College Car Capers and Convertible Comeback | David’s Dust to Dreams

David’s automotive adventures are equal parts comedy and nostalgia, centered on a notoriously dusty 1962 Dodge Lancer nicknamed “The Dirt Mobile.” He invites us to relive wild college days when this beat-up classic was campus-famous – even doubling as his dorm-on-wheels on occasion. This episode celebrates automotive culture in its most down-to-earth form, with David describing late-night repairs and how that hacked-roof Lancer tested his not-a-car-guy nerves. Despite claiming he’s not an enthusiast, David later surprises us by embracing a rare weekend-only convertible: a Chrysler PT Cruiser GT that’s “near and dear to his heart.” He shares how gifting this “safe” car to himself came with a humorous catch – an increased life insurance policy!

David's favorite episode is "Lessons in Classics – Richard’s Tale of Corvairs, Beetles, and a Lifetime of Learning" https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15271241-lessons-in-classics-richard-s-tale-of-corvairs-beetles-and-a-lifetime-of-learning

 The listener will learn about the importance of car safety and family, even as they chuckle at Dirt Mobile antics. From rust bucket memories to the joy of cruising with the top down, David’s saga delivers genuine laughs, valuable lessons, and an emotionally resonant reminder of how cars become part of our family stories.

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Transcript

00:00.00
Christian
Good morning evening America welcome to to all the cars I've loved before your place your clearing house to talk about your memories around your car's first car second car Third car current car. Join the conversation check us out at carsloved.com. There's a form there where you can join up but hey it's it's a big week for us our first 3 episodes have dropped on your podcast streaming platform choice ensure you check those out. Got the trailer sounds real good. We're getting a lot of buzz and feedback from the people that listen who maybe we don't know as well as friends family close network that we have please let us know what you think reach out to us directly or check out carsleb.com let us know what you think just? ah. Get us the feedback into my esteemed co-host and webmaster technical guru Mr. Doug how are you beautiful beautiful sound check everything looks good. Everybody looks beautiful at least over the sound waves. Anyways.

01:03.57
Doug
Um, well thank you Christian how are you.

01:08.45
Doug
10

01:12.73
Christian
Let's ah, hey is it okay with you to to to bounce into some of this automotive news.

01:18.30
Doug
Yeah, yeah, let's ah, kick off automotive news and then we have our esteemed guest on standby. He may have some stuff to add.

01:20.81
Christian
Love it. Very excited. Very excited for that. Yeah, just to just in the online travels this week and to let you know the the Apple kills the Icar Electrical electric vehicle project that. Led the airwaves I believe this news was broken earlier in this week maybe it was Monday or Tuesday and kind of surprised you know as an offshoot I read the James Dyson biography a couple of weeks back of the vacuum cleaner fame. You know his his privately held company Dyson. They tried to create an electrical vehicle electric vehicle project themselves and he's sunk half a billion bucks into it and just had to pull the plug at some point because. He saw that it was going to take a lot more to make something viable. So when I heard this I thought 2 things number one that I was hoping the folks that worked on this project would be absorbed into other areas of the company and also it's kind of the same fate.

02:15.82
Doug
Yeah.

02:32.49
Christian
Is the dice and E ve and where um, let's get some pictures of the di and ev up on the site here. But yeah, go ahead somebody who's trying to say something.

02:39.99
Doug
We we will? Yeah um so what? Ah what I heard about Apple not surprisingly having worked at very large companies myself is there was a lot of infighting and.

02:52.10
Christian
Right? Yeah, so.

02:54.41
Doug
They had a nick they had a nickname for the car internally and it was I think Titanic as in it was going to sink. Yes.

03:01.52
Christian
Yeah in what was it well that would have not boded well. But yeah, ah in and I'm reading off of it's it's all over. But I just picked ah edunds.comedmuinds.com it was known as project titan but yeah, go ahead. Please continue.

03:14.65
Doug
Oh titan thank you? Yes, but yeah I think the joke was it was going to be a Titanic failure and yep yep, and myself after working at many large tech companies I've seen them come up.

03:18.63
Christian
Titan yup.

03:22.65
Christian
That came to pass Aka Prophecy yeah.

03:33.48
Doug
Great ideas launch them and they'll kill them pretty quickly and even though Apple spent a lot of time on this companies like Google and whatnot have said you know we need to fail Fast Fail fast fail hard fail quick if we have to.

03:47.38
Christian
Yeah.

03:50.21
Doug
Um, Google itself was working on a electric car as well. But we'll save that for another episode.

03:54.36
David
It was it was perplexing that Apple would even enter in this endeavor I mean their niche was there are software hardware.

04:03.76
Christian
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

04:09.58
David
Producer and they have a market to sell their software and hardware to car companies. So then they choose to go into car manufacturing which is a significant loser. So.

04:18.88
Christian
Good point, such good. Yeah, and.

04:27.90
David
Being a holder of Apple stock. It was kind of disconcerting that they chose to enter this business but a company that has all this cash lying around I guess they thought maybe we'll. Put a few 100000000 or a billion whenever it was into this endeavor and see if it floats but I was perplexed from the get perplexed from the get go as to why they would choose this venture.

04:43.50
Christian
And at the.

04:54.83
Christian
So yeah, that's that's really good point and I thought the same when I was reading James Dyson's account of how they it's it's it's kind of a big toe to to dip into that pond. But yeah, ah, good. Good point. So yeah from the article. On edmonds.com for the moment. Apple is not officially stated how many workers will be transferred to other projects or how many might face termination I think 2000 was the number that I heard and I wish him well I wish him well hate it when um and folks it laid off.

05:26.74
David
Um I had I had read or heard that they were going to transition them into their Ai projects which is a little more in tune with what Apple does.

05:31.78
Christian
I Yeah yeah.

05:38.56
Christian
Yeah, good point. Good point. Yeah moving on so in Auto News Autonews Dot Com yeah oh you know what? let's introduce David what what am I doing what are we doing what kind of hosts are we doug.

05:56.62
David
I'd rather I'd rather I'd rather remainate remain anonymous just just that just that undefined voice.

05:57.80
Christian
Ah, to keep me honest, dear men.

06:01.68
Doug
Ah.

06:06.23
Christian
Floating in the ether well up. No, he was warmly invited indeed you want to say a few words about him doug before I continue.

06:06.41
Doug
Yes, he's certainly not a hacker. He didn't hack into this podcast. That's for sure. Absolutely so yeah, yeah, David a longtime friend. Excellent person. Excellent human being. And David you are say a little bit from about yourself. But you're from Maryland. Originally.

06:26.60
Christian
Absolutely.

06:29.96
David
I am I am and I live around the corner from Doug and very happy to be here.

06:35.70
Doug
Yeah, and we're and we're happy to have you.

06:36.36
Christian
Ah, ah, hey when we say we're in your neighborhood and grassroots. We do not joke about that. So David wonderful to have you. Thank you for joining. Let's ah, let's bounce through the rest of these headlines and then we'll we'll we'll dig into David's account of all the cards. He's loved before. The the bigger thing for me beyond the the Apple pulling the plug on their project was ah new vehicle new vehicle inventory rises to a 3 year high unsurprising three years ago took us ah into the depths of the. Emerging covid crisis well as the supply chain issues and recently I was reading that the with high interest rates the the loans for car certain all time I believe um or 5 year

07:28.97
Christian
Low. So I'm all sorts of factors converging on this one. Any thoughts comment.

07:34.54
Doug
Yeah I think you know we're just in the cyclical world right? You know we talked about interest rates and you know people may be cutting back on purchases I think. That could be an effect. Maybe there are just not a lot of exciting cars out there anymore. Um, what do you What do you think? David.

07:58.95
Christian
Ah, it's always yeah yeah.

08:01.10
David
Um, it's surprising to me that I'm even on this podcast because I'm not a car person I I have a disdain for cars to me. They're the worst investment that you make they tend to. Sit in your driveway or garage most of the day and we rarely use them so they're they're They're pretty bad investment when you think if you think hard about it I mean they have ah and aurere to some people but I'm not the type of person that has ah a lot of ah.

08:27.82
Christian
So that's true.

08:36.30
David
Ah, lower for cars. They're just a mode to get around and a very poor investment generally.

08:42.40
Doug
This this is this is true.

08:43.76
Christian
And so it could be said that it could be said that David has no appreciation for depreciation. Yep, no no I completely agree. So yeah, just ah, rounding out the news here that there tesla. Tesla's german plant power outage to continue to the end of the week something about sabotage was mentioned and and extremely dumb in quotes. Quoting chief executive Elon Musk suspected arson attack. This story is just bizarre. But anytime you halt a plant big time financial repercussions. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

09:30.72
Doug
Ab absolutely. So yeah, they haven't they haven't been open that long southeast of Berlin it was actually ah ah ah, according to this what they call in Berlin there was ah. Burning of an electricity pylon. So some sort of substation that's provided power to the plant and yeah and let's see ah more than 12000 workers at the site.

09:48.38
Christian
Okay. Yeah, you got it and don't Continue. So.

10:06.50
Doug
Are not able to do their job. So it's ah, really, really tough really tough and you know for a company that's trying to do things differently right? Um, you have to wonder what the what the game endgame was for these. Ah.

10:08.86
Christian
That's a big number I didn't realize it was that bidding.

10:25.53
Doug
Arsonist for lack of better term.

10:29.35
Christian
Right? And in Tesla News closer to home I saw my first well on the ru cybertruck on the road over the this past weekend. It was the first time I'd seen it since ah doug my co-host Doug and I actually went to a Tesla store. In Montgomery La Mall Maryland saw it up close. It was neat to just be close enough to touch and really taking the scale of it. It's it's very jarring the panels are mostly straight. They're stainless steel very hard to work and mold stainless steel. It's not cold rolled steel. So you're not gonna get these swoops and curves and arts that you typically get in in a production automobile. So I saw one on the ah just traveling the roads and then just here at my house an hour I saw one just go up and down my street like it was nothing. So. Completely wild for this thing to go in in just a few short years from concept to something that looks like nothing else on this planet make it to the roads and just in my neighborhood. Yeah, so.

11:29.39
Doug
And and it's certainly yeah and it certainly doesn't look like anything from this planet. So it's different for sure and it's huge from a close up experience.

11:36.16
Christian
Um, right? Yeah, you bet in rounding out the automotive news something lighter something for your children and this from motor trend dot com. Lego has come up with some automotive racing themed sets just in time for Christiantmas which is a mirror eight months away for these new as sets lego teamed up with Mercedes amg patronus f one mclaren rason and b m w m motorsports. <unk>s even a set that throws back to formula 1 legend erton senna and we're already making space on our desk. So lego coming up with some car themmed sets. Love that my kids will love it. Motortrend dot com that was the funnest story of the week that rounds out our automotive news back to you doug to get us kicked off with.

12:23.45
Doug
Did it? Yeah, thank you? Yeah so David again. Thank you for joining us. We're happy to have you. We wanted to hear about your first car and any I have heard you had some interesting experiences with it.

12:27.93
Christian
David.

12:32.70
David
Pleasure.

12:43.26
Doug
But it was I will introduce the type of car it was and I hear you have a nickname for it. So I hear it was a 1962 Plymouth lancer and.

12:55.29
David
Actually it was a dodge answer. Don't denigrate it.

12:59.56
Doug
Dodge Lancer thank you all we're hey we're all, we're all moar fans that's all I got to say so ah, it was a I am corrected 1962 Dodge Lancer I believe the color was white. Originally.

13:02.70
Christian
I.

13:15.38
David
Yes.

13:18.28
Doug
And then it went through some transformation. So if you could tell us about ah how you acquired the car when you got the car were you looking for a car like this as you said, maybe it was just basic transportation and then there's got to be a good story or 2 once she introduced the nickname of the car.

13:40.98
David
I Acquired the car I didn't um it was purchased for me through a contact who had a contact with a local. Um.

13:57.30
Christian
So.

13:57.46
David
Chrysler Dealer is ah and the car if I recall or call cost three hundred and fifty dollars and I got the car probably 1967 or 68

14:11.68
Christian
And.

14:15.54
David
And it was my first car as you had mentioned it was a 3 on the column and I didn't know how to drive a stick shift so that involves some effort not much and I was going to college then. And I was in my second year and this was a godsend because I used to have to mooch rides and if I was fortunate enough to have a date which was rare. Ah I would ah have to bum or solicit someone to ah. Give me a ride to wherever we were going to I was in a college fraternity then so I had a yeah, a pool of people who were duty bound to drive me around and my my my unfortunate date back then so then I had all this freedom with this.

14:58.32
Christian
Duty bound Love it.

15:08.69
David
New car but I had to learn how to drive a stick Shift. So I remember I had a ah a buddy from the fraternity who was very handy was in the engineering program and he decided to break the car In. And he showed me how to shift the car without using the clutch which during that effort he managed to blow a small hole in the muffler which was never never repaired which gave the car quite a presence. Um, and the the.

15:29.68
Christian
Hm.

15:33.71
Christian
And woe.

15:45.29
David
Ah car um was never maintained or cleaned properly. So it only acquired the title of the dirt mobile and I prided myself in it being the dirt mobile by.

15:58.54
Christian
I Love that. So.

16:03.83
David
Not cleaning it nor ever changing the oil which I learned in later life is probably not a good idea for the longevity of an engine but this car tended to keep on trucking and I remember the the back seat was it was the.

16:16.64
Christian
Um, yeah.

16:21.69
David
It was a 4 door and the back bench the trash in the back went up to the seat and I remember once I cleaned the car and found several bottles of ripple wine line back there and.

16:38.35
Doug
Nice.

16:40.78
David
During a um, a moment of drunkenness me and a buddy using a spray paint planet painted a ah racing stripe on the car a black racing stripe which certainly gave it quite the ah. Quite the Renegade appearance.

16:59.60
Christian
Now.

16:59.12
Doug
So what? So with the rumble. Um, so between the rumble the racecing the racing stripe the trash right? I mean we've got a real story here right? And yes, yeah.

17:11.73
Christian
So many questions so many questions so inviting. Yep.

17:17.30
Doug
Yes, and so real quick for the Automotive History. So a 3 speed ah stick shift when it was on the columns referred to as 3 on the tree back in the day for those who don't know the history boy that had to be hard to drive. Um. For somebody who's never driven one I've driven plenty of stick shifts but never on the column and go ahead.

17:39.25
David
Um I was.

17:40.67
Christian
So that yeah that the yeah, yeah, the way you just said it the the way you just I was trying to think. Ah yeah, like like you a lot of standards with ah but up here seem like it would have been such a challenge sorry I didn't mean interrupt David.

17:53.80
David
I was I picked it up rapidly and I actually mastered going from second to third without using the clutch which I was oh often successful in but not always.

17:57.26
Christian
Yes.

18:01.59
Doug
Nice.

18:06.20
Christian
Yeah, yeah, yeah there you go.

18:08.16
Doug
Yeah, well they say sometimes they say if you can't find it grind it. Um, yeah, and just for just for inflation's sake three hundred and fifty dollars in 1968 was about.

18:10.44
David
Yes, yes.

18:22.00
Doug
$3000 in 2024 money so still ah still wonderful bargain for that car. Yes, it did it had the famous and I think it was famous for reliability. The Chrysler slant 6

18:23.30
Christian
All right.

18:25.98
David
It was. It was quite a deal and I think it had a 6 cylinder engine did it not.

18:41.93
Doug
As they called it in line six. Yeah, so yeah, it's all coming. It's all coming back to you right? David the good and the bad that's right? oh.

18:43.39
Christian
Yep yep.

18:47.42
David
It is There was nothing bad about the dirt mobile.

18:52.37
Christian
Not even the dirt the dirt. Yeah, the dirt was a positive and then after you give it name the dirt mobile. Yeah now it's got a reputation to uphold so you would certainly not clean it I Love it now. How long did you have that? oh.

18:55.42
David
Yes, yes, it was.

19:02.65
Doug
It definitely had a reputation is yeah to what would? um oh sorry Christian I would asking the same question so you go ahead.

19:09.67
David
My prop.

19:10.16
Christian
Go ahead? yeah.

19:15.81
David
I probably had it until 1972 when the the dirt mobile slowly died and I had to get a replacement.

19:18.23
Christian
Um, yeah I was.

19:31.88
Christian
Yeah, well ashes to ashes dust to dust I mean seems like that would be a pretty fitty end for the dirt mobile. So what? yeah go ahead.

19:39.62
David
Yes, and I I remember I I had to dispose of it and I didn't have it because I was getting another car and I I sold it to fair Claire. For a dollar but under the pretense that she was going to fix it up and it's sat in the parking lot of this sort of slum apartment building I was living at then and fair Clara never took advantage of the vehicle or moved it.

19:57.73
Christian
What.

20:04.47
Christian
And.

20:16.76
David
And the people in the apartment were bugging me to move it and I told them it wasn't my car because I had sold it? Yeah, but yes, yes, and then I I remember once I was going into the ah.

20:21.58
Christian
Yeah, and and and and you transferred the risk for a dollar which is brilliant. So love that? yeah.

20:22.78
Doug
Yep, not my not not my problem.

20:28.41
Doug
Yes.

20:34.84
David
We're parking lot and not the most favorable neighborhood and I've found some unfortunate fellow who apparently had taken up residence in the car and um I was ah.

20:44.76
Christian
What.

20:45.25
Doug
Oh.

20:49.20
David
I was outraged that somebody would denigrate the dirt movie in that way and I invited the gentleman to leave much. He did.

20:55.79
Christian
This car. Yeah, even in death this car just still has a reputation and has has the stories to offer fantastic.

21:03.92
David
Oh yes, oh yes.

21:05.47
Doug
it's it's pop it's following and it's followed if it was on Twitter we'd be following it speaking of which if you like what you hear on on this podcast as Christian said please feel free to follow the show.

21:11.52
David
Oh yes, oh yes.

21:22.89
Doug
Give us a rating give us your feedback write a review. We'd love to hear from you. We'll take the good the bad the Ugly just like the dermobile.

21:26.20
Christian
yeah we well yeah I mean if you have something that's not flattering to say you can just say it to our faces and leave the positive stuff etched in stone on the ethernet on the interweb so to speak. Yeah, we ah, we're getting a lot of feedback from from cars. Love nation. That's wanting to know. Ah how how to get ahold of us and and we are propagating all the episodes across all of the platforms. The more popular. Platforms out there. So if something's working some if something's not working someplace or you know of a platform where it's not quite yet reached let us know you want to check out our website carsloved.com again cars. Loved dotcom. There's a form there where you can, um. Leave information or you can email us directly I am at Christian@carsloved.com Christian at carsloveed.com he is at Doug At Carsloveed Dot Com that's d o u g at carsloved.com we're coming up right at the magic. 23 minute Mark and David I have to say it was just an absolute pleasure meeting you and listening to your stories get to know you a bit and I have to ask I've been looking at you through our audio recording software which has a visual component.

22:59.75
Christian
And I can't take my eyes off several of the pictures in the back and any any anything there that stands out that you want to share and if that's too personal. No worries.

23:10.75
David
I Think the pictures to which you're referring are generally family pictures. Um I think the one on the right probably that you're seeing is a picture of my grandparents and back then they were obviously opposed.

23:18.66
Christian
Yes, oh wow right? right.

23:27.30
David
Picture and my grandmother told me that she had to ah she had a choice between my grandfather and a fellow who is a plumber and she shows my. Grandfather because the plumber had dirt under his fingernails and.

23:44.83
Christian
Well yeah I mean I bet he drove a dirt mobile too. Everything comes full cycle it it was in your Dna and blood all the time David hey I think he.

23:51.49
Doug
And it might have been a dirt oxen car cart by then back then who knows.

23:53.70
David
Ah.

24:03.40
Christian
Ah, ah, a draving pulled behind a team of draft horses Doug I think you wanted to move on to another car. Well.

24:05.22
Doug
Well said well said yeah David I'm sorry to take you on longer. But you know being a neighbor knowing these great stories tell us real quick about your prized PTCruiser convertible

24:07.76
David
Um.

24:22.44
Christian
Oh.

24:24.30
Doug
Which started out as a chrysler plymouth and then when Plymouth was axed through the whole I forget what year it was ah the whole Gm and Chrysler and Ford financial crisis if you will um it became a chrysler. So ah.

24:37.18
Christian
Two thousand and Eight eight

24:42.80
Doug
Tell us about this car I've seen you driving around with the top down zipping around I know it as a turbo. Ah, just like 1 of our previous guests had had a started with the turbo and ended with the turbo. So the oh.

24:51.23
Christian
She only drives turbos. Yep.

24:58.70
David
I I never knew it was a turbo. Um, yeah, um, the PTCruiser convertible was a twentieth anniversary present gift from my wife.

25:01.00
Doug
Oh now you know.

25:13.22
Christian
I.

25:15.43
David
And I had always been kidding around when we would travel I think once we actually rented a pt cruiser but it wasn't a convert one I always would say what a great vehicle that was somewhat tongue-in cheek. But I think my wife took it seriously. So for the twentieth wedding anniversary. She got me the the pt cruiser.

25:33.25
Christian
Love it.

25:35.27
David
Convertible which is quite the machine I was very touched by the kind and generous gift from my wife but then I proceeded to ah research the safety record. For the pd cruiser convertible it then came apparent to me that my wife was seeking to cash in on the insurance and she ah yeah, the car does not have quite a ah quite the ah admirable safety record but it certainly is just it. It's it.

25:58.17
Christian
Ah, but so good. So good.

26:12.51
David
It it. It's it's a it's pretty much a you feel every dip and cranny in the roadway. But it's just fun to drive it around with the top down during the summer it's ah it's a real hoot.

26:15.30
Christian
Yeah, you do you do.

26:22.53
Doug
Do as as the former owner of many convertibles myself and Christian we are huge fans of convertibles. The best convertible is one with the top down and the weather's nice.

26:33.23
Christian
Yes, indeed. And absolutely.

26:40.23
Doug
The worst convertible is driving 1 around on a rainy or a cold day.

26:45.45
Christian
Yeah truth truth? Yeah yeah, when when I own mine. It was always just a real pleasing way to blow off steam drop the top fresh air sun I am definitely solar powered little bit of sun fresh air tunes and making tracks from a to b always ah. Always a good way to go well we are at 27 minutes past the top of the hour ah or into the podcast I should say this shatters all records for our longest pot ah podcast recorded David again was great meeting. You had a blast. Thanks for spending some time with us for you America remember. This is your podcast where american history and automotive history meet your history I am one half of your humble narration team. My name is Christian he's doug check us out at cars. Loved Dotcom again cars loved dotcom and let's see I'm at Christian@carslove.com. He's a doug at carslub.com hey check us out on your platform of choice for your podcast see you suit America thanks have a great date evening ahead.

27:52.20
Doug
Thank you David.

27:53.74
David
Thank you gentlemen.

27:57.40
Christian
You're the man. Thanks David.