How To Got Hooked On Pop-up Headlights and a Manual Transmission | Doug Shares It All

In this special “host‑becomes‑guest” episode of To All the Cars I’ve Loved Before, co‑host Doug pulls back the curtain on his own automotive story—from the moment his dad surprised him with a 1989 Dodge Daytona (silver, pop‑up headlights, 125‑mph speedo dreams) to finally owning the Nissan 300ZX he lusted after in high school. Along the way Doug revisits:

• The unmistakable manual‑transmission fluid smell that still triggers vivid “garage memories.”
• Why a 2000 BMW 323Ci (E46) convertible became his worst car and ultimate “never again” lesson.
• A fog‑soaked, pre‑GPS road‑trip mishap in a rusty Jeep CJ‑7 that ended with a broken driveshaft.
• The mixtape tracks—“Silent Lucidity” by Queensrÿche & “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots—that defined his cruising years.
• A dream garage trifecta: twin‑turbo 300ZX, last‑gen Mazda RX‑7 (FD), and his beloved DeLorean.
• How semi‑autonomous driving / Tesla Autopilot transformed his view of road trips and traffic.
• The hugely under‑appreciated 1989 Nissan 240SX that balanced handling perfection with driving legend status.

Plus: stick‑shift lessons from Dad, the debate over cars having souls, and Doug’s one rule for classic‑car mods. Whether you’re into classic cars, JDM icons, car restoration, or just great car podcast stories, this episode packs in nostalgia, hard‑won wisdom, and plenty of pop‑up‑headlight love.

Check out our new guest inspired road trip playlist "The Songs that Drive Us"  and share your favorites - https://carsloved.com/playlist

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Chapters

• 0:00 First Car Memories
• 1:30 Road Trip Mishaps
• 4:25 Dream Cars and Music Connections
• 5:56 Cars and Emotional Connections
• 8:13 Car Modifications and Driving Technology
• 11:02 Semi-Autonomous Driving Impact

Transcript

Doug: 0:00

So my very first car was a 1989 Dodge Daytona and it was silver in color and my dad purchased it for me with the hopes of my grades improving, which they certainly did. For a time I thought it was a neat car, probably because of a couple things. One, there was a TV show on at the time called Hunter and they had a Dodge Daytona. Two, it had pop-up headlights, which I was a huge fan of. And three, it had a speedometer that went to 120 or 125, which at the time made me think, hey, this car must be able to go that fast. Believe me, it did not. So if I had to describe the smell of one of my cars, what would I think of? That's a great question. The real answer is manual transmission fluid. Great question, the real answer is manual transmission fluid. And that smell never seemed to escape me, meaning just with many different cars, not just because they were manuals, but because they all leaked or I ended up changing the fluids in them because the transmissions weren't in great shape. But anyway, I feel like that smell reminds me of body odor, and I don't know why, but it's like one of the worst types of body odor you can put in a bottle. So a life lesson that I learned behind the steering wheel. I would have to say, cars are freedom, and I'd probably forgotten that until my daughter turned 16 and started driving her car all over the place and burning lots of gas. Exact same thing me and my friends did. It was definitely freedom. So I would say my worst car was a 2000 bmw 323 ci convertible. And I say worse because it was an early production model. 2000 was the first year of the new E46 body style. I waited for a while, I pre-ordered. I ended up taking one off the showroom floor, which was probably a very pre-production, and that car just had problem after problem after problem. I probably could have traded it in on the lemon law, but I opted to let them extend the warranty. Big mistake, because the car just kept having more problems. Ultimately I sold it. Did I ever buy another BMW? I can't say no. Will I ever buy one again? Probably not.

Doug: 2:43

So what was my best or worst road trip mishap? I would say the worst one, and now that I think about it I can think of two tied to this car. One was with my Jeep CJ7. I think it was the early 80s. It was just beat up rusty. I was driving one night I actually had to go to work one night and it was about 45 minutes away. I went to the gas station, filled up, pulled the light, uh, the switch for the lights, which was one of those old school pull out ones, and the switch fell out my hand, or the plunger, if you will. So that didn't work out very well. The other time was in that same Jeep where we were driving home from being out several fronts behind my one friend was the designated driver, and we're at a stop All of a sudden we go to go and I hear the car go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang bang underneath. Turns out that the drive shaft broke and so the drive shaft was just spinning, so parked it on the side of the road. I came back the next day with some tools, I took the drive shaft out and then I just drove it home with four wheel drive, keeping in mind it was only driving the front wheels, with four-wheel drive, keeping in mind it was only driving the front wheels.

Doug: 4:11

So a song that was always on my car's mixtape, or just always on, I would say Silent Lucidity by Queensryche or Plush by Stone Temple Pilots. Silent Lucidity for two reasons. One, I think graduating high school in 1991, I'm assuming that song came out then, but I remember hearing it at our prom and a good friend of mine played that a lot in his car, also Plush by the Stone Temple Pilots. Same story of the latter Good friend of mine played that all the time in his Nissan 300ZX. So if money was no object, what three cars would I have in my dream garage? So I would say a twin turbo version of my 300ZX, along with certainly the money to maintain it, a FD or, if you will, last generation of the Mazda RX-7, and my DeLorean, which I already have. So I am one third of the way there.

Doug: 5:13

So do I believe that cars have souls? I don't know if I would say that, but I would say the memories of cars can spark dreams, if you will. And I have a great example of that. I had a good friend in high school who had that 1990 Nissan 300ZX that I always wanted a car like his and ultimately he ended up wrecking it. But I wanted to figure out how to afford a car like that. It was probably $30,000, brand new in the early 90s, and I didn't know how I would afford that car brand new in the early 90s and I didn't know how I would afford that car. So it ultimately drove me into my career, which was kind of funny reading the want ads, as they called them back then, or jobs in section in the newspaper, and I found a job that paid $31,000. I just needed to get some training and at that time it was on Novell Network, which was an early file and print server, if you will, kind of early networking, before the internet came to rise, bought the car.

Doug: 6:31

I found out, sadly, that my friend had passed away. We had lost touch. He had passed away many years before and just thinking about him and the car brought back a bunch of dreams and literally when I would travel I just kind of have a weird dream and I dreamed about him and I was pretty close with his family. It was like their home was like my second home and all of a sudden I remembered the Z. The Z I never got purchased and, lo and behold, I found a Z. I probably pulled the trigger too quickly and should have looked at more, but the Z is mine. It needs to be repainted. It's about five different colors right now because it kept getting hit on my street. But I love that car and I had never driven a Z, let alone his, until I drove my Z, so it's very special to me.

Doug: 7:20

So what's the most underappreciated car I've ever driven? I would say for the time it was my 1989 Nissan 240SX. It didn't have a lot of power but it handled wonderfully. It was very well balanced, didn't have a lot of feel, if you will, nissans were kind of known for at the time, for their steering being kind of dead or vague, if you will, but the car tracked amazingly. And of course these days, having that car, those cars are worth so much money if you find a unmodified, unmolested one, just because they're so desirable for drifting and really all things JDM, japanese domestic market cars to the point that people actually import them from Japan to drive in the United States and elsewhere.

Doug: 8:13

So what's an automotive smell, sight or sound that instantly brings me back? I would say it's the door open or key left in the ignition sound of my Nissan 300CX, just that sound. I hadn't heard it in 30 plus years is exactly the same sound as my 240SX. It was a Nissan of the same time period, but that sound just instantly took me back. I would also add maybe it's just a feeling those cars at that time, nissans at least had something to prevent the key from being left in the car if you turned it off. So it was a little button you had to push to get the key out. And the first time I drove that car it was total muscle memory I knew exactly to take that key out without even thinking of it. Keep in mind 30-plus years had passed since I drove a car like that.

Doug: 9:17

So who taught me how to drive stick shift? It was my dad. Now, why was it my dad? Because after I had that 1989 Dodge Daytona, which was automatic, I made some friends at school that had manual transmission cars. One had a 1985 Nissan slashan slash, dachshund, 300zx. The other one at the time had a I want to say 1988 mazda rx7 turbo 2, and their cars were stick shift. It was just how involved they were in the process of driving the car, how, how more connected they were. And I had to have a stick shift car. I ended up buying a 1986 Mazda RX-7, which was the first year of that body style. I think it was the FC and that was a stick shift car. That was the car I learned to drive stick shift on and it's still a muscle memory to this day and my dad taught me how to drive, so it's very special to think about those times.

Doug: 10:19

So what upgrade or mod would I never do to a classic? This is a great question because I really do like the electric power steering that I added to my DeLorean. It really makes the car like a different car, like a more modern car to drive. But I've really never done any other mods to my cars and my advice to people, including myself, would be just make sure you can easily undo the mod if you think you're going to sell the car for some point or it would have some significance to a future owner.

Doug: 10:56

For the last question, which automotive invention do I think has changed driving the most? I would say semi-autonomous driving, call it auto cruise, call it self-driving, call it autopilot if you will. That has changed driving for me tremendously because I used to hate sitting in traffic. I'm so much calmer in traffic now. In fact if I'm in a lane and somebody is trying to speed up or getting too close to me, I just move over and it's really enabled me to go on trips a lot more trips than I used to like Because if I'm stuck in traffic I just put it in autopilot. In fact, I will purchase the supervised FSD. It's $100 a month or so when I'm going on a trip, it's good for 30 days and it just makes my life so much easier, to the point that I drove up to Long Island and back on one day and really, really, I didn't break a sweat for the most part.