I expected the Porsche 911 to be popular. The Corvette and Ford GT too.

But the Bentley Mulsanne?

Ten days into GoAskSam, and after thousands of searches, the big Bentley has somehow landed in fourth place, ahead of the BMW M3, Mazda MX-5 and Land Rover Defender.

I certainly didn't see that coming.

Are people hunting for a bargain? Curious about what these cars have been selling for? Or is there more interest in the Mulsanne than I'd appreciated?

I don't know yet. And that's part of what makes this interesting.

For years, we've been tracking what people actually buy. Now, through GoAskSam, we're beginning to see what they're looking for, too.

And the first results have thrown up a few surprises.

A couple of things worth pointing out before Porsche fans get too excited. The 911 and 996 appear separately simply because that's how the searches are currently grouped.

And these aren't necessarily people looking to buy a car tomorrow. Some are searching live auctions through Find, while others are using Market Check to see what certain cars have actually been selling for.

But the car names only tell half the story.

Someone searching for a BMW M3 might be asking for a particular generation, manual transmission, fewer than 50,000 miles and a budget of $40,000. Someone else might just want to know what a low-mileage E46 M3 has been bringing at auction.

All in one sentence.

Which brings me to something I've been saying for a while. I think the traditional dropdown menu is on borrowed time.

We’re seeing more and more searches on GoAskSam through voice, people speaking to their phone - ‘find me a black bmw m3 under 3k miles’ etc.. Try it out yourself…

People don't think in filters. They know what they're looking for, and increasingly they're simply telling Sam. And rather than just matching a few keywords, we can bring our market intelligence into the answer, including previous auction appearances and actual completed sales where we have them.

As I mentioned recently, a surprising number of people are speaking their searches rather than typing them. And that number is still growing.

But there's something else here that I find even more interesting.

At The Daily Vroom, we've spent years analyzing what people actually bought and what they paid. Now, for the first time, we're starting to see what people are interested in before they buy anything.

Not just which models, but which generations, specifications, mileage ranges and price points they're asking about.

Of course, ten days of searches doesn't tell us what the entire collector car market wants. But imagine what we might learn after six months or a year.

And perhaps by then we'll have figured out why so many people are asking about the Bentley Mulsanne.

We've given the place a lick of paint. Actually, quite a bit more than that.

The original site did the job, but I wanted something cleaner, easier to navigate and, frankly, a little more grown up.

So we've simplified things considerably.

Find, Market Check and Sell now have much cleaner starting pages, with one main search box and real examples of what each tool can do.

Find searches live cars across multiple auction platforms, but it doesn't stop at showing you what's available. Where we have the records, you'll also discover if that exact car has sold before, whether it's appeared at auction previously, and what similar cars have been selling for.

Market Check shows you completed sales with the individual transactions behind the numbers. We've also improved how we handle modified versus original examples, because those can be two very different markets.

Sell uses actual sales evidence to help you understand where similar cars have sold and what the data suggests about platform choice, auction timing and reserve strategy.

The intelligence hasn't gone anywhere. We've simply made it much easier to get to.

And the idea behind all three is the same. Ask Sam what you want to know, either by typing or speaking, and let him do the work.

Now, this is the change I'm particularly pleased about.

When we launched GoAskSam, everyone could run three Tasks.

Since then, quite a few people have asked how they could get more. Some wondered whether there was a Pro version they needed to upgrade to.

There isn't. And there won't be a paid upgrade just to get these extra Tasks.

We're increasing the allowance from three to ten active Tasks for everyone. Completely free.

And if you haven't tried Tasks yet, you're missing out on something rather useful.

Think of the usual car alert. You choose a make, model and year, and when something matches, an email arrives.

That's fine, but what if you're looking for something much more specific?

A manual E46 M3 in silver.

A red Ferrari from the 1990s with fewer than 20,000 miles.

Or a Land Cruiser that's previously appeared at auction.

You simply tell Sam what you're after, and he keeps checking new listings across the auction platforms we cover.

But here's the important bit, and what makes this different from a conventional alert.

Sam doesn't just find a matching car and leave you to do all the homework.

When a car appears, you receive the listing details, photograph, latest available bid and a link to the auction.

And because it's GoAskSam, you also have our market intelligence to explore. Where we have the evidence, you can see if that exact car previously sold, what it brought, whether it's been listed unsuccessfully, and what comparable cars have actually sold for.

With the original transactions there for you to inspect.

That's a pretty significant difference.

A normal alert tells you another Porsche 911 has appeared.

GoAskSam can help you understand the Porsche 911 that's appeared.

And with ten Tasks running at once, Sam can keep looking for ten different things while you get on with your day.

You can also watch individual auctions and receive a reminder before they finish.

Ten Tasks. Zero dollars. No Pro upgrade required.

We've made the site look better and added plenty of improvements, but we're sticking to the same approach when it comes to the numbers.

If Sam shows you what comparable cars have sold for, those figures come from actual completed transactions, and you can click through to see the evidence.

If there isn't enough reliable information, we'd rather tell you that than invent an answer.

And of course everything remains free 😃

Finally, thank you to everyone who's sent feedback over the last ten days. The suggestions, questions and even the bug reports have been enormously useful. A number of your ideas have already made their way into the site. Keep that feedback coming at: [email protected]

We're still very much at the beginning, but I'm pleased with where things are heading.

So have a look at the new GoAskSam, tell me what you think, and if there's a car you've been hunting for, give Sam a Task.

Or ten.

After all, why should you be the one doing all the searching?

I really don't feature enough cars from SOMO, which is a shame because they have such a wonderful variety of interesting cars coming through their auctions. Something I'm going to make a point of correcting.

And this 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is a pretty good place to start.

Finished in AMG Le Mans Red with just 9,941 miles, it's currently sitting at $215,000 with the auction ending later today.

But what caught my attention wasn't just the colour or the mileage. It was the ownership story.

The seller bought the car new and was formerly a Mercedes-Benz dealer. According to the listing, the SLS spent much of its first nine years, from 2012 to 2021, sitting in his dealership showroom.

Imagine having one of these in your showroom for nine years and resisting the temptation to take it home every evening.

For those who need reminding, the SLS was AMG's first independently developed supercar, with those wonderful gullwing doors and a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 producing 563 horsepower. No turbos, no hybrid assistance, just an enormous engine sitting behind that equally enormous bonnet.

And this particular car was rather generously optioned. The Le Mans Red paint cost $2,300, the Bang & Olufsen sound system another $6,400, carbon fibre interior trim $4,500, and forged wheels $2,400.

There's also the $1,500 AMG Performance Suspension, which has prompted some interesting questions in the comments.

One bidder was particularly keen to establish whether the car had ever been taken to a track, given that this is the much stiffer, performance-focused suspension setup. The seller says absolutely not, explaining that it was either on display or driven locally, and never used for racing or track days.

I do hope whoever buys it actually drives it, though. After spending nine years in a showroom, surely this SLS deserves to spend a little more time on the road.

Here's a car that cost over $300,000 new, has a 543-horsepower twin-turbo V12, and comes with its own silver champagne flutes.

And it's currently bidding at $40,500! Of course end price won’t be that price but it most likely won’t be six figures.

This 2004 Maybach 57 on MB Market has covered just 35,165 miles and looks rather magnificent in two-tone black and red. It even comes with the original Maybach umbrella, still in its packaging, plus enough factory literature to open your own dealership.

But here's what I find fascinating. Mercedes spent an absolute fortune developing the Maybach to compete with Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Yet 22 years later, people will happily pay six figures for an old Land Cruiser while thinking twice about spending $50,000 on one of the most extravagant luxury cars ever built.

And I understand why. The purchase price might have collapsed, but the cost of repairing a twin-turbo V12, complex air suspension or one of the countless electric gadgets certainly hasn't.

This particular car has an encouraging history, with 20 Carfax service records and plenty of recent work, including new tyres, batteries and transmission servicing. The seller has also provided additional service documentation and paint readings after bidders asked for them.

Still, a clean Carfax and a well-maintained example don't magically turn a 22-year-old Maybach into a sensible financial decision.

The real question here. Is this one of the greatest luxury-car bargains on the planet, or is it a $300,000 car disguised as a $50,000 problem?

Probably a bit of both.

And that's precisely why I love seeing cars like this come to auction. For the right buyer, it could be an extraordinary purchase. For the wrong one, the champagne flutes might come in handy when the first serious repair estimate arrives.

I've said before that sellers can make or break an auction, and this 2003 BMW 325i Touring on Cars & Bids is a great example.

It's covered 160,800 miles, had its original engine swapped for a 3.0-litre from a 330i, has three damage incidents on its Carfax, and comes with plenty of cosmetic imperfections.

Oh, and it's being offered without reserve, currently bidding at $3,930.

But the real story here is the seller, Andy, who's been doing just about everything right.

Ask about the engine swap, he explains exactly what happened. The suspension, he admits the aftermarket shocks were too harsh for LA roads. The accidents, he even describes hitting a pothole, spinning off the road and taking out a wooden signpost.

He's shared years of maintenance history, answered awkward questions and generally been more transparent than many sellers of cars costing ten times as much.

And this is where no reserve gets interesting.

On a modified, high-mileage BMW with a few bumps in its history, a reserve isn't going to make those issues disappear. Buyers know what they're looking at.

Instead, Andy has put everything on the table and let the market decide.

No reserve can be a gamble, but transparency is one way to improve the odds.

I hope Andy gets a fantastic result. Sellers willing to answer the difficult questions and trust the market deserve some encouragement.