TYLER HOOVER
Velocity Award Collector
Tyler Hoover’s “Hoovie’s Garage” YouTube channel, with 1.57 million subscribers, all started with a failed career as a car salesman. Fresh out of high school, Hoover was hired as a sales assistant for the opening of a new Carmax store in Wichita, Kansas in 2005. The new “no haggle” philosophy proved a tough sell initially to midwestern values, and it took weeks for Hoover to sell his first car, eventually washing out of Carmax after
only 4 months.
Undeterred, Tyler continued in the car business working as a salesman at a local Chevrolet, Cadillac, and BMW store, while also finishing his bachelor’s degree in political science at Wichita State University. After finishing college, he opened his own dealership, but it was plainly obvious to Hoover that his car loving (and hoarding)
tendencies didn’t lend well to a successful business. As he has said often on his YouTube channel, the failure of his car dealership in 2014 was akin to “a drug dealer getting too high on his own supply” as he wanted to keep and enjoy the special cars in his inventory, rather than sell them for a profit.
With family obligations, Hoover left the automotive business for a few years while he worked for his father’s Freddy’s Frozen Custard franchise in operations support. He helped them grow their franchise in the midwest. At the same time, he started freelance writing, eventually getting hired by Doug Demuro as a part-time contributor to AutoTrader.com/Oversteer.
DeMuro encouraged Hoover to try posting YouTube videos of his own to bring traffic to his Autotrader articles, in addition to making videos together sitting in a makeshift studio, talking about cars. Hoover credits his initial success to the meteoric rise of Doug DeMuro’s own YouTube channel at the time, saying he was “very happy to ride Doug’s coat tails through the rise of automotive YouTube as a major platform”.
Eight years later, Tyler has made a successful career as a full time YouTuber, writer and TV host. He is best known for his Hoovie’s Garage YouTube channel. He has created over 670 videos with over 466 million views.
Hoovie’s Garage videos feature high priced sports cars, vintage luxury vehicles, and some everyday cars and trucks, often with high mileage or operational challenges. He openly shares the car’s faults, fixes them and then eventually sells the cars. Tyler has bought and sold over 100 vehicles on his channel, many of which were exotic bargain finds. The show goes into detail on what each car needs repaired and what these fixes cost. He also reveals what he sold the car for. Only a few make him a significant profit.
One of his videos was titled “The 2001 BMW Dream Team”. He collected 6 silver 2001 era BMW’s with storied histories, from a Z3 that was recovered after being stolen, to an E-46 M3, and E39 M5 to an X5is and his favorite, a 740i Sport. He was very open to all the faults in each car and ended the video with a group drive of the silver BMWs on an airport runway. He went through the buy/fix/sell numbers on each car.
Another episode focuses on Tyler admitting he has a “Car buying addiction problem”. He loves to buy cars but has too many and no place left to store them. So, he decides the best way to try and break his addiction is to buy 5 cheap cars from strangers in one day and then give back the cars to the owners….and let them keep the money. He has $5000 in cash with him and proceeds to “buy” a Fox body Mustang, SAAB 95, Mercury Marquis, Buick Regal, and a Toyota Camry Solara. One of these cars had an asking price as low as $700.
Tyler has expanded his video footprint with “Car Issues”, a reality show streaming on the Motor Trend channel. Like his YouTube channel, he profiles the highs and lows of cars he loves. Since 2020, he has also worked for Barrett-Jackson auction company as their on-air host for their classic car auction live coverage on the History Channel.
Tyler is best known for his Supercar collection. We are very excited to have four of these cars on the field at this year’s Hilton Head Island Concours. This display will include a 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition. Powered by a 5.2-liter V12 with 455 horsepower and a 5-speed manual transmission, this car is 1 of 657 cars produced at the end of the production run of the celebrated Countach. These last editions were restyled by Horacio Pagani.
Velocity Award Collector
Tyler Hoover’s “Hoovie’s Garage” YouTube channel, with 1.57 million subscribers, all started with a failed career as a car salesman. Fresh out of high school, Hoover was hired as a sales assistant for the opening of a new Carmax store in Wichita, Kansas in 2005. The new “no haggle” philosophy proved a tough sell initially to midwestern values, and it took weeks for Hoover to sell his first car, eventually washing out of Carmax after
only 4 months.
Undeterred, Tyler continued in the car business working as a salesman at a local Chevrolet, Cadillac, and BMW store, while also finishing his bachelor’s degree in political science at Wichita State University. After finishing college, he opened his own dealership, but it was plainly obvious to Hoover that his car loving (and hoarding)
tendencies didn’t lend well to a successful business. As he has said often on his YouTube channel, the failure of his car dealership in 2014 was akin to “a drug dealer getting too high on his own supply” as he wanted to keep and enjoy the special cars in his inventory, rather than sell them for a profit.
With family obligations, Hoover left the automotive business for a few years while he worked for his father’s Freddy’s Frozen Custard franchise in operations support. He helped them grow their franchise in the midwest. At the same time, he started freelance writing, eventually getting hired by Doug Demuro as a part-time contributor to AutoTrader.com/Oversteer.
DeMuro encouraged Hoover to try posting YouTube videos of his own to bring traffic to his Autotrader articles, in addition to making videos together sitting in a makeshift studio, talking about cars. Hoover credits his initial success to the meteoric rise of Doug DeMuro’s own YouTube channel at the time, saying he was “very happy to ride Doug’s coat tails through the rise of automotive YouTube as a major platform”.
Eight years later, Tyler has made a successful career as a full time YouTuber, writer and TV host. He is best known for his Hoovie’s Garage YouTube channel. He has created over 670 videos with over 466 million views.
Hoovie’s Garage videos feature high priced sports cars, vintage luxury vehicles, and some everyday cars and trucks, often with high mileage or operational challenges. He openly shares the car’s faults, fixes them and then eventually sells the cars. Tyler has bought and sold over 100 vehicles on his channel, many of which were exotic bargain finds. The show goes into detail on what each car needs repaired and what these fixes cost. He also reveals what he sold the car for. Only a few make him a significant profit.
One of his videos was titled “The 2001 BMW Dream Team”. He collected 6 silver 2001 era BMW’s with storied histories, from a Z3 that was recovered after being stolen, to an E-46 M3, and E39 M5 to an X5is and his favorite, a 740i Sport. He was very open to all the faults in each car and ended the video with a group drive of the silver BMWs on an airport runway. He went through the buy/fix/sell numbers on each car.
Another episode focuses on Tyler admitting he has a “Car buying addiction problem”. He loves to buy cars but has too many and no place left to store them. So, he decides the best way to try and break his addiction is to buy 5 cheap cars from strangers in one day and then give back the cars to the owners….and let them keep the money. He has $5000 in cash with him and proceeds to “buy” a Fox body Mustang, SAAB 95, Mercury Marquis, Buick Regal, and a Toyota Camry Solara. One of these cars had an asking price as low as $700.
Tyler has expanded his video footprint with “Car Issues”, a reality show streaming on the Motor Trend channel. Like his YouTube channel, he profiles the highs and lows of cars he loves. Since 2020, he has also worked for Barrett-Jackson auction company as their on-air host for their classic car auction live coverage on the History Channel.
Tyler is best known for his Supercar collection. We are very excited to have four of these cars on the field at this year’s Hilton Head Island Concours. This display will include a 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition. Powered by a 5.2-liter V12 with 455 horsepower and a 5-speed manual transmission, this car is 1 of 657 cars produced at the end of the production run of the celebrated Countach. These last editions were restyled by Horacio Pagani.
A 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano with an Enzo derived 6.0-liter, 611 horsepower engine and a 6-speed manual transmission conversion will also be on display. The car has a “Daytona” style interior, Pininfarina designed bodywork and carbon-ceramic brakes. Keeping with Hoover’s depreciated exotic theme, his 2004 Mercedes Maybach 62 was purchased at a Barrett-Jackson auction 2 years ago for 90% off its original $400,000+ MSRP. Equipped with rare partition divider and electrochromic roof, it’s powered by a twin-turbo 5.5 liter V12 with 550 horsepower, and has over 107,000 miles on the odometer. Hoover has driven it cross country, and it was featured on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage.
Lastly, Tyler is bringing his 2008 Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster, one of 670 roadsters built between 2006-2008. The car is powered by a supercharged 5.4-liter V8, putting out 617 horsepower. The car has a 5-speed automatic transmission. The SLR cars were designed by Mercedes and engineered and assembled by McLaren in England. The car’s monocoque body is made of carbon fiber and the brakes are carbon ceramic.
Tyler Hoover is the consummate “Car Guy”. He followed his passion, started from the ground level while still in college, learned different parts of the car business, took some chances, tried different things and created his own niche in the car world. His 1.57 million YouTube subscribers are a testament to his ability to engage others with his enthusiasm for automobiles. For all these reasons, the Hilton Head Island Concours is proud to name Tyler Hoover as the Velocity Collector for 2024.
Lastly, Tyler is bringing his 2008 Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster, one of 670 roadsters built between 2006-2008. The car is powered by a supercharged 5.4-liter V8, putting out 617 horsepower. The car has a 5-speed automatic transmission. The SLR cars were designed by Mercedes and engineered and assembled by McLaren in England. The car’s monocoque body is made of carbon fiber and the brakes are carbon ceramic.
Tyler Hoover is the consummate “Car Guy”. He followed his passion, started from the ground level while still in college, learned different parts of the car business, took some chances, tried different things and created his own niche in the car world. His 1.57 million YouTube subscribers are a testament to his ability to engage others with his enthusiasm for automobiles. For all these reasons, the Hilton Head Island Concours is proud to name Tyler Hoover as the Velocity Collector for 2024.
