Hooniverse Asks: What’s your favorite long-running automotive show?

Jeff Glucker

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Tonight, we record the 300th episode of the Hooniverse podcast. That’s nearly six years worth of recording, considering we aim to record one show per week. Occasionally we miss, but for the most part we’ve stuck to that schedule. After recording tonight’s episode, we’re going to hit the pause button on the show as we evaluate the time sink, effort, and return of continuing at this pace. It’s not over, it’s just taking a break.

But by comparison, our podcast is nothing when you look at some of the titans of the automotive entertainment space. Car Talk first went on the air regionally in 1977. It jumped to the national stage in 1987, and the duo Tom and Ray Magliozzi continued to produce fresh content up until 2012. That’s an amazing run. Plus the show is syndicated and new listeners discover it on a daily basis.

Top Gear, pre-Clarkson punching, was a titan of the space. The new Top Gear is doing alright, and the Grand Tour is finding its footing quite nicely. Back in the more modern podcast space, our friend Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire is closing in on 450 episodes. That’s one heck of a run as well.

What else is out there? What’s your favorite long-running automotive show?

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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19 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What’s your favorite long-running automotive show?”

  1. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    I probably haven’t seen an episode in years, but Motorweek is a dinosaur that has archives of what I drive now.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/MotorWeek_logo.png

    Reply
  2. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    I probably haven’t seen an episode in years, but Motorweek is a dinosaur that has archives of what I drive now.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/MotorWeek_logo.png

    Reply
    1. smalleyxb122 Avatar
      smalleyxb122

      When I think “long-running automotive show”, I think “Motorweek”.

      Reply
    2. Fuhrman16 Avatar
      Fuhrman16

      I love their youtube channel. They post up footage from their archives all the time.

      Reply
  3. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    Ten years until it went nationwide? You guys are global from day one!
    Congrats on the 300. I won’t try to celebrate with a 2005 300 though.

    Reply
  4. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    I had to go look to see that they are still around, but PowerNation is an iteration of the old PowerBlocks show that aired on Spike for years. Some of it was straight reading of ad copy from sponsors, but they did do some interesting projects along the way.

    Reply
  5. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Here’s what I grew up with: “Das Verkehrsmagazin” (the traffic magazine), running from 1960-1991 in the GDR. A policeman in uniform was the presenter – not making this up – giving all sorts of tips on maintenance, traffic safety and such, but also presenting new cars. Considering that a 25 year model run was the norm, not the exception, this once-a-week-show didn’t have many new and exciting cars. The Trabant 1.1, a 601 with a Polo-motor and overally slightly modified to last 150,000kms – is here presented with all the glory it would bring to the national product and national economic development. That’s the first angle, yes:

    Reply
    1. nanoop Avatar
      nanoop

      “But when the waiting list is 10 years, how do you know what model you’ll get?”
      Allegedly, German tourists were asked this in 1990 by a Swiss tourist in Bulgaria.

      Reply
    2. nanoop Avatar
      nanoop

      “But when the waiting list is 10 years, how do you know what model you’ll get?”
      Allegedly, German tourists were asked this in 1990 by a Swiss tourist in Bulgaria.

      Reply
      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        That’s just…cute. Answer options:

        a) Which car can you get after only 10 years?
        b) They’re all the same colour.
        c) I am a plumber, I run this economy.

        Reminds me of one of my favourite YouTube-videos: Testing the revised Moskovich 412. You could order it without a waiting line, but it cost almost twice as much as a Trabant at 18000 M. The testers take it offroad and show how it beats Śkoda, Dacia and Trabant. But its soft rear suspension is treacherous on smooth roads. A car made for the taiga, not for countries with roads.

        Reply
        1. nanoop Avatar
          nanoop

          7min ad state-commissioned information content, but I’ve learned a lot about “above-average chassis dynamics”, thanks!

          I think I’ve read this one here before, but since it’s topical:
          “OK, delivery in 10 years. Can you arrange a delivery in the afternoon?”
          “Why do you need to know that already?”
          “The plumber will come in the morning.”

          Reply
  6. SeattleCurmudgeon Avatar
    SeattleCurmudgeon

    The Rockford Files.

    Reply
  7. SeattleCurmudgeon Avatar
    SeattleCurmudgeon

    The Rockford Files.

    Reply
  8. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Not sure there has been a long running automotive show in Australia

    Reply
    1. Rolly Owens Avatar
      Rolly Owens

      I recently had a Peter Wherrit binge on youtube. Definitely worth a laugh. The guy is brutal compared to the cash for comment pap that passes for automotive journalism in AU these days

      Reply
      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        That was Torque on the ABC, it was before my time so I checked and it ran 1974-80 so I guess it qualifies. I dare say that many cars of the time deserved a brutal assessment, and being on the government-funded tv station (for the benefit of overseas readers) there were no advertisers to upset.

        One story from that show is he was fairly critical of the suspension setup of the Mitsubishi Sigma, so Mitsubishi invited him to do better and ended up releasing a special edition set up by him.

        Reply
  9. Tiberiuswise Avatar
    Tiberiuswise

    I’ve often enjoyed Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini. Basic cable “Reality” show and infomercial undertones, but not bad.

    Reply
  10. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    Probably Japans Best Motoring/Hot Version. Proper track/touge battles, more insightful/down to earth views about how each car drives rather than contrived nonsense that you’d get from a TG review, Japanese girls in costumes for no apparent reason (cringey but amusing). I believe it’s coming to Amazon Prime, and tbh, that’d make me much more interested in subscribing to their lacklustre service than “Last of the Summer Wine” with cars that is Grand Tour. (yes I realize no-one outside the British ilses might get that reference). Honestly, yeah, it’s great that top gear put cars on mainstream TV, but Clarkson/May/Hammond are thoroughly overrated and in some ways Top Gear has created a very negative stereotype of car enthusiasts, which US readers might not understand, but is felt in more car hostile countries.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      At times TGT is more like Benny Hill with cars…

      Reply