TFLcar is now old enough to legally drive in the U.S., and we have you to thank for how far we’ve come!
TFL Studios’ mantra has long been “news, views and real world reviews”, and while that fundamentally hasn’t changed in the past sixteen years, the quality, quantity and the team cranking out videos all this time later certainly has. To wit, the snapshot you see above is from the first video ever published to The Fast Lane Car YouTube channel on March 26, 2009. A 40-second video showing the then-new, third-generation Toyota Prius parking itself isn’t exactly must-see TV (and, to-date, only 11,500 of you watched that), granted, but at this milestone it’s fun to look back on where you’ve been, as our crew continues to forge ahead toward the unpredictable, but exciting future.
And man, has TFL Studios as we know it now come along way. New faces appeared on the first channel beyond TFLcar founder Roman Mica and his son Tommy, including Nathan Adlen and Andre Smirnov. As folks who have been following the crew awhile know all too well, the number of channels also expanded over the years, including TFLtruck and TFLclassics in 2012, then TFLnow in 2014.
That pace only accelerated as the TFL Studios team grew, as the channel list has grown to include TFLoffroad (2018), TFLbike (2020), TFLtalk (2020) and TFLEV (2022, and briefly TFLshorts for sub-1 minute vertical shorts before that). Now, TFL’s presence incorporates the eight YouTube channels I just mentioned and two websites (TFLcar.com and TFLtruck.com). There are also three podcasts, including TFL Car Chat, TFL Talkin’ Trucks and — our most recent addition with our two newest team members, Carish (all of which you can listen to on YouTube or major streaming platforms).
I haven’t even touched the list of vehicles TFL’s owned over the years, and that would be an extensive read in itself. I won’t delve into all that here, though we are aiming to cover that in a podcast coming up soon, where the team will cover the huge variety of vehicles we’ve had in the fleet over the years, from the iconic Dodge Challenger Hellcat to the brand-new Toyota 4Runner and pretty much every important mainstream car in between. Among all the comings and goings, the “Cheap Jeep” series have been some of my personal favorites, but let us know which ones you enjoyed most below.
When it comes to TFL’s growth and ability to fulfill that mission to deliver news, views and real-world reviews, we have you all out there to thank. Without all your support — whether you’ve been watching from the beginning or close to it, or you’re just landing on TFLcar or one of our other channels for the first time — none of this would be possible. Thank you all for your continued support, and here’s to many more fantastic years to come.
And on a personal note, thanks to you all who come to the TFLcar.com and TFLtruck.com to catch the latest news and our reviews (at least as much as we can cover). Without you guys, I wouldn’t have now published more than 5,000 articles across the sites over the past seven years.
If you’re interested to see just how far TFL’s videos have evolved over the years, check out our oldest video alongside our newest below:
