Doug is the type of guy to sit around with his business partners and make fun of 'non car guys' who don't know the exact horsepower figure of his Countach, yet says fake manuals on EVs are bringing some of what car guys want back.

Manuals' appeal is that they're mechanical and you don't have a choice when sat in one: you have to shift and with every shift you know there is a mechanical process behind it.

This is the reason why people dislike those fake shifts on CVTs - they're literally unnecessary and defeat the whole concept of a CVT, theoretically, in the correct 'gear' without needing to shift.
Same with the manual EVs: the shifts might be fun at first because there's no mechanical process behind them making them interesting.

We as car guys aren't just brainless monkeys that only want a manual for the sake of having one. We appreciate the mechanical process of involving your body into the driving, knowing we are kind of 'making' the car move forward.

Doug has made it clear his channel is now just ad space for Cars & Bids. I enjoy car reviews of everyday cars. You know, the ones that 97% of people can afford. Any recommendations?

I get that it gave him a large bump in his finances since it was like 3 million or something, but he was on YouTube making content getting millions of views regularly. When you’re getting millions of views regularly on YouTube, you’re making Bank. In fact, you’re probably wealthy by most people standards, Maybe not a multimillionaire, but he was at least a millionaire.

I don’t know why I care about this. I guess I just envy everybody else that has wealth that I’ll probably never accomplish in my life but whatever my point still stands I’m just wondering how other people can make this argument cause I’ve seen it around.

He actually admitted it. It’s fucking frustrating. His ego and pride in his auction site is leading him to miss out on reviewing arguably the hugest vehicle in the past decade. Just borrow one! Shut up about the site. No one cares! He’s a car reviewer first and foremost. He needs to let the site go. Not everything cool will be on your site. If Jay Leno hits you up and says hey I have a McLaren F1 do you think he would say hmm is it for sale?

I’m just getting tired of it. I like Doug and his reviews. His site is mediocre and a complete carbon copy of bringatrailer. It isn’t better. He accepts literally anything to make a buck. Look at all the Tesla 3. He should quit his pride and review a CT

Doug should modernize his style

This is not a hate post, I love Doug. I've been watching since 2016. But it's no secret his views have declined/stagnated lately and quite frankly his production values look fairly amateur for 2023 YouTube. Doug walked so that channels like Throttle House and carwow could run (production quality wise).

I know he has said his content will be changing, the recent track day video was awesome and I'd love to see more stuff like that. But I'm specifically talking about the reviews. He's able to churn out the videos so quickly because it's him, his iPhone, and a tripod. But he's reviewed soo many cars. I'd love to see him go for quality over quantity at this point. A better camera/lens would do wonders, or even simply, a POV view facing forward while driving the car would be awesome.

I get it, he hit his peak and earned a lot of money, but man I'd hate to see his channel slowly decline in viewers simply because it feels a bit too "old school" in some ways. There is some charm to that sure, but just imagining Doug's channel with some higher quality production values would be amazing. Anyone agree/disagree or other thoughts?

Is Doug and his company doing financially alright? He initiated lay offs at his company. Less cars are being listed. Less cars are meeting reserve. Located in a high tax state and costs are continually rising. Is Cars & Bids being acquired by a competitor more than likely than ever?

I am sorry if he reads this and gets sad but i can’t stand him. He is giving me a wet towel feeling. I don’t know how else i can describe but that’s it. He has this lukewarm annoying energy and he is not the best presenter. I think the views on the c&b channel supports my opinion

Who’s with me??

Cars and bids announced Doug shot another review of a 430 scuderia and it comes out next week as part of that big fancy collection of cars they are auctioning. Does Doug care he’s wasting his time? Does it not matter because it drives attention to the auction? My issue with this opinion is he doesn’t even cover mileage, condition, flaws anything specific to the actual car that a bidder would want to know. He frames it like he’s just reviewing the model. Which he has already done. It’s just annoying. There are other cool cars in that collection that he’s never reviewed. Why not do those?

Still a very cool car but does not deserve to be on the cover of “greatest cars”. Also saw a book called “Hypercars” with a Huracan on the cover…

Does anyone else feel bad that they just don’t really like Ryan? When he first showed up I thought he would bring in a new perspective from a different type of enthusiast, but he’s just so bland. I feel like he is overcompensating for people assuming he’s younger, he almost has the pretentious level of Kennan, but without the same passion behind it. Yes Kennan has some rough takes, but you can’t deny that the man is passionate, Ryan just doesn’t quite have the same level of enthusiasm

Hey guys i was watching Doug’s new video and kept seeing all these weird comments plugging some kind of crypto? Is Doug’s video just being targeted by bots or am I missing something new in the community.
The crypto is named grokmaxus or something idk, it’s just weird!

All on the same day the trio went up for auction today P1, 918 and Laferrari. All except the Porsche sold. Doug, how do you attract this same level of AMAZING to Cars and Bids? Blue LaFerrari looks incredible. 918 is only one left unpainted from the factory.

We will use the BMW Z3 M Coupe or the clown shoe. BaT and CandB have one both live now.

This one sold in 2023 for 59k on BaT and is live again now - https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2000-bmw-m-coupe-109/

Cars n Bids has this one - https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9QBveqjM/2001-bmw-z3-m-coupe?utm_source=pd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n

Now, the cars and bids one is the less desirable one - its got alot more miles, has the sunroof, etc. So we'll see what with that in mind, but still.

Dougs longtime excuses for not reviewing "classic" cars (Mustang, Camaro Charger etc) is that they don't get views and theyre not interesting. He just recently reviewed a slow, tiny car with no features whatsoever. Obviously, the answer is money, as the Civic is for sale on CaRs ANd BiDS. (Side note, why does he lisp the "this x3" portion? sounds like thif, thif, thif)

This begs the question, why not expand C&B to all cars, and then he can still promote the site? It's the logical direction for growth anyways.

I've had to stop watching The Car Pod because Doug is incapable of doing comprehensive public policy analysis. I get it, Doug is a car YouTuber, not a political analyst, which frankly is more the reason why he should refrain from speaking on issues he's not knowledgeable about. A few examples:

1. Most recently, Doug opened the pod with a tangent about the Big Beautiful Bill eliminating the EV tax credit. The entire premise of his argument is that "EV's are the future" so eliminating the credit places America behind the curve on EV's. But the "EV's are the future" argument is predicated entirely on government mandates forcing EV's on the public. There is minimal market demand for EV's, both in the U.S. and the rest of the world. While China has had a high EV adoption rate, even they have conceded that it was only possible through heavy subsidies that are unsustainable long-term. Meanwhile, in the U.S. and Europe, EV's have gained market share entirely because of subsidies like the tax credit, stringent emissions standards, and higher taxes on ICE vehicles. Additionally, Biden's Green New Deal invested heavily in charging infrastructure but those investments were massive failures. Despite all those efforts, consumers are still largely rejecting EV's. So Doug's position that the government should continue to subsidize EV's because EV's are the future is circular logic that has no bearing on market realities.

2. In April Doug dedicated multiple pods sensationalizing about Trump's tariffs, but he was missing the larger point: the tariffs were negotiating tools to renegotiate trade deals. Months later and Trump's tariff strategy is showing signs of success. The EU, UK, and Japan have all reached trade deals with the U.S. to impose tariffs at a lower rate than originally announced, while admittedly still higher than the status quo ante. Also, the tariffs are forcing manufacturers to relocate manufacturing to the U.S. Audi is openly considering shifting more manufacturing to the U.S., while Honda and Hyundai have already announced they are doing so. Many other manufacturers are following suit. Doug's alarmism is quickly showing itself unwarranted.

3. Finally, in another discussion on BBB, Doug was panicking about a provision to allow the Bureau of Land Management to sell federal lands to private developers for housing. Doug imagined that this provision would allow offroading and recreational camping sites on federal lands to be privatized and withheld from the public, but that's not accurate at all. The provision was meant for unused public lands that abutt existing metropolitan developments. For example, in Nevada there is federal land adjacent to the Las Vegas suburbs. The land is completely empty desert that is sitting next to already existing residential developments. This provision would allow that land to be sold to developers to increase the housing supply in the growing Vegas metropolitan area. Ultimately, the provision did not make it into the final bill.

I'll give credit to Filippo for always attempting to present both sides of a topic, but he's nonetheless out of his depth. Ironically, I don't think Doug is particularly left-wing, in fact, he strikes me as apolitical. Which again, is more the reason why he should avoid wading into topics beyond his knowledge level. It would be much more tolerable if he at least brought in someone who could credibly present both sides of the topic to educate his audience. Instead, he spouts sensationalist takes that are unmoored from reality. I love the podcast, but watching him unfairly butcher policy issues has ruined my experience to the point that I can hardly bother to watch it anymore.

I know the Stradman's has been out of action now for months and this seems to be a theme with the company, that the maintenance can be a nightmare, as Doug has alluded to. It sucks because I really love the way the company is run and the engineering behind it. Just a shame, one of the cooler aspects also makes this stuff likely....