While the number of car-centered reality shows premiered in the last two decades isn’t small, very few of them actually have a predominantly female cast. One of those rare cases is the popular “All Girls Garage”, hosted by several automotive experts, who besides doing a great job at handling some of the most complex automotive projects, also prove that there’s nothing that women can’t do.
Though the show’s success is undeniable, there’s also no denying that since its premiere in 2012, “All Girls Garage” has gone through many changes, including saying goodbye to some of its most popular cast members.
However, have any of these changes affected the spot in the show of the popular mechanic Faye Hadley? Or is she still in it? What is she doing in her everyday life, and how did she rise to fame in the first place? Stay here to know all about Faye’s whereabouts, her career and so much more!
Where Is She Now?
Those who haven’t kept up-to-date with Faye Hadley’s whereabouts, will surely be happy to know that she’s as active as ever, both as a TV personality and as an automotive expert. As seen on her Instagram account, Faye splits her time between fixing cars, hosting “All Girls Garage”, and creating educational but entertaining content for her YouTube channel and TikTok accounts, the latter on which she has been the most active by sharing videos related to her projects and personal life.
With overall 300,000 followers combined on all her accounts, Faye’s popularity has done nothing but grow ever since she became an “All Girls Garage”, though that doesn’t mean she’s abandoned her business at all. Her Texas-based Pistons & PixieDust body is as active as ever these days, except when she’s away filming her show in Phoenix, Arizona.
All in all, Faye Hadley is doing as well as ever, and doesn’t seem likely to stop any time soon.
What Happened To Faye’s Car?
Those who’ve been following Faye Hadley from a long time, surely remember that not only she loves fixing and rebuilding cars, but is also a fan of hitting the road with her Toyotas.
That being said, the year 2022 saw her having a bad time during the event Supra in Vegas in October. According to an Instagram post she shared, her special edition 2021 Toyota GR Supra A91 was damaged when another car impacted it from the side. Although it’s unclear if she was in the car when the accident happened, her husband Brandon was behind the wheel back then: ‘He made it out safe with minor bruising and cuts. It could have been so much worse, and I am so thankful to everyone who helped us’, she wrote, adding that this wasn’t the first time her Supra A91 has been involved in an accident, as back in 2021 Faye was rear ended by a drunk driver, but fortunately made it out alive.
Regarding the current state of her car, in late 2022 Faye answered some of her Instagram followers’ questions, and affirmed that despite having a total insurance coverage of her A91, accidents race-related were unfortunately not covered by her broker. Nonetheless, hopefully Faye will sort out these issues and have her A91 back on the road again soon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn2NSEpOe2p/
What’s Going On With “All Girls Garage”?
Ever since its premiere in 2012 “All Girls Garage” has been known for featuring automotive-projects equally complex and exciting. That being said, those who have tuned into the show from the start know well that the cast is ever-changing, having quite a good number of former hosts and mechanics who joined the show for one or several seasons in the past.
However, to date there’s fortunately no sign of Faye Hadley and her current co-host Sarah ‘Bogi’ Lateiner leaving the show any time soon. In fact, by January 2023, Faye affirmed in an Instagram post that she and Bogi had already started filming season13, after the previous one finished airing in December 2022.
As we wait for new surprises to come in this latest “All Girls Garage” season, Faye has other exciting projects coming up. As she revealed in a YouTube video from late 2022, one of her main goals for 2023 is getting her beloved 1989 Toyota Supra back in shape, after spending the last couple of years rebuilding it to join several race events, including Supras In Vegas.
Who Is Faye Hadley?
Love for the automotive doesn’t come out of nowhere, not for racers, designers and especially not for technicians. This is the case of Faye Hadley, the host of “All Girls Garage” who’s also quite accomplished in her everyday life career as a mechanic.
Faye’s love for cars started when she was a toddler, asking her parents for car toys and decorating her cakes with construction vehicles: ‘If you asked my mother, she would tell you I came out of the womb loving cars, going fast, and really —I loved anything with wheels’, she said in an interview with Capri Tools.
Although Faye’s passion for cars only grew with time, she followed her family’s example of becoming an academic by accepting a scholarship at Harvard. Nonetheless, right after her first mid-term on campus, Faye changed her mind and bought a Volkswagen GTI with her saved money, signed up for online classes for the rest of the semester, and started a road trip alone throughout the US.
Faye eventually returned to college, but her then-poor financial situation made it hard to fix her GIT’s engine, which had exploded right after her return; nonetheless, Faye’s adventures hadn’t ended just yet.
Beginnings & Side Career
Sweeping floors at a Volkswagen garage as an unpaid intern eventually allowed Faye to fix her GTI herself, but she still had a long way to go before following her call for the automotive back then. At 22 years old, Faye graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology from Harvard and was promptly hired as a therapist, but life wasn’t quite what she envisioned it to be: ‘I love helping people, but as a therapist you just jump into people’s lives, it was too intense for me’, she told MotorTrend in 2020.
While workingd as a therapist, she used her free time in training with a Rhode Island mechanic, but a life-changing piece of advice from her mother brought Faye lots of clarity on what she needed to do: ‘She said, ‘Faye you do not have anything to prove to anyone. You only have one life’,’ as Faye told San Antonio Magazine, admitting that she was happiest when she helped people by fixing their cars.
Following her heart, Faye quit her job and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she had a hard time being hired, due to her lack of professional background in the complex automotive industry.
Path In The Car Business
Passing from being an inexperienced newly graduated therapist to entering the trade business as a mechanic wasn’t an easy choice, but it was surely worth it. After a rough start in Portland, Faye joined a local body shop as an intern, remaining in that position until the chance of being hired by a Toyota dealership came around.
As she found her way in the car-fixing industry, great things happened to her. After expanding her educational background by joining a community college in a mechanical-related career, Faye became a Master Automobile Technician by obtaining a certification granted by the National Institute of Automotive Service Experience.
As time passed and Faye worked in several local businesses, something incredible caught her attention, and inspired her to move her career forward: ‘What I noticed was that my customers followed me. They said they felt comfortable talking to me. So I started teaching basic automotive classes after work’, she told San Antonio Magazine in 2018.
While becoming an educator was an unexpected but welcome upgrade in her career, Faye eventually moved out of Oregon to establish herself in San Antonio, Texas.
Business & Mission
With a couple of years of experience as a mechanic and the right educational background, it wasn’t hard for Faye Hadley to find a job as an engine builder in her new home in San Antonio. However, this new job position kept her away from interacting with customers, something Faye dearly missed.
It wasn’t long until she went back on her routes, and started teaching automotive lessons on the side, achieving a huge success in a short time: ‘My students became my customers, and eventually I had too many customers to do it on the side’, she told San Antonio Magazine in 2018, the same year in which she completely quit her engine building job, and officially started her business Pistons & PixieDust, which nowadays offers courses specialized for women who want to learn the basics of mechanics.
Nonetheless, instead of repairing any type of cars, Faye still had a clear mission in mind for her business: ‘I wanted to specialize in something so that I’d have the opportunity to learn it well, as opposed to being a more general technician who knows a little about everything’, she told Capri Tools. Nowadays, Faye’s Pistons & PixieDust not only has an educational focus, but also serves as a repair shop for Lexus, Scions and their parent company Toyota.
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TV Career
At the same time that the greatest things happened to Faye’s career, her YouTube channel steadily grew, by offering her subscribers some simple but meaningful educational content about cars and mechanics in general, including Do It Yourself videos and vlogs.
However, getting to a point where she had her own internet audience wasn’t easy. When she started the channel in 2013, her main mission was to spread her knowledge, in the same way she’d learned her trade, thanks to other people on the video platform: ‘It was helpful to skim through a YouTube video and get an idea of what the job would require’, she told Capri Tools, referring to the times she had to work on cars that she had limited knowledge about: ‘because I gained so much from the YouTube community, I decided I wanted to give back’, she said.
At some point, her videos got so much traction that she became a small internet celebrity, eventually attracting the attention of MotorTrend, which hired her as an “All Girls Garage” host. It didn’t take long for her to be hired for other projects, such as the spin-off “Motor MythBusters”, which she co-hosted along with Bisi Ezerioha and Tory Belleci.
Nonetheless, no matter how much internet fame she’s already gained, Faye remains humble and loyal to her passion of teaching.
Which Is Faye’s Dream Car?
Any good fan of everything automotive has a dream car, one they couldn’t get out of their mind for decades. Faye Hadley’s dream car is the 1989’s Toyota Supra, but unlike many people, she actually got her hands on it from the beginning.
Back in 2013 when she was still in the early stages of her career as a mechanic, Faye bought her 1989 Supra with the goal of putting it back in shape and on the road again by herself, something which wasn’t possible due to the several engine problems found in the car by the time was completely restored in 2015. Back then, Fayed disassembled the car thinking a mistake on her part had ruined the project, without realizing that the issues came from the only part of the engine she outsourced.
Later with more gained experience and renewed energy, Faye re-started her 1989 Supar’s restoration and this time took her due time on finishing it: ‘I’m crazy, I spent three hours hand-sanding the fuel rail trying to get it just right. But why rush the process, why not take the time to enjoy it?’ she said in an interview with MotorTrend.
To this day Faye’s 1989 Supar is still a work in progress, but all the love and dedication Faye has put in it it’s what makes it worth it.
…and you should apply plenty of engine oil to the tip area of the valve stem. (watch my video here: https://t.co/Ttzqe0iLM3)
3: C: Both!
4: C: A damaged pilot bearing will not cause clutch slippage or failure. The others listed will cause the clutch disc to burn. (*Except*!!!)— Faye Hadley (@SupraFaye) October 31, 2021
Advice To Women In The Industry
One if not the most common question asked to women in the car industry is related to their experience in a male-dominated business. Faye Hadley is not an exception to that rule but even though she has openly admitted to not having experienced discrimination issues in her career, she also affirms that women and men have different ideas on how to deal with difficulties and frustration.
As she said in an interview with Capri Tools: ‘I will hear women blame themselves and wonder what is wrong with them. When men find a job challenging, they blame the vehicle or the job itself’. Faye’s advice for women in this regard is about not self-doubting and taking it personally, as difficult and complex works are an every-day occurrence in the auto business.
Overall, Faye is really a good example of what happens when one improves her abilities and skills for something they really love. Hopefully, her dedication to her craft will keep putting amazing projects on her way.
