It's human to get attracted to good things. It's the same reason most people get up daily and go to work – we want to afford a good lifestyle. The same applies to car enthusiasts and cars. Like in real life, chasing cheap thrills will get you stuck in the mud. Likewise, drooling over cheap auction cars could potentially get you burnt.
Well, car influencer and YouTuber Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage doesn't get the saying, 'Once beaten, twice shy.' He keeps making bad decisions (buying lemon cars). Fortunately, his misfortunes often translate into millions of views on his channel and, consequently, thousands of new subs – a win in the content creators' handbook.
Still, we can't ignore that he calls his channel "the dumbest automotive channel in all of YouTube." With such an attitude, you can expect more dumb purchases in the future – but none so far like his most recent.
A month ago, Hoover bought a 2013 BMW X6 M at an auction. What's more puzzling is he isn't a BMW fan – and, like most car enthusiasts (and bimmer haters), he believes the X6 M is the worst BMW M car ever produced.
"They made it look like a Toyota Prius, and well, it drove even worse than a Toyota Prius. These things are really rough riding, and they were terrible when they came out in 2008, but then they made them worse when they came out with this, the X6 M," Tyler said, describing his hate for the BMW X6 M.
But here's the kicker. If buying the worst car (in his opinion) was the dumbest thing he's ever done in his YouTube career – then getting scammed it was an M car was like getting kicked in the groin.
Hoover admits the BMW was dirt cheap (a fraction of the original cost), and as you'd expect, it came with a couple of issues. He couldn't get it to drive past 40 mph (64 kph), the air suspension was faulty, it was leaking oil, it had a check engine code on the dash, and there was a persistent whine under the hood.
After a quick assessment of the "worst BMW ever made" by his mechanic, he discovered his BMW X6 M car was, in fact, not an M Car.
Hoover's mechanic learned the auction 2013 BMW X6M had an N63 engine and not an S63 engine (BMW M high-performance variant of the N63).
The N63 engine was the German luxury car automaker's first twin-turbocharged V8 engine that debuted with the 2008 X6 (E71). The N63 engine is a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 capable of 402 hp and 443 lb-ft (600 Nm) of torque. The S63, on the other hand, was a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 capable of 555 hp (563 ps) and 500 lb-ft (678 Nm) of torque.
"You got scammed really good. Really, really good," Hoover's mechanic revealed to him after the initial assessment.
Someone took the blown S63 engine out of this 2013 BMW X6 M and swapped it out for a regular N63 – a cheap and easy way of dumping it at the auction. Unfortunately, Hoover took the bait and got scammed.
It's unclear what Hoover plans to do next with his fake M-powered X6. The good news is the repairs on the car are minimal and won't cost a pretty penny.
Are you planning on buying an auction car? We recommend watching the video below. You could learn something from Hoover on what to check buying cheap auction vehicles. For what it's worth – the car did tell him to check the engine.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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