What happens when you grow up dreaming about poster wall supercars and you lack the necessary finances (and sometimes the age) to fulfill the need for speed on the spot? Well, as is the case with YouTubers Ed Bolian, Freddy “Tavarish” Hernandez, and Tyler Hoover, you could let depreciation lower the price over time... if you don’t mind the wait.
Because the trio has no problem acknowledging they are doing a Top Gear-style challenge, we have no problem saying they are casually ripping off the format – there's a trio of hosts (ok, the Stig is out of the picture for this one, but he gets a replacement), there’s a set of challenges, there are some cars involved, as well as a very cinematic location.
For their “3 Most Depreciated Supercars in the world” episode (which is actually just part one, they promised there’s more to come), they chose Las Vegas as the perfect location to showcase their choices – a 2003 Maserati Coupe Trofeo, a 2003 Aston Martin Vanquish, and a Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG.
Want to know how much cheaper the three cars became after the passage of time – and since people also found out how many problems they cause during the period?! Well, the Italian thoroughbred with a 4.2-liter V8 Ferrari heart was originally $95,551 – and Freddie spent just $9k on it.
The first of the V12 monsters, the British representative of the James Bond breed had 460 hp at the time of conception and cost no less than $245,892 when new – but Ed managed to find one (with shady Colombian connections, he says he’s not getting near any drug-sniffing dogs) for a mere 29k.
Last, but not least – as far as bad wraps are concerned, for sure, even though the Race Car Red was intended as a Red Pig Mercedes tribute - came the Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG, which had an original list price of $181,115 and came into the possession of Tyler for just 13k.
Because they have a challenge format, after some casual – and quite entertainingly informative – banter, the three hosts got the first challenge: work out the percentage of depreciation for each of them, and the highest difference wins. So, they did the math and found out that a huge German machine makes up just 7% from its original sticker price, followed by the Maserati at around 10% and 12 / 13% for the Aston Martin.
Next up – after everyone took time to explain the beauties and many faults of each ride – was the workshop challenge. This is where the “Wizard” checks everything out (at the 18:30 mark) – including by tasting the cars. He also gave them the bill of expenses, as per requested by the second challenge.
Care to guess who nailed the second win – it's the Mercedes all over again, with just 2k. Of course, fans know very well that British and Italian luxury / performance machines are notoriously hard and expensive to maintain...
By the way, they also promise a third challenge – though it has been left for another episode, where the trio reconvenes on a racetrack to put the three older supercars to the challenge of showcasing their advertised performance credentials (those that remain, at least).
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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