Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with car stuff from house Stuff Works dot Com. I have a buddy, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott and I am Ben. We are joined as always by our producer No the Enigma bround and you are you the most important part of the show, which makes this car stuff. That's right, and Ben, this is one of those shows where and you know we're gonna fix this in you know afterwards. I guess we're gonna title this one so our listeners will already know what this is about. But I want them to know that right now as at this moment. Yeah, you have no idea what we're gonna talk about, absolutely none. I know, zip zilch zero, nota a about today's podcast. Correct, and that that that will change soon, I promise. Well, I'll let you in on what we're talking about. But there's a couple of things that I'd like to talk to you about first, if that's okay, Just just a few little kind of nuts and both type things that I thought, maybe you want to discus us just for a moment, but this is not the topic of today's show. I'll get to the main I guess me to the show in just a moment, all right. So the first thing that I wanted to mention is something that happened to me yesterday. I was in traffic and long, long traffic jam. Like again, I live like thirty five miles away from here, not that far right. I left here at two fift having to be home at four pm. I knew that it would be kind of a you know, a busy day on the road or whatever. It was a sunny day, nice day out eighty five degrees something like that. There was an accident on the way, and my commute was lengthened too. I think it was about two hours and twenty some odd minutes to get home, so I didn't make it home by four o'clock. It was much later, and I was sitting in traffic and it's bumper to bumper and just about as close to, you know, putting the car into park as you can get. It was stopped on the road on the highway four lanes, and a motorcycle goes whizzing by me on the passenger side, you know, cutting the lanes or splitting the lanes, And I was thinking, does that bother everybody else's much as it does me one, and I know that I know the reasons for it, and we'll just briefly discuss that in a minute. But I don't think it's even legal here in Georgia to do that. I think there's only one state currently that allows that, and that as California. And if you don't know, what we're talking about is when you're in traffic and a motorcycle goes in between the cars, splits the lanes, or as they call it elsewhere in the world, I think they call it filtering, which makes better sense to me to call filtering. Yeah, but I'm not a fan of that, No, you're not, okay, So I would guess that a lot of car drivers are not a fan of it. I bet a lot of motorcycle riders are in favor of it. And I didn't know this before. And because it seems really really dangerous to me, does it? Does it feel dangerous to you? Yeah, especially at speed, but if people are halted in traffic or slowly moving maybe yeah. To be absolutely candid, I could see myself doing it. I feel like there are different rules for bikes on the road obviously if you are a motorist. In my opinion, it is part of your job to be in dreamly aware of everything on the road, but especially motorbikes. You know. Yeah, but okay, here's the thing. When that happens to me invariably every single time, I'm completely surprised by that bike appearing in the window next exactly going at twenty or thirty miles an hour. I don't, I don't. I can't see that bike approaching when it's bumper a bumper traffic and you know, you stopped and you've got your maybe glance in your mirrors occasionally, but there's no, there's not the need to do that. Your normally you're you're mostly focused on the vehicle right in front of you. Well, here's the here's the other thing. One of the things that I see is a big danger for this in slow moving traffic what I call molasses traffic, where people are trying to merge into another lane, that that could be a very dangerous situation very quickly. Well, that's it. That's the thing is that you know, people are trying to jockey for lane position all the time because there's a lot of on and off ramps there, and I find that, you know, if somebody were just just inadvertently. I mean, I could easily fall into this where I try to get over a lane to the right and that that biker strikes the right front of my car and it's it's totally inadvertent, but I would look like the jerk, you know, in that situation because I cut that guy off. But um, I know you're supposed to be looking at your your mirrors and all that. But here's the thing, and I will I'll maybe end on this because I don't want bikers to be too mad at me, because I understand why they do it, you know, because I would do it to a vote and traff Well, that's the thing you probably would, right, I mean, when if you put the shoe on the other foot, you probably would would do this. It's like if you had a flying car and there was traffic, if you had a way to circumvent traffic, of course you would, Yeah, exactly. And you know the thing is, to be honest, it's actually safer for motorcyclists to do that. And I didn't really put that together until I read about it, but they said, like one of the most dangerous things for a biker could be this stop and go traffic where you know, you've got distracted motorists, people that aren't really paying attention other than you know, the car in front of them moved ahead, kind of like what I was just describing, where you're you're focused on that front bumper or the one right in front of you, and as soon as they creep up three feet, you move up three feet. And for a biker, that just um increases the um the probability of contact between the bike and another vehicle. And I get that. I understand that. So they're better, They're better to be in motion and uh, you know seeing you know kind of uh, I guess, um, you know, picking their way through traffic in that way. It's it's easier for them to do that than to sit with an idling car behind them that may creep forward and bump into them. So I get I can see that. I get that. All right, Okay, we'll move on past that. That probably could be an entire show, by the way. But um, the second thing Ben that I want to mention before we talk about today's topic, yes, is I've had this problem a lot recently. It's in fact, this happens every day to me. As I'm exiting the highway. Here I get off right near a college campus and you keep busting through those that's a that's a huge problem for me. Yeah, um, Hollywood style. So as I get off the highway, Um, you gotta picture of this is that I'm turning onto a road that goes over the highway and I need to turn left. And the problem is the two lanes that exit, you know the ramp. Those two lanes, both of them turn left. You can go right from one, you can go left from one, and the other one is left. Only everybody can picture that. The problem here is that I I can I need to be in the lane that goes is on the right hand side of the ramp that goes also goes left. But when you get up to the light and you know there's signs that indicate you can do this, you know that the proper the lines that are painted on the road have worn away, so that the person in the left lane, the left exit lane, feels that they can cut across all three lanes of traffic when they make that left turn, and the person is in the right lane gets pinched out every single time. And I don't need to be in that lane. That that becomes like a turn lane right away, so I know that I have to be in the other one. The problem is that nearly every single day, someone is either almost you know, nosing into the edge of my car, the side of my car left side, or I'm finding the where they're they're going right across my front bumper. And this has led to a lot of trouble on I mean, because they they're angry at me. I'm angry at them. But the thing is, I'm right, looking at the signs, I'm right, and then the the the lines on the road just aren't there anymore. They do, yeah, And that makes me especially angry because I know in that situation I'm right. It just by that point, you know, I've been in the car for almost two hours, you know, to get down here, and I'm I'm a little bit angry, little a little testy at that point, I'll admit it. But but it happens without exaggerating, like the time, it's it's almost always every single time I make that turn. There are people who would encourage you to just stay in the far left lane and and but then I end up in a turn lane that I don't need to be in, and then I caused trouble, you know, fifty ft later when I have to get to the right in the same traffic that I was trying to avoid. So it's a it's a it's a real situation. I mean, it's a real struggle. Do you have a concealing carry? I do, but I'm not going to I won't let it escalate to that level, just victory. Have you seen the Russian dash cam videos of how apparently the new turn signal and Russian traffic is to hold your gun out? Oh my gosh. Yeah, I've seen some of those. Those are just absolutely insane and all you have to do is mentioned Russian dash cam, and I think everybody kind of gets the idea that those are some silly, well not silly, but crazy video. It's one of my favorite things to watch on the internet. Now, yeah, there's a there's a great variety there as well. I mean, the newest scam or whatever. But you know what, I'm not even gonna go in. There's another situation that's similar, but I'm not even gonna talk about it. I feel like that happens so so often. You know, you can write to your loobal municipal authorities and say please Yeah, well, I feel like a big baby doing that, But but I know that other listeners have probably a similar intersection in mind. I mean, everybody can probably picture one where there's always there's consistently a problem, like a confusion with the lions on the road or the signs that that there's frustrating it. Didn't know end, you know, you're not a you're not being a baby when you ask the people that you're paying to do work for you to do their job. That's true. And then you gotta think like, well, the people are even gonna notice the lines on the road because uh, well, you know what, this is a bigger thing. Let's let's move on today's show. Okay, all right, So in a collective side from the audience, finally, oh, I don't know about that, but I do know that today's show is another installment of Scott and Ben's mystery series where in one of us comes with an idea, comes with a question, research story, the other one as nothing. As you said before, zip zilch, zero, not a. I was not allowed to learn of this or too, of course, to do any research on it. So I'm flying blind by the seat of my pants and your ef on the winds. You're gonna do just fine. I promise you. I guarantee you that you're gonna be fine with this topic challenge accepting. So I know just as much as oh wait, I know less than you do now, ladies and gentlemen, because I don't even know the title of this yet. Exactly right. Yeah, we're we're naming it after So here's here's the scoop. And and this is a little different than we normally do. Normally come in with just kind of a simple question that you or I think up and that's it. But this one was actually a listener suggestion for a show, and I thought it actually made a good question for me to come in with you and see what you think about this, because it's it's something that, um, you may have pondered in the past. But okay, let's let's just get it to this. This comes from from Rudy Smith. It's a fantastic idea and I had while I had written back to Rudy about this. Um, I'll just read the note. I won't even read you. The title of the email, says Scott and Ben. I recall reading an article about the high divorce rate among people who have just completed the building other dream house. It made me wonder about the advisability of owning a dream car. It could be a bad idea, and it might even be interest you've heard the stories. And then he gives a bunch of examples. Here, now I'm gonna read these examples. He gets about seven or eight and just kind of bear with me. But that is really the focus of today's show has been the hazards of only a dream car, or maybe should you buy your dream car? Is it really all that it's stacked up to be? So here's his his five instances where this has gone wrong. Okay, okay, So here's number one. A prosperous middle aged man starts crying or becomes enraged because his new dream car has its first visible scratch or dent. His reaction to a similar scratcher down on an older and less valuable car was near in difference. And I can totally understand that we just talked about that in a In a previous episode, they rerecorded about the just the comfort of driving in a car that is not a pristine version of whatever that is a car that might have some things and some dents and some weird idiosyncrasy. Yeah, that was what you're talking about the the El Camino, Yeah, yeah, and how how it's almost comforting. You were talking about the mercury, which was well, I kind of would have been upset if somebody digging the mercury, but maybe they maybe the trans And I've had others along the way that you know, yeah, maybe not so much. Okay, number two and this one, maybe we'll come back to this one too. But um we talked about this one in the last episode two. A compulsive, obsessive car washer who consistently strives to keep this car clean and perfectly maintained, and we did talk about that. That was my first Uh, well, that was my first example that one. But Rudy says here, and this is a parenthetical, I used to be like this with one motorcycle I had, and I even carried a dedicated toothbrush for cleaning bugs from the rear view mirror while on road trips. That is. But you know what, I don't think that's all that unusual. I think that there are people. My father in law, he he's always had a Corvette of some kind, and you know, he'll keep it for years and years and years and put very low miles on it. But he's always had one. And the last time that the upgrade was Corvette one was brand new, so that gives an idea how long he hangs onto him. He still has it. When he drove over to our house one time in it, which is very rare. He didn't usually do it that often. On the way. I think a bird and you know there's an accident on it. You know, bird, you can expect and you understand what happened there. So when they arrive, you know, i'd got to greet them in the driveway, and he pulls out from behind the seat a a diaper, like a baby diaper, like a soft cloth diaper, and a bottle of water, bottle water, and he pours a little bit on the diaper and he carefully wipes it away, and he inspected the rest of the car to make sure there's no other incidents like that on it. I mean he carried that specifically for that purpose. It was just in case something got on the car like that, you know, some road debris or whatever. So you know, people become obsessive about stuff like that, they really do, And I totally understand caring, uh, you know, specific brushes and things like that for cleaning. I get it that, Yeah, I do too, And you know it's not always possible. But when you do have that, that that thought or that feeling that you know, that's something you need to keep in that condition. Uh. Any little thing that disturbs that, we're probably getting into an O C D discussion. Maybe that I don't know if I want to go down, because I've got quite a few. Alright. So here's the third example, and there's again there's seven or eight of these. The third one is a man who is finally able to afford a high performance sports car and kills himself accidentally in a high speed crash within hours of buying the car. And I'll be honest, this this does happen more than you might think. Um, you leave the dealership, you're driving around, you, you take it easy at first, you know, you're showing off a little bit, shown friends or whatever, and then comes the time when you really want to hit it, maybe in your in your neighborhood or whatever. Cars got cold tires and there's that big oak tree at the end of the street, and it happens. Uh sad one it does, or maybe they get on the highway and they goose it at you know, sixty and the wheels spin, which you don't expect, you know, that high performance car or whatever, and you spin out. Um, stuff like that does happen. It's tragic, it does happen. UM. So that's that's a good example. UM. The next one is, UM, let's think about this a man who buys a luxury car only to find that it gains too much unwanted attention and it leads to concerns about his personal security and the car falls into disuse except for maybe special occasions. And he says, we'll think, for example, notice that most used Rolls Royce cars have extremely low mileage for their age. And he's right. I mean, you might drive it to the country club, you know, to take you know the guys out for golf or whatever. Or you know, some people might commute in that car and that might be all to use it for, or just a Saturday car drive around town. That's a perfect example. Is like an old Rolls Rolls Royce car. It's not something to use every day for every situation. But when you do, UM, you you find that, you know, um, you get extra attention. I guess in that car. Maybe sometimes unwanted attention in that car. So that's another situation. One more here, actually a few more here. Do you want me to stop along the way here? Do you want to? Kay? All right, I'll just keep going then. Um think about this the common case of people who buy a car with all the creature comforts, only to find that they preferred their old and simpler car. Oh I could see that, sure, Yeah, I think we've even talked about that right in our um our our car review show. Right, I think I would go back to my oh five hunt a Civic if I could um in something. Yeah, that's true, all right. And this next example, Ben is one that's it's pretty rare, but it has happened before. And this is a good example. Uh. The man was such severe buyer's remorse, you know, after purchasing this this dream car, this this big expensive vehicle. Uh, that he commits a crime and he might think, well, what are you talking about? Like bank robbery something like that. Well, the example that that Rudy gives here is the guy that crashes veryon into a lake and then tried to blame it on a collision with a Pelican. Do you remember that. And he was caught on a cell phone. Um, you know, ditched it in the lake. I think we talked about it years ago, but it turns out it was just a case of insurance fraud. And the guy had no idea that somebody would have a camera own out. This is a long long time ago too, I don't know, you know, it's probably like the first version of the iPhone or something. I don't remember when it was. But uh, the guy had no idea that anybody would be recording him as he ditched his car into the lake. And there's two million dollar car into a lake, and he blamed it on Pelican when the video clearly shows there's no Pelican there at all. So he was busted for insurance fraud. He thought he was gonna get always scott free. But that's the thing is, when you're in a car like this, it garners a lot of attention. And people are always watching you, that's true, and they're always looking at you. So it's it's extra unwanted attention in a lot of cases, and in that case for sure. Um, okay, this is the last of Rudy's here, all right. Um, the garage queen. And this is one that you know, it's a big, big purchase. But the problem is that it just sits in your garage. It's seldom driven. It's not really a project car because everything's already done on the vehicle. You don't have to work on it. You don't have to go out and make it better every time that you see it. Uh. In fact, every time you touch it, you're probably making it a little worse really if you want be honest about it. But um, but the thing is it never hardly sees the road. I mean it maybe your your most expensive possession, but no one ever gets to see it. And you almost get to the point where you resent owning it. Um that it it's costly. You can't really take it out when when you want to do everything that you want to because it is kind of a show piece. It is something that's uh, that's cherished in that way. Um. So there are some good ones, right, there's seven really really good ones. And I can tell you that I've got a couple to add to this, and and I'll keep it kind of brief, but we've talked about maintenance as well. And this is a huge one. Now when you buy a dream car. Let's say that you know your it's your dream to own a Ferrari, and you can buy a And this is what example we always use, because they're out there, the three oh eight, the Ferrari three oh eight model in particular, and there's I know versions of that that are more expensive, but to be honest, you can buy one for a reasonable one for about twenty dollars. That's not completely out of out of range for somebody for a fun car. You know. Let's say that's middle aged guy wants to have a fun car for the weekend or whatever. That's not out of range for somebody to buy as a second vehicle, you know, just as a fun thing, a toy, right, it's a it's a feasible thing. However, you're anticipating exactly what I was. My first reaction would have been, but maintenance, because while there might be a discount on this used three oh eight, you know what, there's not a discount on ever Ferrari maintenance. Ferrari maintenance, the replacing the tires, replacing the brakes, the consumables, the oil change along. Yeah, and here we go with the timing belt stuff, right, I mean, that is a that's a big heated problem. They claim it's a nightmare, and it's an it's an early change on that as well, an early and frequent change. So and the thing is he had to weigh all of this, You had to take all this into consideration cost of ownership. I think we're called exactly right. And you know I can I've got a minor version of this that I that I can describe you. And when I say minor, I mean really minor, because it's not. It's not my dream car. And in fact later I want to talk about that in just a moment. Dream car means a different thing to a lot of people, so we'll we'll get to that in just a moment. But not my dream car. But I had an MG and I've mentioned my MG many times. It was a sixty six MG and it had an archly body on an arcly ss and I love the car. I mean, it was one that I polished all the time, and I took very good care of it, and I was always fixing things on it and made sure it was running, you know, for the weekends. And I'd spent hours cruising in that car. So the thing is, it did draw a lot of attention and I kind of I I got admit, I kind of liked that about the car at that time. I don't know if I would appreciate that now. Yeah, it really was. It was fun to drive, and it it made people, you know, ask what it was and it brought up a lot of conversations with people at the gas pump and things like that, it's a fun car to own. I don't know if I'd be up for that right now in this part of my life, but maybe I we'll see. And one time, and particular bend, this caused a lot of trouble for me, and and well not a lot, but it was something that really opened my eyes to what might be happening, you know, while I while I'm away, and maybe two times really So the thing is that, you know, I did draw a lot of attention, and even when it's parked, it did because it was so unusual, so different. So I parked on you know, the street corner as I'm going into a pub or something, you know, with some friends to get into the launch or whatever, and I'd come back out and this happened. One time I came back out and somebody had stolen pieces off of the car and and carefully stolen like it wasn't like you know, grabbing, you know, like tearing out the radio or something like that. It was they had stolen the turn indicators, which were I'm gonna guess like thirty some dollars. But my assumption here is that it was another British car owner who needed that piece exactly. And they were only held on with like a gasket. You know, they're like a pressure fit type thing with with an O ring around them so they're easy to remove. The thing is like they were glass and they were like an orange lens. They were mine. It's on the car, and that someone was bold enough to take that from a parking lot while I was inside eating and that that type of thing happened. I had another item stolen from it. It was a badge on the front um the front fender, like on the grill. Uh, kind of like a Royal Auto club type badge. You've seen these on older British cars, like a crest almost. You can put on the on the front and it indicates a club you're in or you know, something that's of interest. I had a few of those on the front and one of them was stolen again while I was in eating somewhere. So there's definitely some bold British car thiefs out there that you know, take stuff like that. And I bet that happens with other makes and models of vehicles that are kind of unusual as well. You got that. That's something I never do in that one. Not in that one, I do now, but um, out of necessity. UM, I wish I didn't have to. Uh. So the other thing is that and this is maybe the worst one of all. And this is uh something that happened to me. I was in Pontiac, Michigan, and I was at a swin shop, a bicycle shop in town and kind of even in a bit sketchy part of town, and I had pulled up, you know, the top was down and everything was a nice summer day. I was there to get a part. I was gonna get a throttle cable for a bicycle, which is exactly the same as in the my accelerator cable for the car. It's a it's a car piece I was looking for. So I's there to have it measured and everything and find out what I needed, the right fittings. And I came back out to the car, and there's a little boy who was with his parents. His parents were in their car parked near mine. He was out running around the parking lot for some Reason's about four or five years old. He had grabbed on when I approached the car, he was holding onto my door handle, the driver's side door handle, with both hands. And you know, it's kind of a horizontal door handle, a chrome one. He's holding onto it like with his hands. And he had his feet up on the door of my car, so you can imagine the position like imagine like in a gym or something like a pull up bar on the wall. He was holding onto that, but his feet were up on my door. It's like all of his weights on, like he's pulling back on the door handle of the car. And I said, excuse me. I was trying to get his parents attend because I didn't want to, you know, just grab the kid and pull him off there. It would have made some in the wrong situation, that would have made someone very irate. Um. I was a little more easy going at the time. I would have I was fine with it. Um upset, of course, but I wasn't gonna, you know, do anything. It's gonna fly off the handle or anything at this kid who he should have known better, but his parents weren't disciplined him. You know. It's it was one of those weird situations where you don't want to overstep your bounds, and like you try to tell them what's wrong, and they don't see that that was a problem. That was the situation. So I just kept my mouth shut and got out of there. There was no damage really, um luckily, you know, it didn't have like, you know, rocks and his shoes or anything like that, so, um, nothing really happened to the vehicle, you know, nothing like adverse effects, I guess. But I got out of there, and then later I was thinking about it, and I was really really angry. I was just fuming mad about it. And even now thinking about it, I keep thinking like why that was just a situation that never should have happened. But umah, the point. The point is I couldn't really leave it alone and expect that I could come back and find it in the same condition that it was when I left it, And that was trouble. And that's a very minor example, but imagine your anxiety with parking car in a parking lot. That's let's say half a million dollar car, right right, and also imagine the likelihood of it being stolen. Before we get to some of this, I want to go back to this kid. This is something that bugs me said. Luckily it was a minor thing. But is it or is this another kid who got taught that they can touch other people's stuff whenever they want? I get, I get so I rate about this when I I am not a parent, as I've said before, so I am not passing judgment on a parenting style. What I'm passing judgment on is how someone handles their kids in public. Right. I'm fine with it. I'm courteous kids, I talk, you know, I'll say hello to a kid, you know. But if I'm in a situation where there's a kid that's making a scene, it's yelling at me, and or where there's a kid in an unsafe situation and I happened to be walking by, and all of a sudden, it's my job to play parents for a second, I resent that now. Of course, I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to a child just to prove a point. And can we talk about how some of the worst vehicle movers in in any city? Are people pushing baby strollers? You really want to talk about that right now? I don't know the question. But we could, we could see off off, We could do that if you just know it Just it gets me, man, I feel what you're saying here. I get it. And that one of the things that if a kid's making a scene like that or doing something that's just I mean, downright disrespect I mean, that's that's that's utterly disrespectful. If the hand broke off, well, that that's the thing. That's what I was really really lucky that something like that didn't happen. It was a nineteen sixties six car and this would have been in like nineteen ninety six, so it's thirty years old. It's probably you know, within the door there, it's probably not holding on with too much to begin with. And I just you just don't do that. I mean I wouldn't. I wouldn't want anybody to do that on on just a you know, pilot crap car that somebody's got in the parking lot. If my kid ever did something like that, I would I would immediately stop the behavior and then and then explain why that's wrong. That wasn't happening there that day, and later it made me very angry. But that's again, this is a different angle from where I wanted to go. But the point that I really wanted to make was that again, when you have something that's unusual or different or unique or expensive or whatever, there's a lot of anxiety that goes along with owning that vehicle. And I get at it. I really do. I understand that, um, you know, on a smaller scale, on my scale, that you're you're anxious about somebody you know, touching it in a in an inappropriate way, planning to say it like that, but like pulled up the toy car and like say tell me where they touched you? No, no, not, I I know, I know, but that that's a funny visual, and like pulling up a scale model car and and never mind do a sketch. All right, well, but here's we are getting filmed that though. But here's the here's what it seems to be. The crux of the question is is the journey toward getting a car like this more exciting than the actual destination of owning it? Yeah? Yeah, exactly, And just all the pitfalls along the way that you know the stuff that like Rudy laid it out pretty well, they're exactly you know. Some of the fears are concerns that um, somebody that is making it purchase like that might have. Well, you're also much more likely to get pulled over more often, especially if it's an exotic sports car, like if you're in a you know, if you're in a high end Rolls Royce or something, you're less likely to get pulled over properly, depend on what part of town you're in. But if you're in a speed demon man, uh sometimes Now I don't know how often this happens. I've only heard of it happening a few times in like in a way that I can confirm. But I've had friends who said they've been pulled over because an officer wanted to check out the car. I can see that, not not in not in a rude way. Uh you know, they weren't they were like get out of the car, shut up or anything. They would just say three oh eights, like you know why I pulled you over because I've never seen one of these you know that kind of thing, right, yeah, and something like that. Yeah, I can I can kind of see that happening, and I bet that's pretty rare. I think it does happen. I mean have to be something really unusual too for a police officer to do that, I would think. All right, So if then, there's a couple of things I want to get to before we wrap up, and I'm sure there's more thoughts that you have on this, but um, I found a few interesting things and already sent some good links, and I'd like a little bit deeper as well. Um, we'll get back to another one in just a minute, but I found some some tips online for people who may be considering buying their dream car. And now this is with the asterisk that says that it's coming from Edmunds dot com. Now Edmonds is in business to price and sell cars, right, so that understood. I Mean there's one point here where it's clearly like an ad for their site, so I'll flag that when it comes down to it. But mostly it's just good advice. So if you're actually looking to find something that is that is, um, your dream car, whatever that happens to be. And we'll talk about that in a minute, by the way, Um, whatever that happens to be, and you want to want to search online for this car, of course, because that's your best option probably, Uh, don't limit yourself to just a local purchase, you know, go to the the filters and change that setting to say any distance instead of you know, twenty miles or twenty miles or whatever. This is filtering that is online. It's different from the motorcycle filtering we talked about. That slightly different than motorcycle filtering. Ye, unless you're searching for a motorcycle, than it is a motorcycle filter. Yeah, not bad, not clever, but you're very clever, alright, so um, anyways, you can you can then search cars that are available nationally if you don't mind picking it up or having it ship to you, which if you're if you're really honestly trying to find your dream car, that's what you need to do. Because you're gonna find that color combination, you're gonna find that engine option, you're gonna find whatever. But it may not be happening, you know, ten miles from your home. It will be a great trip, like what a cool trip to Let's say, fly out there or then or ride with a buddy up to pick up the car, drive it back that's great. Wore you buy one way ticket to Dallas, Texas, and then you get a cab to the you know, the the car lot, and then you just drive home. Have fantastic with that would be fun. It's like a lot of fun. That would be fun. Drive home in your giant boss Hog Cadillac with you know the bull horns on the front. I think we're learning about your dream cart. Maybe maybe alright, so wanted that shirt so you could drive at what ye want'd be a slightly well, I wouldn't have to follow the roads. It's like as the crow flies. And they used to say that in The Dukes of Hazzard too a lot, didn't they. Yeah, they say that where I'm from. That's two dukes of hazard references in the same show. All right. So the next one would be, if you don't have the time to do the exhaustive searching yourself, consider using a car concierge. Now, this one that comes to the fee, of course, But the thing is you get somebody who is really good at searching and finding you know, unusual or unique vehicles. That may be your only option. You go down to you know, the your local um classic stealer and they've got services where they will say, if you're looking for you know, in nineteen sixty seven Mini with this, uh, this option, I can find it for you. Might take me a while, but i'll find it for you. What are you willing to pay? And they'll they'll kind of, you know, feel out the rameters that you're interested in and then start the search and just let you know what. They'll bring the results to you and you can decide um it's it's a possibility, it's not for everybody. The other thing, and this is pretty self explanatory, use Car Facts or any other vehicle history report service to check the car before you go to see it, so you don't waste that trip, because that's important. You can waste a lot of time doing that. That's a good point. The next thing is, whenever possible, do the pre purchased inspection of the car with a local mechanic or a mobile service that will do that mobile service. That's an option that is really good. I haven't heard much about that recently, but I think when that came around the first time we heard about it, we might have given it a brief mention on the show. We haven't really investigated that, but that that is a good idea. UM, I'm kind of wrapping up with this, by the way. Then there's the ad that says, of course use Edmunds dot com, you know, to to search for the car, you know, to get the valuation of the car, because that's a smart thing to do. But they do point you to their own site here in this list. And then for older cars they've got another another forum like maybe Hemming's Motor News or something where you can get a kind of a ballpark estimate of what it should cost you, you know, kind of a high end to low end, and then you decide, you know which end of the spectrum that vehicles on that you've just found. Last couple here about I promise and it will move on. Um, don't be afraid to negotiate. This is when I'm not very good at. If you're gonna buy your dream car, don't don't worry about you know, the listed price, going with the idea that you can get a deal on that car, and it's likely that, you know, you'll be able to move a little bit, a little bit of wiggle room. Usually dealers inflate things quite a bit. That's typical. Uh, personal seller maybe a little less. It's it's tough to it's really case by case. Yeah it is case by case, but but I feel you should get to the the point where you're comfortable in negotiating in every situation, so it's always flexible in some way. You know what I'm gonna say about this when when when I see a I think some of the best cars to buy if you're savvy, are going to be cars that are sold by a private owner because there's a chance you'll run into somebody's baby, which means will be more well maintained. Uh. There's also um a little bit more room at times for negotiation, even under the barter system. I know some guys who one guy went to uh by by this Mustang and he ended up they traded a bunch of car parts for their project cars. So it's actually barter system. However, I would say that, you know, there are some pretty easy signals you can pick up on O BIOH is fine. That means they're expecting you to negotiate, and I have to say firm. Uh, you might not want to go in there and offer something really low because that will be uh, that'll be you know, turned around like you know, serious buyers. Only it goes back serious buyers and only. That's another great one. It goes back to doing your own research beforehand. Because sometimes there are people that for whatever reason, sentimentality perhaps plays a big role in nostalgia. There are people who will purposely want to sell a car what they feel like is a decent profit for them, but it's an unrealistic price point for a car of that mileage, that age, in that condition. Yeah, they've tied memories to that car. It's got is that nostalgia and there's that effect there, and it's the same reason people can't get rid of concert t shirts that they bought in high school. Well, and also, you know, sometimes you have to ask yourself if somebody pricing this car that maybe oh maybe their spouse told them they had to sell it or something. Maybe they're purposely pricing it, not in a manipulative way, but because in some psychological level they don't really want to sell it, to hang onto it for another month while they still drive it for the summer. Then maybe don't don't mess with people sell it like purporting to sell a car that way, What what else are they gonna want you to do? Give them visitation rights, right, they get the car on the weekends, but a purposely high price on the car so you can drive it for the time that you want to and then lower to a reason. And when some people think they're the best negotiators by a over pricing the car and saying well that's that's my that's firm. Don't mess with him. Yeah, there's always gonna be somebody else selling a car very close to your dream. Oh yeah, alright, So the last two on this list, and then we'll go into something different here just just for a moment um. Oh again, this goes back to maintenance is so in factor any repairs when you make your offering carefully way the projected maintenance costs. Now that's important if you don't know what to expect, and you know at sixty thousand miles, at seventy thousand miles and a hundred thousand miles um. All that is a critical part of drying buying a dream car. And the last one here on this list is that you gotta remember to ask the owner of the car's title is in his or her possession and ensure that it has no leans or co signers. Do you remember that guy that tried And when I was buying my project car that's still still sitting there by the way, updates soon maybe hopefully. Um, when I was doing that that there was a guy that tried to sell me a kick car that had a title. Uh he had the title, however, that he wanted me to change information on the title. He wanted me to change the information on the Hi. Yeah. Yeah, there's a there's a whole sordid story behind that one. I'm not gonna get into it now, but no way am I tampering with someone else's title. And that might be a better topic for if we do a crime show car cry possibly. Yeah that was that was a dirty deal and I just had to walk away. And it's too bad because it was an interesting car. Um, okay, Ben, last thing, and I promise and this maybe we'll spark some discussion among our our listeners and and you too. But uh, when you think about buying a dream car, not everybody has the same idea of what a dream car is. A lot of people think immediately of exotics like a Maserati or Ferrari, Lamborghini, that kind of thing. That's not a base for everybody. A lot of times is this article in the BBC points out and it was written by a guy named Chris Niger, and Chris wrote for How Stuff Works for a while. Unless it's the same name, different person, but I doubt it. I think this is uh, this is the same guy that wrote for How Stuff Works. UM recently wrote this article in about UM what it's really like to buy your dream car and what that constitutes for a lot of people, because he found a lot of people here and I think he used a UM, what's that online site where a lot of people ask questions and answer as a core yeah with a que he. I think he posed the question there and then got some responses about this, and some of them were pretty interesting. There's a guy named Todd who wrote back and said that he looked a long long time, you know, like, um, he had gone, well, he had gone ten years without having any kind of fun cars, you know, like a toy car, and you know, saved and saved and you know he's doing the responsible thing and you know, not not going with you know, something that was out of his price range or whatever at the time, but it saved up and then when it was time to buy the car, he bought a Nissan gt R. And this is a while back. He said, at the time, there's just nothing that could compete with that car in that price range. And he's right, that was an amazing car. It still is, but at the time it was in its own league, really, and this was in Georgia Bend, and you know, immediately after taking the test drive, he knew this was the one, went back, laid down the cash for the car and said, right away he got all kinds of you know, crazy attention from everybody. Everybody watching the car, looking at the car, asking about the car. You know, um, I don't know if there's a police situation, like you said, but you know, everybody's you know, struck up conversations with him about the car, and it was really it was interesting at first, but he said that wears thin after a while, he said. You know, he says, it's almost like your D list celebrity, is how he put it. You know, immediately as soon as you buy the car, and everybody has something to say, but it does fade to a degree. You know, he's still exciting and still fun to drive, but um, you know, if you're buying a car like that, for a sense of validation, you know, someone to say that you know, um, you know, you're you're something because he got this car. He said, that's not that's not what you do, he said, it it's sort of it all. It really does validate the fact that you can afford something like that. It's not that, um, you're somehow you know, you don't really feel that kind of return like you would think that you would once you've made the purchase. And I found that really interesting because it wasn't quite as fulfilling as he thought it would be. But other people have a completely different idea of a dream car and it's not you know, the eighty thousand dollar sports car. Some people want, you know, the first generation Miata. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. There's an example of a guy that bought, um, you know, the first gen Emerald green Masda Miata that he loves and is still driving today. You know, he bought it eleven years ago. UM makes him smile every day. That's all he cares about on his commute. Um that's his idea of a dream car. And he said, even if the engine blows, I'm going to replace the engine because I love this car. And it's so much fun. It's and that's something that you and I have talked about many many times. You you know something you like and you go out and seek it. But then once you've had it for a while, the attachment grows even firmer. Like you, you even even bigger in that you can't see yourself without this vehicle anymore. So that, in a way, is that a dream car? Is that something that is because you've probably got aspirations of dreams for something even better, but this one really truly makes you happy and you don't need anything more than that. It's very simple, but but it gets the job done, you know. They're interesting thing about this is that we can take this a step further. There are some people who just don't have a dream car. There's some people out there and just think a car is a thing that takes you places point A to point B. And there's nothing wrong with that, I guess. But for me, man, I'm dreaming big. I've got too many dream cars. If anything, it's hard to choose just just one. And I know I completely understand the argument that it's the old argument about concept versus practice. Is the idea of having you know, I have a Duisenberg and I take it out the first Saturday of every month, and I, you know, I just drive as long as the weather is nice, and I love to stop. And then if someone wants to come up and talk to me about the history of the car, I love to talk about it too. That's why I'm doing that. But then, you know, let's say you own a Dusenberg. You're lucky enough to be one of those people, and then about eight months in, it's only been eight Saturdays, and you're tired of it because you're tired of answering the same questions all the time. And then one day you just say, well, I don't really feel like taking it out today. I'm gonna just go in the garage and polish it up, check on some things. And soon enough you stopped doing that. And then it gets you know, the displayer web covered and dust covered everything, and it falls into disrepair or whatever. I mean. You could take this a number of different ways. You just sell it or whatever. I mean. There's there's a lot of ways to take this. But there's a few other quick examples that I can give you. And then it's like this. Here's one a guy named John who wrote in and said that growing up, his mom wouldn't let him have a jeep ever, because she was worried about the rollover aspect of the whole. And so the moment that he was able to do something like that in college, he went and bought a Jeep, and that to him is kind of a dream car, because it's it's what he wants right now. It's it's that's that's his level. He's able to afford it, and it's something that truly makes mappy, and he wants to buy a second one. And then there's another one where I think this lady um At. This may have been from a different article. I can't remember if it's here or not. Maybe it is um I think she had just gotten the all clear, like after surviving breast cancer, you know, like the all clear, it's all gone, remission or whatever. The moment she left, you know, from that diagnosis. She went to the Mercedes dealer and bought the Mercedes that you had always wanted and said, you know what, every time I get in this car, it's to me, it has that that feeling of I I be cancer, you know, it's and then that's she has tied it to that to that moment, and it makes her feel pride every time she gets into it, and just strength, you know, like it's like a personal strength. I think that's great that she and and not only it's combining two things, you know, it's combining um, you know that that that emotion and also that that purchase that she had always wanted to make. It's it's a great idea. And there's versions of this. You can take this any way you want, really, I mean, there's there's so many of this. You don't have to buy a one hundred thousand dollar car to be a dream car. It's just whatever makes you happy right now, and whatever is in your price range. Find something that makes you happy. I mean, Ben, do you have maybe one car? I know we talked about the Packard, of course, but do you think that do you think that is kind of your ultimate dream car? Do you think the Packard would be the one? Do you have one? Or is it more scattered? Like if it if it was gonna be a sports car, would be this type of car. It's gonna be an suv, it would be this type of car, right. I think it is like that. The problem with some of the classic cars that are a huge fan of, you know, like bel Airs, Um Packards, the older cars. It's not just the maintenance, but to some degree it's the performance you can expect. So there is a Goldilocks zone. But it's so difficult to pick. Even within that Goldilocks zone of you know enough older style, enough modern performance. Even within that zone sky, I still have to differentiate between the types of vehicles because they're made for very different things. You know. Yeah, for instance, there's some really great a t V s we joked about, but there such different beasts in comparison to a sports car. So I I am more likely than anything to go through phases. Man, when when that first, when the first Tesla came out, I was I was nuts and I thought, wow this because at first you probably remember I was really skeptical the Tesla roadster, the one looks like the Lotus eleas are you're talking about the roadster, not the model lest the roadster. And when the roadster came out, I thought, wow, this is this is neat um. After I had seen that it was actually working and people would buy them, because at first, I mean honestly, you know, how I am were to be skeptical when it came out and I just thought, oh, here we go, another another car that a celebrity is going to blow away too much money on and then leave in their garage later And luckily it turned out that my skepticism was misplaced, but still again to me, no matter how much I wanted the roots through in that phase, it still was such a different beast in comparison to an internal combustion car that I would I would have to I would have to qualify, you know, I don't. I don't think I'm one card dude. Yeah, it feels like and maybe it's something to do with what we do here and that we're always looking at, you know, the newest, the latest, the greatest, an and and the oldest and the coolest and the fastest. Yeah, you're right. So we've got so many, um uh, just such a wide variety of cars that we look at and really explore on the show that I don't know if that's really skewed, you know, our thoughts and that you know now we have like a favorite suv, a favorite sports car, favorite family sedan, you know all that stuff. I mean, I'd love to have a wagon. I'd love to have a Corevett. I'd love to have Mustang. I'd love to have an original are like the military version I've got. I've got such a terrible answer for this, Okay, all right, if I'm permitted to go cheap but honest answer, be a brand new Bugatti Veron that I could flip and sell to someone, that's your cheap version. No, that would be my answer, would be going back to my thrifty nous because I would get this dream car just to sell it. I see, to make maybe maybe I don't know, poultry four thousand dollars. On the other side, I could do better. Okay, cut some corns to see, you know along the way here, I gotta say for my dream car, if I had to answer one car, just one, and then this is coning, I can't. Yeah, And it's consistent with something I said in a podcast a long time ago. And I don't know if I can remember the title of it, but one of my all time favorite cars ever ever. And if I could drive this and it's not completely out of range, I'd love to drive a Lotus eleven. And I don't care if it's a kit car west other because a company named Westfield makes a Lotus eleven that is just spot on it maybe and it might have been in like the best sports Cars of All Time or something like that, but I know it usually ranks pretty high for the real deal, and of course that'd be fantastic. But that's a you know, that's a half a million dollar typically museum type car or someone takes it out for um, you know, like a historic racing event, you know, a moderate or something you know, part of um, a concourse event. But in in realistic terms, if I could get my hands on a and a Westfield Lotus eleven that was you know, either already built or something that I if I ever had time to do something like that to build it, I would love to drive that car. It's just it's exactly what I want in a sports car. And I mean everything about the long, low wide, extremely low fast, it's really unique. You'd never see another one on the road. I can guarantee you. I mean, well that guarantee maybe at certain events, but um, it's just to me that is that is a dream car. That's that's probably the number one pick for me. It's an unusual pick, but it's your pick. Yeah, it's your It's your dream car, so anyone else is Yeah, and that's the thing about car And it could be the latest vol tho, it could be whatever. I mean, it could be class, it could be new. I'm going to before we ask you, ladies and gentlemen, what your favorite dream car is, and feel free to have more than one if you need to go by categories, that's fine too. Before we get to that, Scott, I'm going to flip this a bit and ask you if you have a least favorite, like, what's a nightmare vehicle? Wow? That you would not want to own? Because I have an answer. Boy, you know, I read about a lot of there's there's a lot of cars that I've read that say avoid these at all costs because they just they go through parts like you wouldn't believe. One is an older land Rover um those things notoriously, which we ask where who worked with us? Who had an older land Room? Yeah, that's right and uh, so far I don't know of any serious issues with it, which is lucky. That's kind of dadging the bullet on that. I think it's jinks, the poor guy. You're no kidding. Now, um, let's see what else. There's a oh, man, I don't know. That's a that's a tough question. That makes refugio would also be a nightmare card for you. Of course it would, you know my answer. Of course, of course it would entirely out of petty personal spite. Let me think, um oh wait, I'm at them straining the year I have to get recesses of my memory. It's a Hummer No almost, uh Hummer is Hummer is not? You know. I I joke about it, but I think I don't have I don't have as big of a problem with the Hummer as I do with the Honda. Get out of my way in traffic. I can't let this go, Scott. How in the world could I not remember that the Honda Odyssey is kind of your your art nemesis. Remember I tried to make peace with it a while back. I just I can't do it, man, Yeah, I can't. Yep, yep. I see. So this is so. Maybe maybe listeners could write in with how about this three things dream car? An ultimate dream car or maybe realistic dream car, whatever that the case may be. However, you take that one car that you would avoid at all costs, never ever want to purchase because of you know, whatever, a personal story or maybe just you know, general knowledge. We're probably forgetting a bunch here, of course you go or something like that, I understand. But if there's one that you have in particular that you know just flaws all over the place, or you know, mechanical nightmare. And then the last thing is that you know, the of those cars, the ones that you mentioned as dream cars, which one would be the reason I go? Which one is feasible, which one most let's say the most feasible. Yeah, what would you fear the most about that car? Like if you because that's the that's the question here really is like, you know, what is it really like to own that car? Like can you you have to really put yourself in that situation and extrapolate what would happen if you were driving that out to, uh, you know, a restaurant in town. Would you feel comfortable handing the keys to a valet? But there's a lot of people that there are certain cars they say, i'll park it, I'll give you, I'll give you double or whatever. Yeah, yeah, exactly that That's a great scene, by the way, that's that's exactly the well, that's exactly the fear, right is that you hand the keys to the valet and it goes on a joy ride. So a lot of people want to park their own car and they'll pay double the valet rate. Um. Things like that that you don't think of when you make that purchase. You know that's that's the other thing. Just there's a lot of a lot of unknowns I guess until you make that purchase. So let us know what you think about those things. Dream cars, nightmare cars, most feasible, and then sky's limit. Kind of stuff you can tell us about on Facebook and Twitter where your Car Stuff hs W both of those. You can also check out our website Car Stuff Show Colm for every podcast we've ever done, and if you want to send that list to us directly, or if you want to send us a suggestion for an upcoming topic or a suggestion for a nickname for Knowl. Yeah, Rudy sent us a suggestion and we turned it into a mystery show. So thanks Rudy because it has a great one. Thanks to Rudy, And if you would like to take a page out of his book where I guess a screen out of his email, I don't know that sounds kind of creepy. In big government. We got work. Yeah, we'll work on that. Uh, then let us know directly. We are car stuff at how stuff work dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics is how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think, send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com