MotorTrend On Demand

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
03/10/2020 at 15:22 • Filed to: None

I’m thinking of quitting. I think they’re losing their quaintness . I only ever subscribed because Roadkill and Hot Rod Garage, but they’re lagging on making new episodes and on Roadkill, frankly, they’re simply wasteful . They never tell us how much the parts cost that they’re ruining and isn’t the appeal supposed to be to inspire people to get out there and do stuff? Thoughts?

DISCUSSION (38)

smobgirl > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:15

Only way I know to watch WEC so I’m stuck with a subscription. They do seem to only bill for the months I actually log in so that’s nice.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > smobgirl
03/10/2020 at 15:19

What’s WEC? I said the same about Roadkill Garage, but they’re getting laggy about posting new episodes and I’m just not sure it’s worth the $5/mo any more, especially when I add up all the subscriptions I’m paying for these days. Like cellular for my young adult children, Spotify Family, Disney Plus...

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:19

They’re doing things in “seasons” now. They just did six weeks in a row of their new show “Faster with Finnegan.” Which was ... ok ... it got better as they figured out what they were doing.

Now they’re doing a bunch of Engine Masters episodes in a row.

I’m not sure when Roadkill is up in this rotation, or Dirt Every Day. I am missing those big time. I don’t like the new direction they’re taking, but they have enough other stuff that I’ll keep subscribing.

Thomas Donohue > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:21

It comes with YouTube.tv, but honestly I don’t watch it nearly as much as I thought I would.

smobgirl > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:25

World Endurance Championship (Le Mans and the other races in that series). Apparently people in the US aren’t fond enough of watching 6 hour races that start at 10PM here for anyone to air them on television...weird.

CalzoneGolem > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:27

I think I’ll just subscribe for a month every once in awhile and then just catch up. I singed up for free 3 months and quickly ran out of stuff to watch.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:28

So...Did Freiburg(er?) and Finnegan parts ways? Or is the Finnegan show in addition to Roadkill?

I obviously have not subscribed and while access to all of the good Top Gear episodes is tempting, I already have them downloaded and on my Plex server.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
03/10/2020 at 15:28

Well, that explains it a bit. I’m with you on the Finnegan thing, but there, too: wasteful, though he does say more about how much things cost.

Roadkill Garage is my favorite because I really like Steve Dulcich. I also like Steve Magnante going junkyard diving. But as for the other stuff, I haven’t found anything that holds my interest.

Have you tried Project Binky? I’m enjoying that quite a lot, though it is going on for a long time... (Their wives might make the same observation.)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > smobgirl
03/10/2020 at 15:29

But since it’s you who mention it, I’ll give it a look. Where are you located?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CalzoneGolem
03/10/2020 at 15:30

That’s a good idea; I might try it.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:31

Roadkill is still Monthly everything else is in Seasons. New Episode of Roadkill Drops Monday IIRC. They are trying to figure out how to replace their Magazines it’s a process.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/10/2020 at 15:31

I assumed the Finnegan was in addition, but I do not know.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/10/2020 at 15:32

No faster with Finnegan is the Georgia Version of Roadkill Garage, Roadk ill is still Roadkill.

Pickup_man > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:34

I’m a little on the fence but I think I’ll stick around for a while longer. I’m pretty sad about the loss of Throttle Out, which was a big draw for me, and I am not a fan of this new schedule at all. I believe Roadkill will still remain monthly but I don’t know when the new one hits. I’m also sick of the onslaught of the Discovery shows which are all the same cookie cutter BS with cheesy and Bro’y builders. If their original content doesn’t keep up on a consistent basis I’ll probably leave.

FWIW Finnegan’ s personal channel, Finnegan’ s G arage is actually really good, it’s basically a Roadkill/Hot Rod Garage type and he posts on a pretty regular basis.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Pickup_man
03/10/2020 at 15:44

Something that annoys me about the entire franchise is that there’s no way to contact them to make an enquiry. No intern answering email, nothing. They also do very little of recognizing fans and along that line, I really enjoyed on their latest episode seeing the diesel tuning dude. You just have to churn along on Instagram or Facebook or someplace and if you’re like me, more a product of the Dulcich generation — Dulcich being my single favorite character in any of it — that’s just not going to be convenient at all. And it irks me that they take lots of expensive parts, never tell us how much they cost, then to trash them.

On your recommendation, I’ll give Finnegan’s Garage a look.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:53

I use it for the monthly Roadkills and then for Roadkill Garage and Junkyard Gold when those come out. The main reason I stick with it though is for WEC and Australian Supercars because it’s the only way to watch those in the states.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > My X-type is too a real Jaguar
03/10/2020 at 15:54

They are trying to figure out how to replace their Magazines it’s a process.

Thank you for that insight; explains a lot.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TheTurbochargedSquirrel
03/10/2020 at 15:55

SMOBgirl just told me about WEC. I’m going to check it out.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 15:58

It’s good racing with the exception of the LMP1 class. They introduced some awful success handicaps to try to offset the fact that Toyota is the only one left with a Hybrid but they butchered it so bad you can predict the overall winner weeks before the race. The battle for the overall wins should be way better once the new rules go into effect this fall.

CobraJoe > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 16:01

I’m with you on the reason for subscribing (big fan of roadkill and Hot Rod Garage), but I haven’t gotten sick of the service yet.

Faster with Finnegan is a pretty good show so far, and Roadkill garage is entertaining too, they continue fixing on some of the Roadkill projects (though I get a hoarder vibe from that show, they have a lot of parts and cars just sitting around ).

Overall though, it’s my go-to when I’m wanting to watch wrenching shows.

Pickup_man > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 16:10

I like Steve so long as he’s talking about something he knows about, if it’s off topic or a random question thing I find him awkward and hard to follow. I’m much more of the Tony Angelo and Mike Finnegan generation even though they each have 10+ years on me I relate very much with their general attitude. I follow a few of the guys on IG but not religiously (except when they were in my immediate area).

I can agree with the expensive parts thing and it seems to be getting worse lately, they dump lots of spendy parts on cars/rebuilds only to trash them shortly after. It irks me a little, but not enough to make me stop watching.

The #1 thing about most of the MT shows that I’m tiring of however is the heavy bias on muscle cars. Yes muscle cars are cool, but you can only hold my attention so long by dropping yet another 440/318 _ into yet another 70's Mopar body. Same goes for Frieburger’ s love of the Chevy big block. Or Magnate’s focus on purely 60's-80's cars. There are entire era’s of cars, both before and after the muscle car era, that I love and would love to know more about but they generally just brush right over those.

One last thing because this is getting long. Hot Rod Mag recently posted on IG questioning the legitimacy of the Radwood trend, it was pretty generic question asking if 90's cars are worthy of their own car shows, but it just irked me because the Radwood era is my era and I love that Radwood has taken off. Like what kind of question is that Hot Rod, of course it’s legitimate, stop isolating a huge portion of your fan base .

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Pickup_man
03/10/2020 at 16:20

Youngster. ;o)

Have you seen James May’s Cars of the People ? Mrs. Vandura and I watched it together and it held both our interest. I’m thinking I watched it on MTOD, but it might’ve been Netflix or Amazon.

XJDano > TheTurbochargedSquirrel
03/10/2020 at 16:21

I paid the $40US for the Supercars season. But the app isn’t for watching races, and you can’t use chromecast to watch the live streams on TV. I probably won’t join next year.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 16:32

I don’t think they made any announcements about this new release format, they just started doing it, and I put two and two together.

I know what you mean about the waste. It bugs me a bit, but it’s not my money, and it’s not like Motor Trend was going to donate it to charity if they hadn’t bought speed parts for that junk.

I’ve actually been rewatching a bunch of Roadkill Garage’s lately. I try to like Junkyard Gold, but I’m not much interested in any TV or radio show, or podcast, where it’s just one person talking.

The other shows I like are Engine Masters, Throttle Out (basically Roadkill for motorcycles), and they also have all the old Top Gear e pisodes.

I have not tried Project Binky yet. I probably should one of these days.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
03/10/2020 at 16:39

Project Binky is fabulous, but also a bit of a slog. You really get a sense of what it is to fabricate an automobile from scratch. Dude has MAD skills.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
03/10/2020 at 16:57

Where do you buy drill bits?

Chuckles > Pickup_man
03/10/2020 at 17:01

Throttle Out was a great show and I'm bummed that it's over. Zach and Ari recently announced that they joined the team at Revzilla and they'd be making videos, so I'm hopeful that we get to see them do more fun things in the future.

Pickup_man > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 17:53

29 so, not all that young, but certainly not old either.

I have seen Cars of the People, it was a really good show and I love everything May does. I watched it on Amazon, which has a few other shows James has done, his recent Japan travel show was really good too.

Pickup_man > Chuckles
03/10/2020 at 17:54

I did notice that they moved over to Revzilla which is great. I’m sure they’ll keep up the great content just sucks that I get that much less value out of my $5 a month for MTOD.

MM54 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 18:01

I’m not a big fan of the new release schedule, I’d rather keep the old rotation of everything coming out one episode every 4-6 weeks rather than another episode every week for a while, then nothing for the better part of a year. Variety being the spice of life and what not.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MM54
03/10/2020 at 18:04

Same. When they do RK or RK Garage, it’s like four or five days at a stretch and it’s not sustainable. I don’t have an answer, but I am losing interest and RK episodes have been disappointing more recently. (And I started Project Binky...)

MM54 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 18:06

You’ll get caught up on Binky before long and be on the 60-days-at-best release cycle looking for something else to fill the gap like everyone else :)

I’m sure they film year-round, probably easier on their editing crew to do a bunch of episodes at once for one show than be scattered all over.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > MM54
03/10/2020 at 18:08

Much of what I watch, I watch to learn stuff. Roadkill convinced me I could do some things, while Binky convinces me that I have NOTHING like the stamina necessary to do other things.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 18:29

I got it on sale for half price around Christmas and I only use it to watch old Top gear episodes. I doubt that I will renew next year because that really was the only thing I had interest in.

Bruce H Jones > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 20:46

I learned how to work on Mopars because of Steve's articles in Mopar Muscle

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
03/10/2020 at 20:51

Nowhere in particular, depends on who has what I need when I need it, for a decent price.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Bruce H Jones
03/10/2020 at 21:57

Steve's my favorite personality in that entire franchise.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
03/10/2020 at 22:00

Okay. I just ordered some from Amazon.