Ed Bolian converted approximately $1 million in out-of-pocket capital over 20 years into a $7.5 million car collection by targeting neglected, bottom-of-the-market examples of desirable models and bringing them only to acceptable driver condition rather than concourse perfection. (0:00)
Roughly 1,800 U.S. family offices managing over $100 million now treat blue-chip hypercars as an alternative asset class, targeting 3% to 8% annual appreciation and frequently deploying up to 10:1 leverage via specialized exotic lenders. (12:08)
Supercar values reliably follow a 15-to-20-year appreciation curve, hitting their strongest price inflections when teenage bedroom-poster fans enter their peak earning years in their late 30s and 40s. (33:15)
Electric vehicles and mass-market luxury models are suffering unprecedented residual value collapses, with select European EVs shedding over 50% of their value within 12 to 24 months due to aggressive factory lease subsidies. (61:54)
Detailed notes
## Background
Published on YouTube on September 13, 2026, by The Iced Coffee Hour (hosted by Graham Stephan and Jack Selby), this episode features former exotic car salesman and VINwiki founder Ed Bolian. The show description outlines a wide-ranging discussion detailing Bolian's automotive investment strategies, the mechanics of exotic car financing, market bubbles, and how buyers can navigate vehicle depreciation without destroying their net worth.
## TL;DR
VINwiki founder Ed Bolian explains how he turned approximately $1 million out of pocket into a $7.5 million exotic car collection by systematically purchasing neglected, bottom-of-the-market examples of desirable cars and elevating them to acceptable driver quality. Bolian and host Graham Stephan compare exotic car equity against traditional S&P 500 index fund investing, demystifying exotic car lending rules, agreed-value insurance policies, and dealer tax workarounds. The episode analyzes the 15-to-20-year appreciation cycle driven by generational nostalgia while cautioning against rapid EV depreciation, software homogenization in modern supercars, and unvetted salvage purchases. Bolian also highlights cheap pre-purchase inspection hacks, estate sale liquidations, and assesses how top automotive YouTubers manage their wealth.
## Atmosphere & style
The dialogue balances analytical personal-finance rigor with colorful, comedic automotive storytelling. Graham Stephan's hyper-frugal neuroticism—typified by his panic over crossing 9,000 miles on his Ford GT—contrasts sharply with Ed Bolian's relaxed, almost masochistic willingness to gamble on cheap Bentleys and patch cracked wheels with J-B Weld at truck stops. The tone is casual, witty, and grounded in real-world deal mechanics, delivering an insider peek into the elite car collector market that feels like an engaging, late-night garage conversation between savvy money nerds.
## Bulletin
- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=0s) Ed Bolian converted approximately $1 million in out-of-pocket capital over 20 years into a $7.5 million car collection by targeting neglected, bottom-of-the-market examples of desirable models and bringing them only to acceptable driver condition rather than concourse perfection.
- [12:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=728s) Roughly 1,800 U.S. family offices managing over $100 million now treat blue-chip hypercars as an alternative asset class, targeting 3% to 8% annual appreciation and frequently deploying up to 10:1 leverage via specialized exotic lenders.
- [33:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1995s) Supercar values reliably follow a 15-to-20-year appreciation curve, hitting their strongest price inflections when teenage bedroom-poster fans enter their peak earning years in their late 30s and 40s.
- [01:01:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3714s) Electric vehicles and mass-market luxury models are suffering unprecedented residual value collapses, with select European EVs shedding over 50% of their value within 12 to 24 months due to aggressive factory lease subsidies.
## Key takeaways
- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=0s) The greatest financial margin in automotive collecting comes from upgrading vehicles from 'unacceptable' to 'driver quality,' whereas restoring cars to concourse or museum perfection reliably loses money.
- [03:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=215s) Temporary supply panics create lucrative exotic arbitrage opportunities, demonstrated by buying an unloved celebrity-owned Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport for $1.45 million during a brief market glut before values rebounded past $3.3 million.
- [08:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=498s) While select blue-chip exotics like the Ford GT compound reliably at 10% to 15% annually, virtually no vehicle beats the S&P 500 across a 10-year horizon, making index investing the path to wealth and cars strictly the path to fun.
- [18:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1111s) Collector car owners regularly fall victim to odometer anxiety, parking high-value assets to stay below psychological mileage thresholds such as 10,000 miles that trigger severe valuation discounts.
- [22:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1349s) True vehicle affordability is dictated entirely by retained equity at liquidation rather than sticker price, meaning a high-end appreciating exotic can cost significantly less to own than a rapidly depreciating economy car.
- [39:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2397s) Securing exotic car loans requires meeting strict lender constraints, including a 740+ credit score, 20% down, and the 'comparable credit' rule that prohibits jumping auto loan sizes by more than 50% above a borrower's previous ceiling.
- [47:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2829s) Assembling complete collectible sets relies heavily on the 'Dubai buyer' fallacy—the flawed belief that an ultra-wealthy collector will pay a huge premium when the market actually caps pricing at the replacement cost of hiring a broker.
- [50:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3007s) Modern luxury automakers like Ferrari and Porsche employ restrictive allocation strategies similar to Hermès, forcing customers to buy high-depreciation baseline models and expensive options to retain access to VIP supercar allocations.
- [56:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3360s) Automakers face the 'wagon dilemma,' where car enthusiasts vocalize heavy demand for pure mechanical sports cars or wagons but only purchase them on the secondary market after an 80% depreciation hit.
- [01:01:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3714s) Purchasing new is financially defensible almost exclusively for full-size American V8 SUVs like Escalades and Yukons due to sticky residual values, warranty protection against known mechanical failures, and lemon law coverage.
- [01:08:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4091s) Pre-purchase inspections costing between $60 and $200 routinely pay for themselves by uncovering hidden diagnostic faults that can be leveraged directly into thousands of dollars in price concessions.
- [01:49:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6593s) Doug DeMuro represents the gold standard of financial discipline among automotive content creators for leveraging digital audience scale into institutional equity through the launch and partial exit of Cars & Bids.
## Detailed walkthrough
### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=0s) Teaser & The $7.5 Million Exotic Car Portfolio
Ed Bolian opens with his core investing philosophy: buying the absolute worst, most neglected examples of the coolest cars on earth provides the greatest upside for appreciation. When asked about his biggest loss on a vehicle, Ed delivers a deadpan punchline: "I've never lost money on a car." Over the last twenty years, he has spent roughly $1 million cumulatively out of pocket—combining bank loans, equity roll-overs, and strategic trades—to build a personal collection now valued at approximately $7.5 million. While there is still debt attached to the stable, the strategy has generated substantial personal equity.
Graham Stephan points out that Ed has had an uncanny track record calling the market, correctly predicting massive runs on manual gated-shifter Lamborghini Murciélagos, modern Bugattis, and his Spyker C8 (on which Ed recently doubled his money). Ed admits he cannot predict the future, but insists that the collector car market is governed by repeatable supply-and-demand patterns that invite careful quantitative analysis.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Ed Bolian Condition vs Profit Spectrum
accDescr: Flowchart mapping vehicle condition tiers to investment profitability from salvage to concours level.
subgraph Profitable ["Value-Add Zone"]
A["Unacceptable / Broken"] -->|"Recondition & Validate"| B["Mechanically Sound / 'Okay'"]
B -->|"Target: Maximum Profit"| C["Good Driver"]
end
subgraph MoneyLosers ["Capital Destruction Zone"]
C -->|"Diminishing Returns"| D["Near Perfect"]
D -->|"Recreation Only / Huge Losses"| E["Concours / Museum Quality"]
end
```
[02:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=140s) The Lean VINwiki Business Model vs. Car YouTubers
Graham remarks that virtually every creator who appears on the show earns far more from YouTube ad revenue and sponsorships than from their underlying craft or trade. Ed notes that in his case, if he were to fully liquidate his assets today, he has made more net worth directly from car appreciation than from YouTube.
He explains why the VINwiki model differs drastically from typical automotive channels:
- **Lean operation**: Ed only accounts for roughly 10% of the on-camera stories told on VINwiki.
- **Independence from content cycles**: Creators like TheStradman must constantly purchase, modify, wrap, and sell exotic builds to satisfy video pacing. Tyler Hoover (Hoovies Garage) makes "terrible decisions so we don't have to," while Freddy Hernandez (Tavarish) is caught in perpetual, capital-draining rebuild projects.
- **Narrative over inventory**: VINwiki’s core format relies on car stories that happened years or decades in the past, often involving third parties. Because Ed does not need to buy cars merely to produce a weekly vlog, he can maintain extreme discipline, cherry-pick undervalued bargains, and funnel business profits into equity-rich vehicle acquisitions.
[03:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=215s) The Celebrity-Tainted $1.45M Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport
The conversation derails into comedic banter between Graham and Jack Selby over how to pronounce "Bugatti" and "Veyron," with Ed noting that factory personnel simply pronounce it "Bugatti," while attempting an authentic French pronunciation of "Veyron" would make anyone look ridiculous in public.
Ed details his purchase of a red Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport two years ago for $1.45 million—a vehicle with one of the wildest provenance trails in supercar history:
- Originally built as the official display car for the Frankfurt Motor Show.
- Acquired by Bryan "Birdman" Williams of Cash Money Records, who gifted it to Justin Bieber.
- Returned by Bieber, subsequently repossessed by the bank, and sold to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (who took delivery in Las Vegas right before the Conor McGregor fight).
- Sold to rapper Lil Uzi Vert, then transferred to a Miami drug dealer, and finally purchased by Ed.
While celebrity ownership usually harms an exotic car's resale value because entertainers are notorious for neglecting maintenance, Ed notes the stigma wears off once the car is driven and mechanically proven. Ed bought the car after a temporary market crash: only 14 Grand Sports exist in the United States (out of 58 worldwide), and six of them were listed for sale simultaneously within a single twelve-month window. This sudden glut of inventory panicking sellers allowed Ed to submit an aggressive lowball offer at $1.45 million—roughly $1 million below typical historical open-top pricing. With that excess supply now absorbed into long-term private collections, comparable Grand Sports have traded for as much as $3.3 million.
[06:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=377s) Ed's Golden Rule of Car Investing & Maintaining a Bugatti
Ed outlines his formula for turning automotive liabilities into financial windfalls:
- **The Condition Arbitrage**: Moving a car from "totally unacceptable" to "okay" yields the highest profit margin. Moving from "okay" to "good" yields modest profits. Moving from "good" to "perfect" almost always loses money, while chasing pristine "concours" perfection is purely an expensive recreational hobby with zero financial return.
- **The High-Mileage Stress Test**: Rather than parking the Veyron, Ed has added 15,000 to 16,000 miles over two years. Long-distance road trips—including driving across the country from Las Vegas, trips to Miami, Hilton Head, and Connecticut—shake out intermittent electrical gremlins and prove what parts actually require replacement versus what can be left alone.
- **Defeating the Bugatti Tax**: Standard factory maintenance schedules demand $20,000 to $25,000 for an annual service and $40,000 to $50,000 for a set of proprietary Michelin PAX run-flat tires. Ed skirted this by ordering custom $500-a-piece wheels manufactured in China configured to fit modern Bugatti Chiron-spec tires, saving tens of thousands of dollars. Across two years and thousands of miles, he has spent only $50,000 to $60,000 on three oil changes, CV boots, and replacement sensors.
[08:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=498s) The Unique Market Trajectory of Graham’s Ford GT
Turning the spotlight on Graham, the hosts discuss Graham’s 2005–2006 Ford GT, which he purchased five years ago for $306,000. It currently sits at 7,700 miles in a white-with-blue-stripes specification and is valued at approximately $750,000.
Ed highlights that the first-generation modern Ford GT occupies a completely unique niche in the exotic car universe:
- **Broad production base**: Unlike rare European hypercars, Ford produced over 4,000 units, yet prices have climbed relentlessly without succumbing to supply glut.
- **No "departure" car**: Unlike typical supercar owners who trade a Porsche 911 GT3 RS for a McLaren or Lamborghini SVJ, Ford GT owners rarely sell to move into another model. The car has no modern equivalent.
- **Enduring appeal**: It features an analog manual transmission, an iconic supercharged American V8, mechanical simplicity, unmatched reliability compared to European rivals, and affordable maintenance. Owners hold onto them indefinitely, creating an exceptionally stable collector base.
[09:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=570s) Ford GT Owners, Re-Evaluating Portfolios, and Cars vs. the S&P 500
Ed Bolian explains the unique mindset of Ford GT owners. Unlike typical buyers who are constantly looking over their shoulder waiting to jump into a V12 Lamborghini or a mid-engine V8 Ferrari, Ford GT owners intentionally bought that specific car and feel no itch to trade it away. They tend to be slightly older and far more disciplined with their ownership. Because the market has steady, continuous engagement rather than speculative frenzies, Ford GT prices have compounded incrementally—roughly 10% to 15% per year—rather than through chaotic spikes.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Market Dynamics of Car Appreciation
accDescr: Contrasting incremental gains in the Ford GT with sudden speculative jumps in Ferraris and the resulting owner psychology.
subgraph FordGT["Ford GT Market Pattern"]
GT_Hold["Disciplined Owners"] --> GT_Gain["10-15% Steady Annual Climb"]
GT_Gain --> GT_Store["Treated as Reliable Store of Value"]
end
subgraph Ferrari["Speculative Market Pattern"]
FE_Spike["2x-3x Price Explosion in 6-12 Months"] --> FE_Dilemma["Owner Question: 'Am I rebuying at this level?'"]
FE_Dilemma --> FE_Exit["Take Cash Off Table & Exit Position"]
end
```
By contrast, many Ferrari models have doubled or tripled in value over sudden 6- to 12-month stretches with minimal underlying explanation. When that occurs, owners face a stark psychological dilemma: *"Am I going to own this car for so much more today than I paid a few years ago?"* If someone paid $300,000 and the car is suddenly worth $750,000, that capital represents an entirely different scale of money. Every single year, a collector is effectively choosing to "rebuy" their own car at its new market price.
Graham Stephan points out that this mirrors the philosophy of investor Chris Camillo: you must check your portfolio every morning and ask whether you would choose that exact distribution of assets today if given the equivalent cash. Bolian agrees with the analogy, but issues a firm reality check regarding cars as financial assets. He emphasizes that virtually no car in history beats the S&P 500 across a 10-year horizon. While certain models experience a meteoric doubling or tripling within a narrow window, they inevitably plateau into negligible gains for prolonged stretches. For Ed, simplifying finances into standard, easily managed investments is "the path to peace," whereas cars remain strictly "the path to fun."
[12:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=728s) The Modern Exotic Boom, Family Offices, and 10:1 Leverage
Reflecting on the shifting market dynamics since the 2021–2023 post-COVID era, Bolian draws a clear distinction between the liquidity-fueled frenzy of that time and the trends taking hold more recently. The immediate post-pandemic surge was characterized by widespread stimulus cash, severe new-car inventory shortages, and people diving into rallies, road trips, and track days. However, the ensuing 24 months marked a structural rotation toward top-tier rarity: Porsche Carrera GTs, V12 Lamborghinis, numbered collectible Ferraris, manual-transmission supercars, and even modern hybrid hypercars like the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, and Ferrari LaFerrari.
This dramatic surge in blue-chip supercars is largely decoupled from broader macroeconomic signals. Bolian attributes a significant portion of the demand to generational wealth transfer inside ultra-high-net-worth families:
- Around 1,800 family offices in the United States manage more than $100 million in assets.
- Younger principals in these family offices are increasingly granted dedicated car portfolios, treating rare automobiles as an alternative asset class targeting 3% to 8% annual appreciation.
- Curated high-end brokerages (such as Curated in Miami) frequently see clients in their early twenties walking through the door with *"a Gone in 60 Seconds looking shopping list"* ready to deploy $30 million in capital in a single visit.
- This institutional-scale buying is compounded by extreme debt availability, where traditional exotic car financing enables aggressive buyers to apply as much as 10:1 leverage to acquire vehicles.
[15:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=908s) Ed Bolian’s Personal Car Collection
When asked about what currently occupies his own garage, Ed details a distinctive lineup dominated by high-mileage drivers and idiosyncratic provenance:
* **2012 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport**
* **2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Coupe (Manual):** The highest-mileage example in the world, with roughly 62,000 miles on the odometer. Ed notes he has been vocally preaching the investment merits of the LP640 for 12 straight years, voting consistently with his checkbook and credit score.
* **2009 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster (Manual):** The highest-mileage LP640 Roadster globally (sitting at 25,000 miles) and proudly holding the title for the most accident records.
* **1998 Lamborghini Diablo SV:** Famously sold brand-new out of the Victoria's Secret Christmas catalog.
* **Spyker C8:** Recently sold out of his stable.
* **Daily Drivers and Projects:** A cheap Bentley, a budget McLaren project slated for future VINwiki episodes, an off-road Porsche Cayenne, his wife’s Mercedes SUV, and a newly acquired, unrevealed budget exotic imported from Europe.
[17:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1052s) The $7M Reinvestment Dilemma and the Reality of Capital Gains
Jack Selby turns the core investment question back on Bolian: if he had $7 million in cash sitting in front of him right now, would he rebuild that exact same car collection? Bolian laughs, gesturing toward a cardboard cutout of Dave Ramsey in the studio:
> "Would I like to have that much in cars? Probably not. That would be irresponsible. And I saw you got a little standup Dave Ramsey over there that he would scorn me for such things. But it does tend to make the content world go round."
While his cars are liquid enough to exit if needed, holding that percentage of total net worth in motor vehicles only makes sense because his career revolves around automotive content. When Jack flips the question to Graham—asking if he would keep his $750,000 Ford GT alongside his other cars if handed the $850,000 in cash—Graham is brutally honest. He admits he would not buy any of the cars at today's prices, choosing instead to park every dollar into low-cost index funds and real estate. The only reason he still owns them is the psychological trap of acquiring them cheap combined with the looming tax bill that selling would trigger on his massive capital gains.
[18:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1111s) Dealership Trade-In Loophole and the Ford GT Mileage Dilemma
Graham explains that he feels completely locked into his white Ford GT. Because of massive capital gains and the car continuing to appreciate, selling it would trigger an unwanted tax hit. He justifies keeping it because it serves as an iconic visual prop in the background of all his videos; otherwise, if it were simply sitting idle in a garage, he would have sold it.
Ed points out that while Section 1031 like-kind exchanges do not officially apply to personal cars, dealerships regularly structure trades to shelter or defer capital gains on paper. While Ed clarifies he is not an accountant, he details how dealerships frequently adjust valuations:
```mermaid
flowchart LR
accTitle: Dealership Trade Structure
accDescr: Flow showing how high-value cars are traded on paper at lower amounts to avoid triggering taxable capital gains.
subgraph Client ["Customer Side"]
A["Owns $750k Car<br/>(e.g., Ford GT)"] --> B["Agreed Paper Trade<br/>at $300k"]
end
subgraph Dealer ["Dealer Inventory"]
B --> C["Acquires Desired Car<br/>(e.g., 430 Scuderia)"]
C --> D["Adjusts Actual Cash Value (ACV)<br/>Internally on Books"]
end
```
For instance, if Graham wanted to trade across into a $750,000 Ferrari 430 Scuderia (another model whose market price has doubled or tripled), a dealer can book both sides of the transaction at $300,000. This records zero taxable gain on paper, and the dealership balances their books by adjusting the car's Actual Cash Value (ACV) internally.
Graham insists that no modern supercar appeals to him like the Ford GT. If forced to trade, he would only swap for:
- A higher-mileage Heritage Edition Ford GT
- A rare "no-stripe" Ford GT, even with 12,000 miles or more, arguing that the clean, no-stripe cars remain undervalued and are poised to hit $1,000,000 first.
Ed challenges Graham to just drive his car instead of obsessing over depreciation thresholds. Graham admits he is terrified of crossing psychological odometer milestones:
> "It's 10 I'm afraid of... but then I don't want to crack nine because when you're at nine, then everyone's like, 'Oh, I see what you're doing. Oh yeah, you're at 9,200. Okay, I see the game you've been playing.'"
Graham's odometer currently sits at roughly 7,700 miles—meaning he has put barely 300 miles on it since buying it at roughly 7,400 miles five years ago.
---
[20:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1246s) Barn-Find Ford GTs and the Anxiety of Supercar Ownership
To solve the dilemma of wanting to drive without ruining a museum piece, Ed explains his approach to managing a sprawling collection. Because private negotiations are an administrative hassle, Ed regularly liquidates batches of vehicles via online auctions. After selling six cars in a single week on Cars & Bids the previous year, he plans another Cars & Bids auction event featuring historic VINwiki vehicles.
Among the inventory is a 2006 Tungsten Ford GT pulled straight out of a barn with high mileage and a salvage title. Ed pitches that Graham should buy that rough example, rack up 10,000 guilt-free miles without hurting its floor-level value, and either sell it later or decide which one to keep. Graham immediately declines, calling it too much hassle.
Graham clarifies his personal relationship with exotics:
- He views cars strictly as fine art and sculpture rather than driving machines.
- He enjoys the engine aesthetic, sitting in the cabin, and turning the key to hear it idle.
- Driving them on public roads induces acute anxiety over reckless motorists, road hazards, or mechanical issues: "I breathe a sigh of relief when I pull my car back into the garage, turn off the ignition, the garage goes down. I'm like, good, car's safe."
---
[22:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1349s) Collector Car Insurance vs. Looking Rich on a Budget
When asked how to minimize insurance expenses, Ed warns against cutting corners on coverage. Instead, the smartest strategy is securing an agreed-value collector car policy through specialized carriers. These policies are dramatically cheaper than standard auto insurance, provided the driver meets specific garage storage rules and limited annual mileage requirements.
- Ed pays roughly $15,000 to $20,000 annually to insure his massive multi-million-dollar fleet.
- Premiums stay low because underwriters calculate that an individual can only crash one vehicle at a time.
- Policies generally permit family members to drive, though Ed jokes his wife avoids them because "curbs come out of nowhere."
Turning to how someone can project wealth on a modest budget, Ed acknowledges the standard shortcut of buying steep depreciators like older Maseratis or used Aston Martins. However, he argues that the true secret to looking wealthy affordably is picking cars with a compelling story, historical rarity, or enthusiast significance. True affordability is driven by retained equity rather than upfront purchase price:
> "The cheapest way to buy a car isn't to pay the least amount of money. The cheapest way to own a car is to have the equity position reflect something positive when you're done with it. So, it doesn't really matter what you pay if it's going to go up in value."
---
[24:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1470s) Subcultures, Social Connection, and Fighting the Loneliness Epidemic
Graham asks which vehicles scream that their driver is flat broke, suggesting a used Chrysler 300. Ed pushes back against stigmatizing budget cars, pointing out that purchasing a brand-new electric Cadillac Escalade bleeding massive depreciation is far more financially reckless—even when compared to Ed owning a supercar requiring $50,000 tire replacements.
Ed defends car culture in all its varied, eccentric expressions:
| Vehicle Subculture | Defining Traits & Stereotypes | Community & Social Benefit |
|:--- |:--- |:--- |
| **Budget Tuners / Stance** | $3,000 Facebook Marketplace Chrysler 300C, loud vinyl wraps, Instagram tags on quarter windows, slammed suspension | Low-cost entry point into shared peer groups dealing with identical life stages |
| **Aussie Muscle Imports** | Grey-market Holden sedans imported to the US | Tight-knit enthusiast community sharing niche mechanical knowledge |
| **Corvette Clubs** | Standard-issue uniform: jean shorts, white polo shirts, New Balance sneakers | Reliable weekend social gatherings and organized group drives |
| **Track & Canyon Crews** | Purpose-built track cars, mountain road runs, Cars & Coffee events | Skill-building, direct mechanical collaboration, and outdoor camaraderie |
Ed emphasizes that dismissive outsiders miss the deeper value: automotive enthusiasm is one of the most effective solutions to modern isolation. For just $3,000 on Facebook Marketplace, someone can wrap a Chrysler 300C, paste their social handle on the quarter glass, roll out to local meets, and immediately gain a circle of friends who share their exact socioeconomic reality. In an era dominated by algorithmic screen loops and AI therapy, the car scene provides a rare, tangible avenue for human connection.
[28:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1702s) What Women Actually Like vs. Getting Your Wife to Tolerate Supercars
When Jack Selby asks what car is best to attract women, the hosts immediately point toward luxury SUVs over flashy exotic sports cars. Jack guesses a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, while Graham Stephan suggests a Range Rover. Ed Bolian confirms that women love both—noting that his own wife has owned three Range Rovers over the years. Ed jokes that he started dating the woman who became his wife the very same week he incorporated his rental car business out of his college dorm room and bought a Lamborghini Gallardo, making that date his "last first date." In his experience, brightly colored Lamborghinis and loud supercars do not attract women at all.
Instead, Ed explains that the real challenge married supercar enthusiasts face is getting their partners to tolerate the extreme spending. Back when he sold cars at Lamborghini Atlanta, male buyers constantly begged him for advice on how to prevent their wives from resenting the purchases. Ed's universal recommendation was simple: let them drive the car, but only under completely stress-free conditions:
> "Go somewhere where they're going to be very safe, where it's on a highway, wide open, good visibility, easy access, no lights, no turning, no curbs, no nothing. Because the reason they don't like them is that they think that if they engage with them that they'll ruin them for you."
Ed notes that if a spouse takes out a Ford GT and curbs a wheel, it becomes an emotional "incident." However, taking her to a scenic mountain road, explaining the controls, and letting her drive for five low-pressure miles completely changes the dynamic. Ed shares a personal story of letting his wife drive a purple McLaren 570GT he had acquired. Although she had not driven his exotics in years, didn't understand how the dihedral doors operated, and ended up stuck inside until her friends called Ed for help, she thoroughly enjoyed the drive and didn't hit anything. Bringing partners into the hobby on comfortable terms makes them understand why the cars are special.
Graham highlights sponsor NetSuite Next, showcasing how AI agents are transforming modern businesses by handling routine operational workflows, generating automated insights, and answering complex inquiries in plain language. He offers viewers NetSuite’s free expert guide, *Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI Is Changing Everyday Work*, available for businesses with seven-figure revenues.
Graham and Jack then pivot to discuss Monarch Money. Jack shares that after working alongside Graham for seven years—initially starting out for free—he managed to invest almost every dollar he earned, enabling him to purchase his first home and the studio warehouse where they record. However, tracking assets across multiple accounts, investments, savings goals, and real estate manually in Excel spreadsheets became overwhelming. Monarch automates this by aggregating financial accounts in a single dashboard, forecasting big purchases, providing AI insights on inflation versus lifestyle creep, and offering investment tracking compared against the S&P 500.
---
[33:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1995s) Cars That Signal "Secret Wealth" and the Formula for Appreciation
Jack asks Ed what specific cars indicate someone is "secretly wealthy." Ed explains that true automotive wealth is signaled not by the newest production models, but by older, highly desirable cars that are actively appreciating. Pulling up in a manual transmission Lamborghini Murciélago, an older rare Porsche, or a Ferrari 550 Barchetta shows that the driver understands value and avoids the severe depreciation curve of modern exotics. In a sea of brand-new luxury cars, an enthusiast driving a classic gated-manual exotic stands out as someone who "knows what's up" and likely has sound financial wisdom to share.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Ed Bolian's Supercar Appreciation Inflection Cycle
accDescr: Visual flowchart outlining how high school poster cars transition into appreciating modern classics 15 to 20 years later.
subgraph Timeline["Appreciation Timeline"]
A["Teen Dream / Poster Car<br>(Ages 16–19)"] --> B["Severe Depreciation Period<br>(Years 0–10)"]
B --> C["The 15–20 Year Inflection Window<br>Buyers reach peak earning power"]
C --> D["Appreciating Collector Asset<br>Depreciation bottoms out"]
end
```
When Graham asks for the exact criteria used to spot undervalued cars that are primed to climb in price over the next few years, Ed reveals his core demographic rule:
- **The Poster Car Rule (15–20 Years):** The primary driver of appreciation is tracking the buying power of the generation that idolized a specific vehicle as teenagers. Once those fans hit their late 30s and 40s with disposable income, they begin purchasing the cars they once had on bedroom posters, creating a predictable pricing inflection point roughly 15 to 20 years after launch.
- **The "MTV Cribs" Philosophy:** Ed built his equity to trade and flip cars by aiming to "look like you won the lottery 10 years ago." A decade-old exotic has already absorbed the bulk of its depreciation hit. While maintenance can be brutal, the capital invested into the asset is protected from market drops.
---
[34:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2087s) Supercar Stigma in Your 20s and Ed's $26,000 Flood McLaren
Jack admits that after years of drifting away from his childhood car obsession toward work and pickleball, he recently woke up from a vivid dream about driving a McLaren and felt a sudden desire to buy one. Graham encourages him, arguing that owning a supercar in your 20s is an entirely different and more special experience than waiting until your 30s. Jack hesitates because he worries that driving a McLaren in his 20s comes off as pretentious or "douchy," though Ed and Graham note that exterior color choices make a significant difference.
Ed dispels the social media myth that an exotic car owner needs the newest, most aggressive model like a 765LT. As proof that entry points exist, Ed shares an anecdote about picking up a purple 2017 McLaren 570GT for a net cost of just $26,000:
- **The Package Deal:** Ed bought a nine-car collection, and once the numbers settled across the whole deal, the 570GT effectively cost him $26,000.
- **The Caveat:** The McLaren had previously been involved in a flood, though it ran and drove well enough for Ed and his 11-year-old son to cruise around the neighborhood.
- **The Outcome:** Ed sold the car for $75,000. Unfortunately, the buyer immediately put an aggressive tune on it, and the engine blew up just 1,200 miles later—prompting Ed to warn listeners: "Don't buy a tuned McLaren."
Jack considers Graham's suggestion of finding a 10- or 11-year-old McLaren 650S, calculating that even if he keeps it for three to four years, total ownership depreciation might realistically be capped at under $30,000. Ed agrees the depreciation downside is minimal, but cautions that with older British exotics, the mechanical repair risk is far higher than the market depreciation risk.
[37:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2256s) Depreciated McLaren Picks and Future Poster Car Collectibles
Evaluating earlier modern supercars, Ed Bolian strongly endorses the McLaren 650S as an extraordinarily reliable and financially sensible buy compared to any new alternative. Having sold them brand-new during his tenure at McLaren Atlanta, he praises the platform's robustness while noting that early 12Cs—specifically 2011 and 2012 models—were mechanically "spotty," though later 2013 and 2014 examples fared significantly better. Bolian mentions he is preparing to represent and shoot a video for a 2013 12C at Barrett-Jackson that previously sold in Las Vegas for $115,000, predicting it will likely hammer for slightly less.
When asked which modern vehicles will define teenage bedroom walls and become the blue-chip collector cars of the next decade, Bolian points to the hypercar tier. While his generation (those around age 40) idolized Ferraris and Lamborghinis because of their relatively scarce production runs in the 1990s and early 2000s, younger enthusiasts grew up worshiping hypercars: Bugatti, Pagani, Koenigsegg, and the "Holy Trinity" (McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, and Ferrari LaFerrari). In the same way the Lamborghini Murciélago has appreciated up to tenfold over the past decade, Bolian argues that genuine hypercars possess virtually limitless upside.
Addressing why Pagani and Koenigsegg prices have ticked up at a steady, measured pace rather than experiencing wild spikes, Bolian contrasts them with the recent rapid inflation seen in less exclusive enthusiast cars. Over a recent six-month stretch, standard mid-engine V8 Ferraris (from the 360 Modena and F430 to the 458, 488, and F8 Tributo), V12 grand tourers (F12berlinetta and 812 Superfast), and special Porsche 911 variants essentially doubled in value. Because proper hypercars trade rarely and primarily change hands through elite venues like the Monterey Car Week auctions—which cleared roughly $770 million in aggregate sales—they do not suffer the rapid, knee-jerk online pricing escalations triggered whenever a single car sells on Bring a Trailer.
- **McLaren 12C Valuation Benchmark**: A 2013 12C crossed the block at Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas the prior year for $115,000.
- **Top Hypercar Targets for 10-Year Growth**: Bugatti Veyron/Chiron, Pagani Zonda/Huayra, Koenigsegg, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari LaFerrari.
- **Monterey Car Week Volume**: Approximately $770 million worth of collector cars traded across the Monterey catalog auctions.
---
[39:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2397s) The Mechanics of Exotic Car Financing
Borrowing money to acquire high-end cars is widespread across the exotic automotive ecosystem, and Bolian breaks down the specific underwriting algorithms lenders enforce. While current used exotic auto interest rates sit between 6.5% and 8.5% for vehicles older than five years, banks generally refuse to underwrite branded or salvage titles. Bolian highlights that an ideal borrower profile requires several precise benchmarks: a FICO credit score crossing 740 (with higher scores yielding diminishing returns), verified gross income exceeding the total loan amount, and a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio between 60% and 80%, necessitating at least 20% down. Terms on high-dollar assets can range from 36 months to 12 or 15 years.
The most critical bottleneck for younger or first-time buyers is "comparable credit." Lenders rarely permit a borrower to increase their installment auto borrowing by more than 50% over their previous high-credit line. If an applicant seeks a $75,000 auto loan, the bank typically expects to see a completed, well-serviced auto loan of at least $50,000. If an applicant falls short on comparable credit or debt-to-income, the deficiency must be offset by overperforming in another metric—such as putting down 30% to 40% in cash or offering an exceptional credit profile.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Exotic Car Loan Underwriting Criteria
accDescr: Requirements and thresholds applied by exotic vehicle lenders to evaluate loan applicants.
subgraph DealStructure["Structure & Collateral"]
LTV["Down Payment\n(20% to 40% Cash)"]
Terms["Loan Length\n(36 mos to 15 yrs)"]
Clean["Clean Title\n(No salvage/branded)"]
end
Graham Stephan shares a frustrating personal anecdote from when he was 24 trying to buy a Lotus Exige S240 in 2013 or 2014. Despite offering $20,000 down to build his installment history, mainstream lenders flatly rejected him simply because he had never serviced an auto loan before. The dealership offered in-house subprime financing at a punishing 15% to 17% interest rate, suggesting he should first buy and finance a Mazda Miata or Honda S2000 to "work his way up." Refusing the usurious interest rate, Stephan purchased the Lotus in cash. Bolian puts this into historical context: following the 2008 financial crisis, banks swung from one extreme to the other. In 2006, a 20-year-old Bolian secured financing on a Lamborghini through a stated-income "liar loan" without documentation; by 2013, underwriting had become hyper-restrictive before eventually softening to today’s pragmatic middle ground.
---
[43:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2624s) Market Froth, Wealth Transfers, and the Pokémon Parallel
Weighing in on the health of the collector car market, Bolian expresses concern over massive run-ups in mass-produced exotics that do not meet standard criteria for rarity or historical significance. He dismisses conspiracy theories about deliberate price manipulation, pointing out that nobody is coordinating corners on Ferrari 488s when roughly 20,000 examples exist. Instead, he attributes the spike to fragile "dumb money": individual retail buyers getting caught in bidding wars on Bring a Trailer. He warns that if an owner who bought a 488 two years ago for $220,000 is suddenly offered $550,000, almost all of them will rush to cash out, revealing an unstable floor.
By contrast, blue-chip, hyper-exclusive automobiles remain heavily insulated by unprecedented macroeconomic liquidity. Bolian cites a query he ran indicating approximately 55,000 Americans are projected to inherit estates exceeding $2 million this year, meaning just a tiny fraction of that cohort could absorb the couple hundred anomalous online auction sales. Combined with expanded portfolio-backed debt and sudden windfalls from massive private equity and tech company liquidity—such as an estimated 600 individuals in Austin making over $100 million each from SpaceX liquidity—demand for top allocations far outstrips supply.
Stephan draws an intriguing macroeconomic comparison between exotic cars and vintage Pokémon cards, noting that their market trajectories mirror each other closely: peaking in 2021, enduring a steep correction in 2022, and experiencing a broad resurgence. Bolian validates the correlation, framing it as a generational nostalgia and purchasing-power cycle. With Pokémon celebrating its late-20s anniversary, children who grew up with the franchise are now entering their prime earning years with disposable capital to spend on childhood passions. This identical demographic wave explains why 20-year-old exotic sports cars, classic video games, and franchises like Grand Theft Auto command immense cultural momentum and skyrocketing values.
[47:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2829s) Tangible Assets, Presidential Autographs, and the "Dubai Buyer" Fallacy
As rapid advancements in artificial intelligence threaten to upend traditional equity markets, an emerging thesis among high-net-worth individuals is to rotate capital into tangible assets that cannot be replicated, duplicated, or disrupted by software algorithms. When companies can be spun up or wiped out in record time depending on their adoption of AI, pure financial instruments feel increasingly uncertain to investors holding vast wealth. This dynamic drives a renewed interest in rare physical collectibles—assets whose scarcity is guaranteed by the real world rather than an exchange order book.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Assembly vs. Curated Arbitrage Flow
accDescr: Diagram showing the process of buying raw items, assembling them, and attempting to resell to high-net-worth collectors.
subgraph Assembly["Assembly Phase"]
A["Raw Collectibles\n(Individual President Autographs)"] --> B["Authentication &\nFraming Curation"]
B --> C["Total Capital Invested\n($30,000 - $80,000)"]
end
subgraph Valuation["Market Arbitrage Phase"]
C --> D{"Target Buyer Pool"}
D -->|"Convenience & Display Arbitrage"| E["High-End Collector / 'Dubai Buyer'\n($200,000 - $300,000)"]
D -->|"Market Reality"| F["Actual Resale Liquidity\n(Limited by Reproduction Cost)"]
end
```
The conversation turns to an unconventional collectible concept: compiling a complete set containing an authentic autograph from every single President of the United States. While individual presidential signatures often fetch modest sums—a few hundred dollars for modern executives, rising to $5,000 or $10,000 for foundational figures like George Washington—a complete, beautifully framed collection could theoretically be assembled for between $30,000 and $80,000. The primary hurdle lies in rigorous authentication. The hosts float the idea that curating a complete display might fetch several hundred thousand dollars from an ultra-wealthy history enthusiast looking for a turnkey centerpiece.
Ed Bolian responds with healthy skepticism grounded in decades of dealing with collector psychology, comparing the premise to the automotive world's pervasive "rich guy in Dubai" trope—the eternal hope that a wealthy overseas buyer will blindly pay a massive premium over market value. Ed explains that while an assembled set creates value through convenience and artistry, an asset's ultimate ceiling is anchored to what it would cost to hire an expert broker to reproduce it. It represents an arbitrage on time and curation rather than pure intrinsic profit, though the hustle and artistry behind the idea remain undeniably appealing.
---
[50:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3007s) The State of the New Car Market: Porsche, Ferrari, and the Hermès Model
Turning to the modern automotive landscape, Ed characterizes current new car production as plagued by unreliability and compromised design priorities. Automobiles rolling off contemporary assembly lines offer less mechanical longevity, prioritizing screen real estate and complex software over enduring build quality. As a consequence, overall new vehicle sales across nearly every mainstream and luxury marque are experiencing measurable softening.
Only a select few manufacturers manage to sidestep this downward trend, with Porsche and Ferrari leading the industry in extracting absolute maximum profit per unit:
- **Porsche's Allocation Gauntlet:** Porsche maintains extreme discipline over buyer demand. While collectors frequently voice frustration over dealership games—such as being pressured to purchase an unwanted Macan or standard Cayenne simply to earn an allocation for a coveted 911 GT3 RS—the strategy ensures that high-margin sports cars remain perpetually oversubscribed.
- **Ferrari's "Never Say No" Culture:** Ferrari operates akin to high fashion houses like Hermès. Over the past twenty-five to thirty years, Maranello has conditioned its elite clientele to understand that declining any vehicle allocation or bespoke option jeopardizes their status on future VIP lists. By stripping the client of the leverage to say no, Ferrari captures breathtaking profit margins.
- **The Enthusiasm Paradox:** Although purists frequently note that newer iterations from both Porsche and Ferrari are emotionally less desirable than their predecessors, the brands' ruthless demand-curation machines guarantee that every single vehicle built still sells out immediately.
---
[51:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3082s) AI Disruption, Pickleball, and the Curse of the $15,000 Bentley Flying Spur
Contemplating how AI will reshape the automotive landscape over the next five to ten years, Ed resists the temptation to declare that every element of life will be turned upside down. While acknowledging that daily existence feels markedly different than it did just two years prior, he argues that core human recreation and the activities people genuinely love will endure. If he were tasked with launching a brand-new enterprise from scratch today, he would deliberately aim at the recreation and leisure sector—specifically adult sports leagues like pickleball—capitalizing on demographic shifts, technological displacement, and an era where people will possess excess idle time.
Within automotive manufacturing, Ed anticipates that AI will bring unprecedented production and supply-chain efficiencies, but at the direct expense of character, soul, and emotional resonance. Cars designed primarily to satisfy predictive algorithms and spreadsheets tend to emerge technically flawless yet sterile, failing to give drivers the sensory feedback they crave.
To illustrate how technical competence can ruin driving satisfaction, Ed shares his recent experience purchasing a 2014 Bentley Continental Flying Spur:
- **The Purchase:** Originally carrying a window sticker of $220,000, Ed bought the 100,000-mile Bentley three months prior for just $15,000 as a beat-up "rat piece of junk."
- **The Investment:** After putting roughly $10,000 into mechanical sorting and reconditioning, the car turned out remarkably well, featuring functional air conditioning, whisper-quiet highway manners, and massaging seats.
- **The Dilemma:** During a recent week involving two major road trips totaling 2,500 miles, Ed found himself defaulting to the Bentley simply because it was so frictionless and comfortable, entirely neglecting far more exotic and interesting machines in his garage.
- **The Verdict:** Ed resolved to sell the Bentley immediately because he refuses to own cars that are "too good." As he explains, "I love terrible cars. I enjoy the masochism of driving uncomfortable, interesting cars that allow me to feel driving."
---
[53:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3215s) Fast-Food Architecture and the Homogenization of Modern Supercars
The conversation transitions to the clinical sameness taking over modern performance vehicles. Every hypercar and supercar manufacturer now seems to chase identical benchmarks: packing as much hybrid horsepower into the drivetrain as possible until virtually every high-end vehicle records a 0-to-60 mph sprint under three seconds. This computational perfection has stripped modern sports cars of individuality, sparking debate over whether manufacturers will ever have the courage to deliberately make cars slower, raw, or mechanically imperfect just to satisfy true enthusiasts.
The hosts draw a parallel between modern supercars and the sterile evolution of fast-food architecture. Decades ago, chains like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King constructed instantly recognizable, character-rich buildings featuring iconic mansard roofs, golden arches, and Spanish adobe styling. Over time, corporate optimization replaced bespoke architecture with interchangeable, nondescript beige boxes designed purely for cheap construction and turnkey resale to future commercial tenants. Modern supercars, driven by wind-tunnel algorithms and unified platform architecture, appear to be suffering the exact same fate.
The host presents a mid-roll sponsorship segment highlighting Shopify as the premier platform for launching an online business:
- **Streamlined Setup:** Shopify removes the technical barrier to entry for aspiring entrepreneurs sitting on startup ideas, providing built-in AI store builders and curated design templates that eliminate the need to hire web developers.
- **Shop Pay Checkout:** Highlights the friction-reducing power of Shop Pay, which offers one-tap checkout with saved customer details to significantly reduce cart abandonment.
- **Personal Endorsement:** The host shares their personal experience successfully launching and running multiple e-commerce drop-shipping stores via Shopify prior to their YouTube career, emphasizing that the platform scales seamlessly from solo side hustles to multinational corporate brands like Mattel and Gymshark.
- **Call to Action:** Viewers are directed to visit `shopify.com/ich` to start a free trial.
[56:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3360s) Ferrari's Fake Manual & The Enthusiast Dilemma
The conversation pivots to the modern revival of the manual transmission. Porsche has found wild success by offering manual-only variants that immediately sell out, and McLaren recently debuted an exclusive, nearly $2 million limited-run manual supercar powered by their twin-turbo V8. Ferrari, however, hit an engineering wall. Modern exotics are packed with complex electronic differentials (E-Diffs) and ultra-lightweight rotating internals that do not easily mate with a traditional mechanical linkage. Ferrari's controversial solution is an electronic setup mimicking a manual in the 12Cilindri—a gear lever acting as a series of digital switches, paired with a clutch pedal artificially programmed to stall the car.
Ed Bolian considers this fake manual deeply "patronizing" to enthusiasts, who revere stick shifts specifically for their purity, mechanical simplicity, and tactile feedback. He acknowledges that while younger buyers care far less about three pedals, dedicated purists care deeply. Yet, supercar manufacturers like Ferrari are increasingly disconnected from what purists crave. Ed points out the harsh reality of the market: enthusiasts represent the "wagon dilemma"—they aggressively lobby automakers to build manual V12s or station wagons, but they rarely step into a showroom to buy them brand new. Because enthusiasts wait to buy them used once they have depreciated 80%, automakers have zero financial incentive to cater to their demands.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: The Enthusiast Paradox
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how enthusiast demands fail to influence supercar production because they buy used instead of new.
subgraph Demand["Enthusiast Demand"]
A["Purists demand manual V12s & wagons"]
end
subgraph Market["Market Reality"]
B["Enthusiasts refuse to buy new at full MSRP"]
C["Enthusiasts wait for 80% depreciation"]
end
subgraph Manufacturer["Manufacturer Action"]
D["Automakers ignore purist feedback"]
E["Focus shifts to mass-market tech & fake manuals"]
end
A --> B
B --> C
C --> D
D --> E
```
[57:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3468s) The Subscription Trap and the Future of Coachbuilding
Jack predicts that the future of automotive ownership is hurtling toward an aggressive, nickel-and-diming subscription revenue model. Drivers will soon face monthly microtransactions just to unlock basic vehicle capabilities: $10 a month to exceed 80 mph, $15 a month for heated seats, $15 for remote app start, and $20 for security monitoring like Tesla's Sentry Mode. Graham shares that he received a prompt on his Tesla mobile app asking for $23 a month for windshield replacement protection. While Ed notes that this is simply an insurance product rather than active stone-deflection tech, Jack insists it justifies the concern: with a Tesla windshield replacement running $2,500 out of pocket, drivers will soon pay more in monthly vehicle software subscriptions than they do on their base car note.
Looking even further down the road, Ed foresees the industry returning to pure coachbuilding. Because electric vehicle architectures flatten mechanical differentiation—turning vehicle platforms into uniform, commoditized skateboard chassis—buyers will eventually pay exclusively for the exterior body styling, interior appointments, and infotainment software.
[59:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3566s) The Reality of Cheap Cars: What a Few Thousand Dollars Buys
When asked what someone with a bottom-dollar budget of just a few thousand dollars should purchase, Ed reframes the problem entirely: at that price point, you are not buying the car itself, but rather buying the previous owner's last 18 months of maintenance. The goal is hunting down an inexpensive vehicle that has recently received fresh brakes, tires, spark plugs, ignition coils, and fluid changes. For sellers, documenting this recent work eliminates the inherent fear of a bottom-tier purchase.
Reflecting on cheap car experiments done for car trek videos, Ed notes that sub-$2,000 cars are overwhelmingly junk—especially if you stray outside the usual Japanese commuter staples. He recalls buying a cheap Audi TT, a Mercedes-Benz SLK, and an old Toyota Supra alongside Tyler Hoover (Hoovie) in Kansas to drive down to Galveston, Texas. Ed famously drove the TT straight into Galveston Bay, pulled it out of the water, and drove it 14 hours home.
When Graham asks what bulletproof vehicle could theoretically last an owner 40 continuous years, Ed counters with the golden rule of frugal car ownership:
> "The cheapest car to own is always the one you already have."
Minimizing ownership costs requires loving a car enough to endure driving it over the long haul. Hitting 300,000 to 500,000 miles is becoming increasingly difficult on modern platforms due to tighter cylinder lining clearances and lubrication problems across recent engine designs. For an interesting high-mileage vehicle, Ed surprises the hosts by naming Porsche as the best-built modern automaker capable of reaching 250,000 miles. For standard reliable utility, he defers to historical Consumer Reports stalwarts like Honda and Toyota.
[01:01:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3714s) Guaranteed Financial Disasters: EV Depreciation and Buying New
Ed warns that virtually every brand-new vehicle rolling off a dealership lot functions as a financial disaster, typically losing around 1% of its value every month. An exceptional lease keeps monthly payments below 1% of MSRP, but current electric vehicles are suffering historic value collapses, with certain European EVs and Teslas retaining less than 50% of their residual value after just 12 to 24 months.
Ed attributes this steep EV depreciation directly to aggressive government and manufacturer lease incentives. Drawing parallels to the post-Cash for Clunkers era during the Obama administration, automakers pushed the Nissan Leaf on subsidized lease specials for $100 to $150 a month. When a brand-new $35,000 electric hatchback can be leased for $100 a month—the equivalent loan payment on a mere $5,000 capital balance—the secondary market for used Leafs collapsed instantly to $5,000, triggering an immediate 80% loss in value within two years.
Jack questions why anyone buys brand-new cars at all today. Ed outlines several rational scenarios:
- **Compressed Used Pricing:** Vehicles with exceptionally resilient resale values—such as Cadillac Escalades, GMC Yukons, and Chevrolet Tahoes—often hold value so tightly that a slightly used model saves less than 10% off MSRP.
- **Powertrain Failure Risks:** Many American full-size SUV V8 engines produced over the last decade have known mechanical failure points, making factory warranty coverage a mandatory financial hedge.
- **Lemon Law Protections & Goodwill:** New purchases afford statutory buyback rights and manufacturer goodwill repairs that used car buyers simply forfeit.
- **Aggressive Subsidies:** Cheap leasing arrangements continue to funnel buyers into new vehicles where they can avoid long-term maintenance exposure.
[01:05:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3921s) The Marginal Gains Trap and Fixed Dream Car Goals
The discussion begins with consumer psychology around car ownership, comparing people who perpetually trade in their vehicles every two years to consumers upgrading smartphones just to possess the latest iteration. Graham points out the current anomaly in used Tesla pricing, noting that refreshed 2024 and newer models—specifically the Model Y and Model 3 Performance—resell for nearly their original sticker prices, while used Model S and Model X values jumped roughly 20% after production changes. Ed remarks that while Tesla remains a fascinating company to watch, upgrading to a marginally newer variant of an existing model requires an owner to overvalue tiny incremental improvements.
Ed prefers pursuing cars that are no longer in production because static targets keep the finish line from shifting. He explains that he never worries about missing out on modern conveniences like Apple CarPlay: "None of my car radios work. But I don't care. I like to have like a finite target that I can aim for and strive for." Having an unmoving target allows an enthusiast to reach genuine satisfaction rather than staying trapped on an endless upgrade treadmill.
[01:06:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4013s) From Murciélagos to Bugattis: Finding Contentment
When asked to name his ultimate dream car, Ed identifies the Lamborghini Murciélago. Buying his very first one triggered a surreal existential moment: although he still had 12 years of car payments ahead of him, he experienced an identity crisis, wondering why he even needed to keep showing up to work now that his childhood dream sat in his garage. His affection for the platform never waned, leading him to buy nine different Murciélagos over the years.
Later, when VINwiki began gaining serious traction and required intense grinding, Ed realized he needed a massive new milestone to stay driven. He set his sights on buying a Bugatti Veyron—a goal so outrageous that the thought of purchasing a million-dollar car acted as a "background dripping faucet of a motivating goal" pushing him to work harder. Once he finally acquired the Bugatti, he found himself asking what was left to achieve. While he admires machines like the Aston Martin Valkyrie or the McLaren F1, he explicitly avoids chasing a $30 million to $40 million car because that tier of wealth brings severe lifestyle complications. Today, he considers himself completely content with his existing collection.
[01:08:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4091s) Remote Inspections and the $60 Mechanic Hack
When buying a used vehicle, Ed stresses that a simple pre-purchase inspection is the single most valuable safeguard and easily pays for itself. He recommends services like Lemon Squad, a nationwide gig-economy network capable of inspecting a vehicle almost anywhere in the country within 24 hours. A standard physical inspection costs around $200 or less, but Lemon Squad also offers an on-demand virtual option for roughly $60:
- A buyer initiates a live FaceTime session with a certified professional mechanic while standing beside the car.
- The remote technician instructs the buyer step-by-step (e.g., popping the hood, zooming in on fluid reservoirs, belts, suspension components, or listening to idle sounds).
- The resulting independent diagnostic report gives the buyer undisputed leverage to negotiate repair costs directly off the purchase price, proving existing defects in black and white.
Ed shares an anecdote from his morning ride to the Atlanta airport, where his Uber had a roaring differential that was clearly about to "grenade momentarily." When Graham asks why Ed did not warn the driver, Ed laughs that people generally hate hearing bad news about their livelihoods—though Graham insists a blown differential in the middle of a highway is far worse. Ed notes that between experienced mechanics and modern diagnostic AI tools, identifying the top failure points on almost any vehicle is fast and reliable.
[01:10:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4230s) Estate Sales, a $26,000 McLaren, and Deal-Sharing Experiments
Ed finds his most lucrative vehicle purchases in awkward, complex circumstances that alienate ordinary buyers. His famous $26,000 McLaren MP4-12C deal materialized because it came bundled as part of a nine-car private estate package. The previous owner, a retired Chief Information Officer at Labcorp, had become an avid VINwiki viewer after stepping down from corporate life. Inspired by Ed's salvage-title escapades, the executive filled a warehouse with damaged exotic and sports cars before tragically passing away from cancer.
When the widow contacted a local Kia dealer asking how to liquidate a collection of branded-title exotics, the dealer immediately called Ed. Ed outlined his negotiation philosophy: the seller states a high asking price, Ed counters with a low baseline, and they meet "right smack dab in the middle at my original offer." Ed made a sight-unseen floor bid, wired the funds, sent transport trucks, and bought the first three cars, followed quickly by the remaining six (including three Corvettes, a Mustang, an Audi R8, and a BMW i8).
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Estate Liquidation Process for Branded-Title Supercars
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how Ed Bolian sourced and acquired the nine-car salvage estate package.
subgraph Origin["Estate Liquidation"]
A["Labcorp CIO purchases warehouse of salvage exotics"] --> B["Owner passes away from cancer"]
B --> C["Widow contacts local Kia dealership"]
end
subgraph Negotiation["Ed Bolian Deal Structure"]
C --> D["Dealer contacts Ed for advice"]
D --> E["Ed submits blind floor offer"]
E --> F["Seller agrees to original offer; funds wired"]
end
subgraph Distribution["Asset Disbursement"]
F --> G["Departing video editor gifted Corvette"]
F --> H["Audi R8 and BMW i8 sold to friends"]
F --> I["Remaining inventory slated for sale"]
end
```
After gifting one Corvette to his departing video editor and selling the Audi R8 and BMW i8 to friends, Ed considered turning his daily stream of unconventional purchase leads into a $100-per-month Patreon community feed where subscribers could snap up wholesale deals directly. However, the trial run proved how ill-prepared standard consumers are for salvage transactions. Friends who received early access immediately asked retail-style questions—demanding to know what legal recourse they had if something broke or asking what repairs Ed's mechanic would perform prior to handover. Ed realized that casual buyers do not understand true "as-is" branded-title purchasing, where buyer recourse is precisely zero.
[01:13:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4428s) The Reality of Cheap Exotics: J-B Weld and High-Risk Purchases
Ed Bolian explains that most people simply do not think about buying cars the way he does—and frankly, "they shouldn't because it's stupid." While people often ask how to find bargains, Ed admits his approach wouldn't work as a broad business idea because the average buyer would end up taking reckless gambles on vehicles that turn out far worse than anticipated. He illustrates this with an anecdote from when he bought an ultra-cheap Bentley: driving it home, he discovered a previous owner had poorly welded a damaged wheel, which promptly cracked and broke on the highway. Because Ed routinely travels with an emergency tool kit packed with everything imaginable to get a stranded car rolling, he pulled into a Love's Travel Stop parking lot, patched the broken wheel with J-B Weld, aired the tire back up, and kept driving. The average person, Ed points out, would instead face an exorbitant flatbed tow bill stranded somewhere in rural West Georgia, have no idea which shop could service it, and sit around with a car that doesn't even have processed title paperwork yet. While Ed thrives on managing that exact logistical mess, he cautions that it is never a foolproof silver bullet to easy money.
When Jack and Graham ask Ed to keep them in mind for an Audi R8 or BMW i8 deal, Ed outlines the actual math behind those gambles. He recounts an estate sale probate situation where an Audi R8 was available in the mid-$50,000 range, but it had 106,000 miles and had been sitting completely untouched for a year. Similarly, a BMW i8 popped up in the $20,000 range. While Graham eagerly claims he would gladly risk buying any exotic in the $20k range, Ed details the harsh reality: if you buy a car for $25,000 that would be worth $60,000 in pristine condition, but you immediately have to sink $20,000 to $25,000 into battery packs or mechanical repairs, you suddenly have $50,000 tied up in a branded-title car that sits disabled on jack stands for six months. Moreover, these transactions require wire transfers paid in cash sight unseen before you ever lay eyes on the vehicle. It is not an endless conveyor belt of easy flips; more often than not, buyers get burned by a car that simply does not run.
[01:16:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4564s) How Ed Never Loses Money and the Hoovie's Garage Contrast
Asked about his biggest financial loss on a vehicle, Ed states that he has essentially never lost money on a car. He clarifies that he excludes cheap production beaters destroyed intentionally for stunts on camera, his wife's depreciating daily drivers, or a single isolated incident where automotive YouTuber Freddy Hernandez (Tavarish) sold a car on Ed's behalf without his permission. Outside of those edge cases, his enthusiast, investment, and content cars always exit in the black.
The formula for never losing money comes down to anticipating every catastrophic failure mode and baking an adequate financial cushion into the purchase price. For instance, when buying a McLaren for $26,000, Ed knew the absolute worst scenario was a catastrophic engine failure—something that happens roughly 40% of the time on problematic examples. Factoring in $30,000 to $40,000 to drop in a replacement engine, his total basis would still allow him to break even or retail out of the car cleanly. Success hinges entirely on extending a firm, calibrated offer to an unmotivated or fatigued seller who is incapable of running a protracted, competitive retail sale. When Graham wonders why Tyler Hoover of *Hoovie's Garage* doesn't follow this disciplined rulebook, Ed laughs that watching someone make sensible, profitable decisions makes for boring television. Audiences tune into Hoovie specifically because he buys the cheapest, most neglected specimen on the market rather than the slightly more expensive healthy example, purposely exposing himself to ruinous repair bills for peak automotive entertainment.
[01:17:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4662s) The Economics of Online Auction Platforms
Ed examines the boom of digital auction platforms like Bring a Trailer and Doug DeMuro's Cars & Bids, praising their execution while critiquing the underlying market perception they create. He argues that these platforms operate on a slight fallacy: cars are not inherently 7-day to 10-day liquid assets under normal economic conditions. Over the past several years, macroeconomic liquidity and feverish enthusiast culture created an artificial sense of instantaneous liquidity. Nevertheless, these platforms successfully solved the hardest hurdle in digital commerce: aggregating a critical mass of verified, engaged bidders.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Online Auto Auction Platform Unit Economics
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating the marketing spend, bidding mechanics, and customer lifetime value of online auction sites.
subgraph Acquisition["User Acquisition"]
MKT["$15,000 - $20,000 Marketing Spend"]
BID["1 Winning Retail Bidder Acquired"]
MKT --> BID
end
subgraph AuctionEngine["Listing & Settlement"]
SEV["7-Day Discovery Window"]
FEE["5% - 7% Buyer/Seller Fee"]
BID --> SEV
SEV --> FEE
end
subgraph Retention["Customer Lifetime Value"]
REP["Habitual Bidding: 5 to 7 Vehicles"]
BEP["Platform Breaks Even & Profitable"]
FEE --> REP
REP --> BEP
end
```
Having partnered with several upstart automotive auction companies as sponsors on VINwiki, Ed highlights the staggering cost of customer acquisition in the industry:
- **Skyrocketing CAC**: Acquiring an active, winning retail bidder who discovers a vehicle remotely within a 7-day window now costs between $15,000 and $20,000 in marketing ad spend—up drastically from roughly $5,000 in the earlier days of online auctions.
- **High Lifetime Value (LTV)**: Despite high acquisition costs, top platforms can remain profitable on standard 5% to 7% transaction fees because winning bidders often become repeat collectors who buy five to seven cars over their lifetime.
- **Audience Necessity**: Ed notes that building an auction platform from scratch without a massive pre-existing media or social audience is nearly impossible given these acquisition expenses.
[01:19:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4782s) Negotiating 101: Unconditional Commitment vs. Casual Lowballs
Turning to negotiation mechanics, Ed dismantles the standard tactic amateur buyers use: firing off unsolicited, casual lowball offers to see what sticks (such as offering $60,000 on a $100,000 listing). Sellers immediately dismiss those inquiries because they convey zero reliability. Instead, Ed structures negotiations by validating the seller's asking price first, explaining the precise conditions under which their retail figure would be justified, and then systematically stripping away their friction points:
> "Look, I totally understand that $100,000 is reasonable... But look, let's be honest: I know that it needs these three things, 'cause all of them need these three things. And I'm not going to make us go through all the hoops and get it trucked across town to get it inspected to prove it. I am willing to fully commit at a number that accommodates for the risk that I'd be taking... If you say yes, I'm wiring the money right now. I am fully committed to this offer, and it is less than I know you want, but it'll be the easiest transaction you've ever had... And if it blows up on the way past your mailbox, it's my problem."
By removing pre-purchase inspection demands, offering immediate wired cash, and assuming 100% of the post-sale mechanical liability, the offer becomes immensely attractive to fatigued sellers.
Ed strongly emphasizes conducting these negotiations over the telephone rather than in person. Showing up on-site immediately destroys the buyer's leverage because the seller knows you invested travel time and will likely refuse to leave empty-handed. Buying blind over the phone requires negotiating prices low enough that any hidden flaw is fully priced in.
Hearing this, Graham shares his personal frustration with trying to source used 2022–2024 Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles on Facebook Marketplace. Knowing local market pricing down to the mile, Graham had been messaging sellers offering 10% to 15% under asking price with immediate cash pickup, only to get flatly rejected every single time. He asks Ed whether switching from text messaging to picking up the phone and establishing rapport is the missing ingredient needed to make deals stick.
[01:22:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4946s) The Reality of Facebook Marketplace and Private Party Tax Angles
Facebook Marketplace serves a very specific niche in the automotive ecosystem, and it is rarely the place to find a pristine, trouble-free daily driver. As Ed Bolian explains, Marketplace is where people go to buy "real junk"—a hunting ground he personally enjoys when looking for a 200,000-mile Maserati that only runs on half its cylinders, fully anticipating that he will have to push it down the road at some point. When someone lists a relatively late-model car like a 2022 Tesla on Marketplace, it almost always signals a distressed financial position: the owner is deeply underwater on their financing and must recoup an exact payoff figure that no dealership will offer them as a trade-in. Even when an ad claims the seller simply "upgraded to a Cybertruck," the underlying reality is usually that they refused to accept the wholesale trade-in allowance and are holding out hope that an unsuspecting buyer—or "that rich YouTuber from Vegas"—will come along and pay top dollar.
Graham Stephan points out a unique jurisdictional incentive in Nevada, where private party used car sales are completely exempt from state sales tax. Bolian notes that while this tax shelter provides a compelling reason to seek out private sellers, private listings remain surprisingly scarce on major platforms. This mirrors an earlier tax regime in Georgia twenty years prior, where used and new vehicles purchased through licensed dealerships were subject to sales tax while private transactions were exempt. Dealership associations eventually lobbied aggressively to eliminate the loophole, because the disparity created an artificial spread where buyers were forced to weigh dealer pricing against private party tax savings.
[01:24:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5066s) Dealership Economics, Profit Margins, and Irresponsible Exotic Buyers
Reflecting on his tenure selling at an authorized Lamborghini dealership starting in 2009—a brutal post-recession climate when exotic cars were practically unsellable—Bolian highlights the stark contrast among customer behaviors. While some clients burned cash freely by ordering $250,000 worth of bespoke options or trading cars every six months purely for the thrill, the buyers Ed respected and sought to emulate were those laser-focused on the economic delta. Having previously run an exotic car rental company, Bolian had developed a granular understanding of the exact cost per mile for every vehicle in his fleet. The dealership brought him on specifically to leverage that analytical rigor, helping high-end clients model out multi-year ownership costs and navigate depreciation curves rather than buying blindly.
When it comes to actual negotiating margins on supercars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, the spread between invoice and MSRP on brand-new vehicles typically ranges between 8% and 15%, excluding sporadic factory rebates or manufacturer incentives. For pre-owned exotic inventory, most franchise and boutique dealerships price vehicles with an initial gross margin of 8% to 10%, which generally compresses down to a slim 1% to 3% net margin once overhead, reconditioning, flooring costs, and commissions are paid. Consequently, while buyers can often negotiate between 5% and 20% off an asking price depending on market demand and inventory age, dealerships must retain enough gross profit to keep their facilities operational.
When asked how many buyers were making a financially reckless decision by purchasing a supercar, Bolian estimates that 20% to 25% of dealership customers were stretching far beyond their means. For ultra-high-net-worth individuals worth $100 million, absorbing a $100,000 hit of depreciation is immaterial; the danger lies with buyers who lack the liquid cushion to handle an unexpected catastrophic mechanical failure or an accelerated depreciation drop.
[01:27:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5220s) Sizing Car Budgets and the "Single Vice" Principle
To gauge a healthy ceiling for automotive exposure, Bolian points to the standard banking guideline: cumulative auto loan balances across all household vehicles should not exceed one year of gross annual income. While this threshold is far more permissive than conservative financial planning models, staying within it usually prevents an owner from being financially ruined by a sudden repair bill. The actual wealth profile of Lamborghini shoppers is also often much modest than the public assumes. While modern showroom prices have escalated considerably, the core buyers during Bolian's tenure generally possessed net worths between $1 million and $2 million, targeting vehicles in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. In today's market:
- **New Lamborghini Purchases ($300,000 to $600,000):** A buyer should realistically generate at least $500,000 in annual income to absorb the carrying costs sustainably.
- **Used Modern Classics (e.g., a $100,000 Gallardo):** An enthusiast earning around $75,000 annually can manage ownership without crippling risk—provided the car serves as their sole luxury vice.
Bolian argues that anyone earning a solid median salary can indulge in one outsized hobby—whether high-end dining, extensive world travel, collecting Pokémon cards, or driving a heavily depreciated exotic sports car—so long as they remain completely disciplined in every other area of their spending.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Bolian's Single Vice Allocation Model
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how a disciplined single-vice lifestyle allows affordable exotic ownership on an ordinary income.
subgraph IncomeAllocation["Annual Income Baseline (~$75,000 - $100,000)"]
A["Core Living Expenses & Savings"]
B["Single Discretionary Vice Budget"]
end
subgraph TheViceChoice["Permissible Discretionary Allocations"]
B --> C["Fine Dining & Travel"]
B --> D["Collectibles & Hobbies"]
B --> E["Depreciated Exotic Car\n(e.g., $100k Gallardo)"]
end
subgraph GoldenRule["Discipline Requirement"]
E --> F["Zero Out Other Extravagances\n(No first-class flights, no luxury dining)"]
end
```
The discussion turns personal when Bolian asks Graham Stephan to identify his own vices, given Graham's public reputation for aggressive frugality. Graham initially insists that his only genuine vice is "working and saving," framing all major outlays as investments. Pressed for his largest single purchases, Graham reveals two exceptions:
- **Art & Animation Memorabilia:** Spending just under $20,000 at Heritage Auctions for an original three-piece storyboard set depicting the iconic hill scene where Jack and Sally hold hands in *The Nightmare Before Christmas*. Graham rationalized the purchase on the belief that the original art is fundamentally undervalued and poised to appreciate significantly.
- **First-Class Airfare:** The only recurring expense Graham pays with zero equity expectation, though he still rationalizes the purchase through an ROI calculation—arguing that having room to work during the flight recoups the ticket premium.
- **Home Saltwater Aquarium:** Graham's actual unrecouped financial hobby, into which he has sunk roughly $50,000 over six years, for a system currently worth around $12,000 on the secondary market.
Bolian compares Graham's aquarium to his own pet boa constrictor, emphasizing that setting $40,000 on fire for a hobby is totally acceptable if it brings daily peace and personal enjoyment. The math, he concludes, is identical to owning a fun weekend exotic: if an enthusiast is disciplined enough to forgo luxury flights and expensive dining, that same capital can easily fund the depreciation spread of a dream car.
[01:31:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5478s) The Perfect $1M Collection
When prompted to build the ultimate five-car garage with a hypothetical $1,000,000 budget, Ed Bolian maps out a balanced lineup covering modern supercars, gated open-top driving, daily luxury, and a dependable track toy:
1. **Early E-gear Lamborghini Murciélago** (~$300,000) — A quintessential early-2000s V12 supercar.
2. **Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren** (~$300,000) — A grand touring icon combining German engineering and British racing pedigree.
3. **Ferrari 360 Spider (Gated Manual)** (~$150,000) — An open-top, analog manual sports car to enjoy on weekends.
4. **Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Depreciated Bentley** — A luxury cruiser for daily errands and family duty, utilizing part of the remaining $250,000.
5. **Porsche 911 Variant** — A robust sports car to beat on without worrying about depreciation or delicate upkeep.
[01:32:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5564s) The Bentley Bentayga and "Mechanically Totaled" Luxury
The conversation shifts to depreciated ultra-luxury SUVs when Graham brings up seeing 2017 Bentley Bentaygas listed in the $60,000 range. Ed interjects that buyers who are crazy enough can find them down in the $30,000 range, but warns that buying one at that price point is financial suicide.
Ed explains that modern high-tech luxury vehicles frequently become "mechanically totaled"—a condition where a single major failure produces a repair estimate so astronomically high that it exceeds the fair market value of the vehicle. While Ed admits to owning a Bentley sedan platform himself and shares a deep love for both Bentleys and Range Rovers, he stresses that purchasing them out of warranty at the bottom of their depreciation curve is fundamentally irresponsible.
[01:33:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5592s) Spec Premiums and the Value of Paint
Jack and Graham ask how much a unique factory specification truly drives long-term resale value. Ed acknowledges that certain Paint to Sample (PTS) examples of the Porsche 918 Spyder or Porsche Carrera GT can trade at double the valuation of standard-color examples, generating a seven-figure price delta purely based on exterior paint. However, Ed views that gap as fundamentally unsustainable over the long run:
- **Market Compression:** As collector cars appreciate into elite territory over decades, specification deltas typically compress because buyers prioritize getting an authentic, clean example over a specific hue.
- **The Wrap Paradox:** A buyer might struggle to justify paying an extra $400,000 to $500,000 for a Heritage Edition Ford GT when a standard white example can be wrapped to look identical for $5,000. Nevertheless, collector markets often treat rare factory liveries as legitimate stores of value.
- **Color Desirability Hierarchy:** On modern Ferraris, yellow routinely outperforms traditional Rosso Corsa (red), while deep heritage greens currently command the highest premiums of all. Orange fails on Ferraris because it photographs like an unsaturated red, whereas on modern Lamborghinis, vibrant green carries a 20% to 30% price premium, followed closely by orange.
- **Ed's Personal Value Pick:** Rather than paying the market premium for an elite exterior color, Ed chose to save money on his Bugatti Veyron by purchasing an eccentric "red over red Bugatti with red wheels."
[01:35:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5710s) Tax Strategies, Trade-In Basis Shifting, and TheStradman
The hosts raise the issue of writing off supercars on taxes, referencing YouTuber TheStradman facing scrutiny over deducting exotic vehicles as film props, only to trigger massive realized gains when selling them. Ed clarifies that while he is not a CPA, automotive gains are notorious minefields in tax accounting because vehicle expenses rarely balance out cleanly on an ordinary individual tax return.
Ed discusses several legal mechanisms collectors and creators use:
- **Basis Shifting in Trade-Ins:** Taking advantage of state tax laws where trade-in credits shift basis, provided the cash outlay and paperwork accurately document the actual transaction values.
- **Dealer Classification:** Operating under a licensed dealership model where car sales are treated as business gross revenue and inventory acquisition costs function as cost of goods sold (COGS), neutralizing personal capital gain classifications.
- **Tax Planning:** Ed cautions that anyone chasing rapid appreciation and public sales must have a concrete accounting plan in place, rather than simply assuming every supercar transaction can be rolled over tax-free forever.
[01:36:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5787s) Ferrari & Pagani Production Fraud: Understated Car Counts
Graham brings up allegations made by collector Steve Hamilton that bespoke manufacturers like Ferrari and Pagani routinely underreport production runs. Ed confirms the claim without hesitation: "Absolutely true. It's very well documented. I built an app for it."
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Ferrari Stated Production vs App Tracking
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how stated limited numbers diverge from tracked VINs and evade legal challenge.
subgraph Stated["Factory Stated Numbers"]
A["Ferrari Enzo Announced Run: 399 Units (+1 for the Pope)"]
B["Numbered Badges: '1 of 80' or Prototype Chassis 0, 00, 000"]
end
subgraph Reality["Tracked Production"]
C["VINwiki Database: 500+ Unique Enzo Chassis Tracked"]
D["Duplicate Serial Badges on 599 SA Aperta & Post-Production Prototypes"]
end
subgraph Enforcement["The Legal Reality"]
E["Technically Fraudulent Scarcity"]
F["No Victim Lawsuit: Vehicle Sells for Massive Premium Over MSRP"]
G["Internal Enforcement: Resale Contract Restrictions Backed by Blacklisting"]
end
A --> C
B --> D
C & D --> E
E --> F
F --> G
```
Ed points out specific discrepancies documented across the exotic car world:
- **Ferrari Enzo:** Ferrari claimed a production run of 399 units (plus a 400th car built for Pope John Paul II), yet the VINwiki database has identified well over 500 unique chassis—an undercount exceeding 25%.
- **Duplicate Serial Numbers:** Special runs like the 550 Barchetta, 575 Superamerica, and 599 SA Aperta featured duplicated numbered plaques, with manufacturers using prototype chassis designated as "0", "00", and "000" to sneak out extra post-production cars (as seen on the Ferrari F50).
- **Why Nobody Sues:** While falsely claiming a vehicle is strictly limited is technically consumer fraud, Ed humorously points out that no wealthy owner will ever win a jury trial arguing: *"You're going to sue Ferrari for defrauding you on your car that was immediately worth a million dollars over MSRP? That it should have been worth more than a million dollars over MSRP?"*
- **Unenforceable Resale Agreements:** Ed adds that manufacturer "no-resale" contract clauses are practically unenforceable in court. Instead, brands internally enforce scarcity and behavior by simply blacklisting customers from ever receiving future allocations if they flip their cars.
[01:38:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=5918s) Experian Data, Auto Loans, and the Used Bugatti Lease
Ed reveals that he has been collaborating with Experian and AutoCheck—combining comprehensive DMV registry records with credit bureau underwriting data—to map out how exotic and consumer vehicles are actually funded across America.
While digging through exotic leasing statistics, Ed discovered one particularly comical data point: in the entire United States over the past five years, only roughly 0.5% of all used Bugatti transactions were structured as leases. Given the minuscule transaction volume, Ed realized the dataset was literally pointing directly at him and his friend Tyler Hoover (Hoovie), both of whom leased their used Bugattis through Premier Financial Services. As Graham and Jack laugh, Ed confirms that sometimes when analyzing hyper-exclusive vehicle ownership data, "you see a data set like, well, I know who that one was—and so it was me."
The segment ends as Graham turns to the wider economic picture, asking Ed whether mounting negative equity and upside-down auto loans signal an impending crash in the broader automotive credit market.
[01:40:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6021s) Depreciation, Negative Equity, and the Exotic Car Bubble
The conversation turns to the broader automotive landscape and whether widespread negative equity could trigger a systemic collapse. Ed Bolian notes that while a perfect storm for catastrophic depreciation exists in certain parts of the new car market, it rarely bleeds over into the specialized niche he operates in. For average consumers, plunging values simply mean they won't be able to trade in vehicles as frequently as they used to. When asked if widespread defaults and abandoned payments could spark a wider banking panic, Ed remains skeptical. Even if lenders are forced to absorb 10% to 20% negative equity on repossessed vehicles, the total dollar exposure pales in comparison to the trillions at risk during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
Addressing whether particular exotic cars are caught in pricing bubbles, Ed points to market dynamics where owners can no longer justify turning down peak prices. If a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta suddenly surges to $500,000 after trading at $200,000 just a year earlier, the pricing structure becomes fundamentally unstable. Owners who would never buy back that same car for $500,000 cash will inevitably rush to lock in windfall profits. Unless an endless stream of new capital enters the space, inventory builds up and prices naturally equalize. Ed does not anticipate a catastrophic crash for these models; rather, the market gently deflates back to baseline plus modest inflation.
[01:42:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6121s) Recession Catalysts: AI Unemployment and the Crisis of Aspiration
Looking beyond automobiles, Ed asserts that cars are never the true "canary in the coal mine" for a macroeconomic recession. While real estate inventory offers valuable signals, the definitive tripwire will be labor market disruption driven by artificial intelligence. While AI-induced job loss is already occurring, the true economic hazard arrives if unemployment rates spike into double digits—climbing to 9%, 10%, 12%, or even reaching the extreme 20% to 25% forecasts floated by some tech prognosticators.
Equally troubling to Ed is a cultural decay in ambition. When a society begins to normalize apathy, celebrate low aspiration, and dismiss the value of working hard to accumulate wealth, the entire foundation of the labor force erodes:
> "It just becomes trendier to not care about anything aspirational. That's horrifying, right? Because then you don't have a labor market. You don't have people that are willing to work hard."
After some light banter across the table about work ethic during the shoot, Ed emphasizes the silver lining for Gen Alpha. Because so many peers may surrender to complacency, a motivated younger generation entering the workforce faces a massive competitive vacuum where simply showing up and working hard allows them to supersede their bosses and their bosses' bosses in record time.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Macroeconomic Warning Signs
accDescr: Flowchart illustrating macroeconomic recession triggers and cultural shifts.
subgraph CulturalShifts["Cultural Dynamics"]
Apathy["Trend Toward Apathy & Low Aspiration"] --> LaborShortage["Erosion of Skilled Labor Supply"]
LaborShortage --> Vacuum["Competitive Vacuum"]
Vacuum --> GenAlpha["Opportunity for Driven Gen Alpha Workers"]
end
```
[01:43:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6229s) Rethinking Social Consensus: Why You Should Still Buy a House and Go to College
Addressing the broader five-year economic outlook, Ed pushes back against viral financial advice popularized on social media. Influencers frequently argue that renting is mathematically superior to homeownership, or that college is entirely obsolete. While spreadsheet math can theoretically prove that investing the difference between rent and a mortgage payment produces superior market returns, Ed stresses human behavioral realities: almost no one possesses the discipline to invest that exact difference without fail month after month.
A conventional mortgage functions as an indispensable mechanism of forced savings:
- **Forced Principal Amortization:** The equity component embedded inside every monthly payment systematically forces net worth accumulation.
- **Historic Wealth Driver:** There is no greater engine of middle-class wealth creation in world history than paying down a mortgage; the vast majority of millionaires own property because long-term equity accumulation compounds over decades, not because they waited until they were wealthy to buy.
- **The True Value of College:** While a $250,000 debt burden for an unmarketable degree is difficult to justify, higher education provides crucial "adulthood with training wheels" for young people between the ages of 18 and 22, offering maturation and social frameworks that jumping straight into the workforce often cannot replicate.
Ed warns that reducing generational life milestones to meme-ready infographics harms society over multi-decade horizons.
[01:45:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6334s) Raising Resilient Kids for an Unpredictable Future
When discussing how he guides his own children, Ed reflects on the reality that none of his modern careers existed when he was growing up. He now receives far more invitations to speak at elementary career days as a YouTuber than he ever did as an exotic car salesman. Because future economies will rely on jobs that have yet to be invented, static skill sets and the traditional model—attending a job fair, circulating a paper resume, and securing a lifetime corporate position behind a white picket fence—are obsolete.
Consequently, Ed identifies adaptability as the single most critical asset for the next generation. Fostering that trait requires deliberate parenting:
- Intentionally placing children into uncomfortable, unfamiliar environments where they are forced to adapt.
- Celebrating moments when they faced ambiguity, did not know the immediate solution, but persevered and overcame adversity anyway.
- Letting them experience low-stakes struggles early on so they develop resilience before entering adulthood.
[01:46:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6405s) The Evolution and Long-Term Future of VINwiki
Reflecting on the life cycle of digital media, Ed details how creator economics have evolved over years of daily publishing. In the early era of automotive YouTube, content creation barely paid a living wage. Eventually, it matured into a lucrative industry capable of financing multi-member production staffs, commercial facilities, and even high-profile creators purchasing Bugattis with astronomical loans.
Today, the pendulum has swung into extreme saturation. Countless newcomers enter the ecosystem thrilled to make $5,000 to $10,000 a month creating inexpensive, high-quality content without high overhead. As a veteran in the space, VINwiki has experienced the natural 10% to 30% viewership contraction seen across mature channels compared to peaks three to five years ago.
Rather than panicking, Ed views this evolution as an opportunity:
- **Core Audience Engagement:** As overall internet noise intensifies, true fan loyalty deepens, reflected in heartfelt personal encounters with viewers at airports and automotive events.
- **Platform Resilience:** The channel will continue producing its signature storytelling podcasts, testing fresh creative formats, and inviting automotive figures onto the set.
- **Catalog Monetization:** As Graham Stephan points out, VINwiki’s deep archival library represents immense standalone intellectual property value. Because many of the best story videos feature external guests rather than Ed exclusively, media buyout and distribution firms regularly reach out to acquire or license the channel's extensive back catalog.
[01:49:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6553s) Stewardship of Audience and Car Trek Stakes
Ed Bolian wraps up his thoughts on business partnerships, vehicle financing structures, and equity models. Across his career and the automotive vertical, companies continuously approach him proposing debt vehicles, equity products, repurposing concepts, and platform deployments. Ed emphasizes that while capitalizing on these commercial opportunities is necessary to build a viable, sustainable career, monetization must always be balanced against a deeper responsibility to his audience. He views his position through two distinct lenses: extracting enough value to run a healthy business, while simultaneously acting as a faithful steward of the viewer's attention and honoring the creators and storytellers who appear on VINwiki. To maintain that bond, projects like *Car Trek* consciously push the envelope, taking on ambitious adventures, buying high-risk vehicles, and raising the stakes to ensure the audience receives genuine entertainment and narrative value rather than pure commercialization.
[01:49:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6593s) Car YouTubers: The Best and Worst with Money
When asked point-blank which automotive YouTuber manages their personal finances the worst, Ed chuckles and tactfully dances around naming names. He admits one specific creator immediately springs to mind—with an equally obvious second-place candidate trailing close behind—yet he prefers to believe that individual has a broader master plan and will eventually pull their life together. Ed notes that YouTube automotive content carries contradictory audience expectations: sometimes viewers want a creator who makes sharp, hyper-rational financial choices, but just as often, audiences are captivated by creators making undeniably catastrophic vehicle purchases and chaotic life decisions.
Turning to who manages money the best, Ed does not hesitate for a second: "Daddy Doug. It's always Doug." Doug DeMuro has unquestionably "beaten the game" by building a powerhouse media presence and leveraging it into an immense equity outcome with Cars & Bids. Ed also highlights the founders of Donut Media and the commercial success of Hoonigan as prime examples of creators achieving monumental exits. However, Ed points out a recurring systemic challenge across automotive media: companies often lose their magic or struggle post-acquisition. In his view, the automotive creator economy still needs better transition models and sustainable scaling plans that preserve what made the brands special after outside capital steps in.
- **Worst with Money:** Ed chooses not to name names publicly, noting that automotive audiences often watch specifically for the chaotic spectacle of bad car purchases and terrible financial choices.
- **Best with Money:** Doug DeMuro stands at the absolute top for monetizing his channel into the Cars & Bids platform and pulling off a major strategic equity windfall.
- **The Post-Acquisition Trap:** While outlets like Donut Media and Hoonigan secured massive liquidity events for their founders, maintaining creative energy and operational momentum after being acquired remains an unsolved industry hurdle.
[01:51:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6670s) Tyler Hoover Crashes the Set: Barrett-Jackson Debut
The studio vibe shifts into lively banter as Tyler Hoover of *Hoovie's Garage* walks onto the set to greet Ed, Graham Stephan, and Jack Selby. Tyler playfully heaps praise on Ed, remarking that very few speakers in the automotive world possess Bolian's eloquence, joking that Ed's polished delivery makes him the ultimate role model for what to do—while Tyler serves as the visual case study of what *not* to do. The crew immediately notices the two are practically wearing matching Rolex sports watches, sparking lighthearted teasing over who failed to send out the wardrobe memo.
Tyler then reveals the real reason Ed flew out to Las Vegas: Tyler landed Ed a gig co-hosting television commentary on the live auction block for Barrett-Jackson. With some of the traditional veteran announcers tied up with other commitments, Tyler brought Ed in as his partner for the live broadcast. Asked if the pressure of live TV makes him nervous, Ed casually responds that it does not. The conversation pivots to how many cars Tyler will end up buying off the block during the event. Ed immediately quips, "Too many," joking that Barrett-Jackson has never lost a dime by hiring Tyler Hoover because every dollar they pay him in talent fees—plus a healthy drawdown on his auction line of credit—is guaranteed to go right back into buying questionable project cars off the auction block.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
accTitle: Hoover-Bolian Barrett-Jackson Dynamic
accDescr: Diagram illustrating how Tyler Hoover and Ed Bolian collaborate at Barrett-Jackson auctions and cycle funds back into purchases.
subgraph AuctionBroadcast["Live Auction Block"]
B["Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas"]
T["Tyler Hoover<br>(Commentator)"]
E["Ed Bolian<br>(Guest Commentator)"]
B --- T
B --- E
end
subgraph FinancialCycle["The Hoover Feedback Loop"]
P["Commentary Paycheck"]
LOC["Auction Line of Credit"]
Cars["'Too Many' Unreliable Collector Cars"]
T -->|"Earns Talent Fee"| P
P -->|"Reinvested Immediately"| Cars
LOC -->|"Leveraged to Buy More"| Cars
Cars -->|"Returned to Auction House"| B
end
```
[01:53:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6780s) Channel Member Preview: Macro Economy, Wealth Gap, and Gaming Trades
After thanking Ed for making the trip to Las Vegas, the podcast transitions into an exclusive preview trailer for the upcoming episode released early to channel members. The tease touches on an intense macroeconomic and cultural discussion:
- The prospect of Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire alongside historical warnings about civilizations collapsing under runaway wealth inequality.
- Critiques of an economy where over 40% of Americans remain unfamiliar with fundamental personal finance vehicles like Roth IRAs, high-yield savings accounts, and money market funds.
- Structural economic vulnerabilities, including a ballooning national debt approaching $40 trillion with annual deficit spending exceeding $2 trillion, leaving millions of everyday families living just one missed paycheck away from financial ruin.
- The debate over navigating all-time highs in the stock market and the discipline of long-term holding.
- Upcoming market opportunities, highlighted by a massive trade setup surrounding Take-Two Interactive ahead of the generational release of *Grand Theft Auto VI*.
## Notable quotes
> [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=0s) I've never lost money on a car. — Ed Bolian
> [17:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1052s) Would I like to have that much in cars? Probably not. That would be irresponsible. And I saw you got a little standup Dave Ramsey over there that he would scorn me for such things. But it does tend to make the content world go round. — Ed Bolian
> [18:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1111s) It's 10 I'm afraid of... but then I don't want to crack nine because when you're at nine, then everyone's like, 'Oh, I see what you're doing. Oh yeah, you're at 9,200. Okay, I see the game you've been playing.' — Graham Stephan
> [20:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1246s) I breathe a sigh of relief when I pull my car back into the garage, turn off the ignition, the garage goes down. I'm like, good, car's safe. — Graham Stephan
> [22:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1349s) The cheapest way to buy a car isn't to pay the least amount of money. The cheapest way to own a car is to have the equity position reflect something positive when you're done with it. So, it doesn't really matter what you pay if it's going to go up in value. — Ed Bolian
> [28:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=1702s) Go somewhere where they're going to be very safe, where it's on a highway, wide open, good visibility, easy access, no lights, no turning, no curbs, no nothing. Because the reason they don't like them is that they think that if they engage with them that they'll ruin them for you. — Ed Bolian
> [34:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=2087s) Don't buy a tuned McLaren. — Ed Bolian
> [52:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3175s) I love terrible cars. I enjoy the masochism of driving uncomfortable, interesting cars that allow me to feel driving. — Ed Bolian
> [01:00:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3615s) The cheapest car to own is always the one you already have. — Ed Bolian
> [01:06:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=3975s) None of my car radios work. But I don't care. I like to have like a finite target that I can aim for and strive for. — Ed Bolian
> [01:07:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4040s) background dripping faucet of a motivating goal — Ed Bolian
> [01:13:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=4432s) they shouldn't because it's stupid. — Ed Bolian
> [01:49:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6593s) Daddy Doug. It's always Doug. — Ed Bolian
> [01:51:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_NM8flKHQk&t=6670s) Too many — Ed Bolian
## Mentioned
Ed Bolian, Graham Stephan, Jack Selby, Tyler Hoover, Doug DeMuro, Dave Ramsey, Chris Camillo, Elon Musk, Bryan "Birdman" Williams, Justin Bieber, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Lil Uzi Vert, VINwiki, TheStradman, Hoovies Garage, Freddy Hernandez, Tavarish, Donut Media, Hoonigan, Cars & Bids, Barrett-Jackson, Bring a Trailer, Curated, Lemon Squad, Northwest Registered Agent, NetSuite, Monarch Money, Shopify, SpaceX, Labcorp, Take-Two Interactive, Grand Theft Auto VI, Rolex, Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, Bugatti Chiron, Ford GT, Spyker C8, Lamborghini Murciélago LP640, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 430 Scuderia, Ferrari 550 Barchetta, Ferrari 488, Ferrari 12Cilindri, Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche Carrera GT, Porsche 918 Spyder, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Macan, McLaren P1, McLaren F1, McLaren 570GT, McLaren 650S, McLaren 12C, McLaren MP4-12C, Pagani, Koenigsegg, Aston Martin Valkyrie, Bentley Continental Flying Spur, Lotus Exige S240, Audi TT, Audi R8, BMW i8, Mercedes-Benz SLK, Toyota Supra, Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe, Nissan Leaf, Tesla, J-B Weld, Love's Travel Stop, Car Trek, Hermès
## Video description
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:00 - How Ed Made $7M Buying Cars
00:08:18 - Why Supercars Keep Climbing in Price
00:15:08 - Ed's Full Car Collection
00:16:21 - Sponsor: Northwest Registered Agent
00:17:27 - The Tax Trap & The Exotic Insurance Gap
00:23:24 - Looking Rich for Cheap & Cars That Scream "Broke"
00:30:33 - Sponsor: NetSuite & Monarch Money
00:33:07 - The Secret Formula for Predicting Which Cars Make Money
00:43:44 - The Car Market Bubble In 2026 + 2027
00:50:07 - Unreliable New Cars & Buying Unreliable Exotics
00:54:30 - Sponsor: Shopify
00:55:52 - Ferrari's Fake Manual & The Best Cheap Cars
01:01:54 - Guaranteed Financial Disasters
01:08:11 - How $60 Remote Inspections Save Money
01:16:02 - How to Never Lose Money on a Car & Negotiating 101
01:24:26 - How Much Car You Can Actually Afford
01:31:18 - The Perfect $1M Collection
01:38:38 - Experian Data & What Triggers the Next Recession
01:43:49 - Buy a House, Go to College
01:49:53 - Best & Worst Car YouTubers With Money
*Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan & Jack Selby will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan & Jack Selby are part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available.
VINwiki founder Ed Bolian argues that exotic cars can function as appreciating financial assets if buyers exploit the valuation gap between neglected and mechanically functional condition rather than chasing pristine preservation. Bolian and host Graham Stephan contend that long-term vehicle equity depends on identifying generational demand cycles, navigating strict exotic financing rules, and avoiding modern manufacturing traps.
Condition Arbitrage and Managing Exotic Ownership (6:17)
Bolian's central investment thesis relies on condition arbitrage: acquiring the most neglected, high-mileage, or broken examples of iconic vehicles and rehabilitating them to mechanically sound, "okay" status. Moving a car from unacceptable to functional yields the highest profit margin, whereas spending capital to advance an automobile from good to pristine "concours" condition reliably loses money. Through this approach, combined with bank financing and trade-in rollovers, Bolian states he turned approximately $1 million in out-of-pocket spending into a personal collection valued at $7.5 million without ever recording a net loss on a car.
To make ownership financially viable, Bolian bypasses standard manufacturer maintenance premiums. On his Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, which he drove 16,000 miles to diagnose mechanical issues, he ordered custom $500 wheels from China to fit modern Chiron-spec tires, circumventing the factory $40,000 to $50,000 Michelin PAX run-flat requirement. To control operating costs across his multimillion-dollar fleet, he utilizes agreed-value collector car policies costing $15,000 to $20,000 annually, benefiting from underwriting models that price risk on the assumption that an individual can only drive one vehicle at a time.
Demographic Drivers of Supercar Appreciation (33:15)
Bolian asserts that collector car appreciation follows a predictable 15- to 20-year demographic inflection cycle. Vehicles idolized as bedroom posters by teenagers between ages 16 and 19 experience a decade of severe depreciation before surging once that generation achieves peak discretionary earning power. This dynamic drove massive valuations for analog, gated-manual supercars like the Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 and Ford GT. Bolian distinguishes between durable blue-chip exotics—increasingly acquired as alternative assets by younger principals across 1,800 U.S. family offices managing over $100 million—and mass-produced modern models like the Ferrari 488, which he warns rest on fragile pricing inflated by retail bidding wars.
Bolian also corroborates assertions that niche marques engineer artificial scarcity by underreporting production figures. Utilizing tracking data compiled on the VINwiki platform, Bolian notes that Ferrari produced well over 500 unique chassis of the Ferrari Enzo, directly contradicting the factory's stated production cap of 399 commercial units and one vehicle built for the Vatican.
Financing Algorithms and Capital Gains Frictions (39:57)
High-end vehicle purchases frequently rely on debt, but lenders enforce specialized underwriting parameters. Bolian notes that exotic auto loans—typically carrying 6.5% to 8.5% interest on vehicles older than five years—require credit scores above 740, loan-to-value ratios between 60% and 80%, and gross income exceeding the loan amount. The primary hurdle for newer borrowers is comparable credit: banks rarely permit a borrower to increase installment auto credit by more than 50% over their previous highest-serviced auto loan balance.
Tax friction also shapes liquidity in high-end vehicle portfolios. Graham Stephan notes that while he would not purchase his $750,000 Ford GT at current market prices, he retains it because liquidating would trigger a punitive capital gains tax bill. Bolian explains that seasoned collectors manage these tax consequences through formal dealer licensing—treating acquisitions as cost of goods sold—or by executing structured trade-ins under state tax rules that permit basis shifting across inventory.
Automaker Allocation Tactics and EV Depreciation (50:07)
Bolian contends that mainstream new vehicle manufacturing is plagued by compromised build quality, excessive digital software complexity, and rapid depreciation. Most new vehicles lose roughly 1% of their value monthly, but electric vehicles suffer the most severe collapses, with certain models losing more than 50% of their residual value inside two years. Bolian attributes this drop to aggressive, government-subsidized lease incentives, which depress secondary market pricing by making brand-new leases artificially cheap.
By contrast, top-tier legacy manufacturers maintain extreme pricing power by manipulating buyer access. Porsche compels collectors to purchase less desirable SUVs like the Macan or Cayenne to earn allocations for high-margin models like the 911 GT3 RS. Ferrari adopts an ultra-luxury model mirroring Hermès, conditioning clients to accept every assigned vehicle and bespoke option under implicit threat of removal from future VIP allocations.
Macroeconomic Tripwires and Content Business Sustainability (102:01)
Looking at broader systemic risks, Bolian dismisses fears that auto loan defaults or vehicle negative equity will trigger a general financial panic, noting that total automotive exposure remains minor compared to the 2008 mortgage crisis. Instead, he views double-digit unemployment caused by artificial intelligence disruption, alongside a cultural erosion of career ambition, as the primary economic risks. He rejects viral personal finance advice against homeownership, noting that fixed mortgage amortizations serve as an indispensable vehicle of forced savings that individuals rarely replicate via discretionary investing.
Regarding creator economics, Bolian explains that VINwiki avoids the operational pitfalls of traditional automotive channels by prioritizing historical, third-party storytelling over perpetual vehicle inventory turnover. By decoupling video output from constant purchasing, wrapping, and modifying cycles, VINwiki maintains lean overhead, enabling Bolian to deploy media revenue directly into undervalued vehicles rather than funding continuous production-driven depreciation.
Bolian demonstrates that treated as an alternative asset class, high-end vehicle ownership can generate substantial personal equity when backed by disciplined sourcing and mechanical risk tolerance. However, his strategy relies on specialized mechanical triage, deep dealer networks, and complex debt structures—realities that present prohibitive risks for conventional retail buyers attempting to treat luxury automobiles as standard investment assets.
Source quotes
[0:00] Ed Bolian: I've never lost money on a car.
[17:32] Ed Bolian: Would I like to have that much in cars? Probably not. That would be irresponsible. And I saw you got a little standup Dave Ramsey over there that he would scorn me for such things. But it does tend to make the content world go round.
[18:31] Graham Stephan: It's 10 I'm afraid of... but then I don't want to crack nine because when you're at nine, then everyone's like, 'Oh, I see what you're doing. Oh yeah, you're at 9,200. Okay, I see the game you've been playing.'
[20:46] Graham Stephan: I breathe a sigh of relief when I pull my car back into the garage, turn off the ignition, the garage goes down. I'm like, good, car's safe.
[22:29] Ed Bolian: The cheapest way to buy a car isn't to pay the least amount of money. The cheapest way to own a car is to have the equity position reflect something positive when you're done with it. So, it doesn't really matter what you pay if it's going to go up in value.
[28:22] Ed Bolian: Go somewhere where they're going to be very safe, where it's on a highway, wide open, good visibility, easy access, no lights, no turning, no curbs, no nothing. Because the reason they don't like them is that they think that if they engage with them that they'll ruin them for you.
[34:47] Ed Bolian: Don't buy a tuned McLaren.
[52:55] Ed Bolian: I love terrible cars. I enjoy the masochism of driving uncomfortable, interesting cars that allow me to feel driving.
[60:15] Ed Bolian: The cheapest car to own is always the one you already have.
[66:15] Ed Bolian: None of my car radios work. But I don't care. I like to have like a finite target that I can aim for and strive for.
[67:20] Ed Bolian: background dripping faucet of a motivating goal
[73:52] Ed Bolian: they shouldn't because it's stupid.
[109:53] Ed Bolian: Daddy Doug. It's always Doug.
[111:10] Ed Bolian: Too many
Original transcript
[0:00] I have found that buying the worst
[0:02] examples of the coolest cars on earth
[0:04] tends to give me the opportunity to let
[0:05] [music] them go up in value. What's the
[0:07] most you've lost on a car? I've never
[0:09] lost money on a car.
[0:13] >> It never gets old. [music] I probably
[0:15] spent about a million dollars on cars.
[0:21] The current collection's probably worth
[0:23] [music] something like 7 and 12 or so.
[0:26] >> Wow. The cheapest way to buy a car isn't
[0:28] to pay the least amount of money.
[0:30] Everyone can afford to own a [music] car
[0:31] that goes up in value.
[0:33] >> How do you effectively negotiate?
[0:35] >> I am fully committed [music] to this
[0:36] offer. And if it blows up on the way
[0:38] past your mailbox, it's my problem.
[0:41] >> So, who do you think of all of the car
[0:42] YouTubers is the worst with money?
[0:45] >> Well, there's one that comes to mind. Um
[0:47] Tyler is making terrible decisions so we
[0:49] don't have to.
[0:50] >> If [music] you have a really tiny,
[0:52] what's the best car that will make it
[0:54] appear bigger?
[0:56] >> [music]
[0:57] >> Well,
[1:02] [music]
[1:04] >> Ed Bullan, thank you so much for coming
[1:06] on the Ice Coffee Hour.
[1:07] >> It's great to be back where I get to be
[1:08] in your house this time rather than you
[1:10] coming to mine.
[1:11] >> So, I've really been looking forward to
[1:12] this because you've been correct about
[1:15] nearly every single car that you've
[1:17] predicted is going to be going up in
[1:19] value. We're talking Lamborghinis, gated
[1:22] Mercielago, Bugatti, your Spiker. You
[1:25] just told me that you doubled your money
[1:27] on that one, which is incredible. Your
[1:29] collection so far, to my knowledge, has
[1:31] made millions of dollars. And I'm
[1:33] curious how much money so far you've
[1:35] made buying these exotic cars.
[1:37] >> You know, it's it's hard to say because
[1:38] there's a lot of different, you know,
[1:40] variables because I worked in the
[1:41] industry and so there's a lot of flips
[1:43] that are kind of unrealized. But I I
[1:44] suppose in the last 20 years, I think I
[1:47] probably spent about a million dollars
[1:49] cumulatively on cars that became
[1:52] combined with loans and trades and
[1:54] things like that. And I guess the
[1:55] current collection's probably worth
[1:57] something like seven and a half or so.
[1:59] >> Wow.
[2:00] >> Um now there's still some debt to handle
[2:02] related to that, but it certainly has
[2:04] gone in the right direction and
[2:05] generated a lot of equity. And you know,
[2:08] it's not like I can see the future, but
[2:09] there are patterns, right? And so that's
[2:12] really what the industry sort of demands
[2:14] and invites is some analysis of what
[2:17] works, what doesn't, and what the recipe
[2:19] sort of becomes.
[2:20] >> So, have you now made more money on
[2:22] YouTube or investing in cars?
[2:24] >> Well, if if I were to totally go liquid,
[2:27] I guess it's cars.
[2:28] >> That is crazy because I feel like every
[2:29] single person we have on this podcast
[2:31] makes more from YouTube than their other
[2:34] thing that they're doing or known for.
[2:36] Well, one aspect that's very critical to
[2:38] understand is that my content on VinWiki
[2:41] is not mostly me. I'm only maybe 10% of
[2:43] the content. And I am not forced to buy
[2:47] a lot more cars than I naturally would
[2:49] for the sake of content. So, you know,
[2:51] Stradman is always buying, building,
[2:53] modifying, selling, perfecting, building
[2:54] like his version. Tyler is making
[2:56] terrible decisions so we don't have to.
[2:58] Freddy is in these infinite projects.
[3:00] And so all of those models work really
[3:02] well for content, but sometimes they
[3:04] don't require or even allow cars that go
[3:07] up in value. And so the sustainability
[3:10] of Vinwicki keeping it very lean as a
[3:13] business works because I'm not as
[3:16] beholden to what the cars are to make
[3:18] the content. The stories, you know, are
[3:20] happened years, decades ago in many
[3:22] cases and most of them again aren't
[3:23] about me or my cars. And so that's been
[3:26] great because I've been able to funnel a
[3:27] lot of the money into the cars, which I
[3:29] would have done with however the money
[3:31] comes in, but then I end up at
[3:33] fortunately a pretty good position.
[3:35] >> So, one of the cars you recently
[3:36] purchased I saw was that red Bugatti. It
[3:39] is gorgeous. How expensive is a car? And
[3:42] most importantly, how expensive is that
[3:43] car to maintain?
[3:44] >> Also, you always say buddy.
[3:48] >> Bu you always
[3:50] >> It's that Bugatti.
[3:52] >> Bugatti.
[3:53] >> What color is your Bugatti? You didn't
[3:55] hear that.
[3:55] >> Okay.
[3:56] >> How do you say how how are you supposed
[3:57] to say
[3:58] >> the people from the factory just say
[3:59] Bugatti?
[4:00] >> Boo. It's Bugatti.
[4:01] >> Dude, we've literally had this
[4:02] conversation before in the podcast.
[4:03] >> And Veyron is hard as well because if
[4:05] you if you think about that as a French
[4:07] name, it would just be Veyron. But we're
[4:09] not going to say that because everybody
[4:11] would slap you in your own face. And so
[4:12] I I think that it's Bugatti Veyron is
[4:15] seems to be the best way to say it. Uh
[4:17] but anything works. And
[4:19] >> so it's really Bugatti.
[4:21] >> Yeah.
[4:22] >> Like everyone says it aside from you.
[4:23] Gosh, it's really
[4:26] allowy. Okay, whatever.
[4:27] >> And so I bought it about 2 years ago now
[4:30] for 1.45 million. And the car was the
[4:34] Frankfurt Motor Show car and then it was
[4:36] owned by Birdman of Cash Money Records
[4:38] and he gave it to Justin Bieber. Bieber
[4:40] gave it back. It got repossessed. The
[4:41] bank sold it to Floyd Mayweather. He
[4:43] delivered here in Vegas right before the
[4:44] Conor McGregor fight. And then it was
[4:47] sold to Little Uzi Vert and then a drug
[4:49] dealer in Miami and then me. And so I
[4:52] have thoroughly enjoyed it. I've put
[4:54] about I don't know 15 16,000 miles on it
[4:56] over the course of those two years,
[4:58] which is wildly irresponsible from a
[4:59] value maintenance perspective, but I am
[5:01] loving it. Uh the reason that it was
[5:04] especially cheap in that moment relative
[5:06] to the the coups and I I know it's
[5:11] ridiculous to say that $1.5 million is
[5:12] cheap but that they had gone down about
[5:14] a million dollars because there's only
[5:16] 14 Bugatti Veron Grand Sports which is
[5:18] the removable roof thousand horsepower
[5:20] variant uh in the US and there's 58
[5:22] worldwide and so of those 14 US cars six
[5:26] of them transacted inside of a year
[5:28] which is grossly beyond the number of
[5:31] transactions that can just crash a
[5:33] market. And so since they were long on,
[5:36] you know, advertised everywhere, it was
[5:38] easier to lowball them. And so I was
[5:40] able to get a really, really good deal.
[5:42] And once all of that inventory was
[5:44] absorbed into homes that where they were
[5:46] going to stay for a while, that kind of
[5:48] allows them to return to the normal.
[5:50] Usually the the open roof cars are about
[5:52] a million dollars more than the coups.
[5:54] And so one of these just sold for, I
[5:55] guess, 3.3 million.
[5:57] >> Is your car worth more because Justin
[5:58] Bieber owned it? It's very hard to say
[6:00] because you know most celebrities and
[6:02] entertainers, hip-hop artists, anybody
[6:04] like that are they don't have a
[6:05] reputation of taking good care of things
[6:07] and so that would generally be a
[6:09] detraction. It is novel and it is
[6:11] interesting from like a cars and coffee
[6:13] story perspective and so initially
[6:17] no but eventually yes. So people are
[6:21] scared of that, but then once the cars
[6:24] are demonstrated to be okay, then the
[6:26] value can go back up because everybody's
[6:28] less worried about what might have
[6:30] happened. So I live car-wise in the
[6:33] world between like totally unacceptable
[6:35] and okay, that's profitable. Okay to
[6:38] good is somewhat profitable. Good to
[6:41] perfect, you lose money. And perfect to
[6:44] like conour everything is is just you're
[6:47] just in it for the recreation of it.
[6:49] you're losing tons and tons of money.
[6:50] And so I have found that buying the
[6:53] worst examples of the coolest cars on
[6:54] earth tends to give me the opportunity
[6:56] to let them go up in value. And and
[6:58] that's where it's all come from.
[7:00] >> So how do you maintain the car cheaply?
[7:02] >> The best thing that you can actually do
[7:03] is drive it. And what I have found is
[7:06] that, you know, when I can put 5 to
[7:08] 10,000 miles on a bad car, it at least
[7:12] starts to validate what it really needs
[7:14] versus what it can probably not have to
[7:16] worry about. and it can give me the
[7:18] opportunity to cosmetically and
[7:19] mechanically recondition the car enough.
[7:22] And so since I bought it, I have spent
[7:25] maybe $50 to $60,000 on three oil
[7:28] changes, um some CV boots, various
[7:33] sensors and things like that just throws
[7:35] a bunch of errors. This morning I was
[7:37] taking my kid to school in it and it
[7:39] threw every error, but that was just
[7:40] because it was mad because I've been
[7:41] driving my cheap Bentley too much
[7:42] lately. But um generally, yeah, it
[7:45] hasn't been that bad. Now, if you go
[7:47] perfectly by the book, it's about 20 to
[7:50] 25,000 for an annual service, about 40
[7:52] 50,000 for a set of tires. They have
[7:54] just released a uh retrofit set of
[7:57] wheels that accommodate Chiron size
[7:59] tires, which I had already done through
[8:00] some fake Chinese wheels that I got for
[8:02] $500 each. And so, I have uh gotten it
[8:05] pretty quickly into a form that it is
[8:07] reliable for long trips. I drove it back
[8:09] from Vegas last year. I've driven it to
[8:11] Miami a bunch of times. I've driven it
[8:12] down to Hilton Head and back. So, I just
[8:14] drove it to Connecticut and back. So,
[8:15] most of the miles are actually on really
[8:17] long trips.
[8:18] >> Should Graham drive his Ford GT more?
[8:20] It's so funny. We were talking about
[8:21] this in the car from the airport.
[8:24] >> So, Graham has a Ford GT. And how long
[8:26] have you owned it?
[8:27] >> 5 years.
[8:28] >> Okay. And what'd you pay for it?
[8:30] >> 306,000.
[8:31] >> And how many miles are on it?
[8:33] >> 7700.
[8:35] >> Okay. So, a 5 to 10,000 mi Ford GT, and
[8:38] yours is white. Yeah.
[8:40] >> Blue stripes
[8:40] >> is 750 grand, give or take. now. And the
[8:44] Ford GT market is one of the most unique
[8:47] exotic or supercar markets for a a
[8:49] variety of reasons. One is there are a
[8:52] lot more of them than most cars that
[8:54] have had that kind of long-term value
[8:56] trajectory. Also, there are very few
[8:59] logical departure cars. And so it's not
[9:01] like this modern, you know, M3, GT3 RS,
[9:06] SVJ, Pagani that everybody that's young
[9:09] watching Tik Tok wants to be their like
[9:11] life history in cars. When you have a
[9:14] Ford GT, generally people like it
[9:16] because they're very maintainable.
[9:18] They're very American. They're very
[9:19] simple, but they're very iconic, very
[9:21] cool. All the accolades that we'd like
[9:23] for a car to be while being manual,
[9:26] fast, makes a great noise. There's a lot
[9:28] of things to love about a Ford GT, but
[9:30] people who have them aren't like waiting
[9:32] for the chance to go out and buy a V12
[9:36] Lamborghini or a mid-enine V8 Ferrari.
[9:38] They chose to buy the Ford GT and so
[9:40] they're not always tempted to trade it.
[9:43] So, they're not shopping them all the
[9:44] time. They're also generally slightly
[9:46] older and they're very disciplined in
[9:48] their ownership. The other thing that's
[9:50] happened is that because there is a
[9:51] constant engagement in that market, they
[9:53] have gone up very incrementally rather
[9:56] than these huge jumps. So over the last
[9:58] 6 to 12 months, a lot of Ferraris with
[10:02] limited explanation have doubled or
[10:03] tripled in value. In those cases,
[10:06] everybody has to re-evaluate like, am I
[10:08] going to own this car for so much more
[10:11] today than I paid a few years ago? And
[10:14] the answer for most of them is no. I'm
[10:15] ready to take that money and put it into
[10:17] whatever it can also represent. 4GT guys
[10:19] don't have that because they have never
[10:21] just doubled in value in a short amount
[10:23] of time. They go up 10 15% a year. And
[10:26] and that causes that kind of question.
[10:29] Should he drive it? Because if you've
[10:31] got a car that you paid 300 grand for
[10:32] and it's worth 3/4 of a million dollars.
[10:35] Well, that's a different thing. That is
[10:37] a different unit of money. And so the
[10:40] the valid question is well I am rebying
[10:43] the car every year as all these new
[10:45] results print. So should I just hold on
[10:48] to it as that store of value as opposed
[10:52] to the recreation you could have out of
[10:53] driving it?
[10:54] >> That's really interesting because that's
[10:56] almost identical to what one of the best
[10:59] investors we've ever had on the podcast
[11:01] says, Chris Camilillo. He says your
[11:04] portfolio that you check your account
[11:07] every morning and all the stocks that
[11:09] appear there, that portfolio that you
[11:11] have, you choose to buy every single day
[11:14] and you need to reflect every morning if
[11:16] you had the amount of money that you
[11:18] have invested, would you pick this exact
[11:20] distribution
[11:22] and and composition of stock? And so
[11:24] you're saying your approach to investing
[11:26] in cars is quite literally investing in
[11:28] cars. It's the exact same thing.
[11:30] >> Well, it shifts most of the time. I hope
[11:32] people are buying cars because it's the
[11:34] car they really want to own because
[11:36] there's nearly no example of any car
[11:39] that has beaten the S&P 500 for more
[11:41] than a decade, you know, and generally
[11:42] that'll only be a short window of time
[11:44] where they do double triple in value and
[11:46] then there's negligible gains for a very
[11:48] very long period of time. So, you need
[11:50] to own something like that because you
[11:52] really really do love it. Um otherwise,
[11:55] as you've talked about, simplifying your
[11:58] life into very standard investments that
[12:00] are easy to monitor, easy to understand,
[12:03] easy to control is the path to peace,
[12:05] but cars are the path to fun. And so
[12:08] there's a lot to be said for, you know,
[12:10] having some allocation of, you know,
[12:13] money into cars. And that's one of the
[12:15] things that we are definitely seeing in
[12:17] certain segments of the market. you
[12:19] know, we we're seeing an explosion of
[12:21] value a lot like but but a bit different
[12:24] from what we saw from 2021 to 2023 in
[12:27] the wake of CO where there was a lot of
[12:29] cash in the market. There were also new
[12:31] car shortages and there was just a lot
[12:33] of, you know, recreational enthusiasm.
[12:35] People picking up different hobbies,
[12:36] embracing, going on rallies or long road
[12:39] trips or drives or tracking or whatever
[12:41] they want to do with their cars. And so
[12:42] we saw a significant rise in the value
[12:45] of all interesting cars. What we've seen
[12:48] over the last, let's say, 24 months is
[12:51] uh a very huge jump in the prices of
[12:54] proper rare stuff. Really, really good
[12:56] collector cars. Ford GTs are in there,
[12:58] but also Carrera GTS, all the V12
[13:00] Lamborghinis, most of the numbered rare
[13:03] Ferraris, certainly things that are
[13:04] manual transmission, mechanically
[13:06] simple, easy to long-term maintain, but
[13:08] also even in some of these really rare
[13:10] hybridized more modern cars, P1, 918, La
[13:13] Ferrari, and things like that. And so
[13:15] that's been a little bit hard to
[13:17] understand because there hasn't been a
[13:19] more macroeconomic condition that seems
[13:22] to cause it. We just see these cars
[13:23] going up in value because clearly people
[13:26] are building collections and collections
[13:28] of more modern supercars. These cars
[13:30] aren't as old as people who were
[13:32] collecting muscle cars or pre-war
[13:34] significant cars would really have
[13:36] focused on. So it's interesting the time
[13:38] window in which these are going up. And
[13:41] what we have seen is I think there's
[13:42] like 1,800 US-based family offices that
[13:45] represent more than hund00 million. And
[13:47] so a lot of these family offices are
[13:49] allowing younger generations to have a
[13:51] car portfolio. And as long as the cars
[13:54] meet certain reasonable criteria of
[13:56] rarity and significance and things like
[13:58] that, they kind of get to go into, you
[14:00] know, one of these dealers with a gone
[14:02] in 60 seconds looking shopping list and
[14:04] just say, "I want one of everything."
[14:06] And they do that like every day. If you
[14:08] own like curated in Miami, he'll have a
[14:10] 24 year old kid come in with a list of
[14:13] $30 million worth of cars that wants it
[14:15] right now.
[14:15] >> And is that for an investment? Like his
[14:18] family office says, "Hey, we're going to
[14:19] allocate you $30 million. Go and build
[14:21] us a car portfolio that might go up in
[14:24] value 3 to 8% a year."
[14:25] >> Something like that. I'm sure that they
[14:27] aren't tasked with the deployment there,
[14:30] but they're saying, "We believe that
[14:32] this source of cars is probably
[14:34] responsible, and we don't mind you
[14:36] spending this amount of money on cars
[14:38] from them." And I mean, it's an amazing
[14:40] reputation to have for some of these
[14:42] sellers of cars, brokers of cars,
[14:44] dealers of cars, but that seems to be
[14:47] what is happening. And then when you
[14:49] overlay that with just infinite more
[14:51] debt available today if you choose to
[14:54] scale your collection with leverage and
[14:56] which can obviously magnify the gains
[14:58] hugely like anything but when you're you
[15:01] know you're not talking about 2 3:1 I
[15:03] mean you can talk 10 to one leverage in
[15:06] you know a traditional exotic car loan.
[15:08] >> So what cars do you have in your
[15:09] collection right now?
[15:10] >> So I've got the Bugatti a 2012 Veyron
[15:12] Grand Sport. I've got two Lamborghini
[15:14] Mercielago LP 640s. I would say that's
[15:16] my favorite car and I've been telling
[15:18] everybody that they're going to go up in
[15:19] value for 12 years now. So, it's not as
[15:21] though it just you do it and then the
[15:23] next day the internet recognizes it.
[15:25] Like I have sold so many people that I
[15:27] believe in these cars and I've voted
[15:28] with my checkbook an awful lot and my
[15:30] credit score and I love them. I think
[15:32] they're just the quintessential supercar
[15:35] and being big and crazy and loud and
[15:37] dramatic, but also very useful,
[15:38] maintainable. And so I've got an07
[15:41] manual LP640 coupe, the highest mileage
[15:42] one in the world. And I've got an '09
[15:44] LP640 manual roadster, also the highest
[15:47] mileage one in the world. And the one
[15:48] with the most accidents.
[15:49] >> How many miles do they have on them?
[15:51] >> 62 on the coupe, 25 on the Roadster.
[15:53] >> That's your entire collection.
[15:54] >> Oh, I've got Oh, no, it's not. I'm
[15:56] sorry. There's
[15:57] >> Keep going. I was about to say missing.
[15:58] >> I've also got the 1998 Diablo SV that
[16:00] was sold out of the Victoria's Secret
[16:02] Christmas catalog. I just sold my
[16:03] Spiker. I have got a cheap Bentley. I've
[16:06] got uh cheap McLaren project we haven't
[16:09] talked about on my on Vinwiki yet, but
[16:11] it's coming. Uh I've got an off-road
[16:12] Cayenne. My wife's got a Mercedes SUV.
[16:15] Oh, and I I I just bought another thing
[16:18] out of Europe, and I won't say what that
[16:19] is yet, but it's it's not that
[16:20] expensive, but it is awesome.
[16:21] >> So, if you had $7 million cash today,
[16:24] would you buy the exact same portfolio
[16:26] of cars you currently own? Now, there's
[16:28] a stage in every single side hustle
[16:29] where the business bank account is
[16:31] simply just your personal Venmo. And the
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[16:37] is nothing separating your business from
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[17:32] if you had $7 million cash today, would
[17:35] you buy the exact same portfolio of cars
[17:37] you currently own?
[17:38] >> That is a great question and it is
[17:40] exactly the right question to ask and it
[17:42] is. Yes, this is the stuff that I want.
[17:44] Fortunately, most of my cars are fairly
[17:46] liquid and so, you know, [clears throat]
[17:49] when I look at asset distribution and
[17:51] net worth, would I like to have that
[17:53] much in cars? Probably not. That would
[17:55] be irresponsible. And I saw you got a
[17:57] little standup Dave Ramsey over there
[17:58] that he would scorn me for such things.
[18:00] But um it does tend to make the content
[18:02] world go round and so but in terms of
[18:04] the cars, yeah, it's what I like.
[18:06] >> What about you? So if your Ford GT is
[18:09] worth $750,000
[18:11] and and all of your other cars that
[18:13] combined, let's just say like $850,000,
[18:15] would you pick this exact same
[18:16] portfolio? Probably not. What would you
[18:19] pick? And I had to buy I I probably
[18:21] wouldn't buy any any cars.
[18:23] >> I'd be investing in index funds, real
[18:25] estate. I'm stuck with the cars because
[18:27] I bought them cheap and you know if I
[18:30] sell I'm going to have to pay tax on the
[18:31] gain so I'm kind of locked into it and
[18:34] they're going up in value. So like I
[18:35] don't want to take a tax hit. I don't
[18:37] need to roll it over into something else
[18:39] >> and it stays allocated in cars. Uh but I
[18:42] justify it now because I I have the car
[18:43] in the background of every single one of
[18:45] my videos. So it's a bit of a prop. If
[18:47] it was just sitting in a garage I would
[18:49] have probably sold it. is not exactly a
[18:52] 1031 exchange for cars, but you can
[18:55] trade them and generally it's this may
[18:58] be a I'm not an accountant, but you
[19:00] don't necessarily need to realize the
[19:02] gain as long as they're, you know, same
[19:04] transactions, especially inside of a
[19:05] dealership. Uh for the same reason that
[19:07] the numbers don't when there's trades,
[19:09] the numbers don't have to reflect what
[19:11] actually is happening. That happens all
[19:13] the time to overallow to cover loan
[19:15] equity or negative equity. So, let's say
[19:18] you wanted a different $750,000 car,
[19:21] like a 430 Scooteria, which is also
[19:23] doubled or tripled in value recently.
[19:24] You could trade them on paper at, you
[19:26] know, $300,000, and that shows no gain,
[19:29] and then they can ACV the car up on
[19:31] their side.
[19:31] >> Yeah. What would you buy? the only car
[19:34] if you said I had to get something else,
[19:36] I would trade my car for either a higher
[19:40] mileage heritage edition for GT or what
[19:44] I would do is trade my car for a no
[19:46] stripe Ford GT because I believe the
[19:48] nostripe cars are highly undervalued.
[19:52] Even if I got a no-stripe car with
[19:53] 12,000 miles on it or slightly higher
[19:55] miles or something like that, I think
[19:56] the no stripe cars are going to hit a
[19:59] million dollars before anything else.
[20:00] But you wouldn't you wouldn't want to
[20:02] have any sort of supercar?
[20:04] >> No, I I think nothing is as good as the
[20:06] Ford GT.
[20:07] >> Well, in that case, you should
[20:09] definitely drive it
[20:11] >> because realistically, the amount of
[20:13] miles that you could possibly put on the
[20:15] car, even if you do break through 8, 10,
[20:19] 15.
[20:19] >> Yeah, it's 10. It's 10 I'm afraid of.
[20:22] It's 10 I'm afraid of, but then I don't
[20:23] want to crack nine because when you're
[20:25] at nine, then everyone's like, "Oh, I
[20:26] see what you're doing. Oh, yeah. You're
[20:28] at 92. Okay, I see the game you've been
[20:30] playing. So, and I know I'm going to
[20:32] keep driving it a little bit. So,
[20:35] >> how many miles are you at right now?
[20:36] >> 77.
[20:37] >> So, I'm going to hit eight in my
[20:39] ownership.
[20:40] >> Uh,
[20:43] like 74.
[20:45] [laughter]
[20:46] >> So, here's what's going to happen. So,
[20:48] we are going So, generally, I accumulate
[20:51] too many cars and then I want to sell
[20:53] them. and it's really inconvenient to
[20:54] try to sell a bunch of cars just because
[20:56] of the conversations and the access and
[20:58] everything like that. So, I sell them
[20:59] all in auctions on site. So, like last
[21:02] year I sold six cars in one week on Cars
[21:04] and Bids. And so, we're going to do that
[21:07] again
[21:08] >> uh in November on Cars and Bids, but
[21:11] rather than being all Ed cars, they're
[21:12] going to be just Vinwicki story cars.
[21:14] And one of the ones that we're going to
[21:16] sell is one we pulled out of a barn.
[21:18] It's an ' 06 tungsten Ford GT, and it's
[21:21] got a bunch of miles on it. Uh, and it
[21:23] has a salvage title and it's going to be
[21:25] cheap as one could possibly be. Still
[21:27] more than you paid for yours, but you
[21:29] should buy it and and just go put 10,000
[21:32] m on it. That will have zero impact on
[21:34] the value. Decide then how much you want
[21:36] to own it and then either keep that one
[21:38] and sell the white one or sell it for
[21:40] what you paid for it. [sighs]
[21:42] >> It sounds like a h it just sounds like a
[21:44] hassle. I don't want another
[21:46] >> driving car. Not really.
[21:48] >> So, what do you enjoy cars for?
[21:50] >> I like the look at them. To me, they're
[21:51] like it's like a piece of art. It's like
[21:54] it's like a sculpture
[21:55] >> walls for posters around here.
[21:56] >> Yeah. But but a car for me is like it's
[21:58] a it's a work of just art. I love like
[22:01] sitting in the car. I love looking at
[22:03] the engine of it. I like the startup.
[22:06] >> I get anxious
[22:08] >> about what?
[22:09] >> There's there's now so much value in the
[22:11] cars that if something goes wrong on it
[22:13] or someone hits me, like I I'm more than
[22:15] insured, but I don't want to deal with
[22:17] it. It's just it's I I I breathe a sigh
[22:20] of relief when I pull my car back into
[22:22] the garage, turn off the ignition, the
[22:25] garage goes down. I'm like, good car
[22:28] save.
[22:29] >> How would you save money on insurance if
[22:32] you want to really minimize your cost?
[22:34] >> Uh, of all the things to save money on,
[22:36] I would strongly recommend not
[22:38] insurance. uh the there are collector
[22:42] car policies that are massively cheaper
[22:44] and so if you can qualify for those
[22:46] based on the areas that you live in and
[22:49] the way you use the cars and the types
[22:50] of cars that you're insuring that is a
[22:52] huge difference. I think I pay
[22:55] [sighs and gasps] about 15 to $20,000 a
[22:58] month or sorry a year on insurance. Uh
[23:01] and which is nothing relative to the
[23:03] value of all the cars, but that that's
[23:05] cuz they know I can only crash one at a
[23:07] time.
[23:07] >> And so um and it doesn't specifically
[23:10] exclude my family uh my wife from
[23:13] driving it, but she's not going to go
[23:14] drive them. She's welcome to, but that
[23:16] she curbs come out of nowhere. So, if
[23:18] someone wants to then look rich for
[23:21] cheap, what's the coolest car to buy?
[23:24] >> I mean, generally the the easy answer is
[23:27] the cars that depreciate like crazy.
[23:28] Your Maseratis, your Aston Martins,
[23:31] things like that. The reality is, and
[23:34] this is the same way that you would
[23:35] avoid the wrong stigma of the car that
[23:38] you show up in, is have a good story
[23:41] about it. Don't just go out chasing the
[23:44] most interesting thing that like you
[23:46] think gets the most clicks or views.
[23:48] Have something that really resonates
[23:49] with you about what the car is or what's
[23:51] rare about it or significant about it or
[23:53] unique about it. And that way like and
[23:56] those cars tend to depreciate a lot less
[23:58] because they're usually a little bit
[23:59] older. And that actually is the cheapest
[24:01] way to do it. The cheapest way to buy a
[24:03] car isn't to pay the least amount of
[24:05] money. The cheapest way to own a car is
[24:08] to have the equity position reflect
[24:11] something positive when you're done with
[24:13] it. So, it doesn't really matter what
[24:15] you pay if it's going to go up in value.
[24:16] Everyone can afford to own a car that
[24:18] goes up in value. And so, the the the
[24:21] best way to look like, you know, a
[24:23] baller on a budget is to buy something
[24:25] that's going the right way in value
[24:27] because of the factors that tend to make
[24:29] that happen.
[24:30] >> What car, if someone has it, just
[24:31] screams that they're broke. [laughter]
[24:34] Uh, generally anything like I see people
[24:38] have brand new cars. Like if you drove
[24:40] up in a brand new Escalade electric car,
[24:44] like I know it's expensive, but like the
[24:46] amount of money that that's costing is
[24:48] just unconscionable. And I have a car
[24:50] that needs $50,000 tires. And I was and
[24:54] I think those people are just so that's
[24:56] that's saying they they looked so rich
[24:57] to me. I mean, people that are broke. I
[25:01] I I don't know that
[25:02] >> Chrysler 300.
[25:04] >> Well, that's fair. I mean to but I I I
[25:06] don't know that we need to necessarily
[25:08] stigmatize that. I would say that there
[25:10] are cars that scream irresponsible. We
[25:13] all talk about the way that we love cars
[25:14] and the way I love cars is very
[25:16] different than the way that you love
[25:17] cars and the fact that you love your
[25:19] current car in its state with its
[25:22] mileage and
[25:23] >> but it's so easy to be critical of that
[25:26] and the the audience will when you say
[25:28] that you've owned the car for 5 years
[25:30] and put 300 miles on it. They're going
[25:31] to be like you. But you're not wrong.
[25:35] Whatever you mean when you say that you
[25:37] love cars, you're right. And just
[25:40] because my brand of loving cars is
[25:44] different than yours doesn't make me
[25:45] more right. It only makes me more right
[25:47] for me. And so it's so easy to see a car
[25:50] that is stanced out to the point that it
[25:52] can't move or a truck that is pointed to
[25:55] the sky so you can't see what you're
[25:57] about to run into or an Instagram tag on
[25:59] your, you know, quarter window and think
[26:02] that's dumb. And maybe it is for you,
[26:05] but like I just was mceing a an
[26:08] Australian car show. these guys that
[26:10] import Holdens into the US. I don't
[26:13] particularly like these cars. I don't
[26:15] relate to these cars. I don't understand
[26:17] the economics of these cars. But the
[26:19] community of these people is
[26:22] unbelievable. And when we think about
[26:24] the loneliness epidemic in America and
[26:27] the world at large and the reality is
[26:31] that you could buy a marketplace $3,000
[26:35] 300C, put a stupid wrap on it, put your
[26:38] Instagram handle on it, and go, you
[26:41] know, cruise around anywhere and make a
[26:43] bunch of friends that are in your same
[26:45] socioeconomic situation, have your same
[26:48] free time, are complaining about the
[26:50] same kind of things and dealing with the
[26:52] same problems. you are going to make
[26:54] friends for less money than almost any
[26:57] hobby in the world. And the opportunity
[27:00] to just go out and make a questionable
[27:02] decision on a car and then meet people
[27:05] tomorrow to me is one of the coolest
[27:08] things about the car world. And it won't
[27:10] you're not going to do that and come
[27:12] hang out with me or you or anybody
[27:14] different. But you can target those kind
[27:16] of people the same way that you could if
[27:18] you buy a track car and go to track days
[27:20] or you go drive the same mountain roads
[27:22] or you go to Cars and Coffee or you join
[27:25] the Corvette club and you know get your
[27:27] jean shorts and your white polo shirt
[27:29] and your New Balances. like they
[27:30] whatever it is that is kind of the
[27:32] standard issue expression of that niche
[27:34] of automotive culture is one of the most
[27:37] powerful social tools that I've ever
[27:39] seen. the people within those groups are
[27:42] having an experience that is desirable.
[27:45] Yeah.
[27:45] >> And that needs to be fostered and
[27:47] available. And it is so easy to get
[27:50] trapped in your, you know, closed loop
[27:54] screen world AI therapy, you know, just
[27:58] existence where you think there's no
[28:01] opportunity for me to go out there and
[28:03] have a different experience next weekend
[28:04] than I had this weekend. I'm trapped.
[28:07] And you're not because there is this way
[28:10] and a million other ways to go out there
[28:12] and experience the world in a much more
[28:13] interesting fashion. And I think it
[28:15] behooves people to hear like, huh, that
[28:18] is a way that this is happening that's
[28:20] different than just going out and
[28:22] meeting somebody in a chat room.
[28:24] >> What's the best car to get girls?
[28:27] >> Well, where are we going for sushi
[28:28] tonight? I guess the uh
[28:30] >> G Wagon.
[28:30] >> The girls do love a G Wagon. They love a
[28:33] G Wagon.
[28:34] >> I thought it would be a Range Rover.
[28:35] They love Range Rovers, too. They do. My
[28:38] wife's had three of them. And I So, I I
[28:42] literally started dating the girl that
[28:44] would become my wife the same week that
[28:46] I incorporated my rental car company out
[28:48] of my dorm room and bought a Gallardo.
[28:50] And so, I have never used the cars in
[28:53] that form because that was the last
[28:55] first date that I went on. But I uh I I
[28:58] would say that, you know, the the
[28:59] brightly colored Lambos and things like
[29:01] that don't tend to work. But the the
[29:05] bigger issue is like actually getting
[29:08] girls to even tolerate them to be
[29:10] honest. And when I was selling cars at
[29:11] Lamborghini Atlanta, that was a huge
[29:13] thing. Like guys would come like how do
[29:14] I make my wife not hate the amount of
[29:17] money that I am spending on these cars?
[29:19] And you know the thing that I always
[29:21] said is let them drive them. go
[29:24] somewhere where they're going to be very
[29:27] safe, where it's on a highway, wide
[29:30] open, good visibility, easy access, no
[29:32] lights, no turning, no curbs, no
[29:34] nothing. Because the reason they don't
[29:36] like them is that they think that if
[29:38] they engage with them that they'll ruin
[29:40] them for you. If your wife took your
[29:42] Ford GT out and curbed the wheel, that
[29:45] would be an incident. And whereas if you
[29:48] took her up to a nice mountain road and
[29:50] said, "Look, here's how the thing works.
[29:52] I just want you to experience why I like
[29:54] it for five miles. And if you say, "I
[29:57] want to pull over and get out after,"
[29:58] I'm going to be perfectly happy. But
[29:59] we're going to put you in a situation
[30:01] where it's very easy. And I promise
[30:04] they'll love it. The cars are lovely.
[30:06] The first car my wife had driven was the
[30:08] $26,000 McLaren like in a long long
[30:11] time. She's driven a lot of the cars,
[30:12] but like she doesn't generally like it.
[30:14] And she loved it. She didn't know how
[30:15] the doors worked. She got stuck in the
[30:17] car. Her friends had to call me, but it
[30:18] was it was okay. And so, and she didn't
[30:20] run into anything. Uh, and I think that
[30:23] if you can create those kind of
[30:24] opportunities, that's what girls love is
[30:26] being brought into this thing that's fun
[30:30] in a way that they can sort of dip their
[30:31] toe in and experience.
[30:33] >> Woodcar suggests that you're secretly
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[31:55] So, guys, it has been over 7 years since
[31:57] I first started working with Graham for
[31:59] free, by the way. And since then, I have
[32:01] invested, I kid you not, almost every
[32:02] single dollar that I've earned, which
[32:04] has let me buy my first house, including
[32:06] this warehouse that we're sitting in
[32:07] right now. But here's what nobody tells
[32:08] you. The more you build, the messier it
[32:10] gets to manage. which is exactly why
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[32:29] one by one. It was extremely tedious.
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[33:13] description to get started. What car
[33:15] suggests that you're secretly wealthy?
[33:17] Well, generally older cars that are
[33:20] going up in value. Like if you see
[33:22] someone with a manual Mercy or a, you
[33:25] know, an older Porsche that we know is
[33:28] rare and desirable, you know, you could
[33:30] see a sea of brand new cars and go,
[33:32] "That dude knows what's up." because
[33:34] he's not experiencing the same kinds of
[33:36] risks of these newer cars. He's got
[33:38] something really really special.
[33:39] Somebody pulls up in a Ferrari 550
[33:41] Betta, you you need to pay attention.
[33:43] They're going to give you some advice.
[33:45] >> So, when you look for cars that you feel
[33:47] are undervalued that will be going up in
[33:49] price most likely in the next few years.
[33:52] What set of criteria do you look for? So
[33:55] the biggest criteria is always the
[33:59] buying power of the people who thought
[34:01] it was the coolest thing in the world
[34:02] when they were late teenagers. So that
[34:04] means that 15 to 20 years later is the
[34:08] ideal window for the people that had
[34:09] them on posters to start putting them in
[34:11] their garage. So that is usually the
[34:14] inflection point. We're seeing that a
[34:15] little earlier now for a lot of factors,
[34:18] but generally speaking, that's what I
[34:21] would have said. You know, my goal in
[34:23] general car ownership was always to
[34:25] avoid depreciation.
[34:27] >> And I used to say the best way to do
[34:28] that is to look like you won the lottery
[34:30] 10 years ago. And if you look like MTV
[34:33] Cribs 10 years ago, your cars are not
[34:36] going to go down in value. They may
[34:37] break all the time, but they will not go
[34:39] down in value. And so that was the way
[34:42] that I started to build equity to be
[34:44] able to flip up, trade up, and and make
[34:46] some money. When I was growing up, I
[34:47] loved cars, like loved cars. And then I
[34:50] got a little older and I started to work
[34:52] a little bit more and I started playing
[34:54] more pickle ball. My passions went
[34:55] elsewhere. But this last week I had a
[34:59] dream that I was driving a McLaren. And
[35:02] I woke up and I wanted one so badly. And
[35:05] I have never like at least in the past
[35:07] since I could afford a nice car, I
[35:09] haven't wanted one really that bad. Like
[35:10] I thought it would be cool to have a
[35:12] Gallardo or some sort of like cheaper
[35:14] supercar because like Graham says owning
[35:16] a super car in your 20s is cooler than
[35:18] your 30s. his opinion, not mine.
[35:19] >> Yeah, that's what I told him. I I said,
[35:21] "If you're going to do it, your 20s,
[35:22] it's unlike anything else. When you're
[35:24] 30, less special." So, so I kind of sat
[35:27] on that and I'm like, "Okay." The only
[35:29] problem that I have is I do think that
[35:32] it is very like douchy to be driving,
[35:36] especially if you're in your 20s, a
[35:38] McLaren or like some sort of like
[35:40] supercar. I just don't I
[35:41] >> depends on the color.
[35:43] >> That's what I think.
[35:44] >> That is a factor. And there's also ways
[35:49] to
[35:51] do it right. You know, one of the myths
[35:53] that social media and content creation,
[35:56] you know, puts forward is that you need
[35:59] the biggest, baddest, latest, greatest,
[36:01] coolest thing to if you So, if you want
[36:03] a McLaren, it's got to be a 765LT or
[36:06] whatever it is. No, it doesn't. It can
[36:09] be anything. And they they exist. I
[36:11] bought one for $26,000 the other day. A
[36:14] per
[36:14] >> the other day. Yeah, it's a McLaren.
[36:17] >> Yeah, it was a 2017 McLaren GT. Uh 570
[36:21] GT, so the smaller GT. And I bought I
[36:24] had to buy nine cars out of this
[36:25] collection, but when it all netted out,
[36:27] it was 26,000 bucks for this purple car.
[36:29] And um it was great. I drove it around.
[36:31] My 11-year-old drove it around the
[36:33] neighborhood. It was fun. Yeah.
[36:34] >> Wait a second. No, $26,000 for a
[36:36] McLaren.
[36:37] >> It was in a flood,
[36:38] >> but it but it ran and drove. I sold it
[36:41] for 75 grand and the engine blew up,200
[36:43] miles later. Uh, but he tuned it overly.
[36:46] Don't don't don't buy a tuned McLaren.
[36:48] >> Wait a second. So, you're saying you
[36:49] could have sold Jack a McLaren for 70s
[36:52] something thousand.
[36:53] >> Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
[36:54] >> Well, if you happen to find another
[36:55] cheap McLaren, like I I've never been
[36:58] the type to to think that I was going to
[37:00] actually buy one, but if the net cost
[37:03] after, let's say, 3 to 5 years, let's
[37:04] say I buy like a 650S, which is what
[37:07] Graham thinks I should buy. Yep.
[37:08] >> Maybe after 3 4 years it could only cost
[37:11] me like 30,000 bucks. I think less than
[37:13] that.
[37:13] >> That's a comfortable downside given that
[37:16] the car is already 11 years old. Yeah.
[37:18] >> Um and so like I said, look like you won
[37:20] the lottery 10 years ago. You probably
[37:22] will experience no depreciation cost.
[37:24] Now
[37:25] >> they're like I said when I've said it
[37:27] earlier, it might break and they do
[37:29] break and they can be very expensive. So
[37:31] the risk of having $30,000 in repair
[37:34] costs is much higher than the risk of
[37:36] having $30,000 in depreciation. But it's
[37:39] cheaper to own than just about anything
[37:42] new.
[37:42] >> Do you agree with the 650S? You think
[37:45] that's a that's a good car. It's
[37:47] reliable enough.
[37:48] >> Absolutely. Yeah, they were so good. I
[37:50] sold them new at McLaren Atlanta. I
[37:53] worked there and so I I love them. 12C's
[37:56] are a little spotty later ones, 13s,
[37:57] 14s. We're running one at Barrett
[37:59] Jackson. I am going to be repping it and
[38:00] making a video about it tomorrow. It's a
[38:02] 2013 12C that sold last year at Jackson
[38:05] Las Vegas for 115 grand, but it'll
[38:07] probably do a little less than that.
[38:09] >> So, what cars today are on people's
[38:11] posters that you think 10 years from now
[38:13] will be collectible?
[38:14] >> So, that was part of the reason why I
[38:16] stretched so hard to buy the Bugatti
[38:18] because, you know, people my age, I'm
[38:20] 40, grew up dreaming about Ferraris and
[38:23] Lamborghinis because they were much more
[38:24] rare. They didn't produce as many cars
[38:26] and so that's why those are the cars
[38:27] that have continued to go up a lot. The
[38:30] people that are younger than me dreamt
[38:32] about hypercars and so I believe that
[38:34] they aspire the way that I aspire to
[38:36] have an aielago to have Bugatti, Pagani,
[38:39] Koigseg and then the hypercars from you
[38:41] know McLaren P1, Porsche 98, Laaf
[38:43] Ferrari and things like that. So I think
[38:45] that those cars are the ones that have
[38:48] nearly limitless upside in the way that
[38:51] Mercy's have 10xed over the last decade.
[38:54] And so you know I think that's real. So
[38:56] why don't you think they've gone up in
[38:58] value more then? I'm talking like Pagani
[39:00] Koigseg because it seems like it's
[39:02] really just those two that are kind of
[39:04] etching up a little bit.
[39:05] >> Well, they have gone up a little bit
[39:07] more predictably. The anomalies have
[39:10] been the less rare cars really in the
[39:12] last 6 months. We've seen this explosion
[39:15] of value in, you know, the special 911s
[39:18] that aren't actually that rare and the
[39:20] mid-enine V8 Ferraris, 360, 430, 458,
[39:23] 488, F8, as well as, you know, F12812,
[39:26] they've all just doubled in value. Um,
[39:29] and so, you know, I think that when you
[39:31] look at the proper rare, proper
[39:33] significant stuff, they haven't moved
[39:34] quite so much. Um, which I think is is
[39:38] interesting, but they're just rare
[39:39] enough they don't transact as often. So,
[39:41] it's not like one sells yesterday for on
[39:42] Bring a Trailer and then everybody on
[39:44] Autotrader just raises their prices so
[39:46] abruptly, you know, it's a it's a
[39:48] different situation where they they sell
[39:50] at Monterey auctions and those were all
[39:51] very very successful. They sold $770
[39:55] million worth of cars.
[39:57] >> So, let's say I want to proceed with
[39:58] buying this McLaren. I don't have that
[40:00] kind of cash sitting around. I need to
[40:02] apply for a loan. What are the actual
[40:04] calculations behind what kind of car
[40:07] someone can afford? It's interesting
[40:09] because such a high percentage of these
[40:11] cars actually are financed and there are
[40:14] different sort of seasons of how easy it
[40:16] is to do and right now it is quite easy
[40:18] to get loans. Now the interest rates
[40:20] right now are a little bit higher.
[40:21] You're probably going to pay 6 and 12 to
[40:22] 8 and a half% on a used car loan for
[40:25] something that's more than 5 years old.
[40:27] Also, they generally don't do branded
[40:29] title cars, so no salvage title. So like
[40:31] my $26,000 McLaren was not a financable
[40:33] asset, but that's one of the reasons why
[40:35] it was extra cheap. Uh, but the easiest
[40:37] way to look at what it takes is to look
[40:39] at an ideal application. So, ideally,
[40:42] you're going to have a credit score over
[40:44] 740. That if it's anything beyond that
[40:46] doesn't actually help anymore. Um, and
[40:48] you'll have comparable credit where
[40:51] you're not increasing beyond 50%. So, if
[40:54] you want to get a $75,000 loan, you need
[40:56] to have had a $50,000 loan. And
[40:59] generally, you'll need to prove have
[41:01] verifiable income that is beyond the
[41:03] loan amount. So, it's different than the
[41:05] way debt to income is calculated on like
[41:07] a real estate purchase or something like
[41:09] that. Um, and then, you know, terms can
[41:12] vary from anywhere from, you know, 3
[41:15] years up to 12 and even 15 years on some
[41:17] much more expensive cars. Uh, and then
[41:20] they'll want the loan to value to be
[41:22] between 60 and 80%. So, at least 20%
[41:26] down. Now, obviously, very few loan
[41:29] applications line up perfectly with all
[41:32] of those. And so you can sort of make up
[41:34] for one by doing better in the other. So
[41:37] if you have a higher credit score or
[41:40] better comparable credit or more money
[41:42] down, you can overcome having, you know,
[41:44] a shortcoming in the other criteria.
[41:47] >> I remember something crazy, by the way.
[41:49] When I was 24, I wanted to buy this
[41:51] Lotus Exiege S240, and it was a gorgeous
[41:54] car. I saw it immediately. I had to have
[41:56] it. And uh I had never had a car loan
[42:00] before. No. And so I thought, "Oh, this
[42:02] would be easy. I'm just going to put
[42:04] like $20,000 down just finance, right?"
[42:06] Because I wanted to like both build my
[42:07] credit, but also it wasn't that
[42:09] expensive to finance back then. I think
[42:11] this was like 2013 or 14,
[42:13] >> right?
[42:14] >> And so I applied. I got denied, which is
[42:17] crazy because they said that I never had
[42:20] a car loan of this caliber before. And
[42:23] they had told me instead if I had gotten
[42:25] a loan for like a Miata or a Honda
[42:28] S2000, I could work my way up. And then
[42:31] the dealer said, "Oh, we'll finance
[42:33] you." But I remember the interest rate
[42:35] being like 15%. It was like 15 to 17%.
[42:39] Is there financing? And I ended up just
[42:40] buying the car in cash. But I thought
[42:42] that was so stupid that you have to like
[42:44] build your way up these cars. I had no
[42:47] idea that was a thing.
[42:48] >> It's a thing. Well, and it hasn't always
[42:50] been a thing, but it very much was a
[42:52] thing in 2013. And it's again important
[42:55] to zoom out a little bit and understand
[42:57] what's going on in the world where we're
[42:59] rebuilding from the financial crisis of
[43:02] 2008 to 2011. Really, it was still kind
[43:05] of a big deal. And so at that point,
[43:08] yeah, banks were very very few and far
[43:10] between that would take that kind of
[43:12] risk and just being an older car.
[43:15] >> And yeah, because a few years earlier in
[43:17] 2006, I got a a loan for a Lamborghini
[43:20] at 20 years old by just telling the bank
[43:22] how much money I made. And they didn't
[43:23] check anything just like they didn't
[43:25] check real estate mortgage applications
[43:26] or anything like that. It was just they
[43:28] call them liar loans or stated income
[43:29] loans. And so it was too easy. And then
[43:32] maybe it got a little bit too hard. and
[43:35] uh and now I think we're kind of at a
[43:36] happy medium where the deal needs to
[43:38] line up somewhat. But you know, look, if
[43:40] you've got enough money down and you
[43:41] can't really prove your income or you've
[43:42] never done one, yeah, you can probably
[43:44] find a way.
[43:44] >> So, what is your overall thought right
[43:46] now in the car market?
[43:47] >> I think that there's a lot of cars that
[43:48] are legitimately not desirable by the
[43:52] normal standards of rarity and
[43:54] significance and, you know, condition
[43:57] that that are that have gone up in value
[43:59] a lot and that's troublesome. You know,
[44:01] there's people that are saying that
[44:02] there's market manipulation of foot and
[44:04] things like that. And I don't actually
[44:06] believe that's happening too terribly
[44:08] because nobody's going to go out there
[44:09] and try to manipulate the market on
[44:10] 488s. That's just not they may, you
[44:13] know, there's 20,000 of them. Nobody
[44:14] cares. And so, I think that it is
[44:17] genuine money, kind of dumb money. These
[44:20] aren't going into big collections. These
[44:21] aren't people buying their fifth Ferrari
[44:23] that are coming out on Bring a Trailer
[44:25] and doubling the market because they
[44:27] just know that they're only overpaying
[44:28] by one bid. These are real buyers. And
[44:31] that seems fragile because, you know, if
[44:35] you said if you offered every owner of a
[44:37] 488 $550,000 for their car, they're all
[44:40] going to say yes because they all paid
[44:43] $220,000 like 2 years ago. So, that I
[44:46] don't have a lot of confidence in. The
[44:48] really rare and significant stuff I
[44:49] think is bulletproof. I think there are
[44:51] so many factors like we talked about
[44:54] these big family office mega wealth
[44:57] people going in. The transfer of wealth
[45:00] is unbelievable right now. Uh I had
[45:04] asked super chat GPT how many Americans
[45:06] are going to inherit more than $2
[45:08] million this year and it was 55,000. So
[45:11] when you think about like the number of
[45:13] what you would say dumb money
[45:14] transactions on Brian trailers, maybe
[45:16] 200 cars have sold in ways that don't
[45:18] exactly make sense, that certainly could
[45:20] be explained just by that factor. So
[45:23] when you add that to more debt available
[45:25] as people are leveraging up their
[45:26] collections and getting more cars as
[45:28] well as just this I mean obviously the
[45:31] IPOs of some of these giant companies
[45:33] are printing crazy. I mean I think there
[45:35] were 600 people in Austin that made more
[45:37] than hund00 million. Wow. on the SpaceX
[45:40] IPO. So, I mean, that's all of the
[45:43] demand for interesting car allocations
[45:45] to that area in Texas.
[45:47] >> What's interesting is that it seems as
[45:48] though the car market is tracking the
[45:50] same, just put this together, with
[45:52] Pokemon prices,
[45:55] I kid you not, when you look at the
[45:57] graph of Pokemon and then it dipped and
[45:59] we saw a similar dip in 2022 when the
[46:02] market corrected, it's gone back up. And
[46:04] what do cars do? They're going back up,
[46:06] too. I'm just saying I believe the two
[46:08] could be correlated in some way or
[46:10] another and we have to dig deeper to see
[46:12] what's driving this. Is it euphoria? Is
[46:15] it the stock market is doing well and
[46:17] people are overconfident? Is it people
[46:19] investing in this because they think
[46:20] it's going to be the next big asset
[46:22] class and so therefore they could spend
[46:25] more on it. Justifying this is like okay
[46:27] I'm going it's going to be an
[46:28] investment.
[46:29] >> How old are Pokémon cards? 20 25 years
[46:31] old.
[46:31] >> Yeah.
[46:31] >> Okay.
[46:32] >> They just had their late 20something
[46:33] anniversary. So, it's fair to argue that
[46:37] the people that grew up enjoying these
[46:39] things are now in a much better place
[46:41] and can afford to engage recreationally.
[46:45] Sure. That, you know, that would also
[46:47] follow that 20-year-old exotic cars are
[46:48] going up in value, which they very much
[46:50] are. And so, it's probably sound. What
[46:53] else would trend that way? the certain
[46:56] video games potentially. I mean, you
[46:58] could say that Grand Theft Auto getting
[47:01] popular again, you know, could correlate
[47:03] to the same people that were playing the
[47:04] early versions of the game and are
[47:07] excited again. But yeah, that's a thing.
[47:09] >> Part of me thinks that it's just AI is
[47:12] going to disrupt the market so much that
[47:14] it's even hard to know which stocks are
[47:16] going to end up being the winners and
[47:18] which one's the losers cuz companies can
[47:20] now be built up this quickly. Companies
[47:22] can be killed this quickly if they don't
[47:24] adopt AI. And so maybe all these people
[47:26] that have all of this money on the back,
[47:28] like I mean the rich are getting richer.
[47:29] They don't know what to do with their
[47:30] money. They don't necessarily want to
[47:32] buy stocks at this point. They want to
[47:33] buy something that can't necessarily be
[47:35] affected, duplicated, replicated by AI.
[47:38] So maybe
[47:39] >> a tangible asset.
[47:40] >> Yeah. If the wealthy continue to get
[47:42] wealthier than something that cannot be
[47:47] bought with like, you know, like traded
[47:49] on an exchange or something, something
[47:51] that like a collectible, it's a physical
[47:53] thing. You know what I was thinking? I
[47:54] wondered how much would it cost to
[47:58] purchase a poster or some sort of like
[48:01] collection of every single autograph of
[48:03] every single president. And apparently
[48:05] the autographs themselves are not that
[48:07] expensive. If you collect it, put them
[48:08] all together in a nice display. It could
[48:10] actually be like a profitable endeavor.
[48:12] The I think that that could actually be
[48:14] a decent investment similar to Pokémon
[48:16] cards because there's like somewhat of
[48:18] an art to it. There's there's you have
[48:20] to work kind of hard for So, what's so
[48:22] funny is that I looked into autographs,
[48:23] certain autographs, it's really hard to
[48:25] authenticate each one. So, if you were
[48:28] able to do the work and authenticate
[48:29] each autograph, then I think you would
[48:31] have something there. But that like that
[48:33] would be really really
[48:35] >> in your research, how much would it cost
[48:37] to get all, you know,
[48:40] >> the cost would be anywhere between like
[48:43] 30 and 80,000. Really not that
[48:46] expensive. A lot of president's
[48:47] autographs are just going to be like a
[48:49] couple hundred bucks. And then some of
[48:51] the older ones like an actual George
[48:53] Washington autograph can be anywhere
[48:54] from 5 to 10,000.
[48:55] >> Okay. And have you found any examples of
[48:58] someone selling their collection?
[48:59] >> No. Interesting. But that would be like
[49:01] you could probably put it all together.
[49:03] Let's just say worst case scenario
[49:05] $100,000. Some guy who's got a billion
[49:07] dollars or like hundreds of millions,
[49:08] tens of millions. That's like a history
[49:10] fanatic or like America fanatic. They
[49:12] would probably pay a few hundred,000. I
[49:14] feel like to have every single US
[49:16] president. How cool is that? Well, in
[49:18] the car world, there's always this like
[49:19] rich guy in Dubai idea that like
[49:22] somebody's gonna actually and buy my car
[49:25] for way more than some guy in Dubai is
[49:27] going to buy it.
[49:28] >> He's going to buy it. And so, you know,
[49:30] the person who is going to pay two or
[49:32] 300,000 for something that can be
[49:34] assembled for 80,000. Maybe that is the
[49:36] convenience fee, right? That
[49:38] >> the authentication is kind of the main
[49:40] obstacle.
[49:41] >> If you paid somebody $100,000 as a
[49:43] broker to go out and buy it, they could
[49:44] they could do what you did, right? So it
[49:47] sometimes things are worth, you know,
[49:49] what they're worth on their own merit.
[49:51] And then sometimes they're worth
[49:52] relative to what it takes to produce
[49:54] them. And so if there is theoretically a
[49:56] supply of these things, then you're, you
[49:59] know, you're going to make money from
[50:00] the convenience and the artistry of it
[50:02] and how it's displayed. But I think it's
[50:04] a fascinating idea. Uh more of an
[50:06] arbitrage than a profit, but I like it.
[50:07] So what do you think of the new car
[50:09] market right now and the new cars going
[50:11] up?
[50:12] >> Very unreliable and so you're you're
[50:13] dealing with a lot of cars that don't
[50:15] have as much longevity, cars that are
[50:17] built with different priorities in mind
[50:19] and they are not selling well. So new
[50:21] car sales across almost all marks is are
[50:23] pretty are down.
[50:25] >> What make is doing it right? Porsche is
[50:27] certainly doing it right from a curation
[50:30] of the demand of their customer base to
[50:32] the extent that they're getting pretty
[50:33] exasperated with having to buy a Macan
[50:36] to get a GT3 RS or you know all the
[50:39] things that they have to do. But when
[50:40] when it comes to really maximizing
[50:42] profit, Porsche and Ferrari are doing a
[50:44] really really good job. Um, Ferrari has
[50:48] sort of built, especially over the last
[50:50] 25 to 30 years, a customer base that
[50:54] knows that they're not allowed to say no
[50:55] to anything if they want to maintain
[50:57] their status. And they have done
[50:59] probably about as good a job as anybody
[51:01] short of maybe Hermes or whatever with
[51:03] these part purses to make sure they
[51:05] extract as many dollars as possible out
[51:07] of all of their customers. So like the
[51:09] unit profit is unbelievable that those
[51:11] two are definitely doing it right.
[51:13] Although you would say that most of
[51:15] their latest offerings were less
[51:17] desirable than the one that there's less
[51:19] enthusiasm for them versus but they're
[51:21] still selling them all.
[51:22] >> How do you think AI is going to affect
[51:24] the new productions of cars in the next
[51:27] five or so years?
[51:28] >> You know, it's so easy to [sighs]
[51:30] say that AI is going to flip over the
[51:32] whole sandbox and that nothing in life
[51:34] is going to look the same 5, 10, 20
[51:38] years from now. And there's an easy
[51:41] argument to be made that that's
[51:42] possible. Life doesn't feel the same as
[51:44] it did two years ago as AI has
[51:46] proliferated and improved. But I don't
[51:48] necessarily think that a lot of the
[51:50] stuff that we just enjoy doing is going
[51:53] to change. Are we going to have more of
[51:55] an opportunity to do things we enjoy?
[51:58] Probably. You know, if I was going to
[51:59] start a business today, it would be in
[52:02] recreation. We would go under the
[52:04] assumption that as unemployment
[52:06] skyrockets and as we have, you know,
[52:08] potentially an an age of abundance or
[52:11] potentially, you know, we're all just
[52:14] waiting to die. I think that, you know,
[52:16] sports leagues for old people seems
[52:18] pickle ball does seem like the space,
[52:21] right, for entrepreneurism and
[52:23] opportunity. But I think in the car
[52:25] world, we're going to see a lot of
[52:27] efficiencies in production. We're going
[52:29] to see a lot of deficiencies in
[52:31] creativity and in really relating to
[52:34] your customer base. So, you're going to
[52:36] have something that makes sense on
[52:37] paper, but really isn't what anybody
[52:40] wants. And, you know, I run into this
[52:43] issue anytime I get a car that's too
[52:45] good. So, I bought a 2014 Bentley Flying
[52:49] Spur about three months ago and uh it
[52:52] was a $220,000 car and I bought it for
[52:55] 15,000 bucks with 100,000 miles on it
[52:57] and it was a rat piece of junk. But
[52:59] after about $10,000 invested in it, it's
[53:01] amazing and I love it and it's so
[53:04] comfortable and easy and I had two big
[53:06] trips last week. I drove it 2500 miles
[53:08] and I should have driven my much more
[53:10] interesting cars that I don't mind
[53:11] putting miles on, but I don't cuz I go
[53:14] out there and there's an option of
[53:15] sitting in this massaging seat,
[53:16] comfortable Bentley with working air
[53:18] conditioning and good visibility and I
[53:20] just drive it and I'll sell it because I
[53:23] don't want cars that good because I love
[53:25] terrible cars. I enjoy the masochism of
[53:29] driving uncomfortable, interesting cars
[53:32] that allow me to feel driving. When do
[53:35] you think we'll get to a point where
[53:37] different car makes will intentionally
[53:40] decrease the quality or increase the
[53:43] rawness of the cars that they produce?
[53:45] Because we were speaking to someone
[53:46] recently, I think it was Steve Hamilton,
[53:48] that like all of these luxury car makers
[53:50] or, you know, supercar makers,
[53:52] hypercars, they're all kind of becoming
[53:53] the same thing where you're just like
[53:55] throwing as much horsepower in there.
[53:56] Every car make can now produce a car
[53:58] that goes 0 to 60 under 3 seconds. So,
[54:01] like at what point are you going to see
[54:02] car makers try something totally unique
[54:05] or intentionally kind of inhibit some
[54:07] aspect of their car so it's not too
[54:09] perfect for the real car enthusiasts?
[54:10] You know what this reminds me of? I know
[54:12] we've seen this when you look at old
[54:14] McDonald's and old Taco Bells and like
[54:17] Burger Kings. They used to be such
[54:18] unique buildings and now they're all the
[54:20] box.
[54:21] >> Everyone has just done the box because
[54:23] when they move out they could just move
[54:24] a new one in and they realized it's too
[54:26] expensive to build out these custom
[54:28] McDonald's with the things over. That's
[54:30] how it's kind of becoming with cars, it
[54:32] seems. And really quick, you got to be
[54:34] honest with me here. Somewhere in your
[54:36] phone is a notes app with at least three
[54:37] business ideas in it. And those ideas
[54:40] could turn into real businesses, but
[54:42] you're just held up on the first step.
[54:44] However, that first step is actually
[54:45] very straightforward when today's
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[55:04] market, so more of them actually finish
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[55:08] their details are already saved, so it's
[55:10] one tap and they're done. I've
[55:11] personally used Shopify a ton. In fact,
[55:13] before I was working with Graham, I set
[55:14] up multiple different Shopify drop
[55:16] shipping stores. I tried every side
[55:18] hustle imaginable. Shopify drop shipping
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[55:50] description. And they realized it's too
[55:52] expensive to build out these custom
[55:54] McDonald's with the things over. That's
[55:56] how it's kind of becoming with cars, it
[55:58] seems.
[55:58] >> And that may be true. So, it's
[56:00] interesting because we've seen some
[56:02] efforts in that way. We've seen Porsche
[56:05] go all manual on certain cars and those
[56:07] cars sell out instantaneously. They are
[56:09] certainly demanded by the audience. We
[56:12] saw McLaren just released a very limited
[56:14] run, very expensive, nearly $2 million
[56:17] manual car that still uses their twin
[56:19] turbo V8. And then we saw Ferrari want
[56:22] to make a manual and they sort of
[56:24] couldn't because the cars have gotten so
[56:26] advanced technologically that it
[56:29] wouldn't have worked well with the Eiff
[56:31] and with the lightweight internals that
[56:32] they're building these cars with. So
[56:33] they made one that they call the Manuel
[56:35] and it's the 12cylindry. It's a stick,
[56:39] but it's fake. The gear shift is
[56:41] essentially buttons where you move it
[56:43] and it tells it to go into first and
[56:45] then into second. And there is a clutch
[56:47] pedal and it is actually programmed to
[56:49] stall, but it's very patronizing to
[56:52] those of us that love manual cars
[56:54] because like we love them because of the
[56:57] purity and the efficiency and the
[56:58] simplicity mechanically. And you know,
[57:01] look, I think younger kids care a lot
[57:03] less about manual cars, but we care
[57:04] about them a lot. And uh I think it's
[57:07] interesting to see those different
[57:08] effects that we may be in some cases
[57:09] like Ferraris just too far past their
[57:13] ability to give people what they
[57:15] actually want. And you may just run into
[57:18] sort of the wagon dilemma where they
[57:21] just stop existing. So enthusiasts
[57:22] always scream, "We want wagons. We want
[57:25] wagons." And they don't buy them new.
[57:28] They buy used cars.
[57:30] >> So you know I love manual V12 cars but I
[57:33] don't buy new cars. So, no, they don't
[57:36] care about me. My opinion does not
[57:37] matter to these companies. And so, if if
[57:41] all we're willing to do is buy them once
[57:43] they're depreciated 80%, then we really
[57:45] don't count, right? Your opinion doesn't
[57:47] matter in that case.
[57:48] >> You know what I think is going to
[57:49] happen? And people are going to be so
[57:50] pissed off at this. But I think we're
[57:53] going in the subscription revenue model
[57:56] where do you want your car to drive more
[57:58] than 80 m an hour? That'll be $10 a
[58:01] month. Do you want heated seats? That'll
[58:03] be $15 a month. Do you want to unlock
[58:06] your car? Do the remote start? They're
[58:08] already doing that. That's going to be
[58:10] $15 a month. Do you want Sentry on your
[58:12] car? So, you could see it. That'll be
[58:14] $20 a month. And then pretty soon, you
[58:16] could pick and choose every little
[58:17] feature and add a price to it.
[58:20] Everything. Windshield protection is now
[58:22] a thing. I got a popup on my Tesla app.
[58:25] Do you want windshield protection? $23 a
[58:28] month. What? Yeah, that's expensive.
[58:31] Well, they they've always had insurance
[58:33] plans for in windshields and so where
[58:36] it's it's not like they are actually
[58:37] keeping the rocks away at that point.
[58:39] They will just that's an insurance
[58:41] policy against windshield.
[58:42] >> I just did that sounds expensive for
[58:44] windshield protection.
[58:45] >> No, because replacing the windshield
[58:48] $2,500 on a Tesla. It's It's a lot of
[58:51] money. But my point being is I think
[58:53] we're going in the subscription revenue
[58:55] model where you want remote start five
[58:58] bucks a month and pretty soon
[59:00] >> television
[59:01] >> pretty soon it's going to be like you're
[59:02] going to spend more money on the
[59:04] subscription than you would on the car
[59:05] payment itself.
[59:07] That's where I think it's heading.
[59:09] >> There's a good chance of that. Yes.
[59:10] Potentially. And we're also going to get
[59:12] eventually into the era where it's pure
[59:15] coach building where there's just a
[59:16] chassis and then all you're paying for
[59:19] is the body, the interior, and the
[59:21] infotainment because beyond that, every
[59:24] car is the same through electrification
[59:25] and things like that.
[59:26] >> If someone has a minimal budget, but
[59:29] they want a great car, what do you think
[59:32] they should buy? And I'm talking minimal
[59:34] budget, like let's say a few thousand
[59:35] bucks.
[59:36] >> At a few thousand, you're not really
[59:38] paying for the car. you're paying for
[59:39] the last 18 months of maintenance. So,
[59:43] you're going to try to find a car that
[59:45] has recently had brakes, tires, plugs,
[59:48] coils, fluids done because that's, you
[59:50] know, when you start trying to now buy a
[59:52] $200 or $3,000 car, that's what matters.
[59:54] And so, documenting that as a seller,
[59:57] that's how you sell them is you take the
[59:59] fear out of buying a cheap car like
[60:01] that. um when you start thinking about
[60:03] trying to we we've done this with, you
[60:05] know, various car tracks and things like
[60:06] that where we'll buy, you know, $1,500
[60:09] cars and they're they're all junk. Like
[60:12] especially if you try to get an
[60:13] interesting $1,500 car that's not a
[60:15] Honda or a Nissan or whatever. Uh so
[60:18] yeah, they're they're junk, but they're
[60:19] a whole lot of fun. We uh we bought an
[60:21] SLK, an Audi TT, and a old old Supra and
[60:24] drove them from Hooie's house in Kansas
[60:26] all the way down to Galveston. And then
[60:28] I drove the TT into the Galveston Bay
[60:30] and uh and it drove right out and I
[60:32] drove it home 14 hours. So it's uh that
[60:34] you can make them last sometimes, but
[60:36] not all.
[60:37] >> If someone wants the cheapest possible
[60:39] car over the course of their the entire
[60:41] ownership, what would it be in terms of
[60:43] maintenance, reliability, like this car
[60:45] could last them 40 years? Like what is a
[60:48] bulletproof cheap car?
[60:49] >> Well, the cheapest car to own is always
[60:52] the one you already have. And so the the
[60:55] way to minimize your ownership cost in
[60:58] cars is to love the cars that you have
[61:00] enough to keep them. And so to be
[61:02] willing to endure driving it that long.
[61:05] When you start thinking about trying to
[61:07] put 2 3 4 500,000 miles on a car, that's
[61:11] getting harder and harder because
[61:13] there's just a lot of issues with
[61:15] cylinder linings and lubrication that
[61:17] are a lot worse now than they were
[61:19] across all manufacturers a decade or so
[61:22] ago. So, I don't actually know that I
[61:25] would start with a brand new car with
[61:27] that aim. Um, it would probably be a
[61:29] Porsche to be honest with you. I think
[61:31] Porsches are the best built automobiles
[61:34] right now. They're not the most
[61:36] interesting, but if you were if you
[61:37] actually wanted to put 250,000 miles on
[61:39] anything interesting. Yeah. Otherwise,
[61:41] your your normal Hondas, Toyotas,
[61:44] >> you'd say Honda and Toyota are the most
[61:46] reliable cars?
[61:46] >> Probably. This is not my expertise. I
[61:48] don't think about these problems often,
[61:50] but yes, historically speaking, if you
[61:52] look at consumer reports and all these
[61:53] things, that tends to be the case.
[61:54] >> And so, what cars today are guaranteed
[61:57] to be financial disasters?
[61:59] >> Virtually any new car that you can walk
[62:02] in and buy is going to depreciate. And
[62:05] usually in a fairly predictable measure,
[62:08] 1% a month is always the plus or minus
[62:11] for depreciation. And if you look at
[62:12] lease residuals or anything like that,
[62:14] like a good lease is less than 1%
[62:17] including taxes and everything a month.
[62:19] That's pretty rare. We are seeing
[62:22] unbelievable depreciation in electric
[62:24] cars right now where Teslas and you know
[62:27] all the electric European cars are just
[62:30] in some cases sub 50% residual value in
[62:36] 12 to 24 months.
[62:37] >> Why is that? Well, lease incentives is
[62:40] the reason for that because it's so
[62:41] cheap to buy new ones. You know, under
[62:43] Obama after Clash after Cash for
[62:45] Clunkers and all these things where we
[62:46] he was really trying to get some
[62:48] traction for electric cars where we had
[62:50] lease deals on Nissan Leafs for 100 150
[62:54] bucks a month. Everybody bought them.
[62:55] They sold a million of these things and
[62:58] they had like 80 miles of electric
[63:00] range. Well, the problem is if a brand
[63:04] new car that was $35,000
[63:07] is a h 100 bucks a month, how much is a
[63:09] used one worth?
[63:12] Well, $100 a month is the payment on
[63:14] like five grand. And so they're worth
[63:18] like $5,000. And so in those cases, you
[63:21] literally had like 80% depreciation on
[63:25] these cars inside of 24 months because
[63:27] there was zero demand. the only people
[63:29] that wanted to use one just didn't have
[63:30] enough credit to get the $100 lease or
[63:33] the $150 lease if you wanted heated
[63:35] seats. Um, you know, that kind of thing.
[63:38] And so, you know, those are the cars.
[63:39] Yes, modern electric cars are guaranteed
[63:42] to depreciate to nothing.
[63:43] >> Who is even buying new cars in 2026?
[63:47] Like I in my entire life, the only new
[63:50] cars that I have ever known about being
[63:52] purchased is I stupidly bought my Tesla
[63:55] new. And Graham, you bought a new Tesla.
[63:58] >> Yes. But because it made so much
[64:01] financial sense.
[64:02] >> Wait, wait, but I'm I'm just saying you
[64:03] like new cars like Oh, I guess Jeremy
[64:06] Jeremy bought a Ferrari, right? Was that
[64:07] new?
[64:08] >> No, that was used. He bought them both
[64:09] used.
[64:09] >> Who is buying new cars today? In some
[64:12] cases, they're buying new cars because
[64:14] the slightly used ones that still have
[64:16] the features and the reliability that
[64:18] they think they want are too close
[64:20] because there's not as much initial
[64:22] depreciation because of used car
[64:24] leasing, because of extended warranty
[64:26] costs, because of, you know, a lot of
[64:28] factors that they can that manufacturers
[64:30] can do to short-term bolster the value
[64:32] of depreciating cars. Uh, and so there
[64:35] are situations where it just makes more
[64:37] sense to buy something new because the
[64:39] amount that you're saving, let's say
[64:40] it's a lot less than 10%. So certain
[64:43] things like Escalades and GMC Yukons for
[64:46] a long time and Taho didn't depreciate
[64:48] all that much. So it really you didn't
[64:49] pay that much extra to get a new one and
[64:52] most of the V8 engines that they put in
[64:54] the cars in the last decade are going to
[64:55] fail. And so it was really really
[64:57] important to have a warranty. And so
[64:59] those are calculations where people can
[65:01] very rationally end up buying a new car.
[65:04] There's also situations where you plan
[65:06] to rely on goodwill from manufacturers
[65:08] and limon law risks and things like that
[65:10] that can make sense to buy new cars even
[65:12] when you naturally wouldn't. But in
[65:14] reality, there is enough demand and
[65:18] leasing is one of the biggest things
[65:19] about it where people are leasing these
[65:21] cars because they want to have something
[65:23] new. the same they want to have a new
[65:24] phone in 2 years is that they like to
[65:26] just trade in and out and they insist on
[65:29] having the latest greatest thing and
[65:30] they consider that to be a reasonable
[65:32] expense, you know, amongst their entire
[65:35] financial portfolio.
[65:36] >> That's crazy. I was looking at upgrading
[65:38] my Tesla and getting a new one. And when
[65:40] I'm looking at the used values of Teslas
[65:42] right now, I'm talking about the new
[65:44] redesigns like 2024 and newer. They're
[65:46] selling for almost the same price as a
[65:48] new one would cost
[65:50] >> in Model Y or
[65:52] >> Model Y, Model 3 performance
[65:54] specifically. And the Model X and S have
[65:57] now shot up in value about 20%.
[65:58] >> Cuz they were discontinued. Yes. And
[66:00] look, Tesla is an interesting company
[66:02] and we have no idea what the future
[66:04] holds, but I uh I I think it's going to
[66:07] be a fun one to watch. uh you know
[66:09] whenever you're talking about trading
[66:11] from you know your current car to a
[66:14] newer version of the same thing you have
[66:16] to value those marginal gains so much.
[66:19] So like people come up to me all the
[66:20] time and they're like you know are you
[66:22] sad that the cars that you love aren't
[66:25] made anymore. No, I'm not sad. I like
[66:29] having goals where the goalpost doesn't
[66:31] move. I like having a dream car that,
[66:35] you know, is is its own thing and I
[66:37] don't have to think, "Oh man, I hope
[66:38] they don't add CarPlay next year because
[66:41] then I'll have to buy the new model year
[66:43] cuz I No, none of my car radios work."
[66:47] But I don't care. I like to have like a
[66:50] finite target that I can that I can aim
[66:52] for and strive for.
[66:53] >> So, what is your dream car?
[66:55] >> My dream car really is a Mercielago. And
[66:58] I when I bought my first one, I had like
[66:59] a proper identity crisis of like, well,
[67:01] why do I have to keep going to work? I
[67:03] mean, I still owed 12 years of payments
[67:05] on this car, let's be honest. But I was
[67:06] like that was the dream was like to have
[67:08] this car and I've got one and I've had
[67:10] nine since then cuz I love them that
[67:12] much, you know, when that was that was
[67:14] the dream car. When we really started to
[67:17] gain some traction with Vinwiki and I
[67:19] knew that I needed to like bear down and
[67:21] really, you know, grind at this stuff, I
[67:24] said, "You know what? I need the only
[67:25] way I'm going to do a good job at this
[67:26] is if I have a stupid car goal." So, I
[67:27] was like, "I'm going to buy a Bugatti."
[67:29] And I uh I I was like, "Well, that
[67:32] sounds like a, you know, stupid idea.
[67:34] How in the world am I going to buy a
[67:35] million- dollar car?" Uh, but having
[67:37] that as kind of this background dripping
[67:39] faucet of a motivating goal, uh, you
[67:42] know, made me work harder. And when I
[67:45] bought it, I was like, "Well, darn it."
[67:46] You know, what am I going to do now?
[67:47] Because I don't want a Valkyrie or some
[67:51] of these other great cars that people
[67:52] are well justified in wanting. I'd like
[67:55] a McLaren F1, but I don't really want to
[67:57] have enough money to have a 30 $40
[67:59] million car cuz that has other issues in
[68:02] your life that I'd prefer to avoid. So,
[68:04] I don't know. I'm I'm I'm beyond content
[68:06] is the answer. Uh, and I I love the
[68:10] stuff that I currently have. So, what
[68:11] should people look for when they're
[68:13] buying a used car?
[68:14] >> Generally, just getting a good
[68:16] inspection is enough. And it's really a
[68:18] lot simpler than people think. We use a
[68:20] a company called Lemon Squad where they
[68:22] can get out and inspect a car usually
[68:24] within like 24 hours, no matter where it
[68:26] is. It's kind of a gig economy solution.
[68:28] Um, but you know, if you have time, take
[68:30] it to somebody who really knows these
[68:31] cars and have it looked at. It's not
[68:33] that expensive and it saves you. It It
[68:36] more than pays for itself in the
[68:38] negotiating leverage to be able to say,
[68:40] "Well, I now know that this professional
[68:43] has evaluated that it needs this, that,
[68:44] and this, and now I should owe you less
[68:47] for this car." And they can't argue with
[68:48] you because you've proven it.
[68:49] >> How much should an inspection cost?
[68:51] >> I mean, Lemon Squad can be, you know,
[68:53] $200 or less. They can do it live from
[68:56] your phone if you need it done right
[68:57] then for like 60 bucks. And so you can
[69:00] just FaceTime a professional mechanic
[69:02] who will let you walk around the car and
[69:04] say, "All right, open the hood. Look at
[69:05] this. Show me this." You know, and I
[69:08] have problems with my cars that I don't
[69:11] I'm not trying to sell them, but I would
[69:13] love to figure out I took it to the I
[69:14] took it to actual shop and they couldn't
[69:16] figure it out.
[69:16] >> Call them. 60 bucks.
[69:17] >> Holy mackerel.
[69:18] >> How accurate is that? Cuz I feel like
[69:20] the mechanics actually go in there and
[69:21] they
[69:22] >> It's the combobulator. [clears throat]
[69:23] That's what's broken on the car.
[69:24] >> Yeah. But they open up the combobulator
[69:26] and they're able to see all the things
[69:28] the widgets in the combobulator to know
[69:31] like, "Oh, that that thing is broken."
[69:33] >> Well, my Uber today on the way to the
[69:35] Atlanta airport had a roaring
[69:38] differential. I mean, it is going to
[69:42] grenade momentarily. And I'm not going
[69:45] to tell this guy that the way he earns a
[69:47] living is like that he desperately
[69:49] needs.
[69:49] >> Why wouldn't you tell him? I would tell
[69:50] him.
[69:50] >> Oh, cuz they they Nobody likes to hear
[69:53] that kind of thing. I don't know. Maybe
[69:54] I should have told I don't know.
[69:54] >> I would have I would have told you could
[69:56] message him and just because what if
[69:57] he's in the middle of a ride and his
[69:58] whole thing blows up in the middle of
[70:00] the
[70:00] >> freeway. He wasn't unaware. The noise
[70:04] was profound.
[70:05] >> But maybe the bad hearing or something
[70:07] anyway.
[70:08] >> Okay, I'll send him a message, you know,
[70:11] [laughter] sound system.
[70:12] >> I am not a mechanic. I am a I pay
[70:15] mechanics and but it's not that hard to
[70:18] diagnose cars and they could at least
[70:20] narrow it down to the three possible
[70:23] things that add some AI and you're going
[70:25] to have a good day. So yeah, uh by all
[70:28] means somebody can remote diagnose your
[70:29] car.
[70:30] >> Where do you find the best deals?
[70:31] >> I find the best deals in situations
[70:34] where I am not competing with people
[70:36] where I will find that a car is
[70:37] available in a circumstance that would
[70:40] alienate most buyers. So, my $26,000
[70:43] McLaren, once again, it came with nine
[70:45] cars that I had to buy out of an estate.
[70:47] And so, I bought three Corvettes and a
[70:50] Mustang and an R8 and an i8. Were they
[70:53] all flooded?
[70:55] >> This guy uh was real high up at LabC and
[70:59] he was their CIO and he had retired and
[71:03] started watching Vinwiki videos and
[71:05] became a huge fan and was like, "Ed buys
[71:07] these terrible cars. I should do that,
[71:09] too." And he bought them all. I mean, he
[71:10] bought a a warehouse full of these
[71:12] things. And so then,
[71:16] not because of that, he uh I got
[71:19] connected after he'd passed,
[71:20] unfortunately, because of uh cancer. And
[71:23] so his wife contacted a local Kia dealer
[71:26] asking how to sell all these salvage
[71:28] title exotic cars. And that person only
[71:31] knew to ask Ed Bolan. So he sent me a
[71:33] message and said, "Ed, what do you do?"
[71:35] And I told him, I said, "Well, generally
[71:37] you tell me what they are. You ask for a
[71:39] lot of money. I offer a little bit of
[71:40] money and we meet right smack dab in the
[71:42] middle at my original offer and I come
[71:44] get them and he goes, "Oh, okay. We
[71:46] could do that." And so he asked for a
[71:47] bunch of money. I told him what I
[71:48] thought they were all worth blind. I I
[71:50] don't need any information. I'll tell
[71:52] you what I know they can't be worth less
[71:54] than. And I uh and he said, "All right,
[71:57] if you'll wire the money and come get
[71:58] them, you can have them tomorrow." So I
[72:00] get a bunch of trucks and go there and
[72:01] go. We got all nine cars. I actually
[72:04] bought three and then they they were so
[72:05] pleased with that I bought the other
[72:06] six.
[72:07] >> Wait a second. So, are you going to keep
[72:08] any of the cars for yourself or you
[72:10] they're already sold?
[72:11] >> Yeah, I gave one to my editor. He was He
[72:13] took a new job and uh as a parting gift,
[72:15] I gave let him pick and he chose a
[72:17] Corvette. Um I had already sold a couple
[72:19] of the R8 and the i8 to friends. Um
[72:22] >> you didn't call me.
[72:24] >> I the uh Well, they're all going to come
[72:26] up for sale in November, so they're
[72:28] going to come back.
[72:28] >> Now the deal's done. Now the deal is
[72:30] done, man. Well, and I actually I I
[72:33] thought a lot about that because I get
[72:36] endless requests for people like, "Hey,
[72:38] help me buy a car." And uh AI has not
[72:41] perfectly solved how I scale myself in
[72:43] that way yet. And so I I was like, "All
[72:46] right, let's use these cars as an
[72:48] experiment to see how this would work
[72:51] because I would love to just have uh I
[72:54] don't know what the best platform to use
[72:55] a Patreon where you pay $100 a month and
[72:59] I love all my cars. I'm not really
[73:01] looking to buy anything, but I get
[73:02] opportunities to buy something every
[73:03] day. I'm just going to put them all in a
[73:05] chat and you guys can just go buy them.
[73:07] I don't care. I don't need to make money
[73:09] on them or anything. You're paying for
[73:11] the access. I'm not making any
[73:13] representation of the cars other than
[73:15] this came across my desk. Here you go.
[73:17] Um, and so I kind of did that. I get I
[73:20] sent a list of these cars out to some
[73:21] friends
[73:22] >> and like the first one was like, well,
[73:24] what recourse do we have?
[73:26] >> And I'm like, none. It's a branded title
[73:28] car in, you know, North Carolina. Like,
[73:31] no, it's we bought, you know, I was
[73:33] like, you cannot buy it cuz I'm going to
[73:35] buy it anyway, but like that's not
[73:37] really how this is supposed to work. And
[73:39] then another one was like, well, you
[73:40] know, what is your mechanic going to do
[73:42] to it before I buy it for the price that
[73:44] I've already agreed to? I'm like, uh,
[73:46] nothing. It's it's very much asis. And
[73:48] so it was and they were not they just
[73:51] don't think about buying cars the way
[73:53] that I do. And they shouldn't because
[73:55] it's stupid. And I I understand that
[73:58] like, you know, it's not for everyone.
[74:02] And I'm trying to sort of figure out I I
[74:04] don't actually think my idea there would
[74:06] work because I think everybody would end
[74:07] up taking risks they probably shouldn't
[74:10] and winding up with cars that are worse
[74:12] and sometimes they're better, sometimes
[74:13] they're worse. But, you know, like when
[74:15] I bought my cheap Bentley, I drove it
[74:16] back and the guy had badly welded a
[74:18] wheel and it broke. But I carry a big
[74:21] box of everything that you could you
[74:23] just to get somewhere. And so I've got
[74:24] to J-B weld this wheel in a parking lot
[74:27] of a Loves and then air it back up. And
[74:29] nobody's going to do that. They're going
[74:30] to end up with a very expensive tow bill
[74:32] from somewhere in West Georgia that they
[74:34] don't even know where to take it. And
[74:36] then when it shows up, they don't have
[74:37] any paperwork yet to process. And I
[74:40] enjoy that mess because I've kind of
[74:41] built out the way it works. But it's not
[74:44] like a silver bullet to great deals.
[74:47] >> Got it. Okay, that makes sense. But
[74:49] please pass.
[74:50] >> I'll be happy.
[74:51] >> Please keep us in mind if you get a cool
[74:54] Audi R8.
[74:55] >> Yeah, I like the R8.
[74:56] >> He likes the i8. I like I'm iffy on the
[74:59] i8.
[75:00] >> So the R8 was like mid50s, but it had
[75:03] 106,000 miles. And again, totally
[75:06] unknown, been sitting for a year, you
[75:08] know, by the time they got around to
[75:10] executing probate and selling stuff. Uh,
[75:12] you know, there was an i8, but it, you
[75:14] know, we fortunately it was actually a
[75:16] really nice car, but we had to buy it
[75:17] thinking it's going to need a battery
[75:18] and all the things which could be in,
[75:20] you know, endless.
[75:21] >> How much was the i8?
[75:23] >> 20s,
[75:25] >> I think. Yeah. I feel like I take the
[75:27] risk. Anything in the 20s, I'll risk it.
[75:30] >> So, if you bought a car
[75:31] >> Yeah.
[75:32] >> and it was 25,000 bucks and maybe a
[75:35] great one's 60, but you got to spend 20
[75:38] or $25,000 and you still wind up on it
[75:42] and and then so you got 50 grand in a
[75:44] branded title car and the car's down for
[75:46] 6 months and you're like, why did I do
[75:47] this? And you got to pay cash and you
[75:49] got to pay before you see it. You know,
[75:51] it's not it's not just an assembly line
[75:53] at the used car factory of all these
[75:55] great deals that just happened to go
[75:57] underwater at some point 10 years ago.
[75:59] That happens sometimes, but a lot of
[76:00] times you're like, "Oh, wow.
[76:02] >> This thing doesn't work at all."
[76:04] >> Okay. What's the most you've lost on a
[76:05] car?
[76:06] >> I've never lost money on a car. Not that
[76:09] I mean cars that we like destroyed for
[76:11] production that were let inexpensive. I
[76:14] guess I've lost some money on it. I lost
[76:16] one when Freddy sold it on my behalf
[76:18] without my permission, but I let him
[76:19] know that that was unacceptable. My, you
[76:21] know, wife's daily driver cars have lost
[76:23] money, I guess, but like not on like a a
[76:26] car that I buy for fun or for content or
[76:29] >> So, how could other people then not ever
[76:31] lose money on a car?
[76:33] >> Generally, know everything that can go
[76:36] wrong about a car and create a margin
[76:39] between what you'll pay and what that
[76:42] could manifest as. So, I have enough,
[76:45] you know, it the worst thing that could
[76:47] happen on a $26,000 McLaren is that the
[76:49] engine blows up, which only happens like
[76:51] 40% of the time. And so, I was like,
[76:53] well, you know, I could buy an engine
[76:55] for probably 30 to 40,000 bucks. At that
[76:58] point, I'm going to retail out of this
[76:59] car. I may not make that much, but it'll
[77:00] be okay. So, it's the ability to make
[77:03] the right offer and then put that offer
[77:06] to the right seller who, for whatever
[77:08] reason, isn't willing to or able to
[77:11] engage in a more competitive sales
[77:13] process. Why doesn't Hooie's Garage
[77:16] follow your advice?
[77:17] >> Because it's not that entertaining to
[77:19] watch things go really, really well. We
[77:22] watch Tyler because he goes out and buys
[77:24] the cheapest example of whatever when
[77:26] the next cheapest would have been a good
[77:28] car, but he buys the worst one. So, we
[77:30] can learn all of the bad things that
[77:32] would happen. And that is a really
[77:33] entertaining product. And then he spends
[77:35] money fixing it. And then that becomes a
[77:36] problem. And then he's the dumbest
[77:38] automotive channel in all of YouTube
[77:39] that we've come to know and love. And it
[77:41] goes really well. What do you think of
[77:42] online auction sites like Bring a
[77:44] Trailer and Cars and Bids?
[77:46] >> Um, they're wonderful. They they operate
[77:48] on a little bit of a new fallacy that
[77:53] most cars are not actually seven or 10
[77:56] day liquid. They have been for the last
[77:58] seven or eight years because of unique
[78:00] things that again are macroeconomic
[78:02] trends where there's a lot more
[78:04] liquidity, there's a lot more enthusiasm
[78:05] and things like that. but they sort of
[78:08] represent a very very
[78:11] hard to
[78:13] quantify reality. They're very good ways
[78:16] to liquidate cars. Um it is important to
[78:18] engage with them in the right way to
[78:20] represent your car the right way, take
[78:21] the right pictures, get the right
[78:22] inspections done, do all the stuff
[78:24] beforehand to make sure that your car
[78:26] brings the most money. But the fact that
[78:27] they have solved the critical mass
[78:29] attention issue that there are enough
[78:31] biders and things like that on there,
[78:33] you know, to me is awesome. We've had a
[78:35] lot of sponsors on Vinwicki of these
[78:37] different upstart car company or auction
[78:39] companies and it is it's really really
[78:42] hard. Like it's probably the most
[78:44] expensive cost of user acquisition that
[78:47] I've ever seen in the automotive world.
[78:50] Um you know short of finding a brand new
[78:52] Rolls-Royce buyer, I don't know that you
[78:53] could have to spend much more money. I
[78:55] think right now based on what I've seen,
[78:57] it's probably between $15 and $20,000
[79:00] of marketing expense to acquire a true
[79:03] retail value winning bidder that has 7
[79:07] days of discovery on a car remotely. Uh
[79:11] when we started doing it uh with another
[79:13] one, it was probably $5,000. And and I
[79:15] can see that based on what they spend
[79:17] with me and the number of really
[79:18] successful things they have. Now, that's
[79:20] discounting the customer lifetime value,
[79:22] which is re significant because most
[79:24] people end up buying five, six, seven
[79:26] cars there. It becomes a habit. Um, so I
[79:29] think they can break even or beyond that
[79:31] if they're only making a 5 to 7%, you
[79:34] know, fee on top of that. But yeah, it's
[79:36] a it's a a very competitive space and no
[79:38] one's really been able to do it without
[79:40] a pre-existing social audience.
[79:42] >> And when you buy a car, how do you
[79:43] effectively negotiate? Like what are the
[79:46] strategies that you use? Not just coming
[79:48] up with the price and this is what it is
[79:50] minus 40%. Can how do you smoo?
[79:53] >> So that's the problem is most people
[79:54] think, oh, I'm just going to lowball
[79:55] them. I'm going to give them an
[79:56] unqualified low casual offer and just
[80:00] see what they say. Like, oh, you're
[80:01] asking $100,000. Well, you take 60,
[80:03] right? No. Like that's But if I come in
[80:08] and I'm like, look, I totally understand
[80:09] that $100,000 is reasonable. And if you
[80:12] can find someone who wants that exact
[80:14] spec right now and can manage to you
[80:17] know either get it financed or pay cash
[80:19] likely have to pay cash because of all
[80:20] these circumstances that makes it more
[80:22] desirable to me and you know doesn't
[80:24] require any reconditioning then sure
[80:26] that makes sense. But look let's be
[80:27] honest I know that it needs these three
[80:29] things cuz all of them need these three
[80:31] things and I'm not going to make us go
[80:33] through all the hoops and get it trucked
[80:34] across town to get it inspected to prove
[80:36] it. I am willing to fully commit at a
[80:40] number that accommodates for the risk
[80:41] that I'd be taking and I'm not gonna
[80:44] need anything beyond this. If you say
[80:46] yes, I'm wiring the money right now. I
[80:48] am fully committed to this offer and it
[80:50] is less than I know you want, but it'll
[80:52] be the easiest transaction you've ever
[80:54] had and I'm never going to call you
[80:56] unless you want to know what happened to
[80:57] it. And if it blows up on the way past
[81:00] your mailbox, it's my problem. they're
[81:02] gonna go, "Wow, that sounds like a
[81:04] really nice way to sell a car, and this
[81:07] guy really seems to know what he's
[81:08] doing." And the only way he's going to
[81:10] talk me into paying more is like, "Well,
[81:12] I can prove that it doesn't need this,
[81:14] or I can prove that it won't need that."
[81:16] And then we start to have a little bit
[81:17] of a different discussion. But that's
[81:19] how you negotiate. You negotiate from a
[81:21] point of 100% commitment.
[81:23] >> Do you do this over the phone or in
[81:26] person? And what's the difference
[81:27] between the two?
[81:28] >> Usually over the phone. If you negotiate
[81:31] in person, you're too committed. Like
[81:33] they know that you you've driven, you've
[81:35] traveled. Like you're not gonna go home
[81:37] without this car. So you need to know.
[81:39] So I like to buy them cheap enough that
[81:41] it's reasonable to do it blind.
[81:43] >> So let's just say I'm browsing Facebook
[81:45] marketplace cuz this is what I've been
[81:46] doing and it's not worked. I've been
[81:49] looking at really good deals for like
[81:51] 2022 to 2024 Tesla Model S and X and I
[81:56] know exactly where they sell. I know the
[81:58] market really well based on the mileage.
[82:00] And usually what I'll do is I'll lowball
[82:03] 10 to 15% below, but I'll send him a
[82:05] message saying, "Hey, uh, I'll pay you
[82:08] this, and if you agree to it, I'll come
[82:10] and pick it up right now, cash buyer."
[82:13] But everyone said no. So, am I doing it
[82:16] wrong? Should I be getting a phone
[82:18] number first? Like, hey, got a few
[82:20] questions. Would love to chat over the
[82:21] phone and then pitch it over the phone.
[82:23] Like, do you think that makes that big
[82:24] of a difference? Well, I think you need
[82:26] to think about why someone is taking a
[82:28] fairly new Tesla to Facebook
[82:30] Marketplace. Facebook Marketplace is
[82:32] where you go buy some real junk. And I
[82:34] like that. I spend a lot of time there,
[82:36] but I don't go there thinking like, I'm
[82:37] going to buy a great car today. I'm
[82:39] going to buy a 200,000 mi Maserati that
[82:42] runs on half the motor. Like, that's
[82:44] what I'm going to do. And then I'm
[82:45] probably going to I know I'm going to
[82:46] have to push it somewhere sometime. um
[82:49] if uh if they're advertising a 2022
[82:53] Tesla on marketplace, they owe too much
[82:56] money and they have to get that amount
[82:58] of money in order to pay their loan off.
[83:00] That's the only circumstance where
[83:01] they're going to have it. Otherwise, it
[83:02] would have taken
[83:03] >> See, I see somewhere where it says like
[83:04] upgraded to a cyber truck selling this
[83:07] >> because they didn't want to take the
[83:08] trade allowance.
[83:10] >> Yeah. So, if they they're not willing to
[83:12] take what it's actually worth. So
[83:14] they're out there looking for that rich
[83:16] guy in Dubai or that rich YouTuber from
[83:18] Vegas to come in to come in and overpay
[83:20] for it because they they have this hope
[83:22] that they're going to get that last
[83:23] dollar out of it.
[83:24] >> So if I want to buy a private party
[83:26] specifically because there's no sales
[83:28] tax in Vegas for private party used car
[83:30] transactions, where do I go?
[83:32] >> That is that's a fun wrinkle because
[83:34] that might motivate people that they
[83:36] think that they're not getting because
[83:37] you do get trade credits on dealer
[83:40] transactions. Correct. So they've given
[83:42] they decided that even 7 8% more than
[83:45] what I was being allowed on the trade
[83:48] was not enough.
[83:49] >> So private parties I mean you can sort
[83:52] by private party uh listings on all
[83:54] >> there's so few of them which is weird.
[83:56] >> It is strange which means that dealers
[83:58] know they have to pay more. And so we
[84:01] had that in Georgia 20 years ago. Um it
[84:04] was only sales tax on new and used
[84:07] through dealers. And so it was a huge
[84:08] disadvantage. And the dealers lobby hard
[84:11] to have sales taxes instituted on
[84:14] private party transactions to avoid this
[84:16] dilemma. Uh and but you know it does
[84:19] create this spread of like it's you
[84:21] you're buying cars for less at dealers
[84:23] than you would pay for a private party
[84:25] because it still makes sense.
[84:26] >> Yeah. So when you worked at a
[84:28] Lamborghini dealer, what do the best
[84:30] customers do different from everyone
[84:32] else? the best customers focus on the
[84:36] value delta of the way that they're
[84:37] experiencing it to make a hobby that
[84:39] they really like most sustainable um in
[84:43] my opinion. Now, the customers that do
[84:45] things differently that just come in and
[84:47] trade every six months for whatever it
[84:49] costs cuz that's the adventure they want
[84:50] to go on or they come in and they spec
[84:52] $250,000 worth of options on a car
[84:54] because that's the way that they feel
[84:56] that they've expressed their love of the
[84:57] automobile most are also right. But when
[85:02] I put the the people that I admired and
[85:05] I wanted to emulate in my own ownership,
[85:07] it was the people that were really
[85:09] conscious of the economics of it. And
[85:12] and that's the reason they asked me to
[85:13] come work at the store because, you
[85:14] know, in working in the rental car
[85:16] industry, I knew exactly how much it
[85:18] cost to put every single mile on each of
[85:20] these cars. All factors in because that
[85:23] is the only way I could know if I was
[85:25] ever going to make any money. And so
[85:26] they wanted that applied to the broader
[85:28] scope of like multi-year ownership so I
[85:30] could help people counsel through the
[85:33] you inevitable depreciation that was
[85:35] because I started there in09 so these
[85:37] were unsellable automobiles.
[85:39] >> How much wiggle room is there actually
[85:41] in price on a Ferrari or a Lamborghini?
[85:44] >> That totally depends. Generally the
[85:46] spread between invoice and MSRP on most
[85:48] new cars is going to be between 8 and
[85:50] 15%. Um, there will be periodic
[85:53] incentives, rebates, things like that
[85:55] that could go beyond that. That's on new
[85:56] cars. Most used car dealers start from
[86:01] about an 8 to 10% margin and will end up
[86:04] making 1 to 3% net after everything's
[86:06] paid out. Now, that doesn't mean that
[86:08] you can negotiate all of it away because
[86:10] they actually have to generate some
[86:11] gross profit to keep the lights on. Um,
[86:13] and so, you know, generally speaking,
[86:15] you know, wiggle room is probably going
[86:18] to be on the order of, you know, 5 to
[86:20] 20% depending on the car.
[86:21] >> What percent of the people that bought
[86:23] Lamborghinis at the Lamborghini
[86:25] dealership would you say was a
[86:26] financially irresponsible move for them
[86:28] to purchase that car?
[86:30] >> So, that would mean that they were
[86:31] buying beyond what they could likely
[86:33] sustainably afford because you could say
[86:35] that, you know, someone that I knew was
[86:37] going to lose $100,000 on a car. Well,
[86:39] if they're worth $100 million, that
[86:41] doesn't really matter. So, um, but
[86:44] people who were stretching a lot to
[86:46] where if the car broke in a meaningful
[86:49] way or if the car depreciated beyond
[86:51] what might be anticipated, that could
[86:52] become really problematic. That was
[86:54] probably 20 to 25%.
[86:56] >> That's not that bad actually. 20 to 25%.
[87:00] If someone is going to purchase a car,
[87:03] what percentage of their income do you
[87:05] think like it should max at? I would say
[87:08] that the bank's rule that the loan
[87:09] amount, the cumulative amount of all
[87:11] your car loans should probably be less
[87:14] than you make in a year. Um, and that's
[87:16] excessive by most financial advisor
[87:18] standards, but if you're in that zone,
[87:20] you're probably not again at risk of a
[87:23] terrible maintenance event or additional
[87:25] depreciation really crippling.
[87:26] >> Wait, explain that again.
[87:27] >> Um, if your total loan amount, you have
[87:30] a $100,000 loan, you should make a h
[87:32] 100red grand a year.
[87:32] >> Okay.
[87:33] >> Yeah.
[87:33] >> What type of customer is most frequently
[87:35] buying a Lamborghini? Is it someone
[87:37] worth 3 million, 30, 300?
[87:41] >> It's lower than you would think. Um, in
[87:44] that and it's gotten a little bit
[87:46] stronger because the new car sales have
[87:47] gone up a lot since I was there, but
[87:49] generally I would say that the people
[87:51] were probably1
[87:54] to $2 million net worth that were buying
[87:56] one to $200,000 cars.
[87:58] >> So, in order to just buy a Lamborghini,
[88:00] you'd probably say this person needs to
[88:01] make at least $200,000 a year. Well,
[88:04] given that most, you know, new
[88:06] Lamborghinis are now three, four, five,
[88:08] $600,000, I would say that you probably
[88:10] need to make at least half a million a
[88:11] year to go buy a brand new one. You want
[88:13] to buy a used Gallardo for a h 100red
[88:14] grand, you could make $75,000 a year and
[88:17] not have any real risk. I mean, that
[88:19] needs to be your only vice. Yeah.
[88:21] >> Right. And that's one of the things like
[88:22] if you have a real job, you can have one
[88:25] vice. It could be eating really nice
[88:28] food, traveling a lot, doing, you know,
[88:31] Pokemon cards, whatever. Or it could be
[88:33] a heavily depreciated interesting car.
[88:35] >> What would you say is your vice?
[88:38] >> I just like working. I don't know. I
[88:40] like working and saving. I don't I don't
[88:42] have a vice
[88:45] >> financial vice. There's not nothing that
[88:46] you're
[88:47] >> What's the most money you spent on a
[88:49] single thing or event in the last 12 or
[88:51] 18 months?
[88:52] >> Well, it was that Heritage Auctions. It
[88:55] was a three-piece uh storyboard set. The
[88:59] key scene from Nightmare Before
[89:00] Christmas.
[89:01] >> Okay. where Jack and Sally hold hands on
[89:04] top of the hill. That was it.
[89:06] >> How much was it?
[89:07] >> Under 20,000.
[89:08] >> Okay. If you think about the last five
[89:10] years, are most of the similar magnitude
[89:13] purchases art or you know significant
[89:16] collectibles?
[89:16] >> I don't really spend like I only spend
[89:18] money if I feel like it's going to
[89:20] >> be an investment. Yeah. Like if I if I
[89:22] bought this thing I bought it because I
[89:24] liked it, but I also bought it because I
[89:25] felt like it's underappreciated,
[89:28] undervalued, and I can't see why it
[89:29] wouldn't sell for triple. So that's how
[89:32] I look at it. I don't like buying things
[89:34] where I know the money's just gone. I
[89:36] really
[89:36] >> What's the last thing that you bought
[89:37] with no concern of its future value or
[89:40] an experience that you spent money on?
[89:42] >> First class uh plane ticket.
[89:46] >> I would say the aquarium, you know.
[89:47] >> No, but that's not it's 20 30 bucks
[89:50] here. And that's a cleaner shrimp. I
[89:52] mean, it's not like
[89:52] >> Well, I meant the the actual purchase of
[89:54] the aquarium itself.
[89:56] >> Uh yeah, but that was six years ago. I
[89:58] would say a first class plane ticket.
[90:00] That was the last time I had spent money
[90:02] where I did not think of an even then I
[90:05] thought of an ROI. I was like if I could
[90:07] get work done I could make that back at
[90:09] least and then it's a free flight.
[90:11] >> Got it.
[90:11] >> But everything is an ROI.
[90:13] >> How much do you have in the aquarium?
[90:15] >> 50 grand give or take.
[90:17] >> Okay.
[90:18] >> And that's probably worth now 12.
[90:20] >> Right. So that is a vice. That's a
[90:22] hobby. Um and I think it's a wonderful
[90:25] hobby. I've got an expensive boa
[90:26] constrictor. And so I agree that that
[90:28] can be a really really lovely thing that
[90:30] can add value to your life and peace as
[90:32] you stare at it. Um and so that would be
[90:34] a good example and like that's a huge
[90:37] expense, right? Lighting 50 $40,000 on
[90:41] fire is a lot. um you need to derive
[90:44] value and so for that you could have
[90:46] owned a very a couple very interesting
[90:49] cars in that same time in Delta and you
[90:53] know and but you you could do that on
[90:55] that that's a lot but I mean you could
[90:57] do that on a 50 to $100,000 salary over
[91:01] time if you saved and if you were
[91:03] disciplined and so but if you did that
[91:05] you would need to not travel in first
[91:07] class and things like that and so I
[91:08] think the same is true for interesting
[91:10] cars that you can own one for a lot less
[91:12] than you would think. You just do have
[91:14] to discipline yourself in the rest of
[91:16] life's asset allocation.
[91:18] >> So, if someone gave you a million
[91:20] dollars to build a perfect five car
[91:22] collection, and what would it be? Hey,
[91:24] by the way, really quick, if you want
[91:25] extra content just like this, as well as
[91:27] early access and a bonus post show
[91:30] posted every single week. Feel free to
[91:32] join as a channel member to get
[91:33] immediate access to all of that, as well
[91:35] as early access to everything else that
[91:37] we post along with priority responses to
[91:40] all of your comments. So, if that sounds
[91:42] cool, feel free to join. Would love to
[91:44] have you on board. Thanks so much. We'll
[91:45] get back to the podcast now. So, if
[91:47] someone gave you a million dollars to
[91:49] build a perfect fivecar collection, and
[91:51] what would it be?
[91:52] >> I would buy a an edgy e- gear
[91:56] Lamborghini Mercelago for, let's say,
[91:59] 300 grand. I would buy a Mercedes
[92:02] McLaren SLR for about 300 grand.
[92:04] >> I would buy a
[92:07] manual transmission Ferrari 360. So, I'd
[92:10] have a manual open top car uh for 150
[92:14] and I'd have 250 left to spend. Um, and
[92:19] I' I'd want some kind of a probably an
[92:22] S-Class of some sort to drive around or
[92:24] a Bentley that's depreciated and
[92:26] something for the family. U, if it was
[92:28] going to be something else interesting,
[92:29] I'd probably buy a 911 variant that I
[92:32] could just beat on. Uh, but yeah, that'
[92:34] kind of be it.
[92:35] >> The one I really like when you said
[92:36] Bentley, the Bentley Bentegas. Yeah.
[92:38] Yeah,
[92:38] >> like a 2017. I'm seeing them now in the
[92:41] '60s.
[92:41] >> Oh, yeah. You can buy them in the 30s if
[92:43] you're crazy enough.
[92:44] >> Is that a bad car to buy?
[92:46] >> Yes.
[92:47] >> Why?
[92:48] >> Because they they will mechanically
[92:50] total themselves, meaning that when
[92:52] things go badly, you can't justify
[92:55] fixing them for the eventual value that
[92:57] they still have.
[92:58] >> Um, I still love them. I own the same
[93:02] thing as a sedan and it is uh it's not
[93:05] responsible but you know it's they're
[93:08] lovely cars and same same Range Rovers
[93:11] any of these things same thing
[93:12] >> in terms of resale how much does a
[93:14] unique spec matter
[93:16] >> that's a really really hard thing
[93:18] because you can look at certain cars
[93:19] where special specs can double the value
[93:22] having a paint to sample 918 or Carrera
[93:25] GT doubles the value at the moment which
[93:27] is really hard to say that there is a
[93:30] seven figure desiraability delta between
[93:32] colors, but the market right now is
[93:35] saying that it is. I don't view that as
[93:38] long-term sustainable as cars get really
[93:40] valuable. We see more of a compression
[93:42] across specs that people just if if one
[93:44] is available, they do that.
[93:46] >> Um, you know, so it's it's generally not
[93:49] that big of a deal. uh used car buyers
[93:52] have a preference towards spec, but like
[93:55] if you were really faced with an apples
[93:58] to apples uh Delta to go from a 7,000
[94:02] mile white GT to pay another 400
[94:06] $500,000 for a heritage car,
[94:08] >> I don't think you're going to do it.
[94:10] Maybe a h 100red grand, 200 grand, which
[94:12] still feels crazy cuz it's paint and you
[94:14] could wrap it for five grand to look the
[94:16] same way. But people do and it is in
[94:19] those cases a reasonable store of value
[94:21] and they're probably going to get it
[94:22] back. And so that's the kind of thing
[94:23] that you would justify and I would
[94:26] struggle hard because you see that and
[94:29] you're right that if that is the primary
[94:31] focus for the ownership that this is
[94:33] just kind of a you know it's a wash. I'm
[94:35] going to pay the delta that the market
[94:37] has. I expect that delta to prevail over
[94:39] time. I'm I'm right to do it. I would
[94:41] say I can't possibly get the marginal
[94:43] enjoyment out of that color and so I'm
[94:44] just gonna buy that's why I have a red
[94:46] over red Bugatti with red wheels.
[94:47] >> But are certain colors getting a premium
[94:50] right now? It seems like for Ferrari
[94:52] it's yellow.
[94:52] >> Yellow is bigger than red. Green is
[94:55] bigger than everything. Orange doesn't
[94:57] work for Ferraris because they always
[94:58] look like just a picture is unsaturated
[95:00] because everybody thinks it's red. But
[95:01] on a Lamborghini uh green is a 20 to 30%
[95:04] premium. Orange is up there. And so yes,
[95:07] there are certainly situations where
[95:09] that happens.
[95:10] And what about people trying to deduct
[95:13] cars on taxes? Because we recently
[95:15] posted with Stradman got in trouble
[95:18] deducting cars as props, but then paying
[95:21] tax on it when he realized the gain, but
[95:23] he would be just rolling it into future
[95:26] cars. So again, I'm not an accountant
[95:28] and you know,
[95:31] realizing automotive gains is a really
[95:33] difficult thing to do for any accountant
[95:35] because there are obviously expenses
[95:37] that could offset them, but you're not
[95:39] really supposed to do that as a normal
[95:41] tax return. And so I would say everybody
[95:45] defer there. I am comfortable with basis
[95:48] shifting in trades particularly given
[95:50] the fact that it's totally legal for
[95:53] paperwork to reflect different values if
[95:55] there as long as the actual cash outlay
[95:58] delta is well documented. Um you know I
[96:02] there's it's also perfectly reasonable
[96:04] for people to treat themselves more as
[96:06] dealers where they can treat the the
[96:09] gains more as revenue or income as
[96:11] opposed to and then the basis being the
[96:14] expense of the car. So there's a lot of
[96:16] ways that you can do it and get away
[96:19] with it. I think entirely legally, but
[96:22] you know, if you're going to go out
[96:23] there and realize a bunch of gains, you
[96:25] do need to plan to to pay for it.
[96:27] >> Steve Hamilton alleged that Ferrari and
[96:30] Pagani understate their car counts,
[96:33] their manufacturer counts. Do you think
[96:35] that there's any validity to that claim
[96:38] or do you think that that's false?
[96:40] >> Absolutely true. Um, it's very well
[96:42] documented. I built an app for it and so
[96:45] like for instance Ferrari said they made
[96:46] 399 Ferrari Enzos plus one for the Pope
[96:49] and there's well over 500 of them in our
[96:52] app so they you know underounted by more
[96:55] than 25%. Uh that's happened a lot and
[96:58] that's why they now don't have a number
[97:01] out of uh you know a lot just said
[97:03] limited to 499
[97:06] uh and they'll do that forever that now
[97:08] they say one of 799 or whatever they're
[97:10] making. So when did they stop doing that
[97:12] and actually sticking with the number?
[97:14] Was it the Barquetta?
[97:15] >> 550 Barcetta's uh Super Americas were
[97:18] numbered. Um and 599 SA apparatas uh
[97:22] were numbered and there are some of
[97:23] they're duplicates of certain numbers
[97:26] out of 80. Yeah, there's like you know
[97:28] multiples.
[97:29] >> So that's zero and 00 and 0000 as
[97:33] prototypes.
[97:34] >> Oh yeah, with like F50s they had postp
[97:36] production prototypes because they just
[97:38] wanted to build some more. Is that
[97:39] legal?
[97:40] >> No, it is fraud. But
[97:45] what are you you're going to sue him?
[97:47] You
[97:47] >> for an extra car?
[97:48] >> You're going to sue Ferrari for
[97:50] defrauding you on your car that was
[97:52] immediately worth a million dollars over
[97:54] MSRP. That it should have been worth
[97:56] more than a million dollars over MSRP.
[97:59] And you're going to have a jury of your
[98:01] peers hear that case and say that,
[98:03] "Yeah, you're right. You deserved more
[98:05] profit. guy that's rich, I think they're
[98:09] pretty safe.
[98:11] And it's the same way as like, you know,
[98:13] you're not allowed to sell your car.
[98:14] You're allowed to sell your car whenever
[98:16] you want. No, you know, limitation of
[98:19] your ability to sell your car is
[98:21] remotely enforceable legally, but people
[98:25] sign these contracts that again are
[98:26] uninforceable because that's the
[98:28] requirement of the manufacturer. If they
[98:30] sell them, they just don't get any more
[98:31] cars from that manufacturer. So, it's
[98:34] internally enforced. That's so
[98:36] interesting.
[98:38] >> You were telling us before the podcast
[98:40] that you have data on the general car
[98:43] loan market and how much equity certain
[98:46] people have in cars and and this whole
[98:49] fascinating financial system behind the
[98:52] car market. Could you expand a little
[98:53] bit on that?
[98:54] >> So, I'm always been fascinated by the
[98:56] data and the economics of how car
[98:57] ownership fundamentally works. And so I
[99:00] have been working with Experian and
[99:02] Autocheck, which is unique because they
[99:04] have an auto data set in AutoC, which is
[99:07] much like Carfax, but they're Experian.
[99:09] They're a credit bureau, so they know
[99:10] everything. And so we've been trying to
[99:13] understand what can be revealed and what
[99:14] cannot. And so I'm going to work on some
[99:17] content with them because I just think
[99:18] it's the most fascinating thing in the
[99:19] world to understand like what percentage
[99:22] of buyers of each type of car are
[99:24] financing them, leasing them, paying
[99:26] cash, things like that. So, we'll uh
[99:28] I'll pull some of it out and we'll make
[99:29] a VinWiki video here after that.
[99:31] >> I would love to hear about it.
[99:33] >> Yeah.
[99:34] >> Can you reveal one of the most shocking
[99:36] statistics that you found? [laughter]
[99:38] >> It looks like I'm the only person to
[99:41] used car lease a Bugatti in the last 5
[99:43] years.
[99:44] >> Really?
[99:45] >> Uh so, explain the mechanics behind
[99:47] this.
[99:47] >> Yeah. So, I was able to get some data
[99:50] about like new car leasing versus and it
[99:52] was like 0.5% of used Bugattis are
[99:55] structured as a lease and maybe it was
[99:57] just me and Hooie because he did lease
[99:59] his through Premier Financial as well.
[100:01] Um, and so, you know, to me that's
[100:02] really interesting because there's not
[100:04] that many transactions.
[100:05] >> That's got to be you. So, you are
[100:06] >> Yeah. So, sometimes you see a data set
[100:08] like, well, I know who that one was and
[100:09] so it was me.
[100:10] >> Is there anything that you see that
[100:12] worries you about the car market
[100:13] crashing?
[100:15] We see so much right now about like
[100:17] upside down loans and negative equity in
[100:19] these cars and people can't afford to
[100:20] get rid of them.
[100:21] >> That will impact the new car market. It
[100:23] doesn't really impact the world that I
[100:24] play in. But yes, there is the perfect
[100:27] storm for catastrophic depreciation in
[100:30] some new cars, which you know,
[100:32] fortunately all that means is that some
[100:35] people will not be able to trade as fast
[100:37] or as often as they might like to.
[100:39] >> Is there a chance though they just stop
[100:40] making the payments? They let the car
[100:42] go.
[100:42] >> Yeah. But again, the magnitude of that
[100:44] exposure isn't that great. Even, you
[100:47] know, for the banks to absorb a 10 20%
[100:50] negative equity. It's not like the
[100:52] housing market in 2008 where, you know,
[100:54] you could have billions or trillions of
[100:57] dollars worth of exposure. It's not that
[100:59] bad.
[101:00] >> Is there any car that's in a bubble
[101:01] right now that you disagree with? Like I
[101:04] said, a lot of the cars that have really
[101:05] exploded in the last little while are
[101:08] are situations where the market or of
[101:12] owners of those cars at large would not
[101:15] turn down the recent highest price if
[101:18] they were offered it. And so that means
[101:19] that theoretically they're going to
[101:21] start trying to sell a lot of cars. And
[101:24] so if F12s are actually worth $500,000
[101:28] when they were worth $200,000 last year,
[101:31] that has to equalize, right? Because
[101:34] people aren't going to reby their car at
[101:37] that number tomorrow if they have the
[101:38] option. And so those are bubbles, right?
[101:40] That something's got to give. either
[101:42] there has to be a continuous flood of,
[101:46] you know, new interest in the cars or
[101:49] they've got to get to a point where um,
[101:51] you know, the market comes back down and
[101:53] the bubble pops. Um, but I don't think
[101:55] it's going to pop that dramatically. I
[101:56] think it's just going to be like, oh
[101:58] yeah, they're only worth what they were
[101:59] worth yesterday plus a little bit.
[102:01] >> So, if we hit a recession, what do you
[102:04] think happens first?
[102:05] >> I don't think cars are the, you know,
[102:07] canary in the coal mine for a recession.
[102:10] Um, I think, you know, home inventory is
[102:13] always a good thing, but the the canary
[102:15] in the coal mine for the next recession
[102:16] is going to be unemployment.
[102:18] If if AI causes unemployment, which we
[102:21] know it does, we don't know the extent
[102:22] to which it is, but you know, if we
[102:24] start to get to a point where there is 9
[102:27] 10 12% unemployment, especially as we
[102:30] even contemplate what 20 25%
[102:33] unemployment would look like, which is
[102:34] what some of these guys are forecasting,
[102:36] that's where you start to really really
[102:38] worry. Um, you know, I think there are
[102:41] other interesting indicators of, you
[102:44] know, if we start to see lower
[102:45] aspiration,
[102:47] right? If people just become a lot more
[102:49] content to not
[102:51] >> work hard or accumulate any wealth, they
[102:54] become very apathetic and lazy is not
[102:56] the right word, but it just becomes
[102:58] trendier to not care about anything
[103:02] aspirational. That's horrifying, right?
[103:04] Cuz then you don't have a labor market.
[103:06] You don't have people that are willing
[103:07] to work hard. All that
[103:09] >> it's already starting.
[103:14] This
[103:15] >> I was gonna ask you if you thought the
[103:16] night was already starting.
[103:17] >> Oh, because you're so lazy. Is that what
[103:19] you're pointing at? This guy not not
[103:20] pulling his weight. I see it. Yeah. I
[103:22] mean, even a lot way more words tonight.
[103:24] [laughter]
[103:25] Um, but you know, I think yes, there is
[103:28] a lot of that starting. And what I hope
[103:31] is that Gen Alpha recognizes this and
[103:35] they they start to enter a workforce
[103:37] where, you know, there's just a vacuum
[103:39] of motivation and they can just
[103:42] supersede their bosses and their boss's
[103:43] bosses. so fast just by working hard and
[103:45] trying and I think that's the biggest
[103:47] opportunity for young people today.
[103:49] >> Yeah. What do you think is the future
[103:50] for our economy in the next 5 years?
[103:52] >> I am not probably not the right person.
[103:56] You are the right person to ask.
[103:57] >> I think there are so many trends that
[103:59] are wildly troubling. Things like you
[104:03] should not buy a house, you should rent.
[104:05] >> Maybe economically this can be
[104:07] justified. But there is no greater
[104:10] creation of wealth in the history of the
[104:12] world than the equity component
[104:16] principal payment component of your
[104:18] mortgage payment. You yes you could be
[104:22] disciplined and save that exact amount
[104:24] in a good investment product over time
[104:26] and come out ahead but the likelihood
[104:28] that you will do that without fail is
[104:30] zero. The likelihood that you will make
[104:33] your mortgage payment is really really
[104:36] high. And so, yes, there might be a net
[104:39] loss or a parasitic effect, but like
[104:42] people should buy homes. It is the
[104:45] there's a reason that most millionaires
[104:47] are homeowners. And it's not because
[104:50] they're wealthy enough to buy homes.
[104:52] It's because long-term equity payments
[104:56] matter. So, things like that, this
[104:58] drive, this idea that you should not go
[105:00] to college. Well, sure, it's really hard
[105:03] to justify $250,000 in student loans
[105:06] over time,
[105:07] >> but at the same time, having adulthood
[105:10] with training wheels for a few years
[105:12] after you're 18 years old versus going
[105:13] out in the workforce has a lot of value.
[105:15] And so I think that's something where,
[105:17] you know, we need to start re-evaluating
[105:19] some of these popular, you know, memew
[105:22] worthy social trends that work well in
[105:24] infographics and say, you know what,
[105:26] maybe that's not actually good for
[105:28] society for us to move in certain
[105:31] directions when we extrapolate over
[105:32] decades and generations.
[105:34] >> So what's your advice to your own
[105:36] children in terms of what they should be
[105:38] doing in the future?
[105:39] >> Well, none of the jobs that I've pretty
[105:41] much had even existed when I was their
[105:43] age. And so I get invited to a lot more
[105:45] career days as a YouTuber than a used
[105:47] car salesman. And and that's one of the
[105:49] things we talk about is like, you know,
[105:51] most of the things that you're going to
[105:52] end up making money doing are jobs that
[105:54] don't exist yet. So adaptability is the
[105:57] most valuable commodity. the ability to
[106:00] say all right this is the landscape that
[106:03] I am facing and these are the things
[106:04] that I may want to accomplish and how do
[106:06] I overlay that with the talents and the
[106:08] gifts that I have and the things that
[106:09] I've learned to create opportunity
[106:12] because it's not going to look like it
[106:13] did for you know my parents' generation
[106:16] certainly most of the people my age
[106:17] where you just kind of enter the work go
[106:18] to a job fair pass out some resumes get
[106:21] a real job you know
[106:23] >> picket fence and all
[106:24] >> and how do you teach them that quality
[106:26] >> you put them in uncomfortable situations
[106:28] where they have to adapt
[106:29] You celebrate the times where they
[106:31] didn't know exactly how to succeed, but
[106:33] they prevailed. They overcame. You give
[106:36] them adversity so that they can have a
[106:38] little bit of a, you know, shallower
[106:40] pool sometimes when they jump in. Uh,
[106:42] and again, I think you just hope and
[106:44] pray. And
[106:45] >> what's your long-term plan with Vinwiki?
[106:47] >> You know, it's interesting because, you
[106:49] know, we've been making content nearly
[106:51] daily for about the same amount of time,
[106:53] and seeing what's happened in the space
[106:56] over that period is so wild. I think
[106:58] that, you know, the opportunity when we
[107:00] first started was like you could almost
[107:02] make a living and then it became, well,
[107:03] you could make a pretty decent living
[107:05] and then it became, well, you might be
[107:06] able to even support a a co-star or a
[107:08] staff or a facility or something like
[107:11] that or maybe you could buy a Bugatti
[107:13] with a giant irresponsible loan. Like
[107:15] that didn't exist when we started. And
[107:17] so now that does exist. And then now
[107:19] we're kind of going I think the pendulum
[107:21] is swinging in the opposite direction
[107:22] where the appeal of calling yourself a
[107:26] content creator or a YouTuber is so high
[107:28] that people are coming in like as long
[107:30] as I can like pay my bills, I'm happy to
[107:32] do it. And so they're making content
[107:34] that's really really good and relatively
[107:36] inexpensive. And so it's noisy but and
[107:39] for good reason. The platforms are
[107:41] working. They're getting the
[107:41] opportunity. They are out there making
[107:44] you know5 to $10,000 a month making
[107:46] content. That's amazing, but you know
[107:49] that doesn't support all of the
[107:50] infrastructure. And so, you know, when I
[107:53] think about the future of Vinwiki, I
[107:54] think about it kind of in the same way
[107:56] in the context of content creation to
[107:58] say that, you know, it's going to
[108:01] change. We are the old people in the
[108:03] room. And we see in most cases some
[108:07] decline in viewership 10, 20, 30%
[108:10] relative to what it was maybe at its
[108:12] high five, four, three years ago. And I
[108:14] think that that's okay. I think we all
[108:16] have kind of a life cycle and that may
[108:18] result in reinvention. It may result in
[108:20] some experimentation. It may result in,
[108:21] you know, just saying it's been amazing
[108:23] and I see no reason not to keep making
[108:25] the next podcast or inviting the next
[108:27] guest to tell a car story and that we
[108:29] just sort of ride it into whatever that
[108:31] becomes. I think as the noise goes up,
[108:34] the dedication also goes up. The people
[108:36] that you know want to walk up to you in
[108:37] an event or the guy that sees you at the
[108:39] airport says, "Man, I just love your
[108:40] content. I love what you're doing. I
[108:42] appreciate you putting it out there and
[108:43] the things that you stand for. And so,
[108:45] you know, to me, that's really the
[108:47] future is we we continue doing it
[108:49] because it's it's working so far.
[108:51] >> And I think the future for you, by the
[108:52] way, is in your back catalog of videos
[108:55] because a lot of them don't have you in
[108:56] it. And my gosh, I mean, the amount of
[108:59] value that someone would be able to get
[109:00] by owning your back catalog,
[109:04] >> places that pop up to do that, to pay
[109:06] you money for that sort of thing. I've
[109:07] loved that because they all call because
[109:09] Vinwiki is enough not me that as they
[109:11] think about the value in the automotive
[109:13] vertical they they find me and we talk
[109:14] about it and so seeing all the different
[109:16] ways that people are offering you know
[109:19] debt products, equity products,
[109:21] repurposing products, platform
[109:22] deployment and all that I think is
[109:24] really really interesting because it is
[109:26] like you say that is the way that we
[109:28] make the most of the opportunity and I
[109:31] kind of view it on two fronts like yes I
[109:33] need to extract the most value as one
[109:35] can because it is my career here, but I
[109:37] also need to be the right steward of the
[109:39] audience's attention to know that like
[109:42] to do well by the storytellers and to do
[109:44] well by what we're doing. That's why we
[109:45] try to, you know, raise the stakes with
[109:46] car trek and other, you know, car buying
[109:48] and other things like that, the
[109:49] adventures, but also just to make sure
[109:51] that there's value.
[109:53] >> So, who do you think of all of the car
[109:54] YouTubers is the worst with money?
[109:56] >> Well, there's one that comes to mind.
[109:58] Um, but, you know, I' I'd like to think
[110:00] there's a bigger picture with that he's
[110:02] he's really going to put it together.
[110:04] Um, and that will uh, yeah, certainly
[110:06] run to second place, which is also
[110:07] pretty easy to define. Uh, but you know,
[110:10] I think that it's it's interesting
[110:11] because all of our content has different
[110:13] demands, right, of the what people are
[110:16] there to see. You know, sometimes they
[110:17] want to see you be really, really smart
[110:19] and sometimes they don't. And sometimes
[110:21] they want to see you buy really, really
[110:22] good cars, and sometimes they don't. And
[110:24] sometimes they think you're really going
[110:25] to put your life together and make all
[110:27] the right decisions. And sometimes you
[110:29] don't. So, who is it?
[110:31] >> I don't know. I can't really put a pace
[110:32] on it. Okay, cool.
[110:34] >> That's fair. Who is the best with money?
[110:36] >> Daddy Doug.
[110:38] It's always Doug. Doug Demiro has
[110:41] certainly kind of beaten the game in
[110:43] this form and I think it's great to see
[110:45] that. I think, you know, you look at the
[110:47] success of Hoonigan uh is also great.
[110:50] The guys that started Donut did really
[110:51] well. In most of those cases,
[110:53] postacquisition, it's not as good. And I
[110:56] think that is sort of the biggest thing
[110:58] that the industry would solve is to try
[111:00] to figure out like you know well what do
[111:03] we offer in terms of a transitional plan
[111:06] or an opportunity to scale that really
[111:08] makes the most sense.
[111:09] >> Cool. Perfect. Thank you.
[111:10] >> You want to come say hi? [laughter]
[111:14] >> Look at Wow.
[111:16] >> M. How did Mr. Bullion do this?
[111:18] >> It was great. Fantastic.
[111:20] >> Terrible. There's there's very few
[111:22] people who are as good as a good of a
[111:25] speaker as really
[111:28] of what to do versus what not to do when
[111:30] I show up basically, right? Every story
[111:32] needs a book end.
[111:33] >> Are you guys wearing matching watches?
[111:35] >> Oh goodness. Look at this GM. You got
[111:39] >> Yeah, pretty close.
[111:40] >> You should have worn your subject.
[111:42] >> I know. I I didn't know.
[111:43] >> Oh my god.
[111:44] >> Send the memo out.
[111:45] >> Well,
[111:46] >> so explain what brings you to Vegas.
[111:48] >> I got this guy hired at Barrett Jackson.
[111:50] You got him a job.
[111:51] >> Had to work with me. Uh some of the old
[111:53] guard, some of the old guard there, uh
[111:55] they're busy. They have other things
[111:56] going on. So I got Ed for Las Vegas for
[111:59] the uh the auction first time. So he'll
[112:01] be up on a block of me doing commentary
[112:02] on TV. So it's television, Ed. It's
[112:04] live.
[112:05] >> We're not accustomed to such things.
[112:07] >> Are you Are you nervous going live like
[112:09] this?
[112:09] >> No.
[112:10] >> How many cars do you think Tyler's going
[112:12] to buy?
[112:14] >> Two. Too many.
[112:15] >> Too many is how many he's going to buy.
[112:17] But uh he will. They have. They have
[112:20] never lost money hiring Tyler. I can
[112:22] tell you that much.
[112:23] >> Is it Is it true that he's going to
[112:24] spend the money back on the cars?
[112:26] >> Oh, and more. Always. Yes. They They
[112:29] give you a line of credit, Tyler.
[112:30] >> Yeah. [laughter]
[112:32] >> It's available. They got I'm sure they
[112:33] got a table for it.
[112:35] >> Oh my gosh. Cool. Well, thank you so
[112:37] much. I really appreciate this. Thank
[112:39] you for doing this and coming out to
[112:41] Vegas, filming with us. And we'll link
[112:43] to all of your information down below in
[112:44] the description. And for the video that
[112:46] we do together, I'll link to it as well.
[112:48] Thank you so much. I appreciate you
[112:49] having me.
[112:50] >> Oh, and by the way, for all the channel
[112:51] members out there, huge thank you. If
[112:54] you want to see our next episode that's
[112:56] already live early for channel members,
[112:59] here's the trailer for it.
[113:00] >> Elon Musk, the world's [music] richest
[113:02] person, has also become the world's
[113:03] first trillionaire.
[113:05] >> And every civilization that has rose has
[113:07] fallen because of a growing wealth gap.
[113:10] >> At what point though does the wealth gap
[113:13] get so big that all of a sudden
[113:15] something has to break? It is profitable
[113:18] to keep you financially stupid. It is
[113:20] profitable to keep you poor. Most
[113:22] Americans today would rather look rich
[113:24] than be rich.
[113:24] >> Over 40% of us are unfamiliar with Roth
[113:27] IAS, money market accounts, and high
[113:29] yield savings.
[113:30] >> It is so rigged, it is unfair. It is
[113:32] rigged towards investors. So, what do
[113:34] you think is the biggest risk for the
[113:36] economy that no one is going to see
[113:38] coming?
[113:38] >> Right now, we have about $40 trillion of
[113:41] national debt. We are spending about $2
[113:43] trillion a year that we don't have right
[113:45] now. Do you think it's a negative that
[113:47] right now stocks are near their all-time
[113:49] highs? The best investors
[113:52] because don't sell. And what can the
[113:55] average [music] person do to protect
[113:56] themselves? You're one paycheck away
[113:58] from your family being broke because if
[114:00] you want to be rich.
[114:06] It's incredible. We had so much fun
[114:07] filming it. So, with that said, enjoy.
[114:09] Okay. And that's ready to watch right
[114:11] now.
[114:12] >> Cool.
[114:12] >> Thanks so much.
[114:13] >> Until next time.
[114:14] >> I think GTA is a magical moment for our
[114:18] culture.
[114:18] >> So, what's your biggest trade coming up?
[114:21] >> Like, it's going to do phenomenal.
[114:24] >> What about I'm not excited about I don't
[114:27] own any [music] right now, but I still
[114:30] think the main trade is on take two.
[114:33] >> What are your thoughts on
[114:34] >> I love to see falling here. I don't know
[114:37] when I'm going to make my big move to
[114:39] heavily lever back into it, but it's
[114:41] probably going to happen at some point
[114:43] in the next few months.
[114:50] [music]
[114:57] >> [music]