We all know the stories about millenials now being in a position where they can make the kind of money required to buy the cars that populated their dreams and desktop wallpapers in their teenage years. Well, automotive journalist/YouTuber/entrepreneur Doug DeMuro can now add his own tale to the collection. And since this story involves the 34-year-old recently buying a Porsche Carrera GT, one of the best supercars of all time and a seven-figure machine these days, you may wish to stick around for the deets.
Social media is loaded with youngsters who fill up their garages with exotics and treat these amazing pieces of engineering like they’re the latest fashion trend. And that’s why it can be difficult for people to emphatize with their expensive hobby. Doug, on the other hand, has a different path, one that deserves a round of applause.
We’re talking about a guy who had an office job—he was a vehicle allocations manager at Porsche—that he gave up to write for names like Autotrader and Jalopnik.
And while he also managed to self-publish three books (Plays With Cars, Bumper to Bumper, and From My Perspective), his (first) massive boost arguably came in 2013, when he joined YouTube.
Relying on his attention to details and storytelling skills, Doug makes raw videos with little editing—if you’ve spent time checking out vehicles on YouTube, chances are you’re familiar to his “quirks and features” mantra, as he prioritizes showcasing such aspects over the driving experience, albeit also covering the latter.
And, as his popularity increased, so did the number of vehicles he had access to, with most of these coming from dealers rather than automakers. And, even as his channel(s) exploded, Doug became worried about packing “no marketable” skills except for the ones he uses with the camera.
The Cars & Bids success story
So, back in April 2020, he co-founded Cars & Bids with Blake Machado, with this being an online specialty vehicle auction site. At that time, one might’ve assumed that with names like Bring a Trailer (in particular) and Collecting Cars having already become established, there was little room for competition.
However, Doug’s charisma certainly helped, with Cars and Bids continuing to grow. For one, the platform has shown it listens to its community—not unlike in the case of its rivals, the people that comment on the platform make up an important part of the site’s value. For instance, earlier this month, Cars and Bids cancelled the auction of a 1996 Nissan Skyline GTS-25T Sedan after comments pointed out issues with the mileage.
Returning to the financial side of the story and as Doug points out in the Carrera GT purchase YouTube video below, Cars & Bids received $37 million in capital from a major investment firm called the Chernin Group (TCG), with the move having been announced at the end of last month.
The deal involves the TCG taking a majority stake in Cars & Bids, with business transformation specialist Ro Choy becoming the CEO of the car auction platform.
Now that we know how Doug DeMuro was able to secure the money for buying a Porsche whose average price currently sits at $1.4 million (this can vary wildly according to the spec and condition), we can move on to why he chose the CGT, a vehicle that costed $440,000 when it was brand new.
No, Doug didn’t enter a bidding war for his German supercar
As Doug points out in the clip, the Carrera GT (here’s one driving around NYC sans body panels) has been his dream car ever since 2004 when the halo model was launched. And it seems that no important person in his life, from his first date back in 2005 when he was 16, to his wife and his little boy, can ignore the CGT. Seriously, the Carrera GT has been a part of his wedding some years ago, albeit in toy car form and we’ll leave the rest of the details for the video.
The timing for Doug’s purchase is another interesting aspect. You see, these days we’re expecting to see if Porsche strikes a deal with an entity for an Formula One return after a potential partnership with Red Bull didn’t work out last year.
And, as some of you know, the naturally aspirated wonder that is the 603 hp 5.7L V10 at the center of the Carrera GT was initially designed for F1.
Doug’s Carrera GT sports the silver-exterior-over-a-brown-interior configuration that was used to launch the car back in the day—think GT Silver and Ascot. Now, as the collection of yellow CGT toy cars proves, he would’ve prefered that spec, but spending an extra few hundred grand on such a hue simply wouldn’t cut it for him.
We’re looking at a 2005 example—hey, the same year as his first-gen Ford GT, which will become more of a daily, if you will, now that the Porsche halo car has joined the Blue Oval supercar Doug’s San Diego, California garage.
Doug bought the Porsche with just 9,960 miles on the clock. And (surprise-surprise), he enjoyed the kind of perks that come with his business profile. Thus, he got a car that hadn’t been listed on the market.
Oh, and the mid-engined machine has received a $60,000 service two years back, which brought new tires and a new clutch, among others—the delivery driver had fried the infamously difficult to operate (only for take-off) clutch. Plus, as part of a campaign, Porsche covered most of the costs for replacing the camshafts of the V10 over pitting issues.
Now that Doug DeMuro has what he calls the greatest analog supercar of all time, what has the brief ownership experience taught him?
Doug finds the Carrera GT as easy to drive as a Boxster
For starters, Doug finds the Carrera GT easy to drive, at least once you get past the… quirky way of operating the clutch to get the supercar moving. “You can fling it around like it’s a Boxster,” the aficionado says.
He was also surprised to see that the Carrera GT gets about as many looks as any other Porsche (that costs, say, ten times less). Then again, the understated nature of the seven-figure supercar suits his personality just fine—while talking about the possibility to buy his Ford GT back in the day, Doug mentioned how he always saves money on clothes, among others.
However, Doug is going to install a KW suspension lift for the Porsche, which should help with the 3-inch (75mm) ground clearance—right now, the mid-engined toy scrapes all over the place. And we’ll certainly get to see more of Doug’s Carrera GT in the future, probably with the same near-tearing-up level of emotion expressed here.
Update (February 13, 2023): In case you’re wondering how Cars & Bids is upgrading its business after the said changes, here’s one for you: shortly after Doug uploading his CGT purchase clip, the auction site listed another Porsche of the sort. And while this may become the cheapest Carrera GT in recent history, there are some things you need to know before calling your bank.
