $50,000,

you haven't done anything to convince me

right out of the gate.

So now I gotta really have something to buy.

You got range concerns,

especially if I carry loads in the back of the truck

or I try to tow something,

you've really not provided people something.

And that's why we keep bringing up price barrier.

If they don't break through the price barrier

of the average cost of that vehicle.

So F-150's average price,

let's say for argument is $45,000.

If you don't break through 45 on the low side,

I've already got an uphill battle.

Yeah.

Right?

And so Chevy's got that battle,

Ford's got that battle,

Mercedes had to battle so bad,

they're like, I don't think

we're gonna have the EQS line anymore.

You know, I just think it's just the real world.

And again, I am very middle of the road.

I got to say this a lot on this podcast.

If the EV fits you and you're using it around town,

it's the best commuter car,

commuter car that the average person can buy.

Because if you can charge at home,

we know you're gonna drive less than 50 miles a day,

75 miles a day,

range concern isn't there.

But you also better have something

that if you wanna go on a road trip,

you take away that person's anxiety

as we sit here today in 2025.

But the number one way to get adoption

is to break through on the low side of the price barrier.

And no one, except maybe Tesla with YN3,

consistently has something to go after those people

that people like.

I get it.

There's other EVs that I can buy,

let's say for $28,000,

but the consumer doesn't believe in them.

So it doesn't matter if they were $28,000,

they still are gonna buy a Model 3 or a Model Y

and pay the extra five grand, seven grand, 10,000.

That's just the way it is.

I'm gonna be 67 years old

and still dreaming and thinking of why the car world.

And I know there's a lot of elements to it,

but let's just stick with me here.

Why it went the way that it went with the expensive EVs?

And we talked about this from almost a year ago

when we started the show,

we're just imagining a world, Nick,

where everybody focused on,

let's just pretend that the EPA and the regulations

of the whole thing aren't the biggest concern

because they are.

If everybody continued the heritage route

and Mercedes was making more

goal wing type cars and GT this and whatever,

and everyone, if you wanna get into the EV world

because maybe it's less expensive,

you can make it,

the idea is to make them cheaper, right?

So everybody made a cheap EV,

you go with your favorite brand,

you get your favorite cheap EV from that brand

and then they can invest all that money

into the cool cars

and now they get two, maybe three

of the really cool expensive V8, V12, V10s, whatever

and they also have one of your cheaper EVs

because they're saving the money on the electricity,

on the convenience factor

that they're gonna dump their money into these cars

that would hold their value a little bit longer

than these EVs do.

It just boggles my mind, man.

If we've gone through it several times

and I've read a bunch of stuff about it,

I've heard all the different case studies

and whatever on a wide.

Well, I mean, let's be honest,

the technology wasn't there to do low cost.

No, well, no, no, you're right, it wasn't.

It wasn't there.

So they were selling you a technology that wasn't ready.

That'd be like getting a flat screen TV

that doesn't turn on.

You'd be like, well, I mean, we don't need that.

We had these other TVs,

we had plasmas they turned on.

Now you got this new technology,

LED or OLED or whatever has come out

and it doesn't turn on.

Well, you didn't, you made my life worse.

Yeah, to simultaneously push that is just the craziest.

Yeah, but again, we know that the EPA is driving it,

but I think we were all scared.

And when I mean all of us,

I mean people in the car business,

especially on the manufacturing side,

we're really scared to tell people

the technology's not there.

The one company who's now basically become

the dominant player in the world

in the car building world and the car manufacturing world,

Toyota said, it's not there.

Yeah.

They were the only ones that stuck by

the technology's not there.

We don't think this is the route for us.

And I think they've been rewarded globally for that.

Now, will that be how the next 20 years play out?

That's anybody's guess.

But for right now, they buoyed their success

by saying the technology is not good enough

for us to go that route,

but we're happy to build you some hybrids

because the technology is there to do that.

And again, your point is right.

If they were, if Mercedes could have sold you

a $35,000 EV for a Mercedes customer,

it would have been unbelievable.

And now they have the money on top of that

to go buy some of your cool stuff,

whether that's used off your lot or new off your lot.

That's probably the best case scenario,

but the technology wasn't there,

and we're just so scared to say it.

I don't, again, I just think so many people

were invested in trying to be on the new thing.

For those that weren't around,

I bet on many disc players didn't pan out.

They were cool though.

Yeah.

You were right to bet on it.

I thought it was the future.

It wasn't the future.

That's so funny.

Just like laser disc, okay?

All the people that go,

hey man, I'm gonna have this laser disc player.

Hey, DVD one, what are you gonna,

I mean, you know, whatever it may be,

things changed and sometimes you bet on the wrong things,

but the problem is nobody's reversing course fast enough.

So Chevy could have very easily gone into the hybrid world.

They could have taken that plant,

taken their battery technology,

figured out how to pair it with an engine

or several engines and made a hybrid power plant

or multiple for their vehicles.

They could have reversed course five years ago.

Forget administrations and EPA.

They could have got to all of the mileage concerns

and all of the, you know, where you need to be,

which by the way, we've kind of dug into,

we haven't advanced miles per gallon

as much as everybody thinks.

Yeah.

You know, and so there was always a play here

and they just didn't pivot fast enough

and they chose a course that didn't sell.

And it happens.

Like I said, Sony Mini disc player

is now in the landfill.

Dude, I was about to go right back to it.

What else have you,

what else did you lose money on in the past

where you were like, this is it?

The Zoom.

Wasn't it called the Zoom?

Oh, this is Microsoft?

The Zoom.

I bet on that before the iPod.

Well, in all fairness, it was a better device,

but it didn't win.

But look, I lost.

You lost.

I had to throw it away.

I had to get an iPod.

Then I had to get an iPhone.

It's all good.

I made the wrong bet.

Did you go down the whole thing?

iPod, the shuffle, the iPod touch

and then to the iPhone, the whole, yeah.

Yeah, once you're in it, you're just in it.

Yeah.

And remember when it got little,

it was just that little square

that could like clip it on your,

yeah.

And look, I come from, I mean,

when you had a CD, you know, Walkman.

Yeah.

Where it skipped every time you tried to work out.

I mean, when you could just get those things

not to skip, that was a big thing.

But again, you bet on some things.

Many of you out there,

you've bet on something as a consumer.

It didn't work out.

You picked the wrong side.

It went a different route.

Car companies, I get it's hard

to take the Titanic of a car company

and pivot it really quickly.

But they knew probably years ago

that the sales numbers weren't adding up

and they just kept doubling and tripling down on,

let me make this expensive EV.

And by the way, Ford made an expensive EV

with the Ford Lightning.

Yeah.

The Chevy Silverado was too expensive.

The Hummer EV, all of these things

are viable in the marketplace as an EV.

But it can't be 10, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 more

than the same exact thing in a gas engine

and expect people to give wide adoption.

Yeah, those shift cuts were to the Hummer EV

and the Cadillac IQ.

So just to put that out there.

Yeah, well, I mean, those are selling well.

Oh, did you have a right?

Are you, real quick, are you all in on XRP?

Are you all, you know what I mean?

Do you know what that means?

Yeah.

No, okay.

Are you?

Maybe, if you're into it, if you're listening,

RobGTV is my Instagram, if you wanna shoot me some.

Yeah, don't flood clutch culture, PM.

No, Nick doesn't care about your crypto schemes.

See nonsense.

I saw only fans models talking about their all in on XRP

and I'm like, oh, I'm screwed.

I'm screwed.

I made the wrong pick.

No, they went all in.

I made the wrong pick.

All right, we have a really interesting topic

that Nick and I were talking about earlier this week

that Nick is actually gonna take over the screen share

portion of a little bit of the show here,

but it all started with these comments

that we get regularly

and I'll give you some time to set up if you need to.

And by the way, they're all around the internet.

Yes, correct, correct, correct.

The idea that it's so much more expensive now

to be a car enthusiast than it was 10 or so years ago.

So Nick and I were talking about

what we would consider beaters in like 95, 2000

and what we consider as beaters now

and then also the sacrifices that,

I mean, honestly, you and I are 10 years apart

but we made similar, I would say sacrifices

in the mid 90s and the early 2000s and the 2010s even

compared to what people that are maybe

in their 20s and teens right now

and the things that they're not willing

to sacrifice for these cars.

So your take on that.

And I think we've gotten away from,

if you weren't there, you assume it was easier.

Yeah.

Right, so you go, well, the way it was back then

is easier than it is now.

That's not true.

We couldn't walk on a lot

and buy a brand new BMW M3 back then either.

Doesn't matter what the sticker said.

Let's just say the sticker today

on a brand new M3 is 105,000.

It doesn't matter if that number was 50,000 back then,

enthusiasts like us, young guys,

we still couldn't afford it.

Yeah.

You know, the 99% of us couldn't go

and walk on a dealership lot and buy a Kuntas.

We couldn't walk on the lot and buy an SVJ today.

Right, like at the end of the day,

the internet is making a lot of us.

And by the way, I don't think this is age specific.

I hear from 20, 30, 40, 50 year olds the same thing.

Well, everything's so expensive now,

but guess what guys, it's all relative.

Back then it was expensive too.

To get that top echelon car you wanted.

So everybody accepted, I think more readily back there

because the internet wasn't around,

that if I wanted to get into an enthusiast's car,

I was gonna have to sacrifice the number one thing

you still have to sacrifice today,

which is a word called mileage.

You just bought a higher mileage thing.

It was a little bit more problematic.

You accepted the repair bills.

And by the way, in that time,

the repair bills were a lot of money.

Just because the dollar amount is bigger now,

doesn't mean the guy back then,

that dollar amount was lower, but so was money, right?

So was the average guy's money.

You know, I think the first job that I ever had,

they were paying an hourly of like $5 and 75 cents.

Wow.

Like think about that.

Now I worked piecework very quickly and got out of that,

but at the end, I want people to understand

that I think continuing to try to compare things

to 10, 20, 30 years ago and not realizing

it's always been the same.

Guys weren't just walking on at 25 years old

and saying, let me get that new 911 turbo.

That wasn't happening.

By the way, I hardly see any cars

rusted out driving around today in Las Vegas

or and probably most of you don't in the cities

you live in, very common in 1998

to have your buddy buy an S10 and it's got rust everywhere.

Those, I mean, beaters were more common

10, 20, 30 years ago than they are today.

So I want to say this as a positive thing.

Guys, stop talking yourself into I can't go buy something

that's fun, I'm priced out

because I did a five minute search on car gurus,

didn't dive into marketplace,

didn't dive into private sellers,

didn't dive into any of that, okay?

I just did a simple search.

So let's go through this here

because I want guys to,

I want you to buy cars that you can make cool for you, okay?

And I don't want you to buy into this narrative

that everything is expensive.

Yes, new cars are expensive.

We talk about it all the time.

I'm on your side there,

but to tell me there's no benefit.

So let me give people my story.

And by the way, all three of the cars

that I have that sit at my house

were bought in COVID times.

I have a 2008 BMW M3 manual transmission.

I now have Lexus LX470,

both considered at have their own enthusiastic,

you know, enthusiasm around them.

You wouldn't say,

I mean a 100 series Land Cruiser basically

and a E90 M3,

those are now considered both enthusiast platforms.

I have less than 60 grand

into both of those cars delivered to my house.

That's two cars, okay?

When you take my 2021 GX460,

I did the math this morning,

pulled the paperwork with the trade

and I had on that,

I have three cars in my one with the,

by the way, let me do the mileage.

2008 BMW, when I got it had 39,000 miles on it.

That was bought in the middle of the height of COVID.

I had my Lexus LX470,

which was a 22 year old vehicle,

had 121,000 miles on it, I believe,

still low mileage,

but would scare a lot of people off, right?

Because well, I'm not gonna buy high mileage.

Well, again, if I wanna buy a 20,000 mile,

one of those,

you're damn right it's gonna be expensive,

but I don't need a 20,000 mile one

to get into something reliable.

I just needed to check the boxes that it's in good shape,

it's not rusted out,

the engine has gone through at least

some car fact services that I can see,

which it had.

Then my Lexus GX, which is a 2021,

I had 2000 miles when we got it, okay?

I have less than a hundred grand in those three cars,

99 and some change.

Pretty nice little garage.

It's a pretty good setup.

Family, yeah, enthusiast.

I got a manual,

going on a vintage SUV at this point.

Well, you smirked when you said that too,

like, yeah, it's vintage,

it's cool vintage for sure.

I mean, and here's the thing,

I don't think anybody would say

that my two car solution isn't a good solution,

just the ones I drive every day.

It's not a perfect thing.

Yeah, it's not a GT3 and a Rivian.

I got that, but guess what?

I don't want those things

because my accountant yells at me all the time,

why don't you go buy those things?

And I don't,

this is the stuff that interests me, right?

So I want people to take this part

of the podcast positively.

You guys can get into a car that fits your budget, okay?

And this whole idea that,

because I can't go buy the brand new M2 comp,

that back in 2000, people were able to do that,

it was never the case.

It's never the case that the average car enthusiast

was walking on a lot,

buying the brand new, whatever, top of the line thing.

Rob, you gotta agree with me.

You gotta give a little bit of your perspective.

No, for sure, and I'm kind of,

so as you're talking,

I like this three car solution,

although it's two SUVs, right?

Two SUVs in the BMW?

Yeah, I have kids.

Yeah, right, yeah.

So the wife's SUV is gonna have to be enough,

otherwise we're getting a truck or another,

another SUV just wouldn't be for me,

but the GTI is kind of like my second SUV.

That's how I look at hatchbacks.

I kind of look at like a mini SUV,

which by the way, I have my 120K service coming up

that I needed, that I was about to plan,

and then I found I have some oil pan leaking, like seepage.

So that's probably gonna be a little bit more expensive

than I thought, and then we'll get an even closer dive

on all of the Audi emails that we've gotten in the past

about the services on the diff and the services on that,

because I'm gonna go to the same shop

that I've done for years,

I do all the big services there.

But now looking at this Mach 1,

like, yeah, it's a Mustang at the end of the day,

and yeah, it's got tidbits

from all these other Mustangs that make it cool or whatever,

but to buy it new, for instance,

they made it from 21, 22, and 23.

If you bought it new, you were paying 69 to like 73K

for that Mustang.

That's a lot of money.

If you waited two or three years,

you got 20K minimum off of the car,

and now you're really talking about a car

that you can, for most people,

we're talking about, we're painting with a broad brush

here, very generalized here,

but most people are okay with swallowing the pill

on a 45 to 55, or 40 to 50 these days.

If you're trying to be reasonable with a modern car,

and then below that, there's so many options.

So this is where I think Nick could pull it up,

because if you're willing to sacrifice year,

some of the mileage,

and you just want something fun to whip around,

I mean, Nick had a really good,

simple sifting here of results on car gurus.

Yeah, so we're showing it now.

Okay, if you guys aren't watching on YouTube,

this would be the time I'd say go to YouTube,

check us out, because we're gonna share the screen here,

and you guys can walk through it.

So here's all I did for the search.

Coupe, by the way, everything is nationwide, okay?

First of all,

everybody trying to get an enthusiast's car of some sort,

you should be really looking nationwide.

I'm telling you, don't be scared of it.

You can order PPI's, et cetera.

You can have the car checked.

Not that it's a perfect situation, but it's something.

So two-door coupes,

hide anything that had accidents,

frame damage thefts,

hide anything that was fleets,

hide lemons,

hide salvage titles.

I made sure to say under 100,000 miles, okay?

Because I think people get pretty scared

when they see 100,000 or more.

And I put the top end price at 40,000.

I didn't put it at 60,

where I think at that point,

I could have opened up Pandora's box of,

I wanted them to show mostly manuals.

Again, car gurus,

not real sound on giving you just manuals,

and obviously it's used cars.

So we're gonna start with the lowest price stuff first

on the first page, okay?

Now, again,

we're gonna see a ton of Hyundai Velosterz, okay?

I'm guessing most of you

really don't wanna buy one of those,

but you can get those anywhere from $2,000 to $9,000, okay?

So let's just keep going down here.

We get to the first what you would call enthusiast car.

Here's a 2000 Audi TT.

That's a really fun car to pearl around town, right?

You're talking about 5,900 bucks.

You haven't even called them and said,

hey, would you take five?

Would you take 45?

Would you take four?

You're talking about a $5,900 car.

You wanna tell me you can't get into an enthusiast car?

That's not, it's not true.

Now, the argument's gonna be,

well, that's an Audi with 93,000 miles.

Again, even 20 years ago,

you had to make this same sacrifice, okay?

I bought a lot of high mileage stuff, Rob,

I'm sure you have, I'm sure many of you listening have,

but saying in 2025 that you're not willing

to buy a higher mileage something,

that kinda disqualifies you, right?

Especially if you have a tighter budget.

Again, I could take this all the way

to a bunch of different options, right?

And I could make this so I could get the coolest cars,

but again, we're trying to do this honestly.

I mean, here you go, an 86 Corvette,

71,000 miles, 6,800 bucks.

Would you have to take those wheels off immediately

after buying it?

100%, okay?

Hey, Rob's looking at this.

I hate that.

You're looking at this.

It's red with the most hideous wheels ever, right?

But again, if you're thinking 20 years ago

that we didn't have bad wheels on used cars,

we absolutely did.

Probably a lot worse.

This might've been from back then, I'm not sure.

I'm not the expert on Corvette aftermarket wheels,

but here's what I would say.

That's 6,800 bucks.

You haven't even negotiated yet.

Dude, that 20, and then two over from that.

Don't skip that SI.

A 2019 Honda Civic SI for 21, it's only got 43,000 miles.

That's great.

Yeah, 100%.

Again, telling me you can't get into something fun

or thinking that to yourself,

I just don't want you guys to do that.

I want you to actually like look through this stuff.

Whoa, whoa, look at that Toyota Celica.

Yeah, 1980 Toyota Celica.

That looks like it's got some body damage

with that panel gap right there.

So you might want to stick away from that,

but it's only got 66,000 miles.

That might've been a rollback special.

Again, Hyundai Velocirs, you might want to not look at those

because for some reason, lot for sale.

Lot of them.

Very cheap.

And these 80s and 90s Corvettes, what's over this?

84 Corvette, 50,000 miles, 7,500 bucks.

You're telling me that's not fun to pearl around town.

Again, you're just trying to get into something.

Rob's favorite, the Chrysler Crossfire, 98,000 miles, 7,500 bucks.

The SRT6 Crossfire, slept on.

Yeah, 2001 Audi TT, Turbo, 84,000 miles, 7,500 bucks.

Before you say it's an Audi, it's always been the case.

You always had to take the risk.

We got a Pontiac Grand Am from 93, you know?

Dude, I had two Theas that had those.

Those things were solid, cold AC, they zipped around.

Yeah, but here's what you say.

As an enthusiast, you buy stuff and you make it cool, right?

Especially when you're on a budget.

And that's, I think, what a lot of guys miss,

is you make it cool.

And then you guys get to 2004 Mazda RX-8, right next to it.

2016 Subaru BRZ, both under 80,000 miles,

both going for 7,900 bucks.

You're telling me you wouldn't buy an RX-8

and go have a good time?

I would highly recommend being friends

with a good mechanic, just for all of these,

not just for this particular one,

but you know, that's where growing up as an enthusiast

really helps out.

Who's the guy that knows how to work on him that's a buddy?

Or also who's the shop that your dad might know,

your uncle might know that you can go

and become friends with,

because you're gonna be taking some of these cars.

Or by the way, maybe the route that not all of us took.

Maybe this is the car that you start to figure out

how to do some renting.

Ah, there you go.

Yes, very good point.

By the way, that was the exact,

I mean, here's an RX-8 Touring.

2007 Mazda, eight grand.

Yeah.

And you may say to me, that's not what I want.

I get you brother, but I bought a lot of cars

I didn't quote unquote want,

but still thought they were cool enough

and it was in the price point that I could get it.

Now, imagine this, this RX-8 Touring,

you're gonna buy for,

let's just say you pay full price

and you're at eight grand,

you drive it for a year.

Do you think you're gonna only sell it for two?

No, I mean, you're not gonna sell it for,

I mean, you're gonna be in that thing for,

you know, five, six, 700 bucks on the year, probably.

Yeah.

Sell it private party.

Because I tell you this,

if you sell a private party

and people see a $7,000 price tag,

you're gonna get a lot of people

that might be interested in buying that thing.

Yep.

I mean, now we get into a 2010 Audi A5 two-door, okay?

99,000 miles on it, I get it, but you're at eight grand.

That's a hell of a lot of car for eight grand.

Look at that styling.

Everyone has had to make sacrifices

and maybe this is the car

you learned to wrench on a little bit.

Yes, the part might be expensive,

but again, would I buy this

over some cars that guys are paying $25,000 for?

Probably, because now I got some breathing room, right?

How many results did you get out of this exercise?

Because I got close to 4,000 results.

Okay, so this was at the bottom of it.

What if you, real quick before we move on,

what if you go the other way?

Like what's the most expensive?

Oh dude, this is my favorite.

Okay, yeah, let's go highs.

So now we're gonna get

towards the $40,000 our top end market, okay?

Look at this, 2025 Toyota GR86, 6,900 miles, 30 grand.

Wow, okay.

Actually looks really good, I like this.

But there's no enthusiast cars for me to buy.

That's pretty damn modern by the way.

Now, you guys wanna say is it fair that it costs that?

I'm not doing that in this exercise.

This is the market

and I'm gonna play the market with the money that I have.

And now we're showing you both sides

of the under $40,000 market.

We could do this under 60,

we could do from 40 to 60,

we could do 50 to 70 and still come up with great results.

This one right here, 2022 Camaro SS,

46,000 miles for 40 grand.

I'm not in that market

and I'm not sitting here telling you

whether that's the best deal in the world.

I'm saying you can get a lot of car

for 40 grand right there.

Yeah.

Okay, this is the one that blew my socks off

and I already showed you this one.

A 2010 Aston Martin V8 V8 Vantage Coupe,

31,000 miles on the clock for 40 grand.

I mean, when it makes sense that to me,

I'm like, what am I doing looking at Mustangs?

I might just go ahead and get the Aston Martin.

Yeah, and again, parts, expense,

gonna be hard to maintain.

I hear you.

It's always been the trade off

for as long as people are buying cars.

This search right here is the same search

if the internet was powerful in the year 1995,

this would have been the same thing.

Same exact thing, higher mileage,

but again, I got a 2010 31,000 miles for 40 grand

of V8 Vantage.

That sounds pretty nice for 40.

That bullet Mustang next to it, by the way,

40 grand, I wish I liked the bullet.

I just don't care for the color scheme

and the look of it,

but 40 grand only got 22,000 miles.

Yep, 480 horsepower.

That's a pretty nice deal.

Look, you're gonna get a lot of Camaros,

a lot of Mustangs,

a lot of things in that price point.

Let's see. Challengers.

2006 BMW M3 Coupe.

Bro, need for speed style.

87,000 miles, $39,000.

Would I pay that?

Because I know this marketplace, the answer is no.

But that is a cool car under 40 grand.

Could you then say,

could you hone in on 2006 BMW M3 Coupes

and go search the internet a little bit more thoroughly

and get a better price

and maybe lower mileage, sure you could.

Look, we got a 2002 Porsche Carrera Coupe,

55,000 miles, 40 grand.

I think I could enjoy that.

I think I could enjoy that a lot.

Yeah, you wanna see 606, 39,000.

Let's go, 51,000 miles?

There you go, 2007 Corvette Z06,

51,000 miles, 39,999.

Ah, Sylvia, whoa.

Pretty nice life right there at 40 grand, right?

So why am I doing this exercise

and I hope everybody's followed along

and it's listening, I tried to do my best.

Okay, here's another.

I mean, think about this, 2003 Corvette Z06 hardtop,

18,000 miles, $33,000.

Love me a nice C5 Z06, that is so cool.

But I want you guys to get in

and I don't want you to buy into the narrative

that you can't get in at whatever price point you have

because you gotta get in where you fit in.

That's always been the game we're in, okay?

That's always this game.

Because look, many of you, if I said,

would you love to go on the lot

and buy a brand new SVJ, all of us are gonna say yes.

It's never been that that's what the average enthusiast

was able to do, but the internet makes you believe

these guys are all buying them

so I should be able to buy them.

Guess what, I understand that,

but I want people to go buy cool stuff.

And by the way, I bought a lot of stuff

that was never my first choice.

I've owned a Corvette, okay?

It wasn't my first choice.

A deal presented itself and I rode that thing around town

for about a year and I had a hell of a time with it.

Glad I had to experience.

White, pure red interior wasn't the perfect car for me.

You know what it was though?

A hell of a lot of fun to say that I've experienced it

and I paid, I don't know, somewhere between,

I think it was like four to $6,000 for that thing.

Nice.

It was a fun time.

Let's see.

Let's go down here.

Corvettes, challengers, what you would expect.

I mean, look, now you're getting into Nissan 370Z Nizmos.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

39 grand, 9,000 miles.

So if you're into that style of car,

you can find something.

I'm not sitting here, I'm not deep in the Nizmo world.

I'm not sitting here saying it's the best deal

at 39 grand, but if I honed in on it,

do I think I could find a higher mileage one of these

and bring my price down considerably?

Absolutely, I could.

Damn your half off, it's only 10 years old.

Yeah, okay.

So I don't think we need to keep going through this.

I think the point was what I want everybody to understand

is I see a lot of this trying to recreate

what they think happened 20 years ago.

What you're dealing with today,

just because the numbers are different

because of inflation of the dollar,

doesn't mean the guy 20 years ago

in your exact situation was able to go buy

this fantastic, perfect car.

That was never the case.

In my entire life of looking and buying cars

and having friends and family buy cars,

you always had to play to the price point that you were in.

You were never as an enthusiast,

especially a young enthusiast,

walking on the lot, buying the newest, best thing.

That anybody that's creating that in your mind

and also saying everything's a piece of crap,

it's not true, okay?

That isn't true either.

There's always been sacrifice

in this part of the market for the car enthusiast.

And I specifically chose the under $40,000

because if I put this all the way up to 80 grand,

can you imagine what I could really get?

If I put it up to 60, I mean,

you're talking about a lot more Aston Martins

coming into play.

You're talking about certain Ferraris

coming into play if I get it up to 80 grand.

Like guys, I'm not even trying to go

to the high level of the market

in the used world all the way to six figures

and start to really see what we can get our hands on.

I did this exercise simply

because we're seeing all these comments

around the internet that car enthusiasts

are being priced out.

They've always been priced out of something, always.

Unless you disagree, Rob.

I mean, your friends, you know,

everybody, your family, your acquaintances,

they've always been priced out of something.

Yeah, I think even when they end up

when they or anyone ends up making more money,

you still find yourself priced out of the next thing

that you want because you kind of move on

from the thing that you wanted

when you didn't have the money

and then you get the money

and then you're like, shit,

I'm priced out of the thing above that.

So, and I think a part of that has to do with,

you're kind of, you know,

she's almost shamed for having these expensive interests

but Nick's made a great point

over the episodes of the past couple of weeks

that every hobby costs you something, right?

So you have to reframe it in your own mind

that the hobby that you chose is cars,

you love it, makes you feel a certain kind of way,

that's great.

So when you, because people sometimes put it off,

I'm gonna make that next income bracket

and then get that car,

but they've been shamed almost all the way there

subconsciously that they just kind of don't do it

and they just put it off to the next thing

that they are kind of out of reach at.

And it's a cycle.

And a lot of guys, you know,

it is what it is.

It's mostly guys, not gals.

They just don't get to enjoy the thing

because they just never want to say,

I'm gonna do it, all right?

I'm gonna treat myself, you know, it's an expensive.

And by the way, it's not even,

I love that point of view

and it's not just about treating yourself.

Guys, you can wait your whole life

and never get to experience any of this stuff.

I just shared with you, I'm not a Corvette guy.

I had a deal present itself.

I had the money, I bought it,

I experienced it for a year.

I enjoyed myself, I sold it, right?

I've bought tons of cars, Accura CL Type S,

an awesome, fun, Grand Coupe that I owned.

Wasn't my perfect car.

Car wasn't in perfect shape.

Rolled it around for a year, two years, sold it, right?

But I've gotten to experience things

because I wasn't waiting for perfect, right?

Because in this whole game,

maybe one, 2% max, get their perfect experience

at all in their whole life, okay?

And I'm talking about their perfect,

if you said, what is the one car you wanted to own always?

Well, I wanted to own a Carrera GT.

Well, bud, you missed your window, think about this.

I was having a text conversation with somebody recently

who had the money at the time.

Same for me, by the way.

I didn't pull the trigger on it.

Think of how many of you out there listening

could have pulled a trigger on an Accura NSX.

Yeah.

Those were, I mean, you would see some for 35,

55 for a good one.

Now they're through the roof

and people had the money at the time

and they still didn't buy it.

Oh, it wasn't cool enough.

I don't really like that as much.

Now they see the prices going through the roof

and they go, I always liked it.

I go, why can go back through our text chain

when we sent one that was $52,000

and you said it wasn't cool.

You liar.

You see how their mental state changes

with what the internet thinks is cool.

So one of the things that I wanna bring to people is,

you make the car cool.

That's what happens, okay?

When I was buying square headlight jeeps,

everybody laughed at me.

Now look at everybody, like, oh, I love those old jeeps.

Well, you didn't love them then

because I heard the jokes and the ball busting

and the things that make this fun.

But back then nobody thought it was cool,

but after I bought one and another friend bought one,

they go, oh, this is kind of cool.

You can do a lot of stuff.

It's like, you make it cool.

Not because it's the perfect experience, okay?

It's because you're experiencing something

and then you make it cool to your friend group

to whatever.

Like we're seeing it in our DMs.

The yummy people we got looking at LX470s now.

Oh my God, dude.

We have comments sometimes, I appreciate all you guys.

I think it's fascinating, it's great.

This is not even a dig at y'all,

but yeah, people really love those

and they're waiting for some of the upgrades

you're gonna be making to yours,

which they're in the works, everybody.

Don't get it twisted, things are getting done.

Videos will be made, they'll be put out there,

but they're like waiting to see what you've done,

how you did it, which route you went

so that they could make similar moves.

It's really cool.

Yeah, and I mean, think about this.

We talked about the LS430.

I said it's one of the best sedans ever built

and we'll get 10 DMs going,

man, when I started to dive into those,

man, the construction and what they put,

and you go, you, the individual,

talking about these cars that you may own

or that you have reverence for

that aren't the top end of the market,

you're the one that makes it cool.

Yeah.

I don't want you guys to keep waiting

and listening to this nonsense

because you can't buy a Bugatti

that it's not worth buying anything.

Well, you know, everything's a piece of crap.

No, man, we just ran through a bunch of cars.

And Audi TT is one of the most fun nimble cars

to goof around in.

That you could probably buy.

And if you said, hey, Nick, I got a budget of 10 grand,

we just found a load of them that you can go get.

Like, and again, the parts are gonna be,

we understood, but that's always been the game.

I see too many people

talking about things like the housing market.

They're like, oh, you know,

in the 60s, you could buy a house for 20 grand.

It didn't have HVAC, bud.

Are you gonna buy a house?

I can build you a $150,000 house today right now.

No HVAC, no big kitchen, no things you want.

You're not gonna buy the house.

Yeah, because you'd be like, what do you mean?

What are you gonna buy that?

A part of the sacrifices you brought up to

when we were talking about like,

everyone's got the $1,000 plus iPhone in their pocket.

Everyone's Uber eating $40 meals.

Everybody's indulging in a way

that we just didn't indulge back then.

And that sounds, some people might say,

that's really boomer talkish,

but let's be real.

Driving a 95 Chevy, going to Taco Bell,

yeah, the Taco Bell's cheaper, barely.

Taco Bell's still cheap now,

if you really go look at the menus,

and they've been bringing back the decade's menu.

So a 95-

Just so we're clear,

the chili cheese burritos on the way.

Is it?

Yeah, it's supposed September 9th.

I just got a text from a buddy of mine.

He's like, hey, the chili cheese burritos back.

Hey, now I know Nick likes Taco Bell

as much as I do when I was younger.

Like, that was the spot, man.

Like, so 95 Chevy going to Taco Bell didn't have,

I mean, if you had a phone,

it might have been the brick phone,

maybe barely into like smartphone era.

Pagers.

Pagers, obviously, right?

People said pagers, so.

And by the way, those were,

service on a pager was somewhere

between like five and 10 bucks a month.

So again, don't rewrite history.

You weren't spending $150 to run a pager.

You bought a, they gave you a pager.

You could change the case on it,

which is how people like made it cool.

And the bill was less than 10 bucks a month.

Did you get the clear one?

Guess what?

What?

Oh, no, I was, I didn't do the clear,

I didn't do the clear one.

I did, I think I maybe have done a blue at one point.

I may have done like a green at one point, you know?

But again, what I want to say is,

I get it for the younger crowd listening to us.

And I know not everybody's younger and every,

I just want people to stop rewriting history.

Yeah.

Because many of the cars people drove in 1995

as a car enthusiast,

you guys wouldn't even have ever bought back then.

And a lot of people listening,

I'm sure also already have kids of their own.

They're just nodding along like, yup, yup.

And they're probably instilling this into their kids,

like, look, if you like cars,

just don't indulge in all the other nonsense

and you'll never really have an issue

depending on what, no matter what the market does.

Hey, go a couple weeks and eat some spaghetti every month.

Every time you get a chance

that costs you, you know, three bucks to make.

Yeah, or some, you know, rice and beans,

you know, quintacentrum Mexican meal.

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

It's great.

But here's the thing,

I want to turn this into positive guys.

It's like, it's never been perfect.

Yeah.

I want you guys to hear that from us

because I think we talk so much about new stuff

and that's really interesting.

But the real interesting stuff is you going

and finding something unique

that not everybody's willing to go by,

that's kind of what the game has always been to me, right?

And you can get some, a lot of car,

we just proved it under 30, a lot of car.

I mean, we got, we had Z06's for $30,000.

Well, I'm not a Corvette guy.

I never said you were,

but if you had a Z06.

You might become a Corvette guy.

You'll become a Corvette guy.

And again, doesn't mean you got to get the new balance.

Doesn't mean you got to hike the socks up.

It makes it better though.

I recommend it.

New balance.

I would recommend it.

Just go full, yeah.

But like, if you're really into this hobby,

I wasn't able to buy a BMW

that was in any kind of good shape

for a very long time, okay?

At the end of the day,

I still enjoyed the hell out of the ones I had,

and I still remember thinking that I overheated it

and screwed up an engine block.

And that's the stuff that becomes fun.

To look back on and go,

I got to experience it.

I think so many people are waiting for perfect,

and it's like, dude,

you're gonna be waiting the rest of your life.

It's just, there's no fun in that.

Yeah.

What a great discussion.

We went long, which is great.

It's always good to give you guys extra podcasts.

So we'll get to listener questions next week.

You know, this is Labor Day.

Hope you guys are enjoying the day off.

But I'm gonna end on a selfish question.

So my own listener question from Rob here to Nick.

When you're, so the GTI is filthy right now.

We were at the ballpark and it's just dust central.

Central Texas in general is a lot of dust everywhere.

I think Marshall, is it the same,

yeah, same there, obviously desert.

I think Marshall has the same issue, right?

Where HQ is, a lot of dust there.

If I'm gonna take care of a car that's really dusty,

I just need a real quick Knicks one, two, three,

like do it in this order

to best preserve the paint.

Cause a lot of the car was freshly sprayed.

I don't want to take care of it, that kind of thing.

Yeah, I mean, the thing is, is if you have time

to pull out a pressure washer and you got a pressure washer,

that's always the number one.

Yeah.

Okay, so pressure washer,

grab something like foam wash from hypercleanestore.com,

foam it down, put some soap in a bucket,

really quickly go over the car.

In some cases, if you have it ceramic coated,

you can just foam the car and rinse it off

and the dust will come off.

Not always the case, but you can do that.

Go ahead and do that.

Dry the car with a leaf blower, an ego blower,

whatever you got, leaf blower,

just get the water off the car, take a towel,

use something like slick,

which is a protection like detail spray,

do the car up, call it a day, move on, real simple.

All right.

Again, that's a quick down and dirty,

like let's move quickly, I got a lot going on.

It's not a, that's not a thorough detail.

That's not, you know, you got all day

to fool around with your car.

I think you were asking me how to get something quick

that just brings me back up to how I like it to look.

You got a little extra time,

put some ultra dress, dilute it to your,

how you like your tires to look, boom,

hit the tires with some tire dressing,

move on with your life.

I love it.

So quick and efficient.

I will say, I saw a thumbnail for a video,

I'm gonna go back and watch,

cause I have a lot of, all right,

I've had more Ryobi stuff, but that's still what I use.

And I think they're like leaning into the car care stuff

because there's like a.

Oh yeah, so you know, Ryobi sent,

I mean, my whole,

they sent me every tool they've ever had.

What?

They wanted us to like, yeah,

we were one of their testers once upon a time.

Oh, very cool.

Okay, yeah.

They wanted to lean into it

for the better part of the last five years.

Oh wow, okay.

Yeah, I think they have like a new pressure washer bundle

or some sort, our new pressure washing,

you know, that just came out,

pressure washer rather for car detailing.

But anyway, that's great, man.

I appreciate the tips.

Listeners, HarperClean Store.com,

if you wanna check out all the awesome products

that Nick manufactures on that side of the world,

AKA Tulsa, AKA right here in Merca.

Dude, great conversation.

I will definitely get back to everybody

on what this service is gonna cause with the GTI

so we can continue to mock why it's so expensive

in the Vag world Volkswagen Audi group.

And just had to go out on that note, huh?

Yeah, you know.

But yeah, dude, it's great.

Nick at HarperClean Store on Instagram,

we're at KludgeCulture pod.

I'm at RobGTV and we'll see everybody next week.

See you guys.

The Truth About Car Collections, Cheap Enthusiast Cars Today, Young Enthusiasts Won't Make Sacrifices

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