The Pontiac Catalina is a large car that was made by the Pontiac brand. It was popular in the 1960s and is known for being comfortable and roomy, which made it great for families.
The Honda Accord is a well-known car that many people trust for its reliability and comfort. It's been around for a long time and is often used as a family car.
Average salaries are the typical amounts of money people earn from their jobs. Comparing these figures over time helps us understand how much more or less people make now compared to the past.
The Chevy Citation was a small car made by Chevrolet in the 1980s. It was important because it was one of the first American cars to have the front wheels drive the car, which changed how cars were designed.
Front-wheel drive means that the front wheels of the car are the ones that get the power from the engine. This helps the car grip the road better and makes the car's design more efficient.
The Lancia Delta is a small car that was popular in Europe and is known for its success in racing. Some versions of this car are really powerful and are loved by fans for their performance.
A diesel engine is a type of engine that uses a special fuel called diesel. It's often found in bigger cars and trucks because it can be more efficient and powerful than regular gasoline engines.
The Ford Mustang is a famous car that many people love because it's fast and looks cool. It was first made in the 1960s and has become a classic that represents American cars.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a famous sports car that has been around for many years. The 1964 model is known for its sleek design and strong performance.
Torque measures how much twisting force an engine can produce. It's important for how quickly a car can accelerate and how well it can pull heavy loads.
The BMW Z3 Roadster is a small sports car that was made in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It became famous partly because it appeared in a James Bond movie.
The Ford Ranger is a small truck that people often use for work or recreation. The 1994 version is one of the earlier models, known for being tough and reliable.
Two-wheel drive means that only two wheels of the car get power from the engine. This is different from four-wheel drive, where all four wheels get power, which can help with traction.
The 'four by four light' shows up when a truck is in four-wheel drive. If it lights up when it shouldn't, it might mean something is wrong with the system.
The Ford Bronco is a large SUV made by Ford, known for being tough and good for off-road driving. The 1996 model is one of the last versions before it was discontinued.
A restomod is when someone takes an old car, fixes it up, and adds modern parts to make it better to drive. It's like giving a classic car a new life with updated features.
A barn find is when someone finds an old car that has been stored away in a barn for a long time. These cars can be valuable because they are often rare and can be restored to their former glory.
Disc brakes are a part of a car's braking system that helps it stop better. They work by squeezing a flat disc to slow down the wheels, making it safer to drive.
SCAR is a brand that makes sound systems for cars. They help make the music in your car sound really good, which is great for people who love listening to music while driving.
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small car that many people love because of its round shape and fun driving experience. The 1972 version is especially popular among collectors and fans of vintage cars.
The Volkswagen Bus is a big, boxy van that many people loved in the 60s and 70s. It's known for being roomy and is often seen as a symbol of fun road trips and adventure.
The Mazda RX-7 is a sporty car that stands out because it uses a special type of engine called a rotary engine. It's known for being fun to drive and is often modified by fans to make it even faster.
LIVE
Welcome back to all the cars I've loved before your podcast, where every car tells a story.
We're at carsloved.com, carsloved.com.
I'm Christian, he's Doug, catch me at Christian at carsloved.com, he's Doug at carsloved.com.
And we have a bit of a departure for our format today, can't wait to introduce our
guests. Let's see, a little housekeeping, where are we here? How you doing, Doug? What's
going on on your end? Yeah, so as we typically mention, we have downloads
drawing audience going around the world. The big thing to us, and I'm getting this
in the emails a lot these days, is the calls to action. Okay, so get involved, listen
to the episodes, download if you can, that helps us out, people like to see that. Follow
the show, don't miss an episode. And if you're going to be somewhere where you don't have
internet connectivity, you are mining for or deep in the earth, you're going to middle
earth to fight elves and trolls, that sort of thing, you can download them straight
to your phone, and take the device in the mind with you. What do you think? That happens
often, right? Absolutely. We can roll with that. Yeah, you can download it on your podcast
streaming platform of choice, and queue it all up, take it on a road trip. Yeah, that's
it. You know, that's a good point. So as I travel on I-10, there are a lot of places
where signal is spotty, so I download whatever I can. So take us with you wherever possible.
Let us know what you think of the show, engage with the polls, we're seeing more and more
activity there, let us know what your favorite episode is, and what else? Please, please,
we get this a lot, tell your friends about the show. Okay, forward it along, let them
know what's happening. It's as easy as us hanging out at a football tailgate on
the weekend, and reminiscing about cars saying, hey, I want to be on the show too, being on
the show Monday. You can ask Tom, who's another guest here in season three. So, all right, partner,
before we introduce our guest, who are a father and son tandem, which gets me really gets
the juices flowing over here, I'm going to ask you in a minute, Doug, to share with
us some father and son memories in the car, but I will, I'll go first here. I was, before we were
having Aiden and Tom, our guest today on the show, I started to, I spent this afternoon
texting with my dad, and checking with him about the cars that he had that sort of intersected
with my life, and the car that he had when I arrived into the world was a 1967 Pontiac Catalina,
which I didn't know this, he told me today, that he, first car that he bought new,
the car, look it up online, very attractive car, really interesting front end, kind of the
over-under headlights, very unique looking. He said he bought, this is the first car he
bought new, $3,300, and the car he drives now is a Honda Accord, which he paid $33,000 for,
that's in order of magnitude for the mathematicians out there, just to let you know how things have
changed. Yes, you could buy a brand new car for $3,300 back in the late 60s.
But that was the used car, right? Did he buy it new?
No, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I was saying, yeah.
72, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the cars back in the 60s were cheap, think about it,
but of course people made nowhere near what they make now, if you look at average salaries then.
Yeah, so remember my dad put me on his lap, and I think this would have been in Pennsylvania,
and hey, let's steer us around the corner, and of course I had no business being behind the
wheel. Another memory was his teaching me how to drive stick in the 1980 or 81,
he was a little iffy on the year Chevy Citation, which was maroon. You wouldn't look at it,
nowhere to think of it to look at them now, but they were a revolutionary car in their day,
in their own way. I guess they were kind of a counterpoint to the previous
gas guzzlers, the American gas guzzlers that had been along. Is that right, Doug?
On the right track there? That's correct, but also really the first broad application of
front-wheel drive for GM. Oh, yeah, that's it. There you go.
Yeah, and the unibody construction and all the benefits that front-wheel drive has,
but it took them a long time to get that right. Yeah, yeah, good stuff. So I remember with
my Pops road trips back and forth from Baton Rouge to New Orleans where he was raised,
he was a professor at LSU for a long time, but he would go back to New Orleans when I was younger
for holidays, Mardi Gras to see the older folks there. And for some reason, he had a Nissan
Stanza in the 80s or late 80s, which was a completely, I think this car was made of
aluminum foil, maybe was 1200 pounds all in. It was really something else. It was not much
heavier than my Hot Wheels car. But so what about you, Doug? Any thoughts about father and son
memories before we introduce our father and son guest? Yeah, so I have to say either late
70s, early 80s, because we lived in Maryland then, I remember the day my dad said whatever
day it was, he said, hey, you don't need to come in on my side anymore. Come around to the other side
and get in on the passenger side door. With a great big bench seat, he could just slide all over.
Yeah, he could just slide right in. Certainly speaking of siblings and we had Lisa on last
season who mentioned the story about the hump in the middle. And we all remember that.
If you had a big, rural drive car, and there were three of us, I think that you had three siblings
to worry as well, right? Yes, if somebody had to sit in the middle in the back and it was always a
fight, right? Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of space back there to begin with. Yeah, with the
hump, you got a little bit of elevation. Yeah, yeah. And God, I remember my dad without going,
we'll save some stories for later. My dad had, he always had company cars. He was just fortunate
enough to have that. And they were always GM or Chrysler, I think. And I think the last one he
had was a Pontiac, but this first one he had was either early 80s, late 70s, Oldsmobile Delta 88,
but it was a diesel version. GM tried to adapt a diesel from a truck. And it got a great
mileage, but it was a total piece of garbage. And if anybody looks into it, they'll find like that was
one of the, that kind of sealed the fate of diesels in GM cars for quite some time. It was so poorly
built. But he liked it. He was a ham radio guy, so he always had to put his antenna on the back
and he had a, you know, in-car ham radio, amateur radio, so it's pretty cool. That is neat. Yeah,
CBs were everywhere in the 80s. We need a show about CBs. Well, it wasn't CB. I understand,
I understand. But that was from my childhood. So we're going to, if anybody has stories
about CBs, common band, or ham radio. Yeah, yeah, let us know. We'll have you on. So without
any further ado, with great pleasure, I would like to introduce today's guest, Tom and Aiden.
How you doing, gentlemen? We're doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. Thanks for having us.
Thank you for being here. So let's start with Tom the father. What were some major,
what were the first, well, let me put it this way. What were the first cars that
meant something to you? Maybe first car, second car, third car? How far back can we go?
Well, the first car, remember, was probably my dad's 66 convertible. The red convertible
with black interior. I have a Polaroid. Yeah, he's got a Polaroid of it with me with my
mullet sunglasses on, sitting in the passenger seat. We need that picture, Tom.
I'll find it. I'll find it. I'll find this next picture too, because one day when we were
leaving bowling, all of the San Diego Charger cheerleaders were doing some sort of event
and we pulled up there and got a picture of me right in the middle of them with every single cheerleader
on the San Diego Chargers wrapped around me on the car. It was awesome. Please tell me that photo
exists. It exists somewhere. Oh, wait, there's an answer. It exists somewhere. So this was the,
I'm sorry, this was the Mustang Fastback or do I have that? This was the convertible. This
was my first car that I can remember. Oh, oh, oh, gotcha, gotcha. Okay. I think I was
probably 10 or 11 years old at that time, maybe up to 12. But that was before I actually
knew a whole lot about cars. And one day we were driving, he always played oldies on the car
and had a little eight track player and everything. And I looked at him, I said, Dad,
does this play anything but oldies music? Because it just had like the one, two, three,
like the little tiny radio portion. Yes. I remember that. And I guess it didn't,
because that's all he ever played. Yeah, right. The answer to that is, son, it plays what I tell
it to play. It listens to the car. It plays what I want. Yeah. Exactly. It's very good. Very good.
So you grew up in the West Coast. Is that what happened? Yeah, born and raised in San Diego.
I didn't know that. Very good. Very good. So when did you make your way here? Was the next
car or the next prominent car in your future happen or did the move kind of east happen?
Oh, no. Move east happened 18 years ago. I was already grown up and starting my life
everywhere else. But no, no, the second car was actually another one of my dads.
He got rid of that Mustang, got a 64 and a half Corvette with a little split window in the back.
And that thing was mean. Absolutely mean. He took it from a 351 and made a 383.
And first 500 horsepower car I was ever in. 500 horsepower and like 530 pounds of torque.
That thing threw you back. Now, what happened to that car? Was it kept or do you remember?
He had it for a couple years. Actually, funny story, the day he got the engine rebuilt,
he was driving at home and got on it for the first time a little bit and threw a rod right through
the engine block. Oh, yeah. Got it towed right back over to the guy who did it and got it rebuilt
again. But that was an awesome car. That was fun. What do you think about that, Doug?
Does that make you cry? What does that do to your car-loving soul?
Tom, I don't know if your mom was around and it sounds like she was,
must have been a very patient woman if she was fine with the Mustangs, the Corvettes,
and she sounded like it must have been a great lady to not mind your dad's habits, right?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, she supported him. She was good. That's what we all need.
It's better than a tow-and-a-bar. Supported spouse, partner.
Yeah. Yeah, that's split window Corvette. Yeah, beautiful car. That was great. Very rare.
Yeah. He usually keeps cars two or three years and then he would just get another one,
just switch them out. And then after that one, he started just going towards the newer
cars. We had one of the new Z3 Roadsters when they first came out, the Bond cars.
Yeah. Six one, not the little V4 one, the one with the flared sides in the back.
Yeah. Late 90s or early 2000s. Yeah. Got one of my first real tickets in that car.
How fast were you going? According to the cop, he was doing 110 and wasn't catching me.
And me and him sat and talked for about 15, 20 minutes about cars and he ended up giving
me a ticket for doing 80 and a 70 and told me have a good day. Wow.
Yeah, good times. Yeah. Now, Aiden, that would never happen these days.
Not much. Because of all the electronics, they'd be time in, they'd have digital records,
never get out of it. Yeah. These times are going behind us.
And that's actually a perfect segue. We're going to cue in Tom's son, Aiden,
who's a close personal friend of my middle son, Finn. Then I have to share the story of
when I first met, well, we had met kind of all over town. I would see what a game,
I would see what a function or an event. We'd chat and say hi. But one evening, Gus,
he pulls into my driveway with a couple of buddies and they get out of car and Finn
comes out of the house. And of course, I have to come out of the house. We all have to
chat and see what's going on. We were eating alive by the mosquitoes, but I was really taken
by Aiden's car in a truck. Apologies. Is it Ranger, right? 94 Ranger? Yes, sir.
And the first thing it drew me to it was obviously old, so a vintage automobile.
But the color on it was beautiful. The color was beautiful. And so I walked
to him and I said, did you have this recently painted? He said, yeah, I had it painted at
facto bake. And then he proceeded to give me about a half a minute monologue on what he's done
to it. And he was giving me the walk around the quirks of the car of the truck and the
things he didn't like and what he was going to do this. And so I asked him, how do you keep
this thing on the road? And he came back immediately with eBay motors. And I just laughed
out loud. I thought it was wonderful. You are an industrious and resourceful young man.
So I have to ask, how's it running? It's running pretty good now. The starter's acting kind of
weird, but it'll start every time, no problem. But like I said before, a couple weeks ago,
when I was heading to school, I throw it in reverse, pull out of the driveway, go about 30 feet,
and I hear go, go, engine stalls out, all the lights come on. I mean, this is a two wheel drive
truck, by the way. I mean, this thing was so broken, the four by four light came on on a two
wheel drive. That's how every single light came on. I was freaking out and I have enough
power to throw it in the neutral. And by the way, it's a column. It's not a stick shift.
It's just a little automatic column. I just throw it in neutral and I roll into my neighbor's
driveway or more to his yard. And I pop the hood and there's transmission fluid everywhere.
And my brother's wearing a white shirt, by the way. And this stuff, transmission fluid
smells really bad. And it gets all over my brother with his white shirt. And this stuff
is pungent. But my engine bay is all clean now. And I remember I took a high pressure hose.
I threw it on the radiator and the whatever was left of the transmission line, the coolant line.
And I take some hose clamps and me and my neighbor, we just strapped that on there
and it's worked ever since. Wow. And you got to school. Wait a minute. This was before
school? Somehow there was a school tie in here. This was before school? Yeah, I'm sorry.
This was 30 minutes before school. So from popping the hood to diagnosing,
to coming up with the hack, all happened very quickly. Yeah. Well, my neighbor, he's got a,
I think a 96 Bronco. I can't remember the year too well. And he runs me up to advanced
auto parts and we grab transmission fluid, all that. And we race back and we get this stuff in.
And okay, good, good, good. So let's take a step back here. How did you, Aiden,
how did you get into cars? Let's talk a little bit about the interplay between
your grandfather, your father, and really the theme of today is really just fathers and sons,
not only Tom and Aiden father and son, but then Tom and his father too. So how did all that happen,
Aiden? Well, ever since I was little, my grandpa's always had these cars. He had a Porsche 911
and Audi R8 with the V10 in it. Very good. And he would, like I was amazed by that,
and he just, he inspired me. And when he got this, as I got older, he got a 57 T-bird after
he sold this Audi. Wow. And he would go to car shows all the time and I'll go there with him.
And I would, you know, put up the lawn chair like an old dude when I was 12 years old and
kick my feet back next to this T-bird and we would just talk about cars for hours. And then
I had an idea. I was like, when I get my first car, my dream is going to be to park next to
my grandfather in a car show and be able to be there with him and do that. That is, that was
my dream. So you felt, yeah, you felt comfortable from the word go. You felt comfortable
about, you know, being around these attractive metal machines. Felt like family from the word go,
didn't it? Yeah, totally. I mean, I'm more of an old car person. I mean, I see these right
and all that and they're cool. But I mean, every car has its culture and I like the old car
culture and my grandpa loves it too. So that's our, it's our kind of bonding thing.
Every car has its culture. We might have found our new marketing or PR guy. I think
I'm going to have to write that down. What do you think partner? That's pretty good.
I think, I think we should. And kind of on that note, speaking of cultures and subcultures,
Aiden, what do you think about restomads? So you like old cars, right?
Old cars are not disappearing. In fact, they're going up in value. People are pulling them out
of swamps and you name it, wherever they could barns, wherever you can find it, right? And
so there are these, you probably know more about it than I do, but there are companies,
there are kits, there are people modifying, updating, whether it's a new engine, new transmission,
maybe making it safer, maybe adding disc brakes, whatever the case is, what are your
thoughts about restomads? What's your favorite restomad? I would restomad, I'm a huge fan of
restomads. I see these companies like Velocity, they're local around here and they do the Broncos
and they do Mustangs and they put all, like you said, new safer parts in them. They put
really fast engines in them, make them like a new car in an old body.
Yeah, how it could be today, right? And I'm sure there are some newer parts in your Ford, right?
I would say so. I put a SCAR speaker system in there, the neighbor that I actually rolled into
the driveway and he used custom speaker boxes and he's done audio and all that. So I ordered
the SCAR system and he built me a custom box to go in the back. That's a good neighbor.
Little five-inch sub. It's a great neighbor to have. Gotta have your tunes, gotta have your tunes,
especially in an event to drive like that. So where did you get the car? How did you get
the car? How did you know that the Ranger was what you wanted or was it just meant to be?
Well, I remember we were looking for my first car and we looked at all the dealerships and
all that and they were asking insane amounts or they wanted, you know, they wanted all these
and then we looked on Marketplace and my dad knows I would send him probably 85 cars a day
that I see on Marketplace and he was so... Oh man, you got a big laugh from Doug.
Doug is... From the moment we met Aiden, there's a lot of prep that goes into a show like that
and Doug said to me, boy, he's got a lot of energy and a lot of initiative. Anyway,
sorry, keep going, Aiden. Well, we see this... I see this 94 Ranger on Marketplace and it's
complete rust bucket and I'm like, you know, they only want like four grand for it. You
know, they guys in Pensacola not too far away and then my dad's like, let's go, he checks it out.
You know, he test drives. He says it's a great car. It's got great AC. You know, it's only got,
I would say, 180,000 when we first got it. I mean, it was really well kept, especially the
interior. The original owner put towels over the seats for 30 years. I remember you telling
me that. That was one of the first things... Oh, I remember when you came by, I poked my head in
and I remarked on why is this like a time capsule? Why is the interior so nice? Sorry,
it didn't mean to interrupt, but please... No, no, you're fine. Yeah, but it's like,
it was showroom quality seats. The guy who originally owned it was really lonely,
so no one's ever sat in the passenger seat. But the only thing that was really damaged
from the interior was the front dash because it never had one of those windshield covers to
block the sun. So that's the only thing that was really messed up on the interior.
Everything was perfect. Remember? And then I remember we take it home, pay the guy,
and then we put it in the driveway. And the next morning I wake up,
there's like five different puddles in the driveway.
Wow. I'm like, and I think to myself, what did I just get myself into?
And I'm just, you know, I'm looking at this thing and I go, this is going to be a good
project. That was my first thought. This is going to be a piece of work.
But to switch gears for a moment, have you ever been up in a hot air balloon?
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personal touch they bring to the experience. Visit carslove.com slash delmarva, carslove.com
slash delmarva. But, you know, that's, uh, it teaches you to be reliable. It teaches you
to be self-sufficient. I will find myself at work right now saying, Hey, um, hey, uh, let you
know what, and I say this, I don't even mean to all just be like, while I'm, while we're under
the hood, while we're under the hood, uh, let's figure this out. Let's figure that out. Okay. So,
so, uh, just kind of a wonderful analogy for, Hey, let's just try and dig in to see why something,
something is not working. What do you think, Doug?
I think that's good. I think that's a good approach. Good troubleshooting.
Now the, okay. So did you have, uh, to finish up on the Ranger, did you have a
predefined price or a price range that you were looking for?
Price range that I was looking for, um, from what I've put into it, I'm not getting any money back,
but, um, I'm thinking, I think eight would be a good, eight would be a good number,
eight or nine. That's, that's beautiful. It's beautiful. From the last time I've seen you,
I've done a lot of work. I mean, I've replaced the back bumper. I mean, that was,
that was a dealio and a half. Uh, I was under my truck for about five hours working on one bolt.
So, well, I just, I'm so happy for you to get your, uh, to get your hands dirty
and figure out what makes it tick. And I know Doug wanted to ask about your,
any, a future, any future dream cars or? Yeah, yeah. What, what, um, so we have this Ranger,
right? And you know, who knows, maybe a listener on the show. Um, this could be your modern, uh,
bring a trailer. Yeah. But, uh, maybe, maybe there's somebody who wants to trade, um, trade
up, whatnot. And, uh, what, what would be your dream car or next car that you're thinking about?
Absolute dream car would be a 1972 Volkswagen bug convertible or hardtop. I don't care,
but I like the four speed manual in it, you know, seeing how many people you could fit in the back,
putting a stir frack on top and all that. I mean, that's, that's the dream right there.
And so why, why 1972 specifically besides it being Christian's birth year?
Well, um, vintage, I didn't know that, but, uh, I mean, I've looked, so it's a funny story.
So I was going down to the Navar area and I'm, I looked to my left and there's this dealership,
this used car dealership. And there's all these new, like,
2010 Chevy's and all that and all that. And right between all these cars is a 1972 Volkswagen
bug. And I just, I fell in love with it. It looked straight at me and I was just,
I fell in love, you know, that culture is amazing. You know, I get into all the clubs
and all that and I see what people are doing. Yeah. And your grandfather had a 9-11, right?
Certainly the spiritual successor to the Volkswagen bug, right? Volkswagen bug being the
grandfather, so to speak, itself. And I mean, there's a big culture, speaking of cultures,
again, there's a big culture with Volkswagen's. We had Joe, our friend, my friend, Joe Gibson on
talking about one of his first cars was a Volkswagen bus, right? And he's had
several Volkswagen everything since then. He had a Volkswagen thing, I think
when we were post high school, but what are like big events? There's kind of
be a lot going on where you live with the Volkswagen's or air-cooled cars.
Well, yeah, you're right. The Gulf Breeze and like we're in the more the beachy area,
the Panhandle of Florida. So, and there's a lot of Volkswagen communities around here,
you're right. And actually the rare air show, meaning air-cooled engines, not planes,
is at the five-flags Speedway, October 19th. So that's you're going to be there?
I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. Tom, how about you? I'm not going to miss that.
I go everywhere with them. I love going to see that stuff too, so. Oh, man. That's excellent.
That's excellent. Well, you'll be waking you up, I'm sure. Most likely. Yeah, let's go.
Coffee time. Yeah. Two perfect segues. So as we wind down here,
that's something that I was going to mention, all three of us kind of arrived at the same place here,
four of us, is that as the weather, so we're moving into autumn here, everything kind of
cools down. It's a wonderful, wonderful time to be outside, especially here in Florida's Gulf
Coast, where the humidity backs off, the heat backs off, and everybody kind of comes out of their
house all at once to feel the nice dry air here. Car shows, cars and coffee, they're ramping up,
they're everywhere. The one you mentioned, I think there are a few more going on down here.
And do you have those going up, going on in your neck of the woods up there, Doug?
Yeah. Yeah. There's one in downtown Annapolis, when it's not flooded,
or when the boat show is not in town, I can literally walk there.
When I need to, there's a huge one. The last one is at the end of this month, it's at
Mikey and Mel's Deli, so it's a deli in Maybellon, Maryland. They have had up to 400 cars there.
It is insane. That's a lot. What space do they have? Goodness.
They just have parking from all these office buildings that are on the weekend. They get
corporate sponsorships to all the cars I love them for, maybe a sponsor soon,
but it is, when you think you haven't seen a certain kind of car, there it is.
How about the Lotus, it drives by. How about a Ford Ranger, there'll be one there.
How about a Mazda RX-7 with a Chevy LS? There's two.
It is quite a show. There's a Volkswagen section, of course.
Quite a show. Well, this was quite a show. This was quite a show.
We got another one in the book's partner, and I got to tell you when Doug first started talking
about having a father-son tandem on, I was like, how are we going to do it? We're
pretty open and creative. We were thinking, how are we going to make that work? The more we talked
about it, we thought it was no brainer and a natural fit. I want to thank you both for being on today.
It was just a great pleasure meeting you, Tom and Aiden. It's good to catch up. Appreciate it.
Thanks for having us on. Yeah, totally. Thank you.
This was great. Come back anytime as a code or a post script in preparation for this show.
Kind of spent the afternoon texting with my dad and kind of got a little back story to
his, you know, live with the guy my entire life, obviously, and always learn something new.
Just goes to show. This show is about family, and you can never be too close. What do you say,
partner? Well said. Well, that's it. We got another one in the book's. This was,
to all the cars I've loved before, catch us online, carslove.com. That's something we
didn't talk about at the top of the show. Check us out online. I think you can access all the
episodes there. Doug has done some great work recently with the graphics and access to the
files. Let us know what you think. Drop us a line. Christian at carslove.com. Doug at
carslove.com. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time. Take care.
About this episode
A heartfelt conversation unfolds between father and son duo Tom and Aiden, sharing their automotive journey that began with Tom's childhood memories of classic cars, including a 66 Mustang and a 64 Corvette. Aiden, inspired by his grandfather's love for vintage vehicles, discusses his own first car, a 94 Ford Ranger, and the adventures and challenges that come with it. The episode highlights the bond between generations through cars, touching on restoration projects, car shows, and the unique cultures surrounding different vehicles.
Aiden & Tom take you inside the hunt for a pristine 1972 VW Super Beetle, bumping shoulders with GT40s, AC Cobras, and original Eleanors in a classic-car warehouse. Learn how Aiden scored “Miss Maggie” for $4K—an unforgettable first car moment that sparked lifelong car memories and automotive nostalgia. Then, Tom shares his craftsmanship skillsfor evaluating, maintaining, and lightly restoring vintage VWs.
Whether you’re a classic car enthusiast or simply love first car stories, this episode delivers:
Insider tips on inspecting and preserving a vintage lifestyle Beetle
Heartwarming family car culture behind every deal
Inspiration for your next auto adventure or car restoration projectTune in now—available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms—for your dose of automotive history, beloved cars, and the life lessons each engine rev reveals.
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
