Zander Drives Cars

2024 was, to be completely upfront and straightforward, a weird year. Halfway through last year, I moved to New York, and if you know anything about big cities and cars, they don’t really mix. But, I went into this change of scenery with a full heart and a brain full of ideas. Surely, with some minor tweaking, I could replicate the means by which I do business, right? Right?

Now is a good time to remind all of you that I am 20. I have no access to press cars, no access to press events, no access to the tools that your favorite autojourn has to play with. I work through dealers. Actually, I rely on dealers. I don’t have an infinite supply of vehicles on demand, so, when I needed content, I would fire off a round of emails and hope for the best. In Baltimore, where nobody had anything better to do, that worked. I could show up, be given the keys to a $65,000 GMC pickup truck, and be told to have fun. Go write something, oh, and shout us out at the bottom of the article. Now, this has been a point of issue with some people who tried to sight transparency concerns, but, I luckily got to play the “I am in high school card,” and that solved that. Plus, have you read my SQ5 review? I was mean. Pointless automobile.

That’s all to say, none of that worked in New York. I was lucky enough to get one dealer to listen to my pleas and crickets after that. And who would have thought? I mean, you’re telling me that Audi Manhattan has better things to do than let a (at the time) 19-year-old child drive an A6 around midtown? No way. So, again, I tried to pivot. I thought, “Well, whenever I go home for break, I can gather a bunch of content and then sprinkle it in with editorials.” That also did not happen. I drove a Volvo wagon, the new 5-Series, and that’s it. That 5-Series was, as of December 8th, 2024, the last car I have driven for this website.

I do not know what the future of zanderdrivescars.com holds. I have some personal articles in the wings that, I’m sure with some tweaking, I can edit and submit to the world, but aside from that, I’ve exhausted most of the opportunities I have within an hour and a half of me. I am not writing this to make any of you feel bad for me. This is not me saying “Oh, boo hoo, look how bad I have it.” I am incredibly lucky. I started this whole shindig the day after my 18th birthday when I was coming off one of the roughest periods of my life. I picked myself back up and threw my head into the fire that is the automotive media business. I have reached people in over 100 different countries, and my work here has led me to the current job I have now doing contract work for a major automaker. I could not replicate this again. So, I won’t get rid of it.

This is not a hiatus. Do not call it a hiatus. I still check my views weekly, still look to see how many views that goddamn American Airlines 737 article has, and still rage-write articles that I lock away for a different time. Maybe in a couple of months, out of nowhere, I’ll fire off another heavily opinionated article about whatever new thing everybody hates that I don’t. No, I won’t be talking about the Jaguar situation. I’m as sick of hearing about it as you are. Promise.