In a creative twist on road-trip storytelling, three car dealers in the U.S. will launch a seven-episode YouTube series on October 15 that blends automotive challenge, road-trip comedy, and tough-terrain landscapes.
Called Tour Detour: The Good, The Bad & The CVT, the series includes Tim Pohanka of Pohanka Automotive Group in Virginia), Jason Cole of Cole Automotive Group in West Virginia, and Chris Lenckosz of Empire Lakewood Nissan in Colorado. Each dealer bought a used Nissan for under $10,000 with more than 100,000 miles (or around 160, 934 kilometres) and fitted the vehicles with a CVT transmission.
“This wasn’t a showroom stunt,” said Pohanka in a statement. “We bought the cars ourselves and pushed them through the toughest roads in the West. We wanted them to earn our trust — and our customers’ — the hard way.”
The dealers entered the series with no off-road experience. They set out across 1,500 miles (or around 2,414 kilometres) of salt flats, sand dunes, canyons, and alpine passes. Their goal was to answer the question of whether the vehicles , which they described as underestimated, could survive?
“The cars weren’t perfect, and neither were we,” said Lenckosz. “But that’s what made it fun — three well-loved Nissans and the kind of camaraderie you only find on the road,” said Lenckosz in a statement.
The other dealer, Cole, said many people doubted the cars would last a day. “The fun was proving everyone wrong…or at least proving we were stubborn enough to keep pushing.”
The first 10-minute episode premieres October 15 on YouTube, with others dropping weekly through November 26. Daily behind-the-scenes clips will be posted on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts. Dealers can view the official trailer here.
