Vanishing motoring YouTube channels

[sierraman]

Chops Garage is quite good, he’s far more reasonable with his customers than he needs to be though. 
 

The woodwork ones are sometimes a laugh ‘simple shop cabinets for $50’. I could build one in my sleep but you never know there’s always a decent tip in there. Anyway the video shows Walt buying some lengths of 4x2 planed Maple, breaking down his ply on a €3000 Rockler table saw, fuck knows how much extraction equipment, €600 Festool fucking router or whatever… 🤣

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The woodwork ones are sometimes a laugh ‘simple shop cabinets for $50’. I could build one in my sleep but you never know there’s always a decent tip in there. Anyway the video shows Walt buying some lengths of 4x2 planed Maple, breaking down his ply on a €3000 Rockler table saw, fuck knows how much extraction equipment, €600 Festool fucking router or whatever… 🤣

Wonder where he got the idea of turning it into a video?
Just sayin'

[egg]

2 hours ago, Rod/b said:

Marvelous Lara is a great channel i found recently - follows a young roadside mechanic around the South East in his shitty Citroen van. Very funny lads and its amazing to me some of the repairs they do without a lift. Also lifts the lid on some of the less honest parts of the motor trade.

I do like Jon Coupland’s channel too - not because of Jon himself but his dad is a proper old school engineer who gets stuck right in.

I do enjoy Not Economically Viable too. Mainly because he’s a total mechanical fuckwit but gets stuck right in with good results (I actually think he’d fit right in here). He also shares my hatred of car cleaning. Buying the cheapest, crash damaged L322 from copart and restoring it on his drive with limited kit and eBay parts was inspirational. He’s now also moving towards roffling off the finished rammel to fund the channel and to make more frequent vids, and good luck to him. 

I don't know any of these - I've never even been suggested them - quite interesting what the algorithm chooses and doesn't. Then again, I watch lots of different topics, so I probably confuse the thing. Jon has made 661 videos and 'only' 5k subs = dedication.

[Weird Car]

17 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

started watching a Hub Nut video today about the Beaulieu Autojumble. After about 2 minutes I was scanning along the time bar to see what was coming up, tried a few more bits but no, it wasn't going to holding my attention for a full viewing.

My 2 previously most watched channels were HubNut and Furious Driving until Ian started including family more in vids, ‘now absolutely no offence to Ian at all if he wants to include them in videos it’s just not my cup of tea for content’ but I was happy watching the occasional Ian only video and Furious Driving vid but it now seems like almost every hubnut vid has family members involved, again it’s purely Ian’s choice but I watch him because HE’S the personality if that makes sense? Some of his earlier stuff, TWC, Fox and Ellie to Croatia vids are peak hubnut imo and have a lot  of re watch ability, I just feel that’s lacking in recent vids, Ian if you’re reading this please don’t take it as a dig at you or your family, it’s just me voicing some constructive criticism, I feel like personally the level Furious Driving includes family members in videos is perfect, just a brief cameo that’s easily skippable 

I should probably add on, I think the reason I feel this way is because being a watcher of Hubnut since basically the beginning I feel watching some of the older Ian only vids of him rebuilding the fox for example like I’m a friend in Ian’s garage with him as it’s just him taking to me, it feels a lot more personal and I learn more and so I stay interested and attached to the video, whereas a more recent vid with Miss HN involved just feels like I’m 3rd wheeling a date almost and I zone out and eventually click off 

[cort16]

I was quite sad to see Steve Magnante got really ill last year and was in a coma for months. He's  now having to sell his house, car and the massive research library of books and magazines he's built up over the years to pay off his medical bills. Way to go america

He has an amazing knowledge of american cars his youtube video where he picked a car from the scrap yard and gave a detailed history where really good.  He did the same on a motortrend show for a few seasons, worked for hot rod magazine etc it's a real shame to see him lose everything. 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I like watching this guy, Simon Fordman

Theres no dialogue in his videos at all!!!! But theyre all so well framed and edited, theyre an absolute treat for the eyes. This one is probably my favourite, he buys an old truck and drives it home over 2-3 days, stopping now and then to regrease a wheel bearing or lash on a new power steering pipe that he's bent to shape over his knee or whatever. Some fantastic scenery and views of rural Idaho & Montana too. Theres another good one where he doeas a load of repairs on a friend's old Ford Falcon. Watching him persevere getting the manky exhaust studs out is manna from heaven for shiters.

[Jon]

19 minutes ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

I like watching this guy, Simon Fordman

Theres no dialogue in his videos at all!!!! But theyre all so well framed and edited, theyre an absolute treat for the eyes. This one is probably my favourite, he buys an old truck and drives it home over 2-3 days, stopping now and then to regrease a wheel bearing or lash on a new power steering pipe that he's bent to shape over his knee or whatever. Some fantastic scenery and views of rural Idaho & Montana too. Theres another good one where he doeas a load of repairs on a friend's old Ford Falcon. Watching him persevere getting the manky exhaust studs out is manna from heaven for shiters.

Just found that channel, Simon Fordham (though Fordman is a slightly better name for a car channel). Have subscribed, as that sounds like the ultimate thing to watch with a coffee on a Saturday morning, when I'm keeping quiet whilst Mrs_Jon has a lie-in.

I'm a high-roller YouTube Premium subscriber, as like others say, no adverts and YouTube Music is a worthy way to spend £9 a month, or whatever it is. I also found it difficult to curb adverts from YouTube on my TV, but I'm sure those more competent than me would have a workaround.

Obsolete Automotive is another 'quiet'(ish) YT car channel, following a guy in North Carolina than buys workaday models of 50's-80's US stuff, often from the West Coast. He does talk, but in an unhurried way. Videos verge on tedious at times, although the relatively dry dialogue, low excitement levels and lack of cutting in the edits remind me of TV shows from 30+ years ago, so I'm OK with that. Would be nice if he could not hand- hold his phone camera quite so much, so he could use both hands instead of grappling and grabbing at bits he's trying to show single handedly, though that's a common trait that others do.

[Dan302]

I like Soup Classic Motoring, the stop motion animation segments are really cool. 

I really like that Ian includes his family in more of the videos, horses for courses though I guess.

[St.Jude]

21 hours ago, gtd2000 said:

Now don't be spreading negativity, I'm now up to 1.46K subscribers! 🤣

Here was I, thinking it's mental 286 people subscribe to me. Then you come along and piss on my lukewarm chips!

Since having my boy my watching habbits have changed. I would watch all my YouTube stuff on the laptop so would miss the adverts but still get subjected to the 2 minute shit the channel owner decides to put on the video. I now watch it on the TV and have no ad blocker. So I have to sit there through the same 2 minute bullshit about Factor ready meals, and then have up to 8(!) 30 second adverts in random points of the video.

I used to love watching Aging Wheels but he fucked me off with this shit. I get it, we all do, you have to make a few quid. But he - along with the rest of the channels that pump you full of fucking adverts - has specifically gone and thought "fuck it, let Google decide where and when the adverts get shown". There is no effort there, it's lazy, and it's greedy. Other channels like AvE (although he's gone off the boil) and Plainly Difficult you can tell edit the video and dictate where the adverts get displayed. I don't mind that because it doesn't break the flow of what you're watching. But Aging Wheels and the rest of these channels can get fucked.

Then there is the click bait. It's not even the titles any more its the subject. Oh wow, another no name electric shit mobile. Oh look, you've thrown a turbo on a pea shooter engine with no consideration and you're surprised it's blown up. Lucky you for buying a £500 car but why are you surprised it managed to drive to Scotland? Fuck off.

FWIW I find myself watching channels like Project Nigel, Petrol Punx, Iain Tyrrell, Peter Bjork (Lambo engines in Volvos fuck yeah) and Soup religiously. Others like JayEmm, RetroPower, Juicebox I will subscribe to but will watch it when and if there is something mildly interesting on them.

[Ghosty]

I used to like Furious Driving, but as time's gone on he's just shown himself to be a bit clueless and misinformed, he clearly has more than he can manage as he just can't help himself sometimes, and he tends to miss glaringly obvious issues on cars he buys, especially rust. The tipping point for me was when he dragged a Mondeo out of a hedge and spent 2-3 long videos pissing about with an immobiliser and an auto electrician before he even considered that the fuel pump might have been knackered - as well as the Autodoc sponsorship where he was pushing rubbish Maxpeedingrods and Ridex parts - nobody should put their name to those. He threatened to put a Maxpeedingrods turbo on his nasp 220 Tomcat which would just absolutely ruin it. He needs to take stock of his fleet and get things back down to a reasonable degree, instead of having a revolving door of crap he loses money on through his own oversight.

he just keeps on being massively over-optimistic and it was just painful to watch.

[St.Jude]

5 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Maxpeedingrods

In fairness, I think they have been whoring themselves out to YouTube channels as freebies. A few channels I watched (can't remember right, think Soup might have used them as well as Unsher Fabrications(?)) had them and stuck them on their cars. Then heard feck all about it afterwards.

[lesapandre]

46 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I used to like Furious Driving, but as time's gone on he's just shown himself to be a bit clueless and misinformed, he clearly has more than he can manage as he just can't help himself sometimes, and he tends to miss glaringly obvious issues on cars he buys, especially rust. The tipping point for me was when he dragged a Mondeo out of a hedge and spent 2-3 long videos pissing about with an immobiliser and an auto electrician before he even considered that the fuel pump might have been knackered - as well as the Autodoc sponsorship where he was pushing rubbish Maxpeedingrods and Ridex parts - nobody should put their name to those. He threatened to put a Maxpeedingrods turbo on his nasp 220 Tomcat which would just absolutely ruin it. He needs to take stock of his fleet and get things back down to a reasonable degree, instead of having a revolving door of crap he loses money on through his own oversight.

he just keeps on being massively over-optimistic and it was just painful to watch.

This is the problem keeping up interest - how many times can you do virtually the same thing - and generate ideas as a 1-man band?

Vids need clicks and clicks can mean dumbing down or making content more extreme.

These are only so many times you can flog as story about say the DVLA or anything.

Strength of this site right here is it's diversity and unexpected content.

[danthecapriman]

3 hours ago, lesapandre said:

This is the problem keeping up interest - how many times can you do virtually the same thing - and generate ideas as a 1-man band?

Vids need clicks and clicks can mean dumbing down or making content more extreme.

These are only so many times you can flog as story about say the DVLA or anything.

Strength of this site right here is it's diversity and unexpected content.

That’s the biggest issue I find with UK based YouTube stuff. There’s only so far you can go and keep people interested over here. There’s just so many laws and rules and other bullshit that just flatly prevents people from doing things.

I saw a video earlier (can’t remember the channel) but it was a US channel where they’d taken an old pickup and basically switched it around so the the rear bed was now the front and to drive it you sat facing out the back cab window! 
You imagine trying something like that over here! You wouldn’t even get close.

4 hours ago, Ghosty said:

I used to like Furious Driving, but as time's gone on he's just shown himself to be a bit clueless and misinformed, he clearly has more than he can manage as he just can't help himself sometimes, and he tends to miss glaringly obvious issues on cars he buys, especially rust. The tipping point for me was when he dragged a Mondeo out of a hedge and spent 2-3 long videos pissing about with an immobiliser and an auto electrician before he even considered that the fuel pump might have been knackered - as well as the Autodoc sponsorship where he was pushing rubbish Maxpeedingrods and Ridex parts - nobody should put their name to those. He threatened to put a Maxpeedingrods turbo on his nasp 220 Tomcat which would just absolutely ruin it. He needs to take stock of his fleet and get things back down to a reasonable degree, instead of having a revolving door of crap he loses money on through his own oversight.

he just keeps on being massively over-optimistic and it was just painful to watch.

I do quite like Matt and FuriousDriving. He seems a nice bloke to me and he does show it as it is I find, how he works on cars at home and when things don’t go to plan. 
Although, I do agree, he seems to have far too many projects on the go simultaneously and too much other stuff just hanging around. I know you need an amount to try to keep interest and views but I get the impression he can’t keep up with it all. 
I tend to be quite selective about which videos I watch too. I stick to the stuff I like seeing like the Crown Vic, Volvo, Rover P6’s and Mini resto and don’t really bother with the rest. K series Rovers just are not my thing!😆  

But it’s getting to the point now where update videos about specific things get few and far between because he’s got so much stuff on the go. That old Merc in his garage is a prime example… I can’t remember when that one last had a video with any meaningful progress on it.

[dollywobbler]

9 hours ago, Weird Car said:

My 2 previously most watched channels were HubNut and Furious Driving until Ian started including family more in vids, ‘now absolutely no offence to Ian at all if he wants to include them in videos it’s just not my cup of tea for content’ but I was happy watching the occasional Ian only video and Furious Driving vid but it now seems like almost every hubnut vid has family members involved, again it’s purely Ian’s choice but I watch him because HE’S the personality if that makes sense? Some of his earlier stuff, TWC, Fox and Ellie to Croatia vids are peak hubnut imo and have a lot  of re watch ability, I just feel that’s lacking in recent vids, Ian if you’re reading this please don’t take it as a dig at you or your family, it’s just me voicing some constructive criticism, I feel like personally the level Furious Driving includes family members in videos is perfect, just a brief cameo that’s easily skippable 

I should probably add on, I think the reason I feel this way is because being a watcher of Hubnut since basically the beginning I feel watching some of the older Ian only vids of him rebuilding the fox for example like I’m a friend in Ian’s garage with him as it’s just him taking to me, it feels a lot more personal and I learn more and so I stay interested and attached to the video, whereas a more recent vid with Miss HN involved just feels like I’m 3rd wheeling a date almost and I zone out and eventually click off 

I get that. I look back with huge fondness at stuff like the Fox, Mighty Dacia etc and it's definitely a different dynamic now. I'm much happier as a person now though, and it's lovely to have a family that want to be involved with things. Plus, family life allows less time for tinkering than when I was effectively hiding from a failing marriage...

As seen above, some like the new way, some don't. There's definitely been a change of viewers I think but I learnt long ago you can't please everyone. So I just keep doing what a like and keep hoping people watch. They seem to be thankfully, though I'm under no impression that it'll last forever.

[egg]

5 hours ago, St.Jude said:

I now watch it on the TV and have no ad blocker.

Yeah, I feel your pain with that, probably contributed to me watching less for sure.

[egg]

5 hours ago, Ghosty said:

he just keeps on being massively over-optimistic and it was just painful to watch.

I do like Matt being a Kent boy and all, but the Mondeo did *massive* numbers for him and new subs, and he sold it pretty quickly. I never got that. It was basically paying him to own it.

This did 200k views

And I don't want to tell tales....but I did offer him my Mondeo when I was selling it (before he got the MK2) we chatted a bit, but in the end he went quiet, I'm not sorry I kept it, but it would have been nice to see a MK1 get the exposure. I did quietly suggest I think a Mondeo would go down well in 'crap car youtube'

But, I think every youtuber has their own vision of what they want to do - it is an individualistic and self-reliant thing for many of the smaller channels, so you just have to let people do their thing.

[sierraman]

6 hours ago, Ghosty said:

I used to like Furious Driving, but as time's gone on he's just shown himself to be a bit clueless and misinformed, he clearly has more than he can manage as he just can't help himself sometimes, and he tends to miss glaringly obvious issues on cars he buys, especially rust. The tipping point for me was when he dragged a Mondeo out of a hedge and spent 2-3 long videos pissing about with an immobiliser and an auto electrician before he even considered that the fuel pump might have been knackered - as well as the Autodoc sponsorship where he was pushing rubbish Maxpeedingrods and Ridex parts - nobody should put their name to those. He threatened to put a Maxpeedingrods turbo on his nasp 220 Tomcat which would just absolutely ruin it. He needs to take stock of his fleet and get things back down to a reasonable degree, instead of having a revolving door of crap he loses money on through his own oversight.

he just keeps on being massively over-optimistic and it was just painful to watch.

Ridex… what utter dog shit, who would put their name to their stuff. 

[lesapandre]

15 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Ridex… what utter dog shit, who would put their name to their stuff. 

Those who are paid by them.

[morrisoxide]

I think this also ties in with YT going over the top with crap adverts that everyone hates. It has become a cat and mouse with the tinternet nerds and big tech.

You can use Newpipe apk or SmartTube apk in developer mode (or apk installer apps) on tablets or smart tv sticks to watch TY without any ads or sponsors for now anyway. Tampermonkey add on with greasyfork scripts to block anoying ads on Firefox, or Brave Browser with adblocker add on also works for now.

The problem with these workarounds is that the content creators don't get any revenue for the adverts generated on their videos if people do this, and there goes a vicious circle. 

Because of the adverts being forced upon us it has made people turn away from YT. Nice relaxing video only to have some loud gash product shoved down your face.

[sierraman]

What about that big Scottish fella that writes about those bloody electric cars? 😂

[Shep Shepherd]

I like Project Nigel, as amongst other things, the channel is so shambolic. Paul/Mustard seems like a really nice bloke

[Shep Shepherd]

On 22/05/2024 at 16:40, Ghosty said:

ODFS is a full time journo and sometime recovery driver, I think the channel's more for chronicling his hobby more than anything. He never really had a concrete upload schedule.

He also finds the time to drive wagons, usually press demonstrators these days. I love his YouTube content and look forward to his future videos, especially if they are mark 3 Cavalier-oriented.

[Mrcento]

Agree with everyone RE Furiousdriving, he's spread himself far too thin over too many cars now and it feels like he's making zero real progress with any of them given how huge the gaps are between work being done on each, Feels like months in between updates per car, and in between he'll randomly just add another car or go back to one you forgot he even still had from 8 months ago, because that's suddenly due an MOT even though it's seemingly sat doing nothing for all that time, it's now pushing all the rest of the fleet down the list, only for it to then either be put off as well, or get an MOT then go back to sitting again.

Actually feels like the barn has been a bad addition for him and the channel, it's just let him stockpile more stuff and isn't much use for work, tools getting spread between locations etc, and feels quite like he's in full feed the machine territory now in pumping stuff out wherever he can and taking whatever sponsors he can get to pay for it all. At very least, needs a massive cull of the fleet to keep himself on track.

[Rod/b]

14 hours ago, egg said:

I don't know any of these - I've never even been suggested them - quite interesting what the algorithm chooses and doesn't. Then again, I watch lots of different topics, so I probably confuse the thing. Jon has made 661 videos and 'only' 5k subs = dedication.

I watch a range of stuff too - Hell On Earth and Vacant Haven for a spot of exploration (sometimes Urbandoned too but the overblown malapropism-ridden narration  puts me off), some electronics stuff (StezStixFix and Big Clive), music (Justin Hawkins Rides Again and Raised by Owls) and scam baiters (Scammer Payback, Kitboga etc) as well as  car stuff - RainmanRaysRepairs, South Main Auto and AutoPartsCity are other regulars. But the algorithm tends only to throw car content at me! 

[Rod/b]

6 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

Agree with everyone RE Furiousdriving, he's spread himself far too thin over too many cars now and it feels like he's making zero real progress with any of them given how huge the gaps are between work being done on each, Feels like months in between updates per car, and in between he'll randomly just add another car or go back to one you forgot he even still had from 8 months ago, because that's suddenly due an MOT even though it's seemingly sat doing nothing for all that time, it's now pushing all the rest of the fleet down the list, only for it to then either be put off as well, or get an MOT then go back to sitting again.

Actually feels like the barn has been a bad addition for him and the channel, it's just let him stockpile more stuff and isn't much use for work, tools getting spread between locations etc, and feels quite like he's in full feed the machine territory now in pumping stuff out wherever he can and taking whatever sponsors he can get to pay for it all. At very least, needs a massive cull of the fleet to keep himself on track.

Agreed - I only really started watching his channel when he got a Crown Vic but the updates became so infrequent in lieu of other more mundane stuff  I lost interest. 

[Split_Pin]

Steve's Place Down Under is one of my favourites at the moment. He has a huge farm and a fairly large collection of dilapidated lorries and tractors. He always has a beer in his hand when working on one of his trucks and you feel like he's just taking a break from work and family life for a few hours and you've been invited along for the fun. 

[GMcD]

Echo the views on Furious Driving.  I really enjoyed his channel ~ 3 years ago with his reviews at the time.

Seems he spends half his time nowadays shuffling his hoard of 90s stuff around his "barn" without making progress when he has stuff like a lovely pair of Rover P6s he could be finishing and driving. I like a Rover Tomcat and a Rover 200 but stop hoarding and get them all to fuck. It's automotive pussy on a pedestal.. especially that Y Reg Bini. He needs to slim down and focus on finishing projects...dare I say it like the 200 Cab he had.

As an aside, the happy dance makes me die inside. 

I miss ODFS although I've been watching lot of videos from a guy called Retro Ratchet that I really enjoy . His craftsmanship on his repair videos is brilliant as well. Road and Race has picked up again which is ace. 

[Dan302]

Mickhanic Garage is a good channel, he has a K-series Skoda Estelle and fixes up other bits and pieces, seems a really down to earth bloke too.........well apart from having a mental Skoda!

[Split_Pin]

I used to love watching This Is Dan Bell. Dead malls and apartment blocks were his speciality.  His commentary was very reserved but never boring, just how I liked it. He stopped producing content for several years, came back for a bit about 6 months ago but has gone quiet again - a great shame.

Personally, I think the YT bubble has burst in the same way Facebook has. Who knows where things will go next.

Reels, TikTok and YT shorts are where its at now but like what has come before they will only last so long.

[beko1987]

1 minute ago, Split_Pin said:

I used to love watching This Is Dan Bell. Dead malls and apartment blocks were his speciality.  His commentary was very reserved but never boring, just how I liked it. He stopped producing content for several years, came back for a bit about 6 months ago but has gone quiet again - a great shame.

Personally, I think the YT bubble has burst in the same way Facebook has. Who knows where things will go next.

Reels, TikTok and YT shorts are where its at now but like what has come before they will only last so long.

I used to watch Dan Bell too! Agree, he used to really good, not seen him come up for ages now. 

The Proper People are very good, some of the places they visit is amazing. On a similar theme I've been binge watching Martin Zero lately, some bloke from Manchester who explores the abandoned rivers and such.