What's it really like to own your dream car?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house Stuff Works dot Com. I have
a buddy, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott and
I am Ben. We are joined as always by our
producer No the Enigma bround and you are you the

(00:23):
most important part of the show, which makes this car stuff.
That's right, and Ben, this is one of those shows
where and you know we're gonna fix this in you
know afterwards. I guess we're gonna title this one so
our listeners will already know what this is about. But
I want them to know that right now as at
this moment. Yeah, you have no idea what we're gonna
talk about, absolutely none. I know, zip zilch zero, nota
a about today's podcast. Correct, and that that that will

(00:47):
change soon, I promise. Well, I'll let you in on
what we're talking about. But there's a couple of things
that I'd like to talk to you about first, if
that's okay, Just just a few little kind of nuts
and both type things that I thought, maybe you want
to discus us just for a moment, but this is
not the topic of today's show. I'll get to the
main I guess me to the show in just a moment,
all right. So the first thing that I wanted to

(01:07):
mention is something that happened to me yesterday. I was
in traffic and long, long traffic jam. Like again, I
live like thirty five miles away from here, not that
far right. I left here at two fift having to
be home at four pm. I knew that it would
be kind of a you know, a busy day on
the road or whatever. It was a sunny day, nice
day out eighty five degrees something like that. There was

(01:29):
an accident on the way, and my commute was lengthened too.
I think it was about two hours and twenty some
odd minutes to get home, so I didn't make it
home by four o'clock. It was much later, and I
was sitting in traffic and it's bumper to bumper and
just about as close to, you know, putting the car
into park as you can get. It was stopped on
the road on the highway four lanes, and a motorcycle

(01:51):
goes whizzing by me on the passenger side, you know,
cutting the lanes or splitting the lanes, And I was thinking,
does that bother everybody else's much as it does me one,
and I know that I know the reasons for it,
and we'll just briefly discuss that in a minute. But
I don't think it's even legal here in Georgia to
do that. I think there's only one state currently that

(02:11):
allows that, and that as California. And if you don't know,
what we're talking about is when you're in traffic and
a motorcycle goes in between the cars, splits the lanes,
or as they call it elsewhere in the world, I
think they call it filtering, which makes better sense to
me to call filtering. Yeah, but I'm not a fan
of that, No, you're not, okay, So I would guess
that a lot of car drivers are not a fan
of it. I bet a lot of motorcycle riders are

(02:32):
in favor of it. And I didn't know this before.
And because it seems really really dangerous to me, does it?
Does it feel dangerous to you? Yeah, especially at speed,
but if people are halted in traffic or slowly moving
maybe yeah. To be absolutely candid, I could see myself
doing it. I feel like there are different rules for
bikes on the road obviously if you are a motorist.

(02:55):
In my opinion, it is part of your job to
be in dreamly aware of everything on the road, but
especially motorbikes. You know. Yeah, but okay, here's the thing.
When that happens to me invariably every single time, I'm
completely surprised by that bike appearing in the window next
exactly going at twenty or thirty miles an hour. I don't,

(03:17):
I don't. I can't see that bike approaching when it's
bumper a bumper traffic and you know, you stopped and
you've got your maybe glance in your mirrors occasionally, but
there's no, there's not the need to do that. Your
normally you're you're mostly focused on the vehicle right in
front of you. Well, here's the here's the other thing.
One of the things that I see is a big
danger for this in slow moving traffic what I call

(03:38):
molasses traffic, where people are trying to merge into another lane,
that that could be a very dangerous situation very quickly. Well,
that's it. That's the thing is that you know, people
are trying to jockey for lane position all the time
because there's a lot of on and off ramps there,
and I find that, you know, if somebody were just
just inadvertently. I mean, I could easily fall into this

(03:59):
where I try to get over a lane to the
right and that that biker strikes the right front of
my car and it's it's totally inadvertent, but I would
look like the jerk, you know, in that situation because
I cut that guy off. But um, I know you're
supposed to be looking at your your mirrors and all that.
But here's the thing, and I will I'll maybe end
on this because I don't want bikers to be too
mad at me, because I understand why they do it,

(04:21):
you know, because I would do it to a vote
and traff Well, that's the thing you probably would, right,
I mean, when if you put the shoe on the
other foot, you probably would would do this. It's like
if you had a flying car and there was traffic,
if you had a way to circumvent traffic, of course
you would, Yeah, exactly. And you know the thing is,
to be honest, it's actually safer for motorcyclists to do that.
And I didn't really put that together until I read

(04:42):
about it, but they said, like one of the most
dangerous things for a biker could be this stop and
go traffic where you know, you've got distracted motorists, people
that aren't really paying attention other than you know, the
car in front of them moved ahead, kind of like
what I was just describing, where you're you're focused on
that front bumper or the one right in front of you,
and as soon as they creep up three feet, you
move up three feet. And for a biker, that just

(05:04):
um increases the um the probability of contact between the
bike and another vehicle. And I get that. I understand that.
So they're better, They're better to be in motion and uh,
you know seeing you know kind of uh, I guess, um,
you know, picking their way through traffic in that way.
It's it's easier for them to do that than to
sit with an idling car behind them that may creep

(05:25):
forward and bump into them. So I get I can
see that. I get that. All right, Okay, we'll move
on past that. That probably could be an entire show,
by the way. But um, the second thing Ben that
I want to mention before we talk about today's topic, yes,
is I've had this problem a lot recently. It's in fact,
this happens every day to me. As I'm exiting the highway.
Here I get off right near a college campus and

(05:48):
you keep busting through those that's a that's a huge
problem for me. Yeah, um, Hollywood style. So as I
get off the highway, Um, you gotta picture of this
is that I'm turning onto a road that goes over
the highway and I need to turn left. And the
problem is the two lanes that exit, you know the ramp.
Those two lanes, both of them turn left. You can

(06:09):
go right from one, you can go left from one,
and the other one is left. Only everybody can picture that.
The problem here is that I I can I need
to be in the lane that goes is on the
right hand side of the ramp that goes also goes left.
But when you get up to the light and you
know there's signs that indicate you can do this, you
know that the proper the lines that are painted on

(06:29):
the road have worn away, so that the person in
the left lane, the left exit lane, feels that they
can cut across all three lanes of traffic when they
make that left turn, and the person is in the
right lane gets pinched out every single time. And I
don't need to be in that lane. That that becomes
like a turn lane right away, so I know that
I have to be in the other one. The problem
is that nearly every single day, someone is either almost

(06:52):
you know, nosing into the edge of my car, the
side of my car left side, or I'm finding the
where they're they're going right across my front bumper. And
this has led to a lot of trouble on I mean,
because they they're angry at me. I'm angry at them.
But the thing is, I'm right, looking at the signs,
I'm right, and then the the the lines on the
road just aren't there anymore. They do, yeah, And that

(07:16):
makes me especially angry because I know in that situation
I'm right. It just by that point, you know, I've
been in the car for almost two hours, you know,
to get down here, and I'm I'm a little bit angry,
little a little testy at that point, I'll admit it.
But but it happens without exaggerating, like the time, it's

(07:36):
it's almost always every single time I make that turn.
There are people who would encourage you to just stay
in the far left lane and and but then I
end up in a turn lane that I don't need
to be in, and then I caused trouble, you know,
fifty ft later when I have to get to the
right in the same traffic that I was trying to avoid.
So it's a it's a it's a real situation. I mean,
it's a real struggle. Do you have a concealing carry?

(08:01):
I do, but I'm not going to I won't let
it escalate to that level, just victory. Have you seen
the Russian dash cam videos of how apparently the new
turn signal and Russian traffic is to hold your gun out?
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I've seen some of those. Those
are just absolutely insane and all you have to do
is mentioned Russian dash cam, and I think everybody kind
of gets the idea that those are some silly, well

(08:23):
not silly, but crazy video. It's one of my favorite
things to watch on the internet. Now, yeah, there's a
there's a great variety there as well. I mean, the
newest scam or whatever. But you know what, I'm not
even gonna go in. There's another situation that's similar, but
I'm not even gonna talk about it. I feel like
that happens so so often. You know, you can write
to your loobal municipal authorities and say please Yeah, well,

(08:44):
I feel like a big baby doing that, But but
I know that other listeners have probably a similar intersection
in mind. I mean, everybody can probably picture one where
there's always there's consistently a problem, like a confusion with
the lions on the road or the signs that that
there's frustrating it. Didn't know end, you know, you're not
a you're not being a baby when you ask the

(09:05):
people that you're paying to do work for you to
do their job. That's true. And then you gotta think like, well,
the people are even gonna notice the lines on the
road because uh, well, you know what, this is a
bigger thing. Let's let's move on today's show. Okay, all right,
So in a collective side from the audience, finally, oh,
I don't know about that, but I do know that
today's show is another installment of Scott and Ben's mystery

(09:30):
series where in one of us comes with an idea,
comes with a question, research story, the other one as nothing.
As you said before, zip zilch, zero, not a. I
was not allowed to learn of this or too, of course,
to do any research on it. So I'm flying blind

(09:52):
by the seat of my pants and your ef on
the winds. You're gonna do just fine. I promise you.
I guarantee you that you're gonna be fine with this
topic challenge accepting. So I know just as much as
oh wait, I know less than you do now, ladies
and gentlemen, because I don't even know the title of
this yet. Exactly right. Yeah, we're we're naming it after
So here's here's the scoop. And and this is a

(10:13):
little different than we normally do. Normally come in with
just kind of a simple question that you or I
think up and that's it. But this one was actually
a listener suggestion for a show, and I thought it
actually made a good question for me to come in
with you and see what you think about this, because
it's it's something that, um, you may have pondered in
the past. But okay, let's let's just get it to this.

(10:33):
This comes from from Rudy Smith. It's a fantastic idea
and I had while I had written back to Rudy
about this. Um, I'll just read the note. I won't
even read you. The title of the email, says Scott
and Ben. I recall reading an article about the high
divorce rate among people who have just completed the building
other dream house. It made me wonder about the advisability

(10:54):
of owning a dream car. It could be a bad idea,
and it might even be interest you've heard the stories.
And then he gives a bunch of examples. Here, now
I'm gonna read these examples. He gets about seven or
eight and just kind of bear with me. But that
is really the focus of today's show has been the
hazards of only a dream car, or maybe should you

(11:14):
buy your dream car? Is it really all that it's
stacked up to be? So here's his his five instances
where this has gone wrong. Okay, okay, So here's number one.
A prosperous middle aged man starts crying or becomes enraged
because his new dream car has its first visible scratch
or dent. His reaction to a similar scratcher down on
an older and less valuable car was near in difference.

(11:38):
And I can totally understand that we just talked about
that in a In a previous episode, they rerecorded about
the just the comfort of driving in a car that
is not a pristine version of whatever that is a
car that might have some things and some dents and
some weird idiosyncrasy. Yeah, that was what you're talking about
the the El Camino, Yeah, yeah, and how how it's

(11:58):
almost comforting. You were talking about the mercury, which was well,
I kind of would have been upset if somebody digging
the mercury, but maybe they maybe the trans And I've
had others along the way that you know, yeah, maybe
not so much. Okay, number two and this one, maybe
we'll come back to this one too. But um we
talked about this one in the last episode two. A compulsive,

(12:20):
obsessive car washer who consistently strives to keep this car
clean and perfectly maintained, and we did talk about that.
That was my first Uh, well, that was my first
example that one. But Rudy says here, and this is
a parenthetical, I used to be like this with one
motorcycle I had, and I even carried a dedicated toothbrush
for cleaning bugs from the rear view mirror while on
road trips. That is. But you know what, I don't

(12:43):
think that's all that unusual. I think that there are people.
My father in law, he he's always had a Corvette
of some kind, and you know, he'll keep it for
years and years and years and put very low miles
on it. But he's always had one. And the last
time that the upgrade was Corvette one was brand new,
so that gives an idea how long he hangs onto him.
He still has it. When he drove over to our

(13:04):
house one time in it, which is very rare. He
didn't usually do it that often. On the way. I
think a bird and you know there's an accident on it.
You know, bird, you can expect and you understand what
happened there. So when they arrive, you know, i'd got
to greet them in the driveway, and he pulls out
from behind the seat a a diaper, like a baby diaper,
like a soft cloth diaper, and a bottle of water,

(13:26):
bottle water, and he pours a little bit on the
diaper and he carefully wipes it away, and he inspected
the rest of the car to make sure there's no
other incidents like that on it. I mean he carried
that specifically for that purpose. It was just in case
something got on the car like that, you know, some
road debris or whatever. So you know, people become obsessive
about stuff like that, they really do, And I totally

(13:46):
understand caring, uh, you know, specific brushes and things like
that for cleaning. I get it that, Yeah, I do too,
And you know it's not always possible. But when you
do have that, that that thought or that feeling that
you know, that's something you need to keep in that condition. Uh.
Any little thing that disturbs that, we're probably getting into
an O C D discussion. Maybe that I don't know
if I want to go down, because I've got quite

(14:08):
a few. Alright. So here's the third example, and there's
again there's seven or eight of these. The third one
is a man who is finally able to afford a
high performance sports car and kills himself accidentally in a
high speed crash within hours of buying the car. And
I'll be honest, this this does happen more than you
might think. Um, you leave the dealership, you're driving around, you,

(14:29):
you take it easy at first, you know, you're showing
off a little bit, shown friends or whatever, and then
comes the time when you really want to hit it,
maybe in your in your neighborhood or whatever. Cars got
cold tires and there's that big oak tree at the
end of the street, and it happens. Uh sad one
it does, or maybe they get on the highway and
they goose it at you know, sixty and the wheels spin,
which you don't expect, you know, that high performance car

(14:52):
or whatever, and you spin out. Um, stuff like that
does happen. It's tragic, it does happen. UM. So that's
that's a good example. UM. The next one is, UM,
let's think about this a man who buys a luxury
car only to find that it gains too much unwanted
attention and it leads to concerns about his personal security
and the car falls into disuse except for maybe special occasions.

(15:12):
And he says, we'll think, for example, notice that most
used Rolls Royce cars have extremely low mileage for their age.
And he's right. I mean, you might drive it to
the country club, you know, to take you know the
guys out for golf or whatever. Or you know, some
people might commute in that car and that might be
all to use it for, or just a Saturday car
drive around town. That's a perfect example. Is like an

(15:33):
old Rolls Rolls Royce car. It's not something to use
every day for every situation. But when you do, UM,
you you find that, you know, um, you get extra attention.
I guess in that car. Maybe sometimes unwanted attention in
that car. So that's another situation. One more here, actually
a few more here. Do you want me to stop
along the way here? Do you want to? Kay? All right,

(15:56):
I'll just keep going then. Um think about this the
common case of people who buy a car with all
the creature comforts, only to find that they preferred their
old and simpler car. Oh I could see that, sure, Yeah,
I think we've even talked about that right in our
um our our car review show. Right, I think I
would go back to my oh five hunt a Civic
if I could um in something. Yeah, that's true, all right.

(16:21):
And this next example, Ben is one that's it's pretty rare,
but it has happened before. And this is a good example. Uh.
The man was such severe buyer's remorse, you know, after
purchasing this this dream car, this this big expensive vehicle. Uh,
that he commits a crime and he might think, well,
what are you talking about? Like bank robbery something like that. Well,
the example that that Rudy gives here is the guy

(16:41):
that crashes veryon into a lake and then tried to
blame it on a collision with a Pelican. Do you
remember that. And he was caught on a cell phone. Um,
you know, ditched it in the lake. I think we
talked about it years ago, but it turns out it
was just a case of insurance fraud. And the guy
had no idea that somebody would have a camera own out.
This is a long long time ago too, I don't know,

(17:03):
you know, it's probably like the first version of the
iPhone or something. I don't remember when it was. But uh,
the guy had no idea that anybody would be recording
him as he ditched his car into the lake. And
there's two million dollar car into a lake, and he
blamed it on Pelican when the video clearly shows there's
no Pelican there at all. So he was busted for
insurance fraud. He thought he was gonna get always scott free.

(17:24):
But that's the thing is, when you're in a car
like this, it garners a lot of attention. And people
are always watching you, that's true, and they're always looking
at you. So it's it's extra unwanted attention in a
lot of cases, and in that case for sure. Um, okay,
this is the last of Rudy's here, all right. Um,
the garage queen. And this is one that you know,
it's a big, big purchase. But the problem is that

(17:46):
it just sits in your garage. It's seldom driven. It's
not really a project car because everything's already done on
the vehicle. You don't have to work on it. You
don't have to go out and make it better every
time that you see it. Uh. In fact, every time
you touch it, you're probably making it a little worse
really if you want be honest about it. But um,
but the thing is it never hardly sees the road.
I mean it maybe your your most expensive possession, but

(18:08):
no one ever gets to see it. And you almost
get to the point where you resent owning it. Um
that it it's costly. You can't really take it out
when when you want to do everything that you want
to because it is kind of a show piece. It
is something that's uh, that's cherished in that way. Um.
So there are some good ones, right, there's seven really
really good ones. And I can tell you that I've
got a couple to add to this, and and I'll

(18:30):
keep it kind of brief, but we've talked about maintenance
as well. And this is a huge one. Now when
you buy a dream car. Let's say that you know
your it's your dream to own a Ferrari, and you
can buy a And this is what example we always use,
because they're out there, the three oh eight, the Ferrari
three oh eight model in particular, and there's I know
versions of that that are more expensive, but to be honest,

(18:52):
you can buy one for a reasonable one for about
twenty dollars. That's not completely out of out of range
for somebody for a fun car. You know. Let's say
that's middle aged guy wants to have a fun car
for the weekend or whatever. That's not out of range
for somebody to buy as a second vehicle, you know,
just as a fun thing, a toy, right, it's a

(19:12):
it's a feasible thing. However, you're anticipating exactly what I was.
My first reaction would have been, but maintenance, because while
there might be a discount on this used three oh eight,
you know what, there's not a discount on ever Ferrari maintenance.
Ferrari maintenance, the replacing the tires, replacing the brakes, the consumables,

(19:34):
the oil change along. Yeah, and here we go with
the timing belt stuff, right, I mean, that is a
that's a big heated problem. They claim it's a nightmare,
and it's an it's an early change on that as well,
an early and frequent change. So and the thing is
he had to weigh all of this, You had to
take all this into consideration cost of ownership. I think
we're called exactly right. And you know I can I've

(19:57):
got a minor version of this that I that I
can describe you. And when I say minor, I mean
really minor, because it's not. It's not my dream car.
And in fact later I want to talk about that
in just a moment. Dream car means a different thing
to a lot of people, so we'll we'll get to
that in just a moment. But not my dream car.
But I had an MG and I've mentioned my MG

(20:17):
many times. It was a sixty six MG and it
had an archly body on an arcly ss and I
love the car. I mean, it was one that I
polished all the time, and I took very good care
of it, and I was always fixing things on it
and made sure it was running, you know, for the weekends.
And I'd spent hours cruising in that car. So the
thing is, it did draw a lot of attention and

(20:38):
I kind of I I got admit, I kind of
liked that about the car at that time. I don't
know if I would appreciate that now. Yeah, it really was.
It was fun to drive, and it it made people,
you know, ask what it was and it brought up
a lot of conversations with people at the gas pump
and things like that, it's a fun car to own.
I don't know if I'd be up for that right
now in this part of my life, but maybe I
we'll see. And one time, and particular bend, this caused

(21:01):
a lot of trouble for me, and and well not
a lot, but it was something that really opened my
eyes to what might be happening, you know, while I
while I'm away, and maybe two times really So the
thing is that, you know, I did draw a lot
of attention, and even when it's parked, it did because
it was so unusual, so different. So I parked on
you know, the street corner as I'm going into a
pub or something, you know, with some friends to get

(21:22):
into the launch or whatever, and I'd come back out
and this happened. One time I came back out and
somebody had stolen pieces off of the car and and
carefully stolen like it wasn't like you know, grabbing, you know,
like tearing out the radio or something like that. It
was they had stolen the turn indicators, which were I'm
gonna guess like thirty some dollars. But my assumption here
is that it was another British car owner who needed

(21:44):
that piece exactly. And they were only held on with
like a gasket. You know, they're like a pressure fit
type thing with with an O ring around them so
they're easy to remove. The thing is like they were
glass and they were like an orange lens. They were mine.
It's on the car, and that someone was bold enough
to take that from a parking lot while I was
inside eating and that that type of thing happened. I
had another item stolen from it. It was a badge

(22:06):
on the front um the front fender, like on the grill. Uh,
kind of like a Royal Auto club type badge. You've
seen these on older British cars, like a crest almost.
You can put on the on the front and it
indicates a club you're in or you know, something that's
of interest. I had a few of those on the
front and one of them was stolen again while I
was in eating somewhere. So there's definitely some bold British
car thiefs out there that you know, take stuff like that.

(22:28):
And I bet that happens with other makes and models
of vehicles that are kind of unusual as well. You
got that. That's something I never do in that one.
Not in that one, I do now, but um, out
of necessity. UM, I wish I didn't have to. Uh.
So the other thing is that and this is maybe
the worst one of all. And this is uh something

(22:51):
that happened to me. I was in Pontiac, Michigan, and
I was at a swin shop, a bicycle shop in
town and kind of even in a bit sketchy part
of town, and I had pulled up, you know, the
top was down and everything was a nice summer day.
I was there to get a part. I was gonna
get a throttle cable for a bicycle, which is exactly

(23:11):
the same as in the my accelerator cable for the car.
It's a it's a car piece I was looking for.
So I's there to have it measured and everything and
find out what I needed, the right fittings. And I
came back out to the car, and there's a little
boy who was with his parents. His parents were in
their car parked near mine. He was out running around
the parking lot for some Reason's about four or five
years old. He had grabbed on when I approached the car,

(23:33):
he was holding onto my door handle, the driver's side
door handle, with both hands. And you know, it's kind
of a horizontal door handle, a chrome one. He's holding
onto it like with his hands. And he had his
feet up on the door of my car, so you
can imagine the position like imagine like in a gym
or something like a pull up bar on the wall.
He was holding onto that, but his feet were up
on my door. It's like all of his weights on,

(23:55):
like he's pulling back on the door handle of the car.
And I said, excuse me. I was trying to get
his parents attend because I didn't want to, you know,
just grab the kid and pull him off there. It
would have made some in the wrong situation, that would
have made someone very irate. Um. I was a little
more easy going at the time. I would have I
was fine with it. Um upset, of course, but I
wasn't gonna, you know, do anything. It's gonna fly off

(24:17):
the handle or anything at this kid who he should
have known better, but his parents weren't disciplined him. You know.
It's it was one of those weird situations where you
don't want to overstep your bounds, and like you try
to tell them what's wrong, and they don't see that
that was a problem. That was the situation. So I
just kept my mouth shut and got out of there.
There was no damage really, um luckily, you know, it

(24:38):
didn't have like, you know, rocks and his shoes or
anything like that, so, um, nothing really happened to the vehicle,
you know, nothing like adverse effects, I guess. But I
got out of there, and then later I was thinking
about it, and I was really really angry. I was
just fuming mad about it. And even now thinking about it,
I keep thinking like why that was just a situation
that never should have happened. But umah, the point. The

(24:59):
point is I couldn't really leave it alone and expect
that I could come back and find it in the
same condition that it was when I left it, And
that was trouble. And that's a very minor example, but
imagine your anxiety with parking car in a parking lot.
That's let's say half a million dollar car, right right,
and also imagine the likelihood of it being stolen. Before

(25:20):
we get to some of this, I want to go
back to this kid. This is something that bugs me said.
Luckily it was a minor thing. But is it or
is this another kid who got taught that they can
touch other people's stuff whenever they want? I get, I
get so I rate about this when I I am

(25:43):
not a parent, as I've said before, so I am
not passing judgment on a parenting style. What I'm passing
judgment on is how someone handles their kids in public. Right.
I'm fine with it. I'm courteous kids, I talk, you know,
I'll say hello to a kid, you know. But if

(26:07):
I'm in a situation where there's a kid that's making
a scene, it's yelling at me, and or where there's
a kid in an unsafe situation and I happened to
be walking by, and all of a sudden, it's my
job to play parents for a second, I resent that now.

(26:27):
Of course, I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to
a child just to prove a point. And can we
talk about how some of the worst vehicle movers in
in any city? Are people pushing baby strollers? You really
want to talk about that right now? I don't know
the question. But we could, we could see off off,

(26:50):
We could do that if you just know it Just
it gets me, man, I feel what you're saying here.
I get it. And that one of the things that
if a kid's making a scene like that or doing
something that's just I mean, downright disrespect I mean, that's
that's that's utterly disrespectful. If the hand broke off, well,
that that's the thing. That's what I was really really

(27:10):
lucky that something like that didn't happen. It was a
nineteen sixties six car and this would have been in
like nineteen ninety six, so it's thirty years old. It's
probably you know, within the door there, it's probably not
holding on with too much to begin with. And I
just you just don't do that. I mean I wouldn't.
I wouldn't want anybody to do that on on just
a you know, pilot crap car that somebody's got in
the parking lot. If my kid ever did something like that,

(27:32):
I would I would immediately stop the behavior and then
and then explain why that's wrong. That wasn't happening there
that day, and later it made me very angry. But
that's again, this is a different angle from where I
wanted to go. But the point that I really wanted
to make was that again, when you have something that's

(27:52):
unusual or different or unique or expensive or whatever, there's
a lot of anxiety that goes along with owning that vehicle.
And I get at it. I really do. I understand that, um,
you know, on a smaller scale, on my scale, that
you're you're anxious about somebody you know, touching it in
a in an inappropriate way, planning to say it like that,
but like pulled up the toy car and like say

(28:14):
tell me where they touched you? No, no, not, I
I know, I know, but that that's a funny visual,
and like pulling up a scale model car and and
never mind do a sketch. All right, well, but here's
we are getting filmed that though. But here's the here's
what it seems to be. The crux of the question

(28:34):
is is the journey toward getting a car like this
more exciting than the actual destination of owning it? Yeah? Yeah, exactly,
And just all the pitfalls along the way that you
know the stuff that like Rudy laid it out pretty well,
they're exactly you know. Some of the fears are concerns
that um, somebody that is making it purchase like that
might have. Well, you're also much more likely to get

(28:57):
pulled over more often, especially if it's an exotic sports car,
like if you're in a you know, if you're in
a high end Rolls Royce or something, you're less likely
to get pulled over properly, depend on what part of
town you're in. But if you're in a speed demon man,
uh sometimes Now I don't know how often this happens.

(29:18):
I've only heard of it happening a few times in
like in a way that I can confirm. But I've
had friends who said they've been pulled over because an
officer wanted to check out the car. I can see that,
not not in not in a rude way. Uh you know,
they weren't they were like get out of the car,

(29:39):
shut up or anything. They would just say three oh eights,
like you know why I pulled you over because I've
never seen one of these you know that kind of thing, right, yeah,
and something like that. Yeah, I can I can kind
of see that happening, and I bet that's pretty rare.
I think it does happen. I mean have to be
something really unusual too for a police officer to do that,
I would think. All right, So if then, there's a
couple of things I want to get to before we

(30:01):
wrap up, and I'm sure there's more thoughts that you
have on this, but um, I found a few interesting
things and already sent some good links, and I'd like
a little bit deeper as well. Um, we'll get back
to another one in just a minute, but I found
some some tips online for people who may be considering
buying their dream car. And now this is with the
asterisk that says that it's coming from Edmunds dot com.

(30:21):
Now Edmonds is in business to price and sell cars, right,
so that understood. I Mean there's one point here where
it's clearly like an ad for their site, so I'll
flag that when it comes down to it. But mostly
it's just good advice. So if you're actually looking to
find something that is that is, um, your dream car,
whatever that happens to be. And we'll talk about that
in a minute, by the way, Um, whatever that happens

(30:44):
to be, and you want to want to search online
for this car, of course, because that's your best option probably, Uh,
don't limit yourself to just a local purchase, you know,
go to the the filters and change that setting to
say any distance instead of you know, twenty miles or
twenty miles or whatever. This is filtering that is online.
It's different from the motorcycle filtering we talked about. That

(31:06):
slightly different than motorcycle filtering. Ye, unless you're searching for
a motorcycle, than it is a motorcycle filter. Yeah, not bad,
not clever, but you're very clever, alright, so um, anyways,
you can you can then search cars that are available
nationally if you don't mind picking it up or having
it ship to you, which if you're if you're really
honestly trying to find your dream car, that's what you

(31:27):
need to do. Because you're gonna find that color combination,
you're gonna find that engine option, you're gonna find whatever.
But it may not be happening, you know, ten miles
from your home. It will be a great trip, like
what a cool trip to Let's say, fly out there
or then or ride with a buddy up to pick
up the car, drive it back that's great. Wore you
buy one way ticket to Dallas, Texas, and then you

(31:50):
get a cab to the you know, the the car lot,
and then you just drive home. Have fantastic with that
would be fun. It's like a lot of fun. That
would be fun. Drive home in your giant boss Hog
Cadillac with you know the bull horns on the front.
I think we're learning about your dream cart. Maybe maybe alright,
so wanted that shirt so you could drive at what
ye want'd be a slightly well, I wouldn't have to

(32:12):
follow the roads. It's like as the crow flies. And
they used to say that in The Dukes of Hazzard
too a lot, didn't they. Yeah, they say that where
I'm from. That's two dukes of hazard references in the
same show. All right. So the next one would be,
if you don't have the time to do the exhaustive
searching yourself, consider using a car concierge. Now, this one

(32:32):
that comes to the fee, of course, But the thing
is you get somebody who is really good at searching
and finding you know, unusual or unique vehicles. That may
be your only option. You go down to you know,
the your local um classic stealer and they've got services
where they will say, if you're looking for you know,
in nineteen sixty seven Mini with this, uh, this option,

(32:53):
I can find it for you. Might take me a while,
but i'll find it for you. What are you willing
to pay? And they'll they'll kind of, you know, feel
out the rameters that you're interested in and then start
the search and just let you know what. They'll bring
the results to you and you can decide um it's
it's a possibility, it's not for everybody. The other thing,
and this is pretty self explanatory, use Car Facts or
any other vehicle history report service to check the car

(33:16):
before you go to see it, so you don't waste
that trip, because that's important. You can waste a lot
of time doing that. That's a good point. The next
thing is, whenever possible, do the pre purchased inspection of
the car with a local mechanic or a mobile service
that will do that mobile service. That's an option that
is really good. I haven't heard much about that recently,
but I think when that came around the first time

(33:36):
we heard about it, we might have given it a
brief mention on the show. We haven't really investigated that,
but that that is a good idea. UM, I'm kind
of wrapping up with this, by the way. Then there's
the ad that says, of course use Edmunds dot com,
you know, to to search for the car, you know,
to get the valuation of the car, because that's a
smart thing to do. But they do point you to
their own site here in this list. And then for

(33:57):
older cars they've got another another forum like maybe Hemming's
Motor News or something where you can get a kind
of a ballpark estimate of what it should cost you,
you know, kind of a high end to low end,
and then you decide, you know which end of the
spectrum that vehicles on that you've just found. Last couple
here about I promise and it will move on. Um,
don't be afraid to negotiate. This is when I'm not

(34:17):
very good at. If you're gonna buy your dream car,
don't don't worry about you know, the listed price, going
with the idea that you can get a deal on
that car, and it's likely that, you know, you'll be
able to move a little bit, a little bit of
wiggle room. Usually dealers inflate things quite a bit. That's typical. Uh,
personal seller maybe a little less. It's it's tough to
it's really case by case. Yeah it is case by case,

(34:40):
but but I feel you should get to the the point
where you're comfortable in negotiating in every situation, so it's
always flexible in some way. You know what I'm gonna
say about this when when when I see a I
think some of the best cars to buy if you're savvy,
are going to be cars that are sold by a
private owner because there's a chance you'll run into somebody's baby,

(35:03):
which means will be more well maintained. Uh. There's also
um a little bit more room at times for negotiation,
even under the barter system. I know some guys who
one guy went to uh by by this Mustang and
he ended up they traded a bunch of car parts

(35:23):
for their project cars. So it's actually barter system. However,
I would say that, you know, there are some pretty
easy signals you can pick up on O BIOH is fine.
That means they're expecting you to negotiate, and I have
to say firm. Uh, you might not want to go
in there and offer something really low because that will
be uh, that'll be you know, turned around like you know,

(35:44):
serious buyers. Only it goes back serious buyers and only.
That's another great one. It goes back to doing your
own research beforehand. Because sometimes there are people that for
whatever reason, sentimentality perhaps plays a big role in nostalgia.
There are people who will purposely want to sell a
car what they feel like is a decent profit for them,

(36:06):
but it's an unrealistic price point for a car of
that mileage, that age, in that condition. Yeah, they've tied
memories to that car. It's got is that nostalgia and
there's that effect there, and it's the same reason people
can't get rid of concert t shirts that they bought
in high school. Well, and also, you know, sometimes you
have to ask yourself if somebody pricing this car that
maybe oh maybe their spouse told them they had to

(36:27):
sell it or something. Maybe they're purposely pricing it, not
in a manipulative way, but because in some psychological level
they don't really want to sell it, to hang onto
it for another month while they still drive it for
the summer. Then maybe don't don't mess with people sell
it like purporting to sell a car that way, What
what else are they gonna want you to do? Give
them visitation rights, right, they get the car on the weekends,

(36:51):
but a purposely high price on the car so you
can drive it for the time that you want to
and then lower to a reason. And when some people
think they're the best negotiators by a over pricing the
car and saying well that's that's my that's firm. Don't
mess with him. Yeah, there's always gonna be somebody else
selling a car very close to your dream. Oh yeah, alright,
So the last two on this list, and then we'll

(37:12):
go into something different here just just for a moment um.
Oh again, this goes back to maintenance is so in
factor any repairs when you make your offering carefully way
the projected maintenance costs. Now that's important if you don't
know what to expect, and you know at sixty thousand miles,
at seventy thousand miles and a hundred thousand miles um.
All that is a critical part of drying buying a

(37:34):
dream car. And the last one here on this list
is that you gotta remember to ask the owner of
the car's title is in his or her possession and
ensure that it has no leans or co signers. Do
you remember that guy that tried And when I was
buying my project car that's still still sitting there by
the way, updates soon maybe hopefully. Um, when I was
doing that that there was a guy that tried to

(37:54):
sell me a kick car that had a title. Uh
he had the title, however, that he wanted me to
change information on the title. He wanted me to change
the information on the Hi. Yeah. Yeah, there's a there's
a whole sordid story behind that one. I'm not gonna
get into it now, but no way am I tampering
with someone else's title. And that might be a better
topic for if we do a crime show car cry possibly.

(38:17):
Yeah that was that was a dirty deal and I
just had to walk away. And it's too bad because
it was an interesting car. Um, okay, Ben, last thing,
and I promise and this maybe we'll spark some discussion
among our our listeners and and you too. But uh,
when you think about buying a dream car, not everybody
has the same idea of what a dream car is.
A lot of people think immediately of exotics like a

(38:38):
Maserati or Ferrari, Lamborghini, that kind of thing. That's not
a base for everybody. A lot of times is this
article in the BBC points out and it was written
by a guy named Chris Niger, and Chris wrote for
How Stuff Works for a while. Unless it's the same name,
different person, but I doubt it. I think this is uh,
this is the same guy that wrote for How Stuff Works.
UM recently wrote this article in about UM what it's

(39:01):
really like to buy your dream car and what that
constitutes for a lot of people, because he found a
lot of people here and I think he used a UM,
what's that online site where a lot of people ask
questions and answer as a core yeah with a que he.
I think he posed the question there and then got
some responses about this, and some of them were pretty interesting.
There's a guy named Todd who wrote back and said

(39:21):
that he looked a long long time, you know, like, um,
he had gone, well, he had gone ten years without
having any kind of fun cars, you know, like a
toy car, and you know, saved and saved and you
know he's doing the responsible thing and you know, not
not going with you know, something that was out of
his price range or whatever at the time, but it
saved up and then when it was time to buy
the car, he bought a Nissan gt R. And this

(39:43):
is a while back. He said, at the time, there's
just nothing that could compete with that car in that
price range. And he's right, that was an amazing car.
It still is, but at the time it was in
its own league, really, and this was in Georgia Bend,
and you know, immediately after taking the test drive, he
knew this was the one, went back, laid down the
cash for the car and said, right away he got
all kinds of you know, crazy attention from everybody. Everybody

(40:05):
watching the car, looking at the car, asking about the car.
You know, um, I don't know if there's a police situation,
like you said, but you know, everybody's you know, struck
up conversations with him about the car, and it was
really it was interesting at first, but he said that
wears thin after a while, he said. You know, he says,
it's almost like your D list celebrity, is how he
put it. You know, immediately as soon as you buy
the car, and everybody has something to say, but it

(40:27):
does fade to a degree. You know, he's still exciting
and still fun to drive, but um, you know, if
you're buying a car like that, for a sense of validation,
you know, someone to say that you know, um, you know,
you're you're something because he got this car. He said,
that's not that's not what you do, he said, it
it's sort of it all. It really does validate the
fact that you can afford something like that. It's not that, um,
you're somehow you know, you don't really feel that kind

(40:49):
of return like you would think that you would once
you've made the purchase. And I found that really interesting
because it wasn't quite as fulfilling as he thought it
would be. But other people have a completely different idea
of a dream car and it's not you know, the
eighty thousand dollar sports car. Some people want, you know,
the first generation Miata. And there's nothing wrong with that
at all. There's an example of a guy that bought, um,

(41:10):
you know, the first gen Emerald green Masda Miata that
he loves and is still driving today. You know, he
bought it eleven years ago. UM makes him smile every day.
That's all he cares about on his commute. Um that's
his idea of a dream car. And he said, even
if the engine blows, I'm going to replace the engine
because I love this car. And it's so much fun.
It's and that's something that you and I have talked
about many many times. You you know something you like

(41:32):
and you go out and seek it. But then once
you've had it for a while, the attachment grows even firmer.
Like you, you even even bigger in that you can't
see yourself without this vehicle anymore. So that, in a way,
is that a dream car? Is that something that is
because you've probably got aspirations of dreams for something even better,
but this one really truly makes you happy and you

(41:54):
don't need anything more than that. It's very simple, but
but it gets the job done, you know. They're interesting
thing about this is that we can take this a
step further. There are some people who just don't have
a dream car. There's some people out there and just
think a car is a thing that takes you places
point A to point B. And there's nothing wrong with that,

(42:15):
I guess. But for me, man, I'm dreaming big. I've
got too many dream cars. If anything, it's hard to
choose just just one. And I know I completely understand
the argument that it's the old argument about concept versus practice.
Is the idea of having you know, I have a

(42:37):
Duisenberg and I take it out the first Saturday of
every month, and I, you know, I just drive as
long as the weather is nice, and I love to stop.
And then if someone wants to come up and talk
to me about the history of the car, I love
to talk about it too. That's why I'm doing that.
But then, you know, let's say you own a Dusenberg.
You're lucky enough to be one of those people, and
then about eight months in, it's only been eight Saturdays,

(43:01):
and you're tired of it because you're tired of answering
the same questions all the time. And then one day
you just say, well, I don't really feel like taking
it out today. I'm gonna just go in the garage
and polish it up, check on some things. And soon
enough you stopped doing that. And then it gets you know,
the displayer web covered and dust covered everything, and it

(43:22):
falls into disrepair or whatever. I mean. You could take
this a number of different ways. You just sell it
or whatever. I mean. There's there's a lot of ways
to take this. But there's a few other quick examples
that I can give you. And then it's like this.
Here's one a guy named John who wrote in and
said that growing up, his mom wouldn't let him have
a jeep ever, because she was worried about the rollover
aspect of the whole. And so the moment that he
was able to do something like that in college, he

(43:44):
went and bought a Jeep, and that to him is
kind of a dream car, because it's it's what he
wants right now. It's it's that's that's his level. He's
able to afford it, and it's something that truly makes mappy,
and he wants to buy a second one. And then
there's another one where I think this lady um At.
This may have been from a different article. I can't
remember if it's here or not. Maybe it is um
I think she had just gotten the all clear, like

(44:06):
after surviving breast cancer, you know, like the all clear,
it's all gone, remission or whatever. The moment she left,
you know, from that diagnosis. She went to the Mercedes
dealer and bought the Mercedes that you had always wanted
and said, you know what, every time I get in
this car, it's to me, it has that that feeling
of I I be cancer, you know, it's and then

(44:28):
that's she has tied it to that to that moment,
and it makes her feel pride every time she gets
into it, and just strength, you know, like it's like
a personal strength. I think that's great that she and
and not only it's combining two things, you know, it's
combining um, you know that that that emotion and also
that that purchase that she had always wanted to make.
It's it's a great idea. And there's versions of this.

(44:48):
You can take this any way you want, really, I mean,
there's there's so many of this. You don't have to
buy a one hundred thousand dollar car to be a
dream car. It's just whatever makes you happy right now,
and whatever is in your price range. Find something that
makes you happy. I mean, Ben, do you have maybe
one car? I know we talked about the Packard, of course,
but do you think that do you think that is
kind of your ultimate dream car? Do you think the

(45:10):
Packard would be the one? Do you have one? Or
is it more scattered? Like if it if it was
gonna be a sports car, would be this type of car.
It's gonna be an suv, it would be this type
of car, right. I think it is like that. The
problem with some of the classic cars that are a
huge fan of, you know, like bel Airs, Um Packards,

(45:30):
the older cars. It's not just the maintenance, but to
some degree it's the performance you can expect. So there
is a Goldilocks zone. But it's so difficult to pick.
Even within that Goldilocks zone of you know enough older style,
enough modern performance. Even within that zone sky, I still

(45:54):
have to differentiate between the types of vehicles because they're
made for very different things. You know. Yeah, for instance,
there's some really great a t V s we joked about,
but there such different beasts in comparison to a sports car.
So I I am more likely than anything to go

(46:14):
through phases. Man, when when that first, when the first
Tesla came out, I was I was nuts and I thought,
wow this because at first you probably remember I was
really skeptical the Tesla roadster, the one looks like the
Lotus eleas are you're talking about the roadster, not the
model lest the roadster. And when the roadster came out,

(46:36):
I thought, wow, this is this is neat um. After
I had seen that it was actually working and people
would buy them, because at first, I mean honestly, you know,
how I am were to be skeptical when it came
out and I just thought, oh, here we go, another
another car that a celebrity is going to blow away
too much money on and then leave in their garage

(46:58):
later And luckily it turned out that my skepticism was misplaced,
but still again to me, no matter how much I
wanted the roots through in that phase, it still was
such a different beast in comparison to an internal combustion
car that I would I would have to I would

(47:19):
have to qualify, you know, I don't. I don't think
I'm one card dude. Yeah, it feels like and maybe
it's something to do with what we do here and
that we're always looking at, you know, the newest, the latest,
the greatest, an and and the oldest and the coolest
and the fastest. Yeah, you're right. So we've got so many,
um uh, just such a wide variety of cars that

(47:40):
we look at and really explore on the show that
I don't know if that's really skewed, you know, our
thoughts and that you know now we have like a
favorite suv, a favorite sports car, favorite family sedan, you
know all that stuff. I mean, I'd love to have
a wagon. I'd love to have a Corevett. I'd love
to have Mustang. I'd love to have an original are

(48:00):
like the military version I've got. I've got such a
terrible answer for this, Okay, all right, if I'm permitted
to go cheap but honest answer, be a brand new
Bugatti Veron that I could flip and sell to someone,
that's your cheap version. No, that would be my answer,
would be going back to my thrifty nous because I

(48:22):
would get this dream car just to sell it. I see,
to make maybe maybe I don't know, poultry four thousand dollars.
On the other side, I could do better. Okay, cut
some corns to see, you know along the way here,
I gotta say for my dream car, if I had
to answer one car, just one, and then this is coning,

(48:42):
I can't. Yeah, And it's consistent with something I said
in a podcast a long time ago. And I don't
know if I can remember the title of it, but
one of my all time favorite cars ever ever. And
if I could drive this and it's not completely out
of range, I'd love to drive a Lotus eleven. And
I don't care if it's a kit car west other

(49:03):
because a company named Westfield makes a Lotus eleven that
is just spot on it maybe and it might have
been in like the best sports Cars of All Time
or something like that, but I know it usually ranks
pretty high for the real deal, and of course that'd
be fantastic. But that's a you know, that's a half
a million dollar typically museum type car or someone takes

(49:23):
it out for um, you know, like a historic racing event,
you know, a moderate or something you know, part of um,
a concourse event. But in in realistic terms, if I
could get my hands on a and a Westfield Lotus
eleven that was you know, either already built or something
that I if I ever had time to do something
like that to build it, I would love to drive

(49:45):
that car. It's just it's exactly what I want in
a sports car. And I mean everything about the long,
low wide, extremely low fast, it's really unique. You'd never
see another one on the road. I can guarantee you.
I mean, well that guarantee maybe at certain events, but um,
it's just to me that is that is a dream car.

(50:05):
That's that's probably the number one pick for me. It's
an unusual pick, but it's your pick. Yeah, it's your
It's your dream car, so anyone else is Yeah, and
that's the thing about car And it could be the
latest vol tho, it could be whatever. I mean, it
could be class, it could be new. I'm going to
before we ask you, ladies and gentlemen, what your favorite

(50:26):
dream car is, and feel free to have more than
one if you need to go by categories, that's fine too.
Before we get to that, Scott, I'm going to flip
this a bit and ask you if you have a
least favorite, like, what's a nightmare vehicle? Wow? That you
would not want to own? Because I have an answer. Boy,

(50:47):
you know, I read about a lot of there's there's
a lot of cars that I've read that say avoid
these at all costs because they just they go through
parts like you wouldn't believe. One is an older land
Rover um those things notoriously, which we ask where who
worked with us? Who had an older land Room? Yeah,
that's right and uh, so far I don't know of

(51:07):
any serious issues with it, which is lucky. That's kind
of dadging the bullet on that. I think it's jinks,
the poor guy. You're no kidding. Now, um, let's see
what else. There's a oh, man, I don't know. That's
a that's a tough question. That makes refugio would also
be a nightmare card for you. Of course it would,
you know my answer. Of course, of course it would
entirely out of petty personal spite. Let me think, um

(51:32):
oh wait, I'm at them straining the year I have
to get recesses of my memory. It's a Hummer No almost,
uh Hummer is Hummer is not? You know. I I
joke about it, but I think I don't have I
don't have as big of a problem with the Hummer
as I do with the Honda. Get out of my
way in traffic. I can't let this go, Scott. How

(51:55):
in the world could I not remember that the Honda
Odyssey is kind of your your art nemesis. Remember I
tried to make peace with it a while back. I
just I can't do it, man, Yeah, I can't. Yep, yep.
I see. So this is so. Maybe maybe listeners could
write in with how about this three things dream car?

(52:16):
An ultimate dream car or maybe realistic dream car, whatever
that the case may be. However, you take that one
car that you would avoid at all costs, never ever
want to purchase because of you know, whatever, a personal
story or maybe just you know, general knowledge. We're probably
forgetting a bunch here, of course you go or something
like that, I understand. But if there's one that you
have in particular that you know just flaws all over

(52:39):
the place, or you know, mechanical nightmare. And then the
last thing is that you know, the of those cars,
the ones that you mentioned as dream cars, which one
would be the reason I go? Which one is feasible,
which one most let's say the most feasible. Yeah, what
would you fear the most about that car? Like if
you because that's the that's the question here really is like,
you know, what is it really like to own that car?

(53:01):
Like can you you have to really put yourself in
that situation and extrapolate what would happen if you were
driving that out to, uh, you know, a restaurant in town.
Would you feel comfortable handing the keys to a valet?
But there's a lot of people that there are certain
cars they say, i'll park it, I'll give you, I'll
give you double or whatever. Yeah, yeah, exactly that That's

(53:22):
a great scene, by the way, that's that's exactly the well,
that's exactly the fear, right is that you hand the
keys to the valet and it goes on a joy ride.
So a lot of people want to park their own
car and they'll pay double the valet rate. Um. Things
like that that you don't think of when you make
that purchase. You know that's that's the other thing. Just
there's a lot of a lot of unknowns I guess
until you make that purchase. So let us know what

(53:45):
you think about those things. Dream cars, nightmare cars, most feasible,
and then sky's limit. Kind of stuff you can tell
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(54:07):
a suggestion for an upcoming topic or a suggestion for
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and we turned it into a mystery show. So thanks
Rudy because it has a great one. Thanks to Rudy,
And if you would like to take a page out
of his book where I guess a screen out of
his email, I don't know that sounds kind of creepy.
In big government. We got work. Yeah, we'll work on that. Uh,

(54:28):
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