When it came out in 2005, YouTube was mostly home only to short, homemade videos. A home video of someone doing a backflip, a clip of a zoo, or a dancing cat were the types of videos you were likely to find, almost all of which were posted by random people whose only motivation was to share. 20 years later, the site has become a content goldmine. Millions of people share videos for millions more to watch, from video essays about video game lore to sports highlights to obscure ASMR videos.

There’s something for everyone, and that’s especially true for car enthusiasts. However, while the functionally endless library of content is nice, it can be daunting to sift through. Whether you want comprehensive reviews of the newest models, supercar drag races, or brain-breaking engineering concepts made digestible, there’s a channel for you. Here are 15 of the best YouTube channels for automotive enthusiasts.

Interviews with hypercar brand CEOs? Check. Tours of multimillion dollar car collections? Check. Test driving Formula One cars? Check. Few automotive YouTubers have the breadth of content and exclusive access that Mr JWW does. Mr JWW, whose real name is James Walker, is a British YouTuber who started his channel all the way back in 2015.

Today, his channel has 1.01 million subscribers thanks to his videos that cover not only dream cars, but the lifestyle and people around them. One of his common video subjects is none other than Koenigsegg CEO Christian Von Koenigsegg, with whom Mr JWW has produced factory tours and car walkarounds. Walker also gives viewers inside looks into the world’s most exclusive hypercars, like the manual transmission-bearing V12-hosting one-of-one Aston Martin Victor. Beyond the cars themselves, Walker captures the experience of owning them, from speccing to delivery to track days. Widening the scope beyond the cars themselves, Walker has created a channel that is the ultimate glimpse into the supercar lifestyle.

Almost every automotive program with more than one host is inevitably held to the standard the original trio of BBC’s Top Gear showed us, and none have seemed to match that magic. However, if one gets close, it’s Throttle House. Headed by presenters Thomas Holland and James Englesman, this 3.32 million subscriber YouTube channel seems to capture some of the secret sauce of the Original Top Gear in their work.

Documenting road trips, testing cars on a private track, and having a set of hosts with comedic and complimentary chemistry may be part of it, but the bottom line is that Throttle House is just plain good. Their unique video formats like their old vs new videos put past generations of new models head to head with each other, giving the audience informative comparisons that reveal truths about old models, new models, the brands they come from, and the evolution of the automotive industry. Combine this with consistent car reviews, top notch production quality, and charismatic hosts, and you have a channel that can’t seem to miss.

If you heard the name Autotrader and thought it sounded more like a website for buying and selling cars than a YouTube channel, you’d be right. Kind of. While Autotrader exists primarily as something else, its secondary existence as a YouTube channel is actually quite successful (a trend which will continue in a few other entries). Primarily hosted by ex-“Top Gear” presenter Rory Reid, the Autotrader YouTube channel produces first looks and reviews of cars of all types.

There are tons of channels that host car reviews, but the main strength here is in the quality, and Reid’s performance. Nearly every video on the channel is made with cinema-like production value. Cars from Toyota hatchbacks to Ferrari convertibles are taken and juxtaposed against exotic locations, where both are shown to the audience via pleasing and professional cinematography. Their video arcs turn car reviews into satisfying and engaging content that car enthusiasts and car buyers alike are guaranteed to enjoy. Reid is a master of his craft too, being exuberant and expressive to entertain and communicative and polished to inform.

Similar to Autotrader, The Carwow YouTube channel is a supplementary media project to the Carwow website, which also helps people buy and sell cars. Hosted by Mat Watson, the Carwow channel posts automotive content focusing on car reviews of automobiles of all price tags and purposes, along with drag races, and an occasional car collection tour. 

While much of the content on Carwow focuses on cars the average person would never consider buying, the channel applies its review format to almost every car featured. This includes practicality and performance testing, purchasing suggestions, and a recurring overview bit where Watson lists five cool features and five annoying features about whatever car he’s in that day, whether its a Peugeot or a Bugatti. Watson also occasionally reviews long term test cars, like the 2021 Audi RS6 he lived with, which further helps the channel’s credibility as a car buyers companion. Combine all that with consistent uploads and video quality, and you’re left with a great YouTube channel for prospective car buyers, or curious car people.

Harry Metcalfe started out as much more than a YouTuber. A British automotive journalist, Metcalfe is the founder of EVO magazine, and lives on a farm where he rubs shoulders with fellow British motoring legend Jeremy Clarkson, in addition to being the host of Harry’s garage on YouTube. Metcalfe’s channel features all things cars, with a focus on true enthusiast automobiles. Reviews include supercars you’d see on other channels, but he also includes more intriguing creations, like the Eagle E-Type, or the Morgan Supersport. As an established automotive journalist, Metcalfe gets access to some truly incredible cars, with one of his recent videos getting viewers behind the proverbial wheels of the Ferrari 250 GTO.

What sets his channel apart from so many others is his presentation. Much of the landscape of YouTube car reviews are highly stimulating with quick cuts, fast paced edits, and heaps of specs and information thrown at you all at once. Whether this status quo comes from an attempt to capture dwindling attention spans of online content consumers or from a genuine excitement from these exciting cars is hard to say, but Metcalfe’s calm and stately manner provides a pleasant and informative environment for viewers.

Where some of the mentioned channels serve a wide platter of content, AutoTopNL focuses on one thing: car reviews on the German Autobahn. Each video is formatted almost exactly the same. All content is filmed via GoPro, as either Max Beelaerts or Martijn van Niele review the car in question in four simple steps. Each video starts with an external walkaround of the parked car, where the presenter doles out facts and specs. When it comes time to talk about the engine, they open the car’s engine compartment and list out things like power figures and top speeds. Then they move to the interior, giving viewers a POV style look from the driver’s seat of that video’s supercar.

The final step is the test drive, which takes place on one of the unrestricted sections of the German Autobahn. This gives the reviewers a sort of impromptu drag strip, where they can put the cars through their paces without the fuss of a track day. Their videos are formulaic and predictable, but in a way that highlights consistency and standardization rather than dullness and repetition.

RM Sotheby’s is one of the world’s premier auction brokers for the rich and famous to sell, bid on, and buy lots that include multimillion dollar supercars, classic cars, retired racecars, and more. If it looks like it belongs at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, it’s likely been the subject of an RM Sotheby’s auction, or will be in the future. The YouTube channel gives viewers a look into these auctions, with most of them being livestreamed and archived, along with sneak peaks at the cars of any given auction’s lot.

These auction focused videos are also supplemented by interviews of the car world’s finest, glimpses at dream cars, and longer expositional videos that focus on motorsport history, specific cars, or collections. For a company that helps sell cars worth eight figures, you might hope some of that profit goes towards making quality videos, and luckily, it does. Cinematic editing and eye-watering cinematography are a constant in their videos, which helps viewers further transport themselves to the upper echelons of the special car market.

Much of the world’s car videos are full of hyperbole, and overzealous show. It’s hard to blame anyone for exhibiting cars in this way, because the people presenting them love them, and the cars themselves are exciting, but sometimes a more reserved approach is welcome. Chris Harris, and his YouTube channel Chris Harris on Cars, provide this style of presentation. Having hosted “Top Gear,” and been a longtime correspondent for the Top Gear magazine, Harris is a seasoned automotive journalist, whose experience prevents him from being dazzled by the sheer coolness of the cars he works with.

Even when faced with cars like the Ferrari F80, or the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Harris always delivers a clear and neutral overview. This style of presentation is then paired with a restrained and utilitarian filming style that makes for videos that let the cars do the talking, and show them as they come. This doesn’t mean boring however, as Harris’s enthusiasm for automobiles still shines through his professional attitude.

One of the most famous faces, or lack of faces, in the car enthusiast sphere is the white helmet of The Stig. The Stig is the longtime mute and eccentric test driver of the “Top Gear” tv show, and though behind the show’s cameras a handful of men have played him under the suit, there is one definitive Stig. Representing The Stig for seven years isn’t even Ben Collins’s resume highlight. He’s raced in Formula Three, Nascar, and Le Mans, and he’s been the stunt driver for Bond films.

On Ben Collins Drives, Collins shares videos that cover everything car and motorsport . He explores car collections, does racetrack ridealongs, and interviews other motorsport figures. The bulk of his channel’s catalogue though is made up of him behind the wheel of all sorts of fast cars. The production quality is lovely, but that standout feature is his racing expertise. Collins can break down every nuanced sensation and characteristic of the cars he drives thanks to his extensive familiarity with them, making his channel the go-to place for an expert automotive opinion.

They say the riches are in the niches, and for Hagerty, this has certainly been the case. Hagerty exists not primarily as a media producer, but an insurance company. For the owners of multimillion-dollar supercars and rare classics, regular car insurance just won’t do, and this niche is where Hagerty stepped in as a specialized automotive insurance company to keep the world’s E-Types, Testerossas, and Veyrons safe. However, its YouTube channel, simply called Hagerty, has become a fine secondary venture.

The strength of the Hagerty channel is its variety. There are engine build timelapses, mini documentaries about cars or motorsport figures, car collection tours, restoration videos, and just about everything else. All of these videos are of exceptionally high quality as well, providing viewers with a media outlet that captures the car enthusiasts’ world in total. As if that weren’t enough, the Hagerty channel also posts car reviews under the name “The Driver’s Seat” hosted by car journalist Henry Catchpole, which cover the world’s more interesting and exclusive cars.

While it’s nearly impossible to watch a car video on YouTube without some level of explanation regarding what makes the thing go, it’s rare to see channels and presenters fully explore the details. Most car enthusiasts possess a deeper information bank on how cars work than your average person, but channels like Engineering Explained remind us that there are levels to that understanding.

Hosted by Jason Fenske, Engineering Explained focuses on what’s really going on under the skin of our favorite cars. As car enthusiasts, we are easily impressed by spec sheets full of top speed figures, 0-60 times, and braking distances, but understanding how these numbers are possible is where things start to truly boggle the mind. Much of the technologies behind performance cars are so complex that trying to understand them feels like a chore, but Fenske does a masterful job of breaking these concepts down into digestible information. Suddenly, you know the difference between horsepower and torque, or what different gear ratios do, or how VTEC works without your brains melting out your ears, making Fenske and his channel an invaluable resource for car enthusiasts.

Though there is a ton of good car content out there, there is an unspoken consensus that the original “Top Gear” will never be topped. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May inspired and entertained generations of car enthusiasts with their automotive antics, and their original program has become the gold standard that no car content can escape being compared to. After the trio’s departure following Jeremy Clarkson’s firing, enthusiasts were left with a “Top Gear” shaped hole in their hearts, and while “The Grand Tour” proved successful in its own way, it didn’t quite seem to capture the magic of its predecessor.

Enter Top Gear Classic. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it — this channel is an archival goldmine of all the best bits and moments of the original “Top Gear.” The original trio’s charisma still shines to this day, and the ridiculous challenges they put together remains as entertaining as ever. Sometimes, there is no substitute, and for those moments when nothing else will do, Top Gear Classic is there to scratch the itch.

With 2.83 million subscribers, you can expect Tim Burton (a different Tim Burton) aka Shmee150 to peddle some fantastic car content. Click on his channel with such expectations, and you won’t be disappointed. Burton’s story starts in 2010, when he began posting short videos of all the cool cars he saw around London. The videos were usually less than two minutes long, and consisted of simple walkarounds of parked supercars. They were bare bones, with no words or editing, but these simple videos are what got Burton his start.

Today, Burton’s videos are a little different. Rather than walking around the cars like he used to, he gets behind the wheel, and collects them himself. Along with his personal car collection, Burton also brings viewers videos of the world’s most striking and expensive hypercars. He covers factory tours, track days, concourse events, and more, all with his ever-animated presentation that makes it hard to not feel as giddy about the cars as he does.

While many automotive YouTube channels place the cars they cover front and center, James Condon, aka TheStradman, has a different take on what a car-focused channel can be. Condon has been at the car content game for 13 years, and in those years, he’s had to make a name for himself in the ever-growing pool of car creators. His earliest videos are strikingly similar to those of Shmee150’s, showing short walkarounds of cars accompanied by the ambient noise and camera shake.

Today, Condon shares the realities of supercar ownership, including the fun stuff like receiving delivery of supercars or driver’s tests in a Bugatti Chiron, and the not so fun stuff like rebuilding his crashed Ferrari 812 Superfast or diagnosing an engine problem in his Lamborghini Aventador. Condon always comes with a grounded personality despite his lavish lifestyle, and honest videos that show a different side of supercars, both of which are welcome differences to the majority of automotive content on YouTube.

If you’re looking for consistency and a no-frills editing style, Doug DeMuro is the man and the channel for you. DeMuro has been posting YouTube videos for 12 years now, and while he has a small array of different content, the vast majority of his uploads are made up of his famous car reviews.

Every thumbnail shows DeMuro with a smile standing behind the car he’s about to review, and every video comes as an in depth review of everything about the car inside and out, where DeMuro explores all the quirks and features. His videos are on the longer side, which allows him to dive into every detail of the car like how the buttons feel, or what the startup chime sounds like. He covers everything from hypercars to economy cars to his own cars, like his Porsche Carrera GT with thoroughness and charm, making his channel an essential for any gearhead.

When building this list, we focused on channels that achieved a high level of production quality, with pleasing cinematography, high quality audio, and editorial storyboarding, exposition, or explanation of the cars featured. We also favored options with presenters that have unique character and valuable insights into the cars and concepts in their videos.

Whether a channel often got access to exclusive content was also a factor. This includes videos featuring rare hypercars, interviews, or inside looks at events, places, and other happenings that would not be otherwise accessible to the average car enthusiast.

Finally, we wanted to include channels that offered informative content. We’re talking useful insights in the purchasing or ownership of cars, compressed or summarized to help the audience understand a car, or professional and effective explanations of difficult car- concepts the average viewer may not be familiar with. And it didn’t hurt if they were entertaining, either; challenges, comedy, good presenter chemistry, it all just sweetened the pot.