Why do we love the cars that we do? The answer to that simple question has many and complex answers. It’s a query that Danny Estrin has tried to come to grips with on his new five-part series on SBS, Precious Metal: A Love Story.

Estrin is no ordinary television presenter. A lawyer by day, bona fide rock star by night, the Perth-based talent has now added TV host to his expanding resume.

He’s not a complete newcomer to our screens, either. In 2023, his synth-metal band Voyager was chosen to represent Australia at the Eurovision song contest, winning their semi-final before placing a respectable ninth in the final.

1

But it wasn’t just the flamboyant style of Estrin and the band that first caught the attention of viewers. Props are nothing new to Eurovision, but the sight of a first-gen Toyota MR2 taking centre stage alongside the band left an indelible mark on millions of viewers around the world, including Australia. It was the first inkling we had of Estrin’s love affair with cars.

How the white wedge made it on to the stage of the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, UK has a typically Aussie back story.

“It’s all about the staging,” Estrin tells Wheels. “People are obsessed with what the meaning is behind the staging. And I had to come up with some long-winded concept about, you know, we wanted to show movement and the journey on stage.

“And at the end of the day, that was just all the big fib,” he laughs. “I just wanted to get my car on stage.”
There was pushback from the show’s producer, who suggested Estrin astride a motorbike was more in keeping with their synth-metal sound, but by his own admission, he’s “not a motorbike guy”.

2

As the first car he ever owned, the white MR2 holds a special place in Estrin’s heart. He still has it too, the foundation of his ever-expanding collection of interesting, extravagant and sometimes oddball vehicles.

“It’s not a supercar,” he says. “If you get a Lambo on stage or whatever, it looks like every other rap or R&B video. But [the MR2 is] this kind of weird poor man’s Testarossa. So there’s this humbleness about it, which I liked as well.

“I think it’s almost a very Australian thing. It’s like, ‘we’re gonna have something cool, but we can’t be wankers about it’,” he laughs.

It’s clear from talking to Estrin that his passion for cars runs deep, a love affair that’s now translated to the small screen. But more than being just about cars, Precious Metal: A Love Story is really about the people who own them, about why they love the cars they do, and what those lumps of metal and glass truly mean to them.

In many respects, the show is not a show about cars at all, it’s about people and community.

“I wanted to do a car show where I explored what drives people’s passion,” he explains. “What is it about a car that has appeal to particular people. When you go to a car show, there are so many opinions and everyone says, ‘oh, I don’t like this’. And it’s fun to argue about why you like certain cars. And I wanted to understand more about what appeals to people, for whatever reason.”

1

Estrin’s subjects over the five episodes of Precious Metal are as diverse as the cars people own and lovingly care for. A former soap star, a fashion designer, an apprentice jeweller, a Kombi-loving mum, and a Japanese immigrant who finds community and a sense of belonging in the world of cars. It features models as diverse as a Nissan Cube, Lamborghini Espada, a Czechoslovakian-era Tatra, and a Volkswagen T3 Caravelle fondly nicknamed ‘The Toaster’.

“There’s so many different types,” Estrin says. “I thought car lovers were car lovers, but we’re not. Within the phylum of car lovers and car enthusiasts, there are so many different angles as to why people love cars.

“The more you talk to people, the more you realise that their stories are intertwined with some sort of concept, like, you know, freedom to the people or the futility of speed or these kinds of concepts.

“For some people it’s nostalgia; for some people it’s shape; for some people it’s more ‘I don’t really know and I kind of just fell into it’ or ‘my dad had one’.”

Of the many people and cars Estrin met over the course of filming, two stood out to him, and for vastly different reasons. Meeting Ken, a Japanese immigrant, highlighted to Estrin the pivotal role a community of like-minded car lovers can play in shaping lives and connecting with people in a strange land.

“There’s that beautiful moment where he’s like, ‘this helped me in part of my migration experience; this helped me to connect to people’,” recalls Estrin. “I’ve never thought of car ownership as having that kind of powerful driving force that enables people to connect with others in such a beautiful way.”

Ken’s McLaren is in stark contrast to Aldiana’s Volkswagen T3 Caravelle, which provided Estrin with a different revelatory moment.

“She’s an amazing individual,” says Estrin. “She speaks so passionately about what is in effect quite a boring car.

“It’s got its fan base, but it’s not exotic or anything, but the way she speaks about it with such fervour and such passion… and in the same way that a guy speaks about his Nissan Cube. And it’s like… it doesn’t need to be a Pagani Huayra for it to be interesting.

“It’s very easy to find boring people with interesting cars,” he continues. “It’s also very easy to find interesting people with boring cars. [But] it’s very difficult to find interesting people with interesting cars.

“So we wanted to have a nice cross-section of people who were interesting and they didn’t necessarily have to have the most exciting car ever.”

2

Estrin’s own fascination began in his native Germany and migrated with him to Australia in 1992. He didn’t have a word of English when he arrived, but soon found friendship and a common bond through the world of automotive fandom.

“There was this kid at school in year 6 and 7 with whom I just communicated through our love of cars,” Estrin recalls. “And we used to just read Wheels magazines and highlight things inside them.”

Estrin is a ‘car guy’ through and through. With a collection as flamboyant and quirky as his wardrobe, the lawyer-cum-rock star teases his fleet throughout the show. He still owns his beloved white MR2, the first car he ever bought. It’s actually one of two white MR2s he owns (the other one lives in the UK and was actually the Eurovision MR2). There’s an immaculate Porsche 928S, a mustard 1972 MG Midget, a Jaguar F-Type, Maserati Quattroporte, not one but two Smart fortwos (“I know, it’s so sad”), and two Mercedes-Benzes: an R-Class people mover, and his wife’s B200, which serves as a daily driver ferrying his two daughters to school.

He recently bought a Bentley Turbo R for around $20,000, which he says is “the best decision I’ve ever made” and he’s also just snapped up a 1979 Renault 5.

“It’s not a Turbo, it’s a four-door GTL,” he reveals. “It’s like the pedestrian car of the 1970s, a French everyman’s car. But I love it because you sit inside it and you think, ‘I’m just going to smoke a thousand Gauloises cigarettes and just drive around the French countryside’.”

But his pride and joy is undoubtedly a bright red Soviet-era Zaporozhets 600, which makes regular cameo appearances in Precious Metal.

“I used to have a toy car of the ZAZ in Germany,” he explains. “I was always obsessed with Eastern European cars, Trabants and Wartburgs and all that sort of stuff.”

A conversation with his dad sparked a renewed interest and an internet search revealed the scarcity of Russia’s ‘people’s car’ which had so captivated Estrin as a boy.

“There was one in Bulgaria, one in the United States. And one in Melbourne,” he laughs.

“There are these crazy guys that decided during Covid to open a business called the Soviet Garage for Comrades. I kid you not.”

3

He bought the Melbourne ZAZ. And now he’s eyeing up more communist-era cars.

“I’m saving up at the moment to hopefully buy an Uaz or a Moskvitch or Volga, which I’m sure they’ve got sitting somewhere. They’re always trying to sell me these cars because in terms of the audience that they were looking for in Australia, I am the target,” he laughs.

A huge part of the charm of Precious Metal lies in how Estrin engages his subjects with genuine warmth, insatiable curiosity and good humour, all the more remarkable after his 2023 diagnosis with stage-four cancer.

“It was a very tough time,” he says candidly. “Being basically told, ‘hey, write a letter to your family because you don’t have long’.

“I’m still here now, which is great, 65 rounds of chemotherapy in and still doing okay. I know it’s going to get me one day, probably soon, but I’ve outlived the expectations of the doctors, which is awesome.

“I think a big part of that is actually because I decided I’m going to enjoy life between the horrors of surgery and chemo and all this other stuff to the absolute fullest.”

2

Living life to the fullest includes planning a second season of Precious Metal because “there are so many stories. Whether someone buys it or not or signs us up, we’ll make it because it was so fun to do. And the hope is that people will watch it and enjoy it and the network will give us seasons two to infinity because I think there’s literally so much to explore.”

Precious Metal: A Love Story is currently streaming on SBS OnDemand

This story first appeared in the November 2026 issue of Wheels magazine, now on sale. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue since 1953.