Cheap Cars are Going Extinct. Doug Calls Out the Purists! CyberTruck Success?

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
Episode: Cheap Cars are Going Extinct. Doug Calls Out the Purists! CyberTruck Success?
Release Date: September 20, 2024
Host: Doug DeMuro
Guests: Nick and Felipo

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1. Introduction

In this episode of THIS CAR POD!, Doug DeMuro returns to the studio alongside Nick and Felipo to discuss the latest happenings in the automotive world. With Kenan temporarily out of town, the trio dives straight into several pressing news stories, personal anecdotes, and audience questions, all while maintaining their characteristic humor and detailed analysis.

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2. News Highlights

A. K Car Ban and Reversal

The episode opens with a discussion about the controversial ban on Kei (K) cars in several states, including Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Maine, and Georgia. The ban was initially implemented based on safety concerns, but faced significant backlash.

• Doug DeMuro [02:09]: "The K cars don't cause any potential harm to others."
• Felipo [02:18]: "Every car in Massachusetts more than 10 years old is rusted through and is therefore also not safe."

Massachusetts eventually reversed its decision, citing the need for further review. The guests debated the logic behind the ban, questioning why motorcycles and three-wheelers weren't similarly restricted.

• Nick [03:03]: "Was the fear is that it was a slippery slope for all JDM cars and the Skylines also getting shut."

The conversation highlighted the inconsistencies and administrative challenges in enforcing such bans, emphasizing the broader implications for car enthusiasts and importers.

B. Jaguar's Sales Hiatus

Jaguar announced a temporary hiatus from car sales, sparking concerns about the brand's future. The discussion centered on Jaguar's struggles with inventory, outdated models like the I-Pace, and the shift towards electric vehicles.

• Doug DeMuro [05:44]: "Jaguar is taking a year off of sales because their inventory's aged."
• Felipo [06:08]: "Going to be thrilling in 2026 to buy a 2023 I-Pace brand new."

The guests criticized Jaguar's approach, noting the company's tarnished reputation and the limited appeal of models like the F-Pace. They also touched upon the interdependence between Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships, suggesting that while Land Rover thrives, Jaguar lags behind.

C. Mitsubishi Mirage Discontinued

The guests lamented the discontinuation of the Mitsubishi Mirage in 2024, marking the end of one of the most affordable new cars on the market.

• Doug DeMuro [17:25]: "Matt sure, but towards the end of the run, you know, they fixed the transmission."

They discussed the implications for consumers seeking budget-friendly options and highlighted the limited alternatives available under the $20K mark. The episode also explored Mitsubishi's strategy in other markets, where models like the Dodge Attitude continue to thrive.

D. CyberTruck Sales Success

A significant portion of the episode was dedicated to Tesla's CyberTruck, which has reportedly sold around 5,000 units in July alone—a figure rivaling the combined sales of other EV pickups like the Ribbon R1T and Ford Lightning.

• Felipo [20:00]: "The CyberTruck is a news story because it's been selling, selling, selling well."
• Doug DeMuro [22:38]: "I think the CyberTruck is kind of cool."

The guests debated the sustainability of CyberTruck's success, especially considering Tesla's unconventional design and reported durability issues during towing demonstrations.

• Nick [22:27]: "Cybertruck, I'm sad about so that it exists. Just the existence of the CyberTruck makes me sad."

They expressed concerns that negative publicity surrounding the CyberTruck could taint the broader perception of EV pickups, potentially hindering the market's growth.

E. Diesel Tuning Crackdown

The conversation shifted to the crackdown on diesel tuning, highlighting a case where a prominent tuning company, Cobb Tuning, faced hefty fines for enabling customers to bypass emissions regulations.

• Nick [26:22]: "Got a pretty big fine, like close to 3 million bucks for helping hundreds of thousands of people quote, unquote, cheat diesel regulations through their tunes."

The guests discussed the broader implications for the diesel and tuning industries, suggesting that such regulatory actions could effectively end diesel modifications in the U.S. and stifle enthusiasts' ability to enhance their vehicles.

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3. Personal Stories

A. Nick's Maserati Polo Purchase

Nick shared his experience purchasing a Maserati-branded Polo, detailing the sketchy transaction and challenges with the title.

• Nick [32:16]: "I bought a Maserati branded Polo that when you pop the collar, it says Maserati. So very on brand."
• Felipo [34:43]: "He was willing to send you the title, but not a bill of sale."

The discussion highlighted the risks associated with buying high-end cars from non-traditional sellers, emphasizing the importance of due diligence to avoid fraudulent deals.

B. Doug's Toyota Sequoia Tire Incident

Doug recounted an incident where his Toyota Sequoia suffered a blown tire while driving cross-country, sharing the dangers of roadside emergencies and the effectiveness of roadside assistance.

• Doug DeMuro [40:06]: "I was driving along just down the road, down the interstate and the tire, the car started to sway, the rear of the car started to sway..."

The story underscored the importance of vehicle maintenance and preparedness, as well as the reliability of services like Triple A in critical situations.

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4. Market Report

A. Unique Builds and Conversions

The hosts discussed unique car builds available on their sales platform, particularly focusing on BMW conversions like the F80 M3 in a station wagon format.

• Nick [45:03]: "I've never seen one before. And it is just so well done."
• Doug DeMuro [45:18]: "They did it right. They put on M3 fenders, M3 wheels, a manual transmission..."

They praised the quality of these conversions, noting that professionally modified cars can often command higher prices due to their bespoke nature.

B. Audi Robot Gift

Doug shared a lighthearted moment about receiving an Audi-themed robot as a gift from a friend, contrasting it with less impressive merchandise from other brands.

• Doug DeMuro [64:16]: "This is an Audi robot... It's going to be our new mascot when we don't have a third person that you sit on a chair."

C. Other Market Insights

The guests touched upon the fluctuating prices of classic cars like the Porsche 911, noting a trend where less desirable models are dropping in value, making them more accessible to enthusiasts.

• Doug DeMuro [51:46]: "We sold a 991911 yesterday for under 40."

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5. Audience Questions

The hosts addressed questions from listeners, covering topics such as the inclusion of the Aspark Owl in their listings and opinions on CNC Motors' shutdown due to fraud.

• Question from JM Katzie [57:00]: "Why is there not a section for the Aspark Owl?"
• Doug DeMuro [63:04]: "The reason is it doesn't exist."

Regarding CNC Motors, Doug provided an in-depth analysis of the dealership's rise and fall, emphasizing the importance of cautious dealings in the exotic car market to avoid fraudulent schemes.

• Doug DeMuro [57:00]: "CNC Motors was this exotic car dealership east of LA... eventually what happened was they were stealing from people."

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6. Conclusion

The episode wrapped up with light-hearted banter about their new Audi robot mascot and reflections on the challenges and excitement of the current automotive landscape. The hosts reiterated the importance of staying informed and cautious in car dealings, while also celebrating the unique and exciting developments within the industry.

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Notable Quotes

• Doug DeMuro [02:09]: "The K cars don't cause any potential harm to others."
• Felipo [02:18]: "Every car in Massachusetts more than 10 years old is rusted through and is therefore also not safe."
• Nick [03:03]: "Was the fear is that it was a slippery slope for all JDM cars and the Skylines also getting shut."
• Doug DeMuro [05:44]: "Jaguar is taking a year off of sales because their inventory's aged."
• Felipo [06:08]: "Going to be thrilling in 2026 to buy a 2023 I-Pace brand new."
• Nick [22:27]: "Cybertruck, I'm sad about so that it exists. Just the existence of the CyberTruck makes me sad."
• Doug DeMuro [22:38]: "I think the CyberTruck is kind of cool."
• Nick [26:22]: "Got a pretty big fine, like close to 3 million bucks for helping hundreds of thousands of people quote, unquote, cheat diesel regulations through their tunes."

---

Final Thoughts

This episode of THIS CAR POD! provided listeners with a comprehensive overview of current automotive issues, from regulatory changes affecting import cars to the evolving landscape of electric pickups. Through engaging discussions and personal stories, Doug, Nick, and Felipo offered valuable insights and entertained with their unique perspectives on the car market.

Transcript

[Doug DeMuro]

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[Nick]

Come to me.

[Doug DeMuro]

Focus Features invites you to succumb to the darkness. From director Robert Eggers comes a masterpiece of horror. He is coming. This creature is a force more powerful than evil. It is death itself. Nosferatu we did R under 17 nanometer without parent only theaters Christmas Day special engagements in Dolby and Imax. Hello and welcome to this car pod. I'm back in the studio along with Nick and Felipo. Kenan is out of town, has gone to Ohio and to prove that, yesterday he texted me a picture of a Dodge Viper, which is what they have in Ohio. And so we are here and we are going to carry on the podcast without him. Let's start with the news. There's an Autozam. Okay. This was a topic over the summer. The state of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, get it right, said that K cars were no longer legal to register. Massachusetts isn't the only state that's done this. North Carolina did it. Texas did it. Maine, Georgia, Georgia. It's been a problem. It's been an issue. And there was an outcry in Massachusetts and they have reversed their position. K cars are now re legal to register, but they say that they've reversed their position temporarily while they take a look at it. The K car ban is interesting, I think, because they're just trying to protect people from themselves. Right. The K cars don't cause any potential harm to others. Others.

[Felipo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Felipo]

Yeah. The rationale is that they're not safe enough. Conforming, of course. Every car in Massachusetts More than 10 years old is rusted through and is therefore also not safe.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, they have a pretty strict safety. It's an interesting thing that has happened, this whole banning of K cars thing, which has really kind of swept. What happened was the American association of Motor Vehicle Administrators issued a guidance that DMVs should start banning Kei cars. Not imported cars, just K cars, because they're too small. The problem is the DMVs are not sophisticated enough to understand what is a Kei car and what isn't a K car. And adding the step of having like the DHARMV in this case worker go outside with you and like, examine the sizing A lot of them are just like if it's a short vin, Japanese vin, we're just not going to accept it. And so that's what a lot of them have done. Well, Massachusetts reversed its stance and that.

[Nick]

Was the fear is that it was a slippery slope for all JDM cars and the Skylines also getting shut.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think some of us and I'm not going to name names but some of us were kind of like kickers. But it is a slippery slope because then Massachusetts apparently refused to register a Skyline thinking that it had a short business. A Japanese car. It's part of the edict that makes you kind of worried.

[Felipo]

What was also interesting, like in Georgia they revoked titles.

[Doug DeMuro]

They revoked titles which. Which is interesting. Remain did that like okay, you had.

[Felipo]

A car you imported legally. You had got it titled in the state legally and then all of a sudden you can't.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. Legally drive it.

[Felipo]

It was interesting.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was slightly concerning from that typical government, you know that everybody a bunch of BS red tape that and they in a lack of understanding on their part. But there is I think a reasonable argument that K cars are kind of scary things but the people are taking on the risk themselves. Unless maybe it's a passenger who doesn't realize. I mean that's the argument I guess they would make.

[Nick]

It doesn't make any sense to me. What about motorcycles? What about three wheelers?

[Doug DeMuro]

Like it's no less Are they going to ban. What is it called? KTM Exp. Now what are those ridiculous three wheelers that you like?

[Felipo]

The Polaris Slingshot.

[Doug DeMuro]

Polaris Slingshot.

[Nick]

I'm more of a Morgan guy, but point taken. Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

He likes the automatic slingshots.

[Nick]

Go back to your 60s cars. People are allowed to drive those on the road.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like good.

[Nick]

They're not totally getting in an accident.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's a great point. And so it's kind of silly to just make an arbitrary decision. Especially because the federal government has already made a decision which is the cars can't come over until they're 25 years old. That's a safety requirement. Is it? Well, no. This is a whole other topic that we don't need to get into right now.

[Felipo]

Is it safety?

[Doug DeMuro]

It is for it is. It is for it is. It is a protectionist thing for automakers. Not just one automaker, but many automakers. But it's in theory it's a safety thing. Like the car once they're 25 years old, it's a collectible car. You can import it because you're an enthusiast as opposed to Importing a non conforming car from Indonesia. That it is also true when you look at it.

[Felipo]

This is all recent, right? Ten years ago nobody was really importing that many cars. And now there's a lot. We sell a lot on cars and bids. There's a lot that are kind of flowing in.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, that's cheap cars, right?

[Nick]

Save the small cars. We want to bring an Aston Martin signet to the States asap.

[Doug DeMuro]

That is true.

[Nick]

And this is a.

[Felipo]

How many years you have to wait 10 out some of that and then.

[Doug DeMuro]

You have to import it from Monaco. The documents will be in French. They're all in Monaco.

[Felipo]

Does Disney make Massachusetts your favorite commonwealth?

[Doug DeMuro]

No, Kentucky remains my favorite commonwealth. Okay, next topic. Jaguar. Speaking of commonwealths, Jaguar, our favorite luxury brand. And by that I mean, I think we mean our least favorite luxury brand. What's worse, Maserati exists. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Jaguar has decided to take a year off of car sales. Like a kid who's just finished grueling four years at Harvard, they want to build houses in Costa Rica, take a year off before entering the job market.

[Felipo]

Where's Jaguar building houses?

[Doug DeMuro]

Jaguar is not going to build houses. They're just going to take a bit of a sabbatical. Now this is odd because this is a company that employs people. They didn't say they were going to take a year off. That's been distorted. They said they were going to take some, some time off and they also.

[Felipo]

Said that they were basically, it's in recognition of they have a lot of new car, in theory, they have a lot of new cars that are coming that are in development. They're taking a year off of sales because their inventory's aged.

[Nick]

Do we know what these new cars are?

[Doug DeMuro]

They're all electric because Jaguar wants to go completely electric. Now. I do want to say one thing. The real reason they're taking the year off is because they have built up so much inventory at dealers that nobody wants to buy. It's going to take them that long to sell the remaining I paces. Even though they're offering half off at buy one, get one free I pa.

[Felipo]

Going to be thrilling in 2026 to buy a 2023 I pace brand new.

[Nick]

Yeah, we like, we like deals punched.

[Doug DeMuro]

Two and a half years ago.

[Felipo]

I mean like it's good to just be honest. If you don't have any of cars to sell, you have nothing new. Your dealers hate you already.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Jaguar is definitely the most tarnished brand currently. Like they're in really tough shape.

[Felipo]

Go out and talk to some Chrysler dealers.

[Doug DeMuro]

Chrysler, Mini, there's some tough brands, but Jaguar, the F Pace was the only desirable car. Even though, even then they only leased at good lease deals. Every time you saw, when you knew it was someone leasing a 22.0 T model for whatever they could get it out the door, I believe it was.

[Felipo]

200T, but it's okay.

[Doug DeMuro]

So they're trying to 25. They're trying to rebrand and refigure this whole thing. Yeah.

[Felipo]

Now the good thing for Jaguar dealers that they also have Land Rover and therefore they make a lot of money on service claims.

[Doug DeMuro]

Virtually all Jaguar dealers, although not all, but almost all, have a Land Rover dealer as well. And so that brand has been doing fantastically and continues to do fantastically. They can't, they can't get them out the door fast enough. They still are supply constrained. And so one could make the argument that maybe we don't need Jaguar. Jaguars got to be the brand with the highest and most desirable name recognition and the least people who actually like the gulf between name recognition and like purchasing. Yeah. It's like Aston Martin and Jaguar are the two. Right. Like.

[Felipo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Everybody thinks they're cool. Nobody really is going to buy one. Yeah.

[Felipo]

So true. I'm trying to think of what would it take, like what lease deal would I need to get on an E Pace to buy. An E Pace. Yeah. Which is not the electric one.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. Just so you know, an I Pace, it would have to be like free.

[Felipo]

Is I Pace for sale?

[Doug DeMuro]

That's a good. I mean there's still used or new I Pace.

[Felipo]

Are there, Are there still? I don't know if they were.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, there's Philippe. I mean that car is going to be at dealer lots for the next decade.

[Nick]

The fleet sales manager is going to have a good, good quarter.

[Felipo]

Yeah. The next time I go to start.

[Doug DeMuro]

Selling the local governments for parking meter.

[Nick]

Enforcement, be good lifeguard vehicle.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, San Diego is using Mustang Mach Es for parking enforcements.

[Felipo]

I'm excited to the next time I go to Enterprise or Hertz to rent an F Pace for the cost of.

[Nick]

A new Versa, it is the brand prestige. They had the XJ220, the E type, which is arguably one of the most beautiful cars in the world. XK120, the Jaguar XKR personal favorite. They had a lot of good things going for them, but you just, it's. They're at a price point where it's very competitive and, and cars, cars kind.

[Doug DeMuro]

Of turned on them. Right. Like their, their whole brand was based in These luxury cars.

[Nick]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

And the market switched to SUVs, which fortunately they had in Land Rover. And so they were able to kind of make up, make it up there. But like the xj, which was our whole lives has been full. One of the most desirable. Yeah, totally. And now it's, it's gone. I mean, canceled it years ago and there's just not a lot of demand.

[Nick]

I actually think that the F type, the SUV like was good looking when it came out. Whatever, something.

[Felipo]

Well, there's your problem.

[Doug DeMuro]

Fair point though.

[Nick]

But I mean it should have been a cayenne competitor. I think they could have done something with it.

[Felipo]

It's a beautiful suv.

[Nick]

Yeah. But it kind of languished.

[Doug DeMuro]

It languished as every Jaguar product.

[Felipo]

And in theory there will see a lot of new ones and in a year from now they'll be in a great position to sell new inventory.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, I wish they would come out with some of those electric concept cars they used to Jaguar every year or two would come out with a concept car that didn't have like seats. That's what I'm looking for.

[Nick]

Feels very, it feels very much like the British Cadillac that just kind of lost its way.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's a breakfast.

[Felipo]

Is it the British Cadillac or British Lincoln maybe?

[Doug DeMuro]

Either one.

[Nick]

Either one is a good. Has any brand ever done this and come back, take it a year off?

[Doug DeMuro]

No. It's not a common tactic.

[Nick]

So they don't have the odds in their favor.

[Doug DeMuro]

I want to take a year off.

[Felipo]

The last Jaguar press car that you've had, like what was the last car that was new enough that they could convince you to accept their press car?

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know that Jag ever sent me a press car. That's a good question. Xe I had. No, I never had an xe. I went to Jag dealers. I think that was it because I did the ipac. Well, the best Jag of all time.

[Nick]

XF Shooting brake.

[Doug DeMuro]

No. Although I saw one of those.

[Felipo]

I do love those.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. So those rural, middle of the country driving on the freeway. The best Jag ever. Recent car. XE Project 8.

[Nick]

Yep. Yes, yes, yes.

[Doug DeMuro]

A car had 9,000 horsepower. The side of it was a leaping cat. It didn't have back seats and it had a wing the size of, of these bookcases.

[Nick]

It looked like there was ready to go race imsa. It was awesome.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I don't know where they all went. I've never seen one except for the one I reviewed.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Felipo]

Sad.

[Nick]

Well, I don't think they made Many.

[Doug DeMuro]

No. Because there was no interest or demand.

[Nick]

Rest in peace. Jaguar.

[Doug DeMuro]

RIP Jaguar. They'll be back.

[Felipo]

They're just taking a nap.

[Doug DeMuro]

We're taking a nap. It's an interesting wake up company window crank. What's the window crank for the users.

[Felipo]

For people that are watching that are under the age of 15.

[Doug DeMuro]

You don't.

[Felipo]

You've never seen one of these before?

[Doug DeMuro]

No. No, Nick. Well, no, they have. If they have a Jeep Wrangler, they're.

[Felipo]

Oh, nice. Although I was. Before you get into that. There are great like memes of like vines or I guess reels now of like, what do different generations do for different motions? Like for picking up a phone, it's no longer vids. It's like swiping on an iPhone. And for rolling down a window, it's like holding down a button. For all of us. It's.

[Nick]

It was cranking, my man.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's crazy. Anyway, the reason this comes up is because the very last crank window car is gone. The Jeep Wrangler. I was actually thinking about this because I'm in a Nissan kicks press car right now and it has four automatic down windows.

[Felipo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

And that used to be like a big selling point, right? Like rear auto down. Only the Lexus has had that. Not the Toyotas, but like power window. Probably the cost to make a crank window version of the door panel and a power window version of the door panel has just gotten. It's just stupid. It's so cheap and it's so ubiquitous.

[Felipo]

Seven years ago I had a Fiat Panda press car or not a rental car that still had rear.

[Doug DeMuro]

In Europe, there are definitely still cars.

[Felipo]

But in the US You've lost your chance.

[Doug DeMuro]

You lost your chance.

[Felipo]

Except for the course. The many I find funny about.

[Doug DeMuro]

Everybody complains about the death of the manual transmission. Nobody is standing up about the manual. Just. Where are the purists? Where are the purists?

[Nick]

I'm surprised that the 911sts and the lightweight versions of cars, they have your little loop because the door handle would be too heavy. But a power window, bring them back.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's one of my favorite things about those cars. Yeah. The enthusiast. Oh, we have a door loop because we're trying to save weight. But you have a navigation system.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

You have dual zone automatic climate control. And all those guys go around talking about how hardcore they are. Meanwhile. Because I got a door loop. Meanwhile, they're the bucket seats. Meanwhile, they got. They got a nav system.

[Felipo]

They got an auto up window.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. And in a power. And a power window of course it's.

[Felipo]

Probably lighter to have a power window than the like a nice heavy crank.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. But we're talking about simplicity here. We're purists about this. Should we pick it?

[Nick]

I will say I have a car which we'll talk about later, that has a broken window regulator and I wouldn't have minded if it's manual because right now I got to use two hands.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes.

[Nick]

And shimmy it back up every time it falls.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's right. That's the thing. A manual window they never broke.

[Nick]

In the words of lotus. And they're $200,000 SUV. Let's simplify and add lightness.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is a new story we didn't put on our thing, but we should do so the Elotus Elitri Electra Etrolitral. Yeah, E liter is one of these cars that is subject to this China EV tariff of 100%.

[Felipo]

So it's the cost. 200 grand now, right?

[Doug DeMuro]

200. When I reviewed it and I thought it was a pretty good vehicle. It wasn't a Lotus really, but it was like a good suv, honestly. And it looks good and it drives.

[Felipo]

Well and it has.

[Doug DeMuro]

It had a 105 base. They just came out with the first edition which they're calling like the carbon edition. And it's got like a 195 base or something.

[Felipo]

Well, it's all double the price before it even started.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep. Goodbye Lotus. Isn't that wild? So they're screwed. Yeah, but they were always screwed. So it's like.

[Felipo]

But maybe they'll be really successful with the European market.

[Doug DeMuro]

Does Tesla build EVs in China for the US market?

[Felipo]

Probably not only for the Chinese market.

[Nick]

It is such a shame Kenan's not here to do a China.

[Felipo]

I know on this. Such great Trump impressions.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, but he's in Ohio where everybody feels that way. Okay, next. Next one.

[Felipo]

Wait, can I say one other thing about the Jeep Wrangler?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Felipo]

Goodbye automatic V6 Wrangler.

[Doug DeMuro]

So are they all four cylinders now?

[Felipo]

No. So you can get a manual V6 Wrangler still.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I know that you can get.

[Felipo]

Get the V8 for one more year, I think.

[Doug DeMuro]

The V8. Right.

[Felipo]

The 392 and you can get the 4 by 8.

[Doug DeMuro]

The V8 Wrangler is the subtlest flex in the car business. Yep. Like he is. He didn't know until two minutes ago that they made one.

[Nick]

No, you.

[Felipo]

When it has giant 392badging. He knew where on the side it's dual exhaust.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's the only way you can tell.

[Felipo]

It's also loud and it rumbles. I think it's also a regular four cylinder that's not four by eight but I can't remember.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know what's weird about the 4xe Wranglers because they're all over Nantucket and I was listening to them blue toho. But you know what's weird? They make this whistle sound that is unbelievably annoying. It's different than other EV sounds. It's like a whistle and it's like shut up. Before we move on, I want to take a minute to talk about today's sponsor Factor. Factor makes my life easier with fresh, never frozen chef crafted meals that are ready to eat in just two minutes. Meaning with Factor, I always have time for a nutritious, great tasting meal. Between my family, friends, cars and tenin, my life can get pretty busy. Factor makes it easy to maintain a healthy diet while still enjoying my meals. Something you might not know about me is my love of food. It's one of the greatest joys in my life right up there with my Carrera gt. Good meals are important to me though. And with factor, there are 35 different meals and more than 60 add ons that you can choose and discover every week. Factor makes your day delicious from breakfast to dessert with dietitian approved meals. You can trust filet mignon, shrimp, blackened salmon and more. There's no shopping, prepping, cooking or cleaning up. Kickstart your meals whether you're looking to help manage calories, maximize protein intake, avoid meat, or simply eat well balanced. Factor has meals that probably fit your life style too. Head to FactorMeals.com Cars50 and use code CARS50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That's code [e-mail] Cars50 to get 50% off your 1st box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. All right, give us the next news story, which is a big one. This is a big deal. I want to hear your thoughts.

[Felipo]

You want another new story or you got it?

[Nick]

It's a Mitsubishi.

[Felipo]

Correct.

[Nick]

If I had to guess, it's orange on orange, which is one of the problems in this vehicle.

[Felipo]

The interior is certainly black.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, it's gray. They only did one color.

[Nick]

The wheels have orange.

[Felipo]

This is a Mitsubishi Mirage, or if you wanted the sedan version, the Mirage G4. It will not exist in 2025. The 2024 is the final year of the Mitsubishi Mirage and you know what that means there's only one new car under 20K.

[Doug DeMuro]

One more new car under 20K.

[Felipo]

Do you know what it is?

[Nick]

Because this was the cheapest car on sale.

[Felipo]

It was.

[Doug DeMuro]

Now, to be fair, do you know.

[Felipo]

What that one new car is?

[Doug DeMuro]

Nissan Versa, of course. Although you can get a Leaf I bet for the, with the, with the.

[Felipo]

MSRP is under 20K.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay.

[Felipo]

And Leaf MSRPs are not as cheap as they should be.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, but like you go into a Nissan deal and you got a pulse, you're walking out at 40.

[Felipo]

You can also get an Aria, which is their mid size electric car for probably 20.

[Doug DeMuro]

So the Mirage is gone now. The Mirage, you know, I had a review of it that was not particularly positive about seven years ago and nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. You know, people are going to blame me for the death of this car and they already have. I've gotten some angry tweets.

[Felipo]

Have you really?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. But the thing is the car has been on the market 10 years. Like that's a product life cycle and they didn't want to update it. And I'm sure there's changing regulations that are like, kill it. Can I tell you a very interesting thing? In some markets, the Mitsubishi Mirage is sold as the Dodge Attitude. Did you know that?

[Felipo]

No, but that's phenomenal.

[Doug DeMuro]

Here's the best part. I swear to God what I'm about to tell you is true. In some other markets, the Mitsubishi Mirage, the Dodge Attitude, the Mitsubishi version is sold as the Atrage. Google it.

[Felipo]

The Entraj.

[Doug DeMuro]

A combination of Attitude and Mirage in one word. I swear to you I am not making this up. Then I assume the car is not going away in like Southeast like I drove for sale.

[Felipo]

Another market just in the US will be gone and maybe Canada.

[Doug DeMuro]

I drove one of these to the highest point in Thailand. How about that?

[Felipo]

Out of Curiosity, do, do 20, 24 models still have the hideous backup camera?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, of course.

[Felipo]

Well, the car is ready to be dead.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's ready to be dead. It was a trash.

[Felipo]

It is sad that there's nothing under 20 grand, but it's not surprising.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, I mean it's very difficult. In today's like regulatory and production cost environment, it's very difficult to make a profit on a car.

[Felipo]

What we should be talking about is there's been a few cars in the last year that are in the low 20s that are surprising. The Buick and Vista. Yeah, The Nissan Kicks that just came out, which seems good. Which I assume is low 20s. The Chevy tracks.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep. There's not options it's been surprising to me that especially General Motors has kind of gone back into this because Ford kind of pulled out of this cycle entirely and was like, we can't make money on cheap cars. Which I think is reasonable. I mean, Honda, the Honda Fit was popular and Honda was still like my mom, doing this for practice.

[Felipo]

17 grand in 2012.

[Nick]

Well, the only way you do make money is their volume and the volume couldn't have been here for this.

[Felipo]

So do we feel bad for Mitsubishi dealers? They only can sell the Outlander.

[Nick]

I actually think the Outlander looks nice and it's like a price point.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, it's quite popular in other markets. Yeah, yeah. Like you go to Europe and there are some European markets that must heavily incentivize and like it's one of the only plug in suv.

[Felipo]

I would buy an Outlander.

[Nick]

Yeah, me too.

[Doug DeMuro]

You walk around Amsterdam, it's like all outlanders and like 70s Cadillac, but it's.

[Felipo]

The only Mitsubishi for sale in the U.S. u.S.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think. What about the Eclipse Cross?

[Felipo]

Oh, I'm. I legitimately forgot about the Eclipse Cross. Well done, well done. All right, goodbye Mirage. We will.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick, aren't you sad about this as a purist?

[Nick]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. All right.

[Nick]

Cybertruck, I'm sad about so that it exists. Just the existence of the cybertruck makes me sad.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cybertruck is a news story because it's been selling, selling, selling well.

[Felipo]

So a lot of manufacturers no longer report out sales on a monthly basis. So we're a little bit delayed in this new story because not. Because not everybody reports at the same time. We don't have final numbers, but there was an analysis done recently that showed that Tesla sold something like 5,000 cybertrucks in July alone, which is approximately the same as the total number of other EV pickup trucks. So if you combine the Ribbon R1T, the four Lightning, the Silverado EV that has sold zero, especially in July, I.

[Doug DeMuro]

Saw Washington D.C. government had a Silverado EV.

[Felipo]

Nice, nice. The Hummer EV pickup sold fewer combined than the cybertruck. Okay, look, there's only one impressive thing in this, but go ahead.

[Doug DeMuro]

Here's my analysis. Yep. Okay. This is new. Those are old. Next topic.

[Felipo]

Also, the biggest surprise here is not that it's sold that many, although 5,000 Cybertrucks is not a small number of cybertrucks, it's that they built that many. Yeah, and also they were all foundation series, which was in theory limited to the first. I love this thousand.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Foundations series is still.

[Felipo]

It's now all of 2020 regular production. It's all 24 model year, maybe more. We. We've got a lot of. We sell a fair number of cybertrucks and for a long time we would put like foundation series in the like subtitle and like limited edition or whatever. And we'd also refer to the exoskeleton because Tesla did every, like couple of weeks, they update their website and they remove references. Like, it used to be that the foundation series on their website was limited edition. First X unit. They've removed that to be limited to the 2024 model year. And I think now it says something even vaguer.

[Doug DeMuro]

What. What do we think about the Whistlin Diesel cybertruck? Durability?

[Felipo]

Oh, wow. We're going back. Months of news here.

[Doug DeMuro]

I gotta tell you, it was the greatest thing I saw this whole summer.

[Nick]

Yeah, Part two is coming soon, apparently.

[Doug DeMuro]

What did you think about that?

[Nick]

I mean, the whole bumper issue was like, pretty interesting. I thought he was brilliant to compare it against the F150 Lightning. But either way, like, I. It's really hard to like the cybertruck and like that. To me, like, like was just another nail in the coffin for the cybertruck in terms of like, actual people who are on the Internet and thought it was cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

Initially, the Tesla Twitter people freaked out. I didn't do this. Right. He didn't do that. Right. It was like laughing.

[Felipo]

But some of those things are really concerning. Like, if you don't hook up your tow bar to something, I'm gonna go.

[Doug DeMuro]

Out on a limb. Correct. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I think the cybertruck's stupid. I think. I think the cybertruck is kind of cool. I think a lot of the people who buy them are kind of editors.

[Felipo]

Get ready to cut this, please, as in forest short so we can publicize it.

[Doug DeMuro]

But the thing that was with the. With the steel and it didn't really.

[Felipo]

Bother me, it's only concerning because it could be a legitimate safety hazard. And there are standards for how you happen.

[Doug DeMuro]

I mean, like, this is one of my.

[Felipo]

Yeah. When the video came out, there were other people that said I was towing.

[Doug DeMuro]

This once or twice, but customers will do anything. Like, there is nothing a person, people can't do once the public has a vehicle. That's what we learned at Porsche.

[Felipo]

I know, but you need. If you say it's rated to tow a certain amount, you need to be able to actually withstand.

[Nick]

No one's towing with an EV pickup. That's a bad choice.

[Doug DeMuro]

But he didn't break it while towing. That's the thing.

[Felipo]

No, but he broke it in a way that is realistic to recreate.

[Doug DeMuro]

You mean dropping it on a steel. On a cement block.

[Felipo]

You're towing something, you go over a large pothole. Like it needs to be connected in a specific way. And I think that the SAE has recommendations around how.

[Nick]

Like what kind of a lot of.

[Doug DeMuro]

Problems with the whatever. Like the towing thing is a minor.

[Nick]

Him being able to peel off the. The no trim the window trim like.

[Felipo]

I think was the situation what's supposed.

[Nick]

To be this indestructible like road truck and then like whatever like a Lego cat.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's what the people who drive them think they're the coolest trist and you can. Yeah, it's. It's built like a child.

[Nick]

Going back to the news story, don't you feel like them cherry picking June to say it was good. They had a stop sale the month before because of the pedals and they had three years of reservations like of course it had a good month.

[Doug DeMuro]

You might be right that there's some cherry picking there. But the point still stands. I mean Rivian is just out there trying to sell trucks and they ain't selling at this level. And the Lightning, which was the hottest thing in the world when it came out, what happened to that? And the Hummer ev, they're moving two a month. Anyway, the point is the Cybertruck, regardless whether it's cherry picking or not, is selling. I'm curious to see like a year or the first 24 months or something that'll kind of be a real.

[Felipo]

And we'll have better data at the end of the quarter. So September when other manufacturers also report out.

[Doug DeMuro]

Because I'll tell you something, when Rivian was hot, it also outsold all the other trucks.

[Felipo]

There weren't the Lightning.

[Doug DeMuro]

Lightning was hot. So we just got to figure out, you know, is this early people who are excited Tesla's real problem is going to be are there still going to be excited people?

[Felipo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

After two years of this truck, when you can buy used ones for 75.

[Felipo]

60, prices have plummeted because to their credit they're delivering trucks, which is what they need to be doing. Have you noticed that most that you see are wrapped?

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, they're wrapped because it's impossible to take care of the stainless steel. Yeah. So it's cool. I think the stainless steel is the coolest look. I think when it's wrapped it doesn't really look all that Cool anymore. You kind of lose a lot of the appeal.

[Nick]

There's a guy that wrapped it stainless steel.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

So that it was easier to maintain while retaining the look. But my question is, I feel like EV pickups in general have had a bad rap. Like who? These review of towing with the lightning that made the rounds on the news cycles. This, besides the damage it's doing to the Tesla brand, might be also spoiling EV pickups in general. Because everyone's just going to say, I need a pickup. And the Cybertruck is yet another example that the EV pickups aren't capable of being.

[Doug DeMuro]

I agree with you. And I was thinking about that with Fisker. Like, I've talked to people, a bunch of people. My neighbors at Summer were asking me about Rivian and they're like, but I'm worried that it might fail like Fisker. And that's the same thing that you're talking about. Like, oh, this Eve, this EV pickup truck is stupid. Aren't they all stupid? One EV that gets in people's minds, it starts to, like, permeate the other one. So I think it's a loss. I agree with you. I think it's a loss for all the EVs when one of them looks like it's poorly built and trashy. And that's why I feel what it's supposed to do.

[Felipo]

That's why I feel bad that Toyota has sold any BZ4X's. It's really setting a bad foundation for.

[Doug DeMuro]

Evil on the road today. I was in the Countach. I knew that person wouldn't look over at the Countach.

[Felipo]

All right, next story.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick, what do you got?

[Nick]

All right, it's a resident pro modification guy here on the podcast Cob Tuning. Got a pretty big fine, like close to 3 million bucks for helping hundreds of thousands of people quote, unquote, cheat diesel regulations through their tunes. It apparently made it so that they could get through smog or whatever their equivalent was.

[Felipo]

Like, access port.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Everyone's saying it's.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's.

[Nick]

What's a big fine to, like you or I like, that'd be a lot of money to Cobb. It's not enough that it's gonna end them, but it is interesting that there was.

[Felipo]

Yeah, the EPA has really cracked down on Diesel.

[Doug DeMuro]

I have a question with this cheating. Is diesel just done then? Because it seems to me like Volkswagen, we all knew Volkswagen was the. Was the big one, right? And they got hit with this thing. It was a big part of their whole brand identity, their entire brand identity. They had gone away from hybrids and electrics and focused on diesels. And they stop. Right. The Ram that had a diesel, the Mercedes with diesels, they have all gone away because they were all used to feed dices. Let's be honest. Yeah.

[Nick]

Heard it here first.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, I mean other ones got 100%.

[Felipo]

If they weren't penalized here, they were penalized in Europe.

[Doug DeMuro]

Exact same thing is diesel just done. The only cars used in diesel like the big SUVs and the big full size trucks. But I'm not sure they're subject to the same regulations.

[Felipo]

A lot of overseas are generally not subject.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like the Yukon has a diesel and like the Ram 3500 and stuff. Yeah. You can still get that. You can still get but. But that's the same kind of thing. Right. It's such a big vehicle that I'm not sure it has to do with. So like is the rest of it done? Is there a diesel wrangler anymore? Like is this, is this over?

[Felipo]

I think it's over. And primarily I think it's over because the EU changed a lot.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Felipo]

A lot of diesel reaching people was because the EU had like there was a bunch of incentives that fundamentally incentivize it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. That ended up, that ended a few years ago.

[Felipo]

They decided to like no longer focus on electric. Yeah. But this really is people taking their Silverado diesel and removing additional restrictions. Removing things that made it vaguely.

[Doug DeMuro]

But it's another. To me it's another nail in the coffin of diesel. Not only is it harder to buy one now, you can't tune one.

[Felipo]

You can't roll call.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. You can't roll call. The government's going to come after you. They're not taking, they're taking this quite seriously.

[Felipo]

As they should.

[Doug DeMuro]

Diesel's over.

[Nick]

Let's just hope that the tuning industry in general survives. I want to be able to unlock an extra 30 horsepower and do some cool stuff. So he wants, he wants.

[Doug DeMuro]

You got to assume that a lot of the tunes. Yeah. Have a bad effect on emissions. So why does the government focusing on diesel? Right.

[Felipo]

Just so much more egregious.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Felipo]

The effect is much more significant than like an APR stage one tune on a gti.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. And probably some of it isn't right. A boost turning up. Turbo boost or something. Probably doesn't have much of a. No, not enough to make a big deal.

[Felipo]

It didn't change emission.

[Nick]

The California is apparently now checking for tunes and will fail you on smog. Now how widely that's being enforced is another question.

[Doug DeMuro]

Quite.

[Felipo]

But, you know, avoid it. Don't modify your cars, guys. Your manufacturer knew what they're doing.

[Nick]

I can't share my smog secrets in a public venue. But there's. There's ways.

[Doug DeMuro]

Do they have to do with the Billings? Helena.

[Nick]

Helena is how you pronounce it. Thank you to whoever corrected me on.

[Doug DeMuro]

The last pod for like months. We never bothered to.

[Nick]

But no. I mean, even within California, there's. There's ways around. But it's interesting. Every new car comes out, the manufacturer says, oh, this is untunable. It's uncrackable. Eventually they find ways. Yeah, because there's so many controls in the ECU that locks you proud of the fat.

[Doug DeMuro]

General Motors is like. Especially some cars that you might expect to have been able to tune 10 years ago. You can't as much anymore. Yeah. Okay. We gotta move on from news to our next.

[Felipo]

But then you can get by from Ford. The performance kid that gives you an extra 100 extra horsepower still allows it.

[Doug DeMuro]

And Hennessey primarily only tunes Fords now because of that. Interesting.

[Felipo]

I think it's good that, honestly, the EPA is really cracking down on a bunch of really egregious emissions stuff. Cobb will be fine.

[Doug DeMuro]

You can't let these people just continue to do it, especially if they're specifically flouting the law by creating a device that literally knows when it's on a dyno or whatever and changes the emissions profile. The government. You can't get mad at the government. They got it. They got to enforce that. All the. All the back. The blue folks ought to be. Ought to be supportive of this. I have a suspicion, though, that there's a little bit of a distressing overlap here.

[Nick]

My takeaway from the new segments is I want to get a cob tune K car with a diesel motor.

[Felipo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And I'm going to drive it to a Jaguar dealership and ask for a trade in crank windows. Crank windows.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, I. Cars do have one of the great. I always felt one of the great videos would be taking an XJ220 to a Jaguar dealer and asking for an oil change. Just show up like you're a customer. Hey, listen, I got. Can I be a waiter? Can you guys. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's back to school time. And even if you aren't headed back to school, what is something you'd love to learn? It's always important to make time to learn things about yourself. For instance, I would like to learn how to detail my cars as well. As can it. Therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder and your curiosity within. Mental health and therapy are tremendously important to me. I have family members in the mental health space and I truly believe in therapy and in its ability to create successful outcomes and improve lives. I really, truly do. And BetterHelp is a great way to start the journey. If you've been considering starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online and it's designed to be contained, convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. And rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp. To get started, visit betterhelp.com thiscar today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L P.com thiscar to get started with BetterHelp okay, our next segment is talking about cars. There are two major topics that we have to cover this week. Two and we'll start with Nick.

[Nick]

Well, I have a little announcement for the viewers. We have determined our next car. And for those listening, I bought a Maserati branded Polo that when you pop the collar, it says Maserati. So very on brand. Come on, keep it popped.

[Felipo]

You got to suit the image.

[Nick]

Even I have more shame than to actually wear it this way for longer than a second or two.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is the most tasteless thing I've ever seen in my life. Show us again.

[Nick]

Show the combination too. It's actually made in collaboration with North Sales. So it's for sailing people that have Maseratis, which you just have to imagine what that dinner table conversation is like.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right, right, right, right.

[Nick]

I bought a Quattroporte. I'm super excited.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was. Wait, wait, wait. You didn't buy just any Quattroporte. You bought the 2012.

[Nick]

So the M139. Basically the Ferrari F430 derived engine Quattroporte.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's what we're going to hang our.

[Felipo]

Hat on, as we call it QP5.

[Doug DeMuro]

So tell us about the car.

[Nick]

It was the sketchiest transaction I've ever been involved in. And that's saying something. As someone who intentionally seeks out to lowball the sketchiest sellers I can find.

[Felipo]

I and our producer, Sean and Kenan and Doug have all cringed independently at different moments of these stories.

[Nick]

I may or may not technically own it right now because there was a problem with the title that insurance, it's insured.

[Felipo]

Now you have the car in your Possession.

[Doug DeMuro]

Are you aware of the clear coat situation?

[Nick]

Yeah, I thought I might have removed some paint on.

[Doug DeMuro]

He was doing a DIY PPF removal job. He pulled the clear off and pulled off. He pulled the PPF off and also a spin of clear about the size of a license plate.

[Nick]

We're going to do another YouTube series for cars embeds, and I was worried the car was too nice and we wouldn't have content. I've had the car four days, and I've already got two episodes worth of content, so.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, the biggest episode is buying the car. The sales process was truly the sketchiest thing from the sketchiest individual in the history of West Texas. And.

[Felipo]

I think you should do a full video on just what happened with Dark face in the corner reacting.

[Doug DeMuro]

Are you aware that at one point the guy said to him, I don't know why this is a problem for you to send money or me to. Because I have more money in my bank account than you anyway, so whatever.

[Nick]

When I send proof of funds, it quickly devolved into a contest to see who was richer or not. And I. I wanted to explain to him that he didn't keep all of my net worth in my checking account, but I was just like, forget it. This is gonna be too complicated.

[Felipo]

My favorite part is that he was willing to send you the title, but not a bill of sale.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes.

[Nick]

Oh, yes. He was terrified I would take the bill of sale to the police and, like, somehow steal his car.

[Felipo]

He sent you the title?

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes.

[Felipo]

Signed. Well, incorrectly signed.

[Doug DeMuro]

But the signed bill of sale is more important and valuable of the title.

[Felipo]

But you'll talk about all this video.

[Nick]

Yes, it was. It was a long journey, but the car is. I'm over the moon about. So the QP5s were about $150,000 car new today. You can buy them from, like, maybe let's call it 10 to 20, depending on mileage and condition. But towards the end of the run, you know, they fixed the transmission. It was known for having the F1 trans or duo Select. Maserati called it. They switched to a ZF transmission. And then it was known for having cam variator problems, which was a 6 to $8,000 fix on a car worth 10.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

So the resale value has got to be at the bottom.

[Doug DeMuro]

But his car is late enough in the production run that it's past both of those.

[Felipo]

It's a gorgeous color.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's a gorgeous color.

[Felipo]

Blue.

[Nick]

It's this beautiful blue blue Mediterranean. With the MC Sportline package, it is perfect. But towards the end of the run, because it had such a bad reputation like Jaguar, Maserati probably should have taken its year off to find itself, but they produced a handful for the final model year. It was really hard to find them because of that.

[Felipo]

Can you define the MC Sport line?

[Doug DeMuro]

You'd be stunned, Filippo. It's incredible.

[Felipo]

I know. That's where I'm getting at.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's incredibly useful. There's carbon fiber all over, but was.

[Felipo]

That part of MC Sport? I thought you couldn't find anything from Maserati that defines MC Sport. It might be an aftermarket badge. We don't.

[Nick]

I was trying to research this because I was hoping it was like a paint, a sample thing. So I called the Maserati dealership locally. They go, oh, we no longer sell Maseratis. Only Ferrari. Try this other dealership. So they call another dealership. They're like, oh, I think it just means carbon fiber trim, but I'm not really sure. So then I called Maserati corporate in North America, and so we're not really willing to share anything with you unless your name's on the title. So I. I'm gonna try them again. But it does seem to be more like an interior trim.

[Doug DeMuro]

But, dude, it looks amazing.

[Felipo]

It looks very rescue.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, it's here today.

[Felipo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

I didn't realize that. It's blue. It's really gorgeous car. You're gonna see it in a YouTube series where Nick documents all the problems with it and then he fixes it up and makes it great. Like the P38 race.

[Nick]

My goal is to own it for free because it's known for being bad maintenance. So we'll see if the maintenance exceeds the point of where I could sell.

[Doug DeMuro]

It does have 90,000 miles.

[Nick]

89,000 and change.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. But the fact that it even got to that point, I think, is a testament to the reality that these cars aren't as unreliable, some people say, particularly if you get a late one that has some of these issues solved.

[Nick]

I did the oil change yesterday, and it was really clean underneath. It didn't really have any leaks. Compared to my P38, this car is, like, cherry.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Nick]

So it's.

[Doug DeMuro]

I love it. I think it's great. I worked at a Ferrari dealership when these cars were new, and I remember driving them and thinking they were so much, so great handling. They were just so much fun. We also sold Bentley, and it was literally a night and day difference between a flying spur and they were both new at the same time. And that quattroporte like it was so fun to drive. Sounds great.

[Nick]

I was worried the suspension was broken because it was so firm. But I think it's just a sporty car.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's a sporty car. It really was. It was a great handling, great steering. Car that depreciated heavily. We sold one the other day for like 10 12.

[Nick]

It was 11ish or 10 and change, but yeah. And that one had this year transmission. That was a great buy. I was actually egging my friend to buy it because I was like, I already bought one, but this is a good car to buy.

[Felipo]

You could have two hidden. Harris could.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, the best thing. I mean, you kind of. Maybe he'll need to.

[Nick]

Yeah, let's hope not.

[Felipo]

I'm thrilled for your purchase and that the car showed up.

[Nick]

I have actually always want. I have a 118 scale diecast that I bought literally when it was new, like 15 years ago.

[Doug DeMuro]

So the purchase was so sketchy that, you know, the dude who sold him the car, it wasn't his name on the title. It was a man or a woman who he claimed was his cousin and the cousin's mom or wife.

[Nick]

Right, With a different name.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, with a completely different name. First and last, totally different.

[Felipo]

Only Nick would be willing to purchase.

[Doug DeMuro]

And at some point Nick text us our group chat and he's like, hey, so many problems happened. This transaction is cursed. And I'm like, nick, it's cursed because you've gone after the sketchiest car from the sketchiest seller. Like, if you were just for buying a car from a dealer, it wouldn't be cursed. It would just be a normal transaction. It's cursed because you pursued that.

[Felipo]

If you're the seller and you're listening to this, just sign the title.

[Nick]

I just started thinking that. I'm like, he has the title right now and I need him to return.

[Felipo]

Sign the title first.

[Doug DeMuro]

And then he's not going to hear any of this. He doesn't care. He doesn't know about cars. That's one of the things that I find to be so crazy. Like if he had googled Nick, he would know. Because Nick held his tongue for a lot of the craziness because he wanted the car for the content, which is what a lot of us do when we're buying content cars. Like, we know and the seller's like, oh, I'm slipping one under, you know, they don't know. We always know. We just need the videos. Yeah. And that's what's happening.

[Nick]

I did eventually explain them. I'm like, hey, you can google me. And also like, here's a picture of my Lamborghini. Like, I promise I'm not trying to.

[Doug DeMuro]

So after he said the bank account thing, you showed a picture of your Lamborghini. So you got into like a, like a pissing match with this guy a little bit. What's wrong with you?

[Nick]

He was selling a fifteen hundred dollar water slide. All right. I wanted to just.

[Doug DeMuro]

His other stuff on Facebook Marketplace was like a used water slide. This is an El Paso, a used water slide. The qp. There was one other insane thing.

[Felipo]

Some sort of gardening kind of water slide.

[Nick]

Oh, it was. No, it's a plot of land for like 85 grand on Facebook Marketplace.

[Doug DeMuro]

I wonder who that was titled too.

[Nick]

But it's part of the fun. It's part of the chase for sure. So I think I scored pretty well.

[Doug DeMuro]

I can't wait for the videos. I checked out the car the other day. I think it looks absolutely great. Oklahoma. Really? Seriously, I think it looks great. I love those cars. I really do. I've just always been afraid to pursue one.

[Felipo]

We're thrilled that you're not too afraid.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I gotta say, the next gen QP lost a lot of the like specialness that the, the one you have is sort of like the. It feels like a real exotic car. Like there's little stitched leather and like it's just really. The newer one is more accessible, probably more reliable, but not as special.

[Nick]

Whenever someone claims a Ferrari derived engine, you have to kind of take it with a grain of salt. But it did have the sticky buttons from Ferrari. It had a lot of the Italian stuff.

[Doug DeMuro]

Not only did it have a Ferrari drive engine had Ferrari derived sticky buttons. That's right. That's how you know it's real. The other talk car segment is I drove my Toyota Sequoia across country. I had a flat tire. Now I posted that I had a flat tire on my Instagram and people became enraged that it's not a flat tire. They said that is just destroyed.

[Felipo]

I mean they're not wrong.

[Doug DeMuro]

Here's what happened. Okay. I was driving along just down the road, down the interstate and the tire, the car started to sway, the rear of the car started to sway and I thought it was just the lane keep assist because that can happen sometimes that it's like does some weird, makes weird decisions or whatever. But it turned out that after a little bit more aggressive swaying, I looked down and I saw the tire pressure light was on. Okay, so Filippo's pulled up the picture. This is the Tire. It really a bad situation.

[Felipo]

This tire is demolished.

[Doug DeMuro]

So anyway, wait, sorry.

[Felipo]

Let's just talk about this. A tire goes flat.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, flat. Then you have to drive on a.

[Felipo]

Little bit to get off the highway safely.

[Doug DeMuro]

The car starts swaying in the back. And I realized, I looked down the tire pressure monitors on and Sequoia has one of those things that has. Each tire pressure is actually printed there. So I scroll over to that and I see back right as zero. Okay. So I know it's gone and it's not going to be like a slow little leak. It's like gone, gone. Well, I immediately pull over and it does. It looks bad. It doesn't look like this, but it looks bad. It had blown out. It was not a flat. It had blown out.

[Felipo]

It had fully blown out.

[Doug DeMuro]

And so I knew I wasn't gonna be able to patch it or anything, but I was. I was. I was in a dangerous. I was in a dangerous spot. I'm not a big fan of parking on the shoulder of the freeway. I think it's really dangerous. Some people do it, change a tire, whatever. Some people like pee. It's not my thing. I think it's really, really dangerous. So I got off the freeway with it. I had to drive about three quarters of a mile on the tire. And then when I finished driving the three quarters of the mile, then it looked like that, which is even worse. But it didn't look that different at. Right, right when I pulled over, like immediately.

[Felipo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know why.

[Felipo]

Driving in the shoulder for three quarters, like.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, what actually happened was there was the next exit was five miles ahead, but the other direction had an exit behind me. So I did a U turn on the freeway. I waited till there was no one coming. I pulled into one of those emergency turnarounds.

[Felipo]

I mean, to be fair, it was an emergency situation.

[Doug DeMuro]

And then I waited on until no cars were coming the other way. It was really dangerous. But I felt like it was less dangerous than the alternative, which was just sitting there on the freeway. So anyway, the tight. We changed the tire. I called triple A. You know, Triple A is. I was gonna do it myself and I had already started the process, but the triple A dude comes with a floor jack, an impact driver and a compressed air. And in literally 18 seconds, he's got the tire off the car and change.

[Felipo]

It's like a cheat code with the tire underneath.

[Doug DeMuro]

The car was underneath. But the problem is, thankfully for you, the problem is. So the back was completely full of stuff. All the tools were in compartments in the trunk. So it took me the longest part of this entire tire changing process was just getting the tools. I had to completely unpack the back of the car and got the tools out and this full size spare under the car. Drove 2,200 miles home on the. On the spare. And we're still waiting for the new tire. The Falcon wild peak at 3.

[Nick]

You had the factory tires on the car.

[Doug DeMuro]

Factory tires.

[Nick]

And they did fine. Off roading and all that summer.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was amazing. It was the best off roader. It was fantastic.

[Felipo]

It was really good.

[Doug DeMuro]

But you do have to wonder about a factory, a new tire that blows out at 6,000 miles.

[Felipo]

In its defense, it had a hard life.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, the other tires didn't blow out.

[Nick]

You wonder if there was like a bubble in the sidewall or something for the sidewall to blow it and not the.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm going to give Falcon a little bit of credit here. I drive on the beach every day. And so you. In order to drive on soft sand, you have to be at 15 psi. And so I actually drive around all summer for 90 days and about a thousand miles on 15 psi. So.

[Felipo]

And that car is really just going from your house to the beach onto the beach. Like it makes sense for your use case.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm not. Yeah. No. I have no regrets about doing it. I would. I would replace a tire every year if it meant that I could drive at 15 psi. Like airing up and airing down every time you go on the beach is insane. And so maybe that caused it. So we're not going to really blame Falcon for this. No.

[Felipo]

But it is a little concerning.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm glad that Jason safely. I got lucky and this man named Jason came and helped me change the tire.

[Felipo]

And then he parked on the wrong side of the street. The.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, this is actually some sort of weird turn lane. You know, I could tell you exactly where it is. Kingsport, Tennessee. Some exit. Okay, we got to move on to our next topic. We're going to do a short market report. A short market report. Because we got a lot of questions and they're good this week. Oh, good.

[Felipo]

They're good every week.

[Doug DeMuro]

So I want to talk short market report. Yes. F80 wagon. Tell us about. Did you think about bidding?

[Nick]

I did. Other than I literally had a quattroporte on a truck. But. And you all had that beautiful B7RS4 wagon in the past. You've had some great E39. This. I've never seen one before. And it is just so well done.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, you can't see we sold a 328i BMW 328i station wagon. But it had been hit and instead of just fixing it, someone decided to make it into an M3 conversion. But the best part is they did it right. They didn't stupidly modify it. They put on M3 fenders, M3 wheels, a manual transmission, which the wagons weren't offered with M3 powertrain. So it had the S55 like it was a. If BMW had made the M3 wagon, this is exactly what it looks like.

[Nick]

In a handsome color. Like a lot of times when you do the wagon conversions, you just. You can't help but get a little carried away.

[Doug DeMuro]

And people do. They.

[Nick]

You put it Pepto Bismo pink with some hre.

[Doug DeMuro]

They lower it and do some extra light. It's stupid.

[Nick]

This looks factory.

[Doug DeMuro]

Looks. Yeah. Absolutely factory. And as a result, he got all the money.

[Nick]

72 grand has to be a record for a 325.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. With a bad title. Yeah. How many miles did it?

[Felipo]

It doesn't matter.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

67.5. But TMU. So yeah, yeah. Rebuilt title, like everything. I don't know if they got the money back or not. Like, I'd be curious what a build like that.

[Doug DeMuro]

72 grand. Yeah.

[Felipo]

An F80 M3 doesn't cost that much and a rebuilt title F31 doesn't cost that much.

[Nick]

Especially if you got insurance to chip in for what the normal rebuild cost.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. It was a fantastic build. We've seen a lot of cool builds on the site. This is honestly one of the very best builds I've ever seen. When this came through, because I see all the listings before they go live, I thought to myself, damn, I want that. I wish. This dude just privately messaged me and offered to me for 40 because I knew once it went live that it was going to bring all the money.

[Felipo]

But like it's worth that money because you don't want to build it yourself.

[Doug DeMuro]

You do not want to build it yourself.

[Felipo]

It looks really well done.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Felipo]

That's just so cool.

[Nick]

I've looked extensively into doing this with the B7RS4.

[Felipo]

We hosted a B7RS4 wagon.

[Nick]

Yeah. You had a beautiful rider and yeah, it sold for 75. Based on everything I looked into, you would spend at least 75 trying to recreate this. And it would take six to 12 months if everything goes to plan. Like it's at least a year and a lot of headache. So if someone's already done it and it even costs just what it cost them to do, it like that's a bargain.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I mean this was just perfect. It was exactly what I would have done. And by the way, it's worth pointing out, BMW didn't actually make this car. Even in Europe. There was no M3 touring. And so like this was it. I was actually even kind of curious about that because like rear fenders. I'm not even, I don't even really quite understand. They must have just like done it and figured it out, right?

[Felipo]

No. They say anything about that. Quarter rear front bumper, quarter panel. And then they must have custom made some.

[Nick]

You can often graph like you just cut out sort of the rear panels.

[Doug DeMuro]

It would have been too hard to figure out what you would have done.

[Felipo]

They did a great job.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cool.

[Felipo]

The shop in Michigan, that does a great job. And hopefully they build more.

[Doug DeMuro]

I know I would give anything.

[Nick]

Well, that result should give them a little confidence that they can do it again.

[Doug DeMuro]

Especially if they take a clean title car. Like I, you know there's always going to be that question about it. But if I bet they could get more money if they took a neat color. Like they made a Steral 328i wagon. Doing a storal blue conversion of this with a clean title with low miles and I bet you could get 100 grand.

[Nick]

You're right on the clean title. At the same time, if you buy that, you know the car's been completely rebuilt so like effectively it doesn't make a big.

[Doug DeMuro]

Although I agree with you that I'm not sure I could make sell my wife on that.

[Nick]

It depends on like how messed up the chassis was. If there was frame damage maybe.

[Doug DeMuro]

But like I generally agree with your point but. But I do think taking a clean car and saying hey, we started with a car that was totally fine would give you a little bit more credibility.

[Felipo]

Can we talk about a car that just went live that I think you're going to be excited about? Yeah, yeah. This wasn't on the list.

[Doug DeMuro]

I know you see this?

[Felipo]

This just went live today.

[Doug DeMuro]

I've been trying to talk him into getting Diablo. This is a 1992 Lamborghini Diablo car. And it's beautiful.

[Felipo]

It's red.

[Nick]

Can I. I'm gonna log in and bed real quick.

[Felipo]

Do it. Hey, you're allowed to.

[Nick]

I've been going back and forth on a mercy versus a Diablo. It's. Oh, that's even better.

[Felipo]

What's the title state airtime.

[Nick]

I've always wanted a pop up car. I think they're significantly undervalued. I mean Doug, you Can probably educate us all on that more. But it's. It's hard to say no to this. And you get a manual. All of them are gated.

[Felipo]

Manual.

[Doug DeMuro]

Same powertrain as your car. Yep.

[Felipo]

You said it's a US car. It's actually a European market car, though.

[Doug DeMuro]

I said it was a Euro car. Play the tape back. Thank God we have it on tape. Finally I'm able to play the tape back when Filippo attempts to correct me. You're a car.

[Felipo]

This is.

[Doug DeMuro]

This thing is one of the coolest cars. I do think the Diablo market is going up. It has not trended up fast, I will say. But I swear in 10 years. Oh, serious bid from next credit card hold. You cool that?

[Nick]

Yeah, we'll be fine.

[Felipo]

Show it. Show it to the Maserati guy. Prove your true net worth.

[Nick]

Here we got an Amex.

[Doug DeMuro]

Be like, hey, man, are you. Did you send the title back? And also, by the way, I just threw a hard ran on a deal.

[Nick]

Rates are down half a point. So we're. We're good cars. Basically 5% off.

[Felipo]

I want to mention one other set of cars that are live, which is we have two cars that were part of a Throttle House road trip. Throttle House is another car YouTube channel. We love James and Thomas.

[Doug DeMuro]

You don't have to say what Throttle House is. Everybody knows what Throttle House is. For the people. They replaced me.

[Felipo]

Yeah, pretty much. They, about a year ago went on an awesome road trip. Fun fact. They went through my wife's hometown. Stopped at a diner there.

[Doug DeMuro]

Thank you.

[Felipo]

And they had these two really cool cars. Designed 86 Corolla and a first gen GTI. And they're both for sale with no reserve on cars and bids.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know what? GTI look pretty cool, honestly.

[Felipo]

Yeah, Good old schnitz.

[Nick]

You know what my fun fact is? I'm not actually named after Nick Cage. A lot of people last week asked if that was true on my podcast.

[Felipo]

Have you confirmed with your parents, for.

[Doug DeMuro]

The record, have you confirmed with your.

[Nick]

Parents that Santa Claus. We'll never know. My parents don't remember a lot from my early development. They blacked it out.

[Doug DeMuro]

These cars are both incredibly cool. I'm thrilled that Throttle House is selling these with us. Yes, they're super cool and they're live now. What are they? In a couple days? Next.

[Felipo]

They end next Thursday.

[Doug DeMuro]

You get a bit on the gti.

[Nick]

Do you like a good rabbit?

[Doug DeMuro]

You were a Volkswagen guy for a long time.

[Nick]

VW Vortex.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, Vortex. Yeah. Cassiopeia's. Man, those are some good cars. That are live. We don't have a lot of time for other market report stuff. Although I do want to very quickly mention we sold a 991911 yesterday for under 40. Whoa. 991 for under 40. Now this was a high mileage automatic first year car. It was like kind of the least desirable version. But you get the point. For years it was if you wanted to spend 40 for a 911, you had to get a 997 or 996. But a 997 was sort of the best you could do. Yeah. So it's been hit a few times.

[Felipo]

Hit a few times. Disabling damage, moderate damage.

[Doug DeMuro]

19 and had an accident. 14 and had an accident. 15 and had an accident. So it's a four accident car, you.

[Felipo]

Know, and only one of them was disabling.

[Doug DeMuro]

The point is this is a great.

[Nick]

Comp for, for buying other ones.

[Doug DeMuro]

The point is though, see where the 990. Yeah, that's right. When you want to lowball, you can see where the market is headed. And it's interesting that these, the rough ones are now hovering in the high 30s. That this is a really special car for high 30s. Nick can't even tell it apart from a brand new one.

[Nick]

Yeah, I think a lot of people probably can't.

[Felipo]

It makes early 997s stick coups and cabs are 30 now.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really? 32 05s. Yeah.

[Felipo]

05S and 06s actually are like in the low 30s. So it makes sense that the least desirable 991s are falling. Like getting to that point. There will be a floor, but996s are showing that floor can be quite low again.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, you could build a year or.

[Felipo]

Two of it being.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's right.

[Nick]

Yeah. You could build a two car garage from 2012 with this and a Quattroporte for under 50 grand.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's true. It'd be tight, but yeah, you can.

[Nick]

You can do it.

[Felipo]

That's an idea.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, we got to get your questions, questions, questions, questions from our audience. Our audience ask questions. If you want to ask a question, go to carsandbids.com click on the communities tab at the top and there's a post, there's a post there every week that says, hey, what do you want to ask us? And we will answer the highest upvoted questions no matter how bad they are because we want to hear from you and we want to see what you're saying. And so first question from Lambo. 1, 3, 6 5, 3. When is the app coming out? Soon. Second question.

[Felipo]

Very soon.

[Doug DeMuro]

From Alec Metz 2011. Could you guys have Ryan from e39source on the podcast? Here's the thing about Ryan. Ryan is the most wonderful person and he makes the BMWs ticket or not tick, as it were. But he is like a very detail oriented. Like, I don't. I don't know that he would be like a podcast person.

[Felipo]

He's find out.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, he's like. He'd be like. Well, actually the E39 has. The quarter window is two and a half inches, not three. That's right.

[Felipo]

We might have to see whether he can start a video.

[Doug DeMuro]

We should bring him on and see what he says.

[Nick]

He's done a daily vlog for like 5,000 days in a row. But for those who aren't familiar with Ethernet Source, go to their YouTube channel. Maybe we'll link it and check out the most recent build. They did a 60. Actually, I don't know. They did a 31 page receipt restoration on a 2000 M5.

[Doug DeMuro]

Someone showed. This is Ryan. Ryan is so obsessively detail oriented. Someone brings him a 2000 M5 and says, make it perfect. And he ordered. He ordered. You should see the parts. They're laid out in this. Like he laid them out like they would be in the car. And it takes up his whole shop. Yeah. I mean, it's incredible.

[Nick]

I love the work they do is incredible. And also Kenan being like, oh, I spent 15 grand at E39. They're like, that's a rounding error on one of our receipts.

[Doug DeMuro]

Canon tell us the average ability 39 source is 20.

[Nick]

Yeah, but they're building the most pristine. It's like the singerification of E39s without it being modded.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Felipo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

So anyway, Ryan probably would be a good guest. But we don't talk about E39s, E60s and E46. Yes, that's like it. Like, we think Nick's period of car knowledge is Limited to 95 to 2012.

[Nick]

It is. I think we'll bring them in for a market report on E39. We should have taken out.

[Felipo]

Yes, there you go.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, next question. This is from Dark End. I recently became obsessed with the BAC Mono. Watch Doug's review of it. The way Doug spoke about the model is exactly like how he speaks about the Countach. It's an experience, etc. So my question is, did the BAC Mono ever come across as a thought when Doug was purchasing the Countach? No, but that's an interesting question. You know, I am not someone who likes, like, ridiculous craziness like that. And I always. Whenever I'm going to review a car like the bac, man, I'm always like, oh, like, I just want. I just want to sit in comfort with a cooled seat, you know, I do.

[Felipo]

Of course, you have no comfort or cold seats in the.

[Doug DeMuro]

But so.

[Felipo]

Or any car.

[Doug DeMuro]

But so. But when then I drove the bac, and the BAC model was so amazing, and I was so. And I had the same experience with McLaren P1 GTR, and I didn't consider a BAC model, because one of my big things when I buy cars is I specifically go after cars that I think are kind of iconic. That's like, a major, major pursuit of mine. And I think these three cars are the G Wagon, Cabrio, the kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, kind of the least iconic car ever made. But the. The Ford gt, the Crow gt, and the Countach are very, very special cars. The BC model just isn't. And I would also worry about, like, reliability and ownership experience, and frankly, I think it's just a little bit too compromised. But I do agree that the experience, like the physical experience of owning the BAC Mono and driving it is just like, a total kick in the face. And just like the Countach, it's one of the cars that I can get in after a long day or I'm tired or I'm in a bad mood, and I could could drive it and just feel, like, totally exhilarated at the end of it. And there's not that many cars, I think, that can do that. And by the way, I would have pursued a P1 GTR if I could have afforded it. I think that that car, even though it's not necessarily quite the icon that a Countach is, is, like, so insanely cool to drive.

[Felipo]

Plus, if you consider that in a BAC model, your face is forced into a smile.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep. No. I'd wear a full helmet if I had, if I owned one.

[Nick]

Fair. That is going back to the first news story about the Commonwealth of Massachusetts saying Kei cars are too dangerous. Yeah, people, where does the BAC model fall into that? Guaranteed death.

[Doug DeMuro]

Guaranteed death. Okay, next question from JM Katzie. Here's a good one that you'll love.

[Nick]

All right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Hey, Doug, what is your opinion of what happened to CNC Motors? I know you used to review a lot of cars before they were shut down due to fraud, and I was wondering what you thought of the whole situation. All right, I'm going to tell you the CNC Motors story. It's time.

[Felipo]

It's time.

[Doug DeMuro]

So CNC Motors was this exotic car dealership east of LA in a town called Upland, which I had never heard of before and frankly don't really know where that is even now. I just put it into the GPS and go there and it was hot. That's what I know. And it was across the street from a quarry, which is insane. And I would film and the quarry would all day long would be quarrying. Anyway, so what's that interesting? Yeah, it was so annoying. And so anyway, CNC Motors, there were some red flags when I would go there. Like they would tell me how much they would pay for some of the trades and I'd be like, what? What? How could that be? But whatever. I mean they always had. The reason I filmed so many videos up there was because especially during the period where I filmed with them, which was like 2018 through 2020 or whatever, I was still growing. My channel hadn't done a lot of reviews. A lot of exotic cars and they had everything. I mean you would walk in there and they had have an lfa and a LaFerrari and five Ford GTS and a career GT and a PTS color. They had everything. They. I mean they sold the LA Ferrari aperture for 8 and a half when that was still a thing. Yeah, like they. It was crazy gull wings. I mean old, new, it didn't matter that everything. Right. So it was an obvious place to go because I could show up there at 8am and knock out two or three car reviews and then go home and have like a week, two weeks worth of content done on cars that were going to be massive successes. And to this day some of my very biggest reviews have been there. Including that Ford F650 supertruck.

[Felipo]

Most viewed video ever.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really?

[Nick]

You mean biggest, literally like size of vehicles.

[Doug DeMuro]

Physically biggest. Anyway, eventually what happened was they were stealing from people. Now I want to make a point, the stealing. I wasn't like employed there or anything. I would just go up maybe once every two or three months to film the stealing. I hadn't been to the dealership in a year. By the time the stealing stuff came out, I didn't know what was going on. I hadn't heard about any of that. I literally hadn't even talked to the guys in a year. And because I had kind of run out of cars that they did like I had kind of pivoted from the older exotics, which they mostly had to like brand new Cars, which they don't. You know, that was getting press cars. And so I hadn't really been up there in a year. And so I started hearing these rumblings. I got text messages. How did you hear about cnc? And then one thing led to another, and then Clay, you know, was arrested. And so that happened. But I think the thing about. And so my opinion of what happened to them, I. It sounds to me like they spent too much. They got a new building. I think they bought it and built it themselves, which is a mistake that a lot of these exotic dealers make. They think that things are going with. Well, they have a little bit of cash, they want to leverage to even more. And then the market turns. And I think that's a mistake that a lot of exotic car dealers have made over the years. And I'm always wary of like some of these specialized exotic car dealers that are really flashy. There used to be companies that would advertise in DuPont Registry when I was a kid. The toy store and the. And auto panache. All these like places that were like big deals. And then eventually they kind of go away and the next crop of them shows up and then they kind of go away and there's like a right way to do it, which I think a lot of our sellers do, which is kind of like keep overhead minimal and be reasonable and don't be insane. And then there's like the other way, which is like add more leverage, you know, take on even more debt to sell even more cars. And then you end up into this situation. And so, yeah, I mean, it's a shame what happened to some of the people I had. Not friends, but friends of friends who were kind of caught up in some of their stuff. But I'm. You gotta be careful in the exotic car business. Things can change. And in their situation, what happened was Covid hit. And even though the COVID car market became really strong, the first six months were really tough.

[Felipo]

Really tough.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was like a. Basically a margin call for them.

[Felipo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And that was. That was the end of cnc. And now I don't go there anymore. And I don't know what happened to those people. Some of them are in jail.

[Nick]

Do you think based on what happened, like con. Consignment selling in general is now a.

[Doug DeMuro]

Bad idea or wouldn't you kind of think twice about it?

[Nick]

Yeah, I mean, especially with cars and bids not to like hawk the product here, but like, there are ways to sell a car now that are much. You don't need a dealer necessarily.

[Felipo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And you avoid a lot of the. Like, I'm having title issues right now with a QP5. Like, imagine doing that on a LaFerrari. Like, you just don't need that. Yeah, you have a third party involved.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's an interesting point. I would still trust. I mean, I want people, everyone in the world to use cars and bids. I would still trust legitimate dealers. It may be hard to figure out.

[Nick]

CNC was viewed as very legitimate, Very legitimate.

[Doug DeMuro]

They sold cars to celebrities. They sold cars all over Southern California. If you wanted an exotic car, you showed up there and got. I mean, they had this crazy inventory, crazy building out there and we don't.

[Nick]

Need to name names. But there was another prominent car guy who sold to celebrities that was recently had a wire fraud charge. I mean, this keeps happening. CNC is not an outlier necessarily.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, that's, that's the thing. And the dealerships I mentioned before, that kind of went away from when I was a kid. I don't know that anything fraudulent happened, but I do think that at some point the business doesn't keep going like it did. Maybe the figurehead is gone or whatever. But these exotic car dealers, like, seem to cycle. The really flashy shoei ones seem to cycle in a way that makes me a little nervous.

[Nick]

I mean, if it could happen to FTX and the smartest genius in the world, then it could happen anywhere.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right?

[Felipo]

What's the next question?

[Doug DeMuro]

It is an interesting thing. I was surprised that it happened considering the level they were at. But it is a really good lesson that no matter how good somebody's reputation is or how big you think they are, you gotta be cautious. You gotta be cautious. And FTX is actually a good example. Remember, they had gone to some celebrities to at market for them and they did their diligence and were like, I'm out. And some less cautious celebrities did that and now are being sued as part of it.

[Nick]

Theranos, same thing. Their board was impeccable. Like. But you can't just go on reputation.

[Doug DeMuro]

You can't. You can't just go on reputation. And that's a must.

[Felipo]

Do your own research is what Nick is saying.

[Doug DeMuro]

Do your own dill. Yeah, Nick is. Nick is a great poster child. A good example of that.

[Nick]

Go deep into their water slides, their.

[Felipo]

Cousins, the baking, you know.

[Doug DeMuro]

Next question from Daniel Gaiman in the Communities by Model tab on cars and bays. Why is there not a section for the Aspark owl? The reason is.

[Nick]

The reason is it doesn't exist.

[Doug DeMuro]

It doesn't exist.

[Felipo]

We only have cars that exist.

[Doug DeMuro]

We only have cars that exist. I'm so sorry.

[Felipo]

The real answer is that we have cars where we have generally hosted auctions or have an auction in the pipe.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, because it doesn't exist.

[Felipo]

The aspiration will never have a tab because it will never exist.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, The Aspark Owl. Now, everybody, because of this podcast, everybody sends me Aspark Owl information and information. But there was one at pebble, but it didn't move.

[Felipo]

Apparently there was one on a roundabout. I don't think that one moved either.

[Doug DeMuro]

They don't. They don't move, which is weird because they're electric. Put. Put the body on a Tesla and just move it.

[Felipo]

Well, you need to make a body.

[Doug DeMuro]

They have bodies.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. That is the Ask Barcal question. The last thing I want to say that we have been given a gift. Oh, yes, A gift by our friend Mike Murano at Audi Greenwich.

[Felipo]

How kind of him.

[Doug DeMuro]

Moreno. Moreno. We'll have to ask Mike. Mike is a seller on our site, a watcher of the podcast, and he offered to change my Toyota Sequoia oil when I was driving cross country, which I didn't take him up on because I was in a hurry on that day when I was driving.

[Felipo]

How kind of him.

[Doug DeMuro]

But he sent us a gift, a consolation prize gift. Instead of an oil change, we now have.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

For those who can't see, which I feel terrible for you. This is an Audi robot.

[Felipo]

That's the only way to describe it.

[Nick]

It's like a stuffed animal robot.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes. I have been making fun for weeks now of Toyota's. When I bought my Sequoia, they sent me a list to all this merch, and it was the crappiest stuff you'd never want to buy in your life, including a small goat and a small bee wearing a Toyota shirt. But I think Audi has out insane us. They've got a stuffed robot with the Audi logo.

[Felipo]

I love it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, yeah, of course. It's obviously going to be our new.

[Felipo]

Mascot when we don't have a third person that you sit on a chair.

[Nick]

Also curious that the robots are quadriplegic. It has no arms.

[Doug DeMuro]

It doesn't have arms or robot.

[Nick]

Here, this is wheels.

[Doug DeMuro]

Hello. Let's talk about the B5A4.

[Felipo]

No, all he wants to talk about is the Q555.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Q. The Q8E Tron. Anyway, the robot's name is going to be Mike in honor of the person who sent it to us.

[Felipo]

How kind.

[Doug DeMuro]

And it's an out. A literal Audi robot. He's even Got a little Audi tag here. He retails for 39.9. That's a. These were like 20 bucks each.

[Felipo]

I'd rather have the robot. No offense to the Toyota.

[Doug DeMuro]

Get out of here. Toyota things or you've been replaced by the robot. Mike the robot has appeared instead.

[Nick]

Have you ever, when you're buying a new car, tried to negotiate in some merch from.

[Felipo]

Never bought a new car.

[Doug DeMuro]

I have done that. Yeah, I. If you throw in a pen. Yeah, I'll do it at this number.

[Felipo]

What'd you get from Toyota for the Sequoia?

[Doug DeMuro]

Well paid for those that that deal went was. Was all done.

[Felipo]

What other new vehicles have you purchased?

[Doug DeMuro]

I purchased a Land Rover Defender.

[Felipo]

Oh, I forgot about that car.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I purchased a Kia Stinger. And the deal there was. Do you remember the deal with that Kia Stinger?

[Felipo]

It was only that it was a year old at that point.

[Doug DeMuro]

I told them I would buy what I would buy it at their ask if they would deliver it to me.

[Nick]

Do you remember this?

[Doug DeMuro]

And they were in north county. They're in Escondido. And they said yes. And I said, you also have to pick it up for service. And they said yes. And they did. The car was too. Did you get. I should have.

[Felipo]

I do have a friend who bought a very used Subaru Outback from a Subaru dealer and got a pair of Subaru socks as a little throw in gift.

[Doug DeMuro]

Hey, what happened to those Toyota socks? Did I give them to Kenan or you?

[Felipo]

I think Kennen.

[Doug DeMuro]

Kenner. Okay, so now we have Mike the robot. We have Nick the Insane Nick, do you have any parting thoughts for us?

[Nick]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Make you get him drive home in this cute pee. By the way, one other thing about the quattroporting that you should know. He pressure washed the engine again as he does.

[Nick]

No, no, he was very specific.

[Felipo]

Hosed it off.

[Doug DeMuro]

And when he started the car after the hose, he told you about this? Every warning light came on. He turned it off, turn it back on. Then just the check engine light came on.

[Nick]

I think it just stuttered a little bit, but it was fine. I also blew it off with a leaf blower to try to get all the water out.

[Doug DeMuro]

So it actually looks surprisingly.

[Nick]

It looks very nice. Probably worth doing nicest 2012 QP5 in the planet.

[Doug DeMuro]

Except for the clear failure, the wheel damage. The back window doesn't go up or down.

[Nick]

Those will be.

[Doug DeMuro]

The front bumper is like. I don't know what they hit. It's all.

[Felipo]

It's also still the nicest. All of these can be true.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, thank you for watching or listening to our wonderful podcast. We'll see you again next week. We'll be back with Kenan, right?

[Felipo]

Indeed.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, goodbye, everyone. Thanks for coming. Nick.

[Nick]

Thank you.