A Bolt, A Maverick, And A Crosley Hotshot Dressed As Bearcat: Members’ Rides

Welcome back to another installment of Members’ Rides, I’m very excited for this one! Last week, we met Tom and his gorgeous Chevelle, alongside a fantastic WRX and a classic truck. That’s truly a great garage with a car for every use case. Today is pretty similar, actually. We’ve got a great commuter, a practical truck, and an incredibly unique car that I bet many of you have never even heard of!

Members’ Rides is where we share the cars and stories of Autopian Members. The potential to be featured here is a perk for Autopian Members of every level, from the ultra-affordable “Cloth” tier all the way up to “Rich Corinthian Leather.” Click that link and join today!

Have you ever heard of Crosley cars? I’ll be honest, I hadn’t. But in case Crosley is too common for you, you’ll love today’s featured Autopian member! Meet Park. Park is a Superintendent for the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church living in, as you may have guessed, Wisconsin. But let’s get to the cars!

How did you get into cars?

Grew up with them on the farm and have owned a wide variety of old, weird stuff. My grandfather passed on his love of classic iron, my dad taught me to wrench, and my son carries on the tradition. If you’re interested, you can read the whole long story here!

What’s in the garage these days?

• 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV
• 2025 Ford Maverick Hybrid
• 1916/1952 Crosley

What made you pick up the EUV?

It was the cheapest EV we could get, and my wife was ready to get an EV. Her motivations are part “save the planet,” and part “I want something simple and cheap that just works.”

We were visiting friends at their cabin in Michigan, and they told us they’d bought a Bolt and liked it. My wife was driving a Ford Flex at the time, which was the family workhorse. She was tired of a big, thirsty car. Her daily commute is a 40-mile round trip.

On the way back from Michigan, we did some research on the Bolt, found a lightly used EUV at a Chevy dealer on the way home, and traded in the Flex.

Did you look at the standard Bolt or only the EUV?

We focused only on the EUV. We are a big family – my wife is nearly six feet tall, and I’m slightly over. Leg room was critical. The front seat of the Bolt is really spacious, and the EUV adds extra rear legroom. When our equally tall adult children come to visit, they are comfortable in the backseat.

What’s the best thing about the Bolt?

My wife likes not having to stop at gas stations. Once we installed a Level 2 charger in our garage, my wife just plugs it in once or twice a week overnight. It’s actually a bit of a problem. I used to take the cars for gas, check tire pressure, and wash them. Now her car is dirty and bug-covered because I never take it to the gas station.

Me? I enjoy the quiet surge of acceleration. Even this “low power” EV has plenty of torque, and pulls on-ramps surprisingly hard and nearly silently.

Anything you don’t like?

We wish there were more charging stations. The different charging vendors, odd location of chargers, and unreliable service are still impediments to longer drives. It’s better now that we can use the Tesla Supercharger network, but still a pain.

How long do you think you’ll hold onto the Bolt?

My wife plans to keep it the rest of her life! Depending on battery replacement cost and how the body holds up to Wisconsin salt, that’s not completely impossible.

Have you had any issues with it? 

Nothing big. The audio system is a little quirky. It turns itself on when you start the car, and takes a couple of button presses to shut off. The rubber strip has come off the sun roof a couple of times, but it just presses back on. There was one recall, but Chevy sent a tech to do the upgrade in our garage.

Have you ever taken this on a long trip?

It’s mostly a local commuter, but the day we bought it, we took it on vacation in Door County with our kayaks on the roof. That was also the week we learned that kayaks really impact aerodynamics (and thus range)! On occasion, my wife has driven it across the state. The longest trip was probably Green Bay to Eau Claire and back.

How did those trips go?

The Door County trip taught us the difference between Level 1 and Level 2 charging. There are a lot of free chargers on the Door Peninsula, but they are all slooowww. We’d park for a couple of hours and take a hike, and maybe get 15 miles of range added.

The Eau Claire trip was good, except for the one charging station that was broken where my wife planned to charge on the way home. Fortunately, she found another. There aren’t a lot of charging stations in northern Wisconsin. On longer trips, it takes 30-45 minutes at a fast charger to bring the Bolt battery back close to full. My wife reads or naps, or walks into the store. It really hasn’t been an inconvenience – except finding and activating the chargers in the first place.

With all the issues, would you do EV again?

Yes! My wife is completely converted. For now, we’ll also keep a hybrid like the Maverick in the stable for longer trips and heavier jobs.

What’s the story behind the Maverick?

I wanted a Maverick when they first came out, but the hybrids were impossible to get. I had to have a new car for my new job at the time, so I bought something else.

When the 2025 Maverick finally offered the combination of the hybrid powertrain, all-wheel drive, and 4,000-lb towing capacity, I was ready to buy. The threat of tariffs and Ford’s employee pricing incentive finally got me off the fence. I ordered exactly the truck I wanted and waited two months for it to be built and delivered.

What made you go back to a Maverick?

The 2025 finally had all the features I needed. And my old car was out of warranty and starting to act up, so I couldn’t wait for a 2025 Maverick to hit the used market.

People complain that Maverick prices have gone up a lot since they debuted – and that is true. But it’s still a heckuva deal for the money. There aren’t a ton of hybrid cars that match it for features per buck, and the competition in the truck field is zip.

What’s the best thing about your Maverick?

The combination of great fuel economy in daily driving, and rugged practicality every week or two when I need to do “truck stuff.”

The fuel economy is getting better, too. Once the odometer passed the 4000 miles mark, it’s like something flipped in the ECU and enabled far more use of electric mode. Before, I was averaging 35mpg on a tank. Now it’s been 39mpg with some trips over 40mpg. Also – and this rarely gets mentioned in Maverick reviews – it is a genuinely pleasant vehicle to drive.

Anything you wish you could change?

I miss analog gauges, and a bigger battery to make it a PHEV would be slick. I’d rather have physical HVAC controls, although the onscreen ones have been less of an annoyance than I expected. They’re always visible, so no distracted hunting through submenus.

Do you ever find it to be too small?

Perfect for my use case so far. My garage isn’t huge, so it’s nice that it is compact enough to fit. My wife asked me to pick up an IKEA order for her church a week ago. When I walked into the store, the clerk rolled out a cart loaded with furniture and said “first of three.” Uh oh! But it all fit in the bed with some creative Tetris stacking.

The heaviest trailer I’ve towed so far was a disaster relief tool trailer that was probably around the 4000-lb rated capacity of the truck. It towed easily.

What other hybrids have you had?

I had a pair of first-generation Insights that I absolutely loved! Hybrid with a stick, 60+ mpg, and easy to work on. But they were both nearing 300,000 miles and needed periodic attention. When I got my current role in 2022 and had to start driving 30,000 miles per year, I bought a used Kia Niro hybrid.

The Niro got great fuel economy (mid-40mpg), and it was a comfortable car, but at 120,000 miles, the engine was starting to use a bit of oil and occasionally throwing an error code. It was also only FWD, which was a problem when Wisconsin throws a snowy fit. And it didn’t really have the capacity to do the towing and trucking stuff I needed.

How does this compare to the others?

The Maverick can’t touch the mileage of the old Insights, but those were tiny two-seat hatchbacks. The Maverick is a comparatively enormous four-door with a pickup bed.

It’s amazing that the Maverick can get within spitting distance of the Niro’s fuel economy while being much more vehicle.

I was worried about the eCVT on the Maverick. Not so much the durability, but feel. I miss the feel of a Honda manual transmission. But the eCVT has been delightful. Stomp the gas pedal, and there’s no lag. The engine revs to its power band, the electric motor adds its grunt, and the truck pulls. Much sooner than you expect, you are going much faster than you think. The Niro had a traditional automatic transmission, and it often stumbled and hesitated to find the right gear. The Maverick just nails it and surges forward.

OK, let’s talk Crosley!

I’ve been an antique car buff all my life. My daily in high school and college (late ’80s, early ’90s) was a 1948 Plymouth. Over the years, I’ve owned, maintained, and spent serious quality time with around 50 cars. I tend to be drawn to unusual or unloved cars and brands. I also appreciate that these tend to be cheap.

A neighbor had a Crosley when I was a kid, and I was fascinated by this tiny little car built in my home state of Indiana. Around 2010, I bought a 1948 Crosley station wagon with the brazed steel engine. The car had been completely disassembled for a hot rod project that never got off the ground. It was a car-sized Erector set. With the help of my son and a neighbor, we slowly reassembled the car, painted it, and took it to some shows.

In 2022, I was going to move, so I sold the Crosley station wagon and all the spare parts I’d accumulated to make moving easier. Then, someone in the Crosley club spotted this speedster for sale in Indiana and posted it on Facebook. I was hooked immediately – take my cash!

I’d always wanted a brass-era car, but those are (A) not affordable, (B) not really drivable on modern roads, and (C) hard/expensive to get or make parts for. This car had the drivability and parts availability of a Crosley, but the looks of a brass car from the 1910s. I bought the Speedster as you see it. The car was built by the factory as a 1952 Crosley Hotshot, a little bug-eyed sports car that was designed to be a fun car that could be easily stripped for racing. A Hotshot won the first Sebring endurance race. A special-bodied Crosley was dominating its class at Le Mans until a French-mandated part failed.

In the 1990s, a previous owner decided they wanted a Stutz Bearcat. So they stripped off the Hotshot body and hand-fabricated everything you see on top of the chassis. The steel and brass work are very convincing. The builder added horns to extend the frame and moved the front axle forward. They fabricated spacers to mount large 21″ diameter Model A Ford wire wheels to the stock brake drums in place of the stock 12″ Crosley wheels. Some parts are genuinely 100 years old, like the acetylene headlights (converted to electric), wooden steering wheel, klaxon horn, and Model A wire wheels. I wish I knew the name of the builder so I could give him credit. There is a photo of the car from the Crosley National show in 1996, but no name.

What issues did it have?

By the time I got it, the Speedster had changed owners a few times and sat in storage a while. It was running and driving, but had a number of issues to sort out. When I got the car, it ran and drove, but had a lot of issues from storage. Valves would stick. Things leaked. The brakes were dodgy.

I’ve spent my time improving it mechanically. I rebuilt the carburetor, fuel pump, and water pump, and replaced the intake manifold and gaskets. I ended up rewiring most of the car, adding running lights, brake lights, and turn lights. Then I had to solve innumerable oil leaks. After that, I got after things I didn’t necessarily need, but wanted. I added a temperature gauge and GPS speedometer, swapped to 19″ Model A wheels and new tires, did some brake work, etc.

The car accumulated wonderful patina in the years since it was rebodied. It genuinely looks like a car from 1916 these days. I am leaving the body untouched to keep that lived-in look. Plus, I like to drive it, and at shows I let kids sit in it. If I got the paint perfect I’d be afraid to use the car and scratch it.

Any remaining issues you’re chasing down?

There are always issues with an old car! But I’ve gotten reliability to a good place by driving until something breaks, fixing it, then driving until the next thing breaks. Rinse and repeat, and eventually you work most of the bugs out.

Right now I’d like to tighten up the steering as the car is prone to wander. Then the brakes also need some more sorting.

What engine does it have?

It’s the stock Crosley engine. This is the later Cast Iron Block Assembly (CIBA), which shared all the internal components with the early copper-brazed (CoBra) steel engines. The CIBA was lots more reliable as the CoBras tended to rust out(!). This is a tiny marvel of an engine: four cylinders, overhead camshaft, 44 cubic inches (0.72 liters), 26.5 horsepower, and 33 lb-feet of torque. It’s a simple, snappy, rev-happy little beast. Stock Crosleys turned 5000-6000 rpm. In racing tune, they’d do 10,000 RPM or better.

The power doesn’t sound like much, but given that the Hotshot was 900lbs (this car is probably in the same ballpark), they are pretty peppy. The Speedster keeps up with traffic in town just fine through 1st and 2nd. Third gear is too tal,l and there’s not much acceleration or hill-climbing power. The gearing on this wasn’t changed when the wheels were switched from 12″ to 21″ (now 19″), so my car hits wind resistance and tops out at 55mph, give or take. It’s not revved out at that speed, though, so it will cruise all day long. Stock Hotshots would do around 75mph top speed.

Where would you even go to find parts for something like this?

The crazy thing about Crosleys is that there are THREE vendors who will sell you almost anything you need for the cars, including some replacement sheetmetal. Parts costs are reasonable, too. Service Motors and Yankee Crosley are online; Dave Edwards does business by phone and ships COD.

The national Crosley Automobile Club is probably the best marque-specific club I’ve been part of. There’s a robust online community and guys will often give, swap, or sell parts cheap. They are generous with their knowledge and generally welcoming to newbies. The national show is a family-friendly week of fun at the Fulton County Fairgrounds in Ohio. There are kids everywhere. My middle-school son learned to drive a non-synchro stick shift running my Crosley wagon around the lanes at the back of the fairgrounds. The club periodically donates a youth project car, giving the teen support from members and vendors to help them with the restoration.

What are the most obvious signs that this is not actually a 1916?

A knowledgeable person would be suspicious of the wire wheels; most cars in the teens were still on wood-spoke wheels. The four-wheel brakes would be another giveaway, as those were developed in the 1920s. Close inspection would reveal the crank at the front is a dummy, as are the brass radiator cap and motometer.

Under the hood, the Crosley bits are a giveaway. An overhead cam engine was a bit of a novelty after WW2, but before WW1, overhead cams were the province of exotic racing engines.

How much does this get driven?

When the weather is nice, all the time. I often work within 30-40 miles of home, and I’ll  drive the Crosley. When I’m running errands, I’ll drive the Crosley. If it’s a nice evening, I’ll go for a joy ride in the Crosley. Last summer, I put at least 1100 miles on it. This summer will probably be 1500 miles or more.

I didn’t buy it to sit in the garage. I drive the wheels off it. When it’s broken, I make it a priority to fix it and then drive the wheels off it some more.

What’s your favorite story of your time with this car?

I love interacting with people. This is a very friendly car, and I let people touch it, sit in it, and ride in it. There are probably thousands of photos on Facebook of random kids at car shows sitting behind the wheel and grinning like Barney Oldfield.

I’m a superintendent in the United Methodist Church. Last summer, the Methodist Bishop of Bolivia came to Green Bay for a conference. I gave him a ride to Lambeau Field in the Speedster. I have no idea what he was saying, but we oo-gahed the horn a lot and waved at everyone.

Let’s talk about the summer road trip you recently completed

One of my goals for years has been to drive a Crosley from Wisconsin to the national meet near Wauseon, Ohio. This summer, we finally did it. My plan had been to take the S.S. Badger car ferry across Lake Michigan, which would have been about a 600-mile round trip.

My son offered to be my chase car. But instead of driving my modern truck, he drove his 1929 Model A Ford pickup. And instead of taking the car ferry, we drove through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, then down to Ohio and Indiana, and finally crossed back over to Wisconsin on the car ferry. This made the trip about 1400 miles for him, somewhat less for me.

How did it go?

With the Model A, our cruising speed was about 45mph. We spent a lot of time on beautiful backroads. When the sun shone, we got baked. When it rained, we got wet. We saw, heard, and smelled everything along the way. We camped much of the time. The plan was to drive no more than 200 miles a day, which worked out to be about 5 hours of driving.

Crossing the five-mile Mackinac suspension bridge was exciting. The wind was powerful enough to suck my bag with my bedding out from under the seatbelt and my elbow and send it flying off the bridge. My pillow now sleeps with the fishes.

Any issues along the way?

We figured that with two cars, we probably wouldn’t both break down at the same time. On a rainy Sunday afternoon in rural Michigan, we were proved wrong. The Crosley limped to the side of the road with a rear wheel bearing failure. Once AAA was called, my son took off in the Model A. Once the Crosley was on the flatbed, about three miles later, we saw the Model A pulled off the side of the road. The tow guy said to call AAA, but he was the only driver, and it would take him a couple of hours to get back.

The next morning in Bay City, MI, we swapped out the condenser and got the Model A running again. I loaded the Crosley into a U-Haul box truck and carried it the last 200 miles to the national Crosley meet, where I was able to get a new bearing installed. The Crosley did about 960 miles on its own wheels.

This trip was one of those life experiences my son and I will both remember and treasure.

Any idea how long you’ll hold on to this?

My wife is very tolerant of my hobby, but she has a strict one-hobby-car rule. We have limited garage space and disposable income, so it’s a good rule. Thus, I have long history of serial old-car monogamy. I’ll keep something as long as I enjoy it, then sell it and get something else I enjoy.

My bucket list is long; the Crosley will eventually have to make way. In the meantime, I’ll continue to mechanically tweak and upgrade the Speedster. When it finally leaves me, it will be in good shape for the next owner/driver.

Thanks Park!

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