The History (and Future) of ‘Car Corner’ on CCPTV

Tires screech on the pavement. An engine revs. The friendly face of Automotive instructor Rich Saxton looks at the camera.

“Hi, and welcome to Car Corner.”

That’s how each episode of Community College of Philadelphia’s “Car Corner” series opened, starting with the 2012 premiere on basic brake jobs. Originally airing on the College’s CCPTV53 public access channel, “Car Corner” was envisioned as an accessible, informational series about all things automotives. Looking back at the YouTube archives (available here and here), the videos feel like a nostalgic call back to the educational programs from the 80s and 90s. In those early videos, series host Dan Reed really drives home the old-school look:

“I had these huge mutton chops,” Dan said with a laugh.

Today, Dan is an instructor and curriculum coordinator at CCP for the Toyota T-TEN program. Back then, he was assistant professor of Automotive Service Technology. As he explained, the purpose of “Car Corner” was to create an educational series that anyone could enjoy.

“It's for amateurs and people who are just curious,” Dan said, “and then we also made it a little technical. So, if somebody was a mechanic or a technician, they could watch and enjoy the show because they'd really get what you're doing.”

The series’ 50 episodes covered topics like tires, battery maintenance, installing a stereo system, what to look for when buying a used car and much more. A special episode featured a visit to the Philadelphia Auto Show, where Dan interviewed industry professionals from auto manufacturers like Ford and Chrysler, and another episode answered viewer’s questions.

In the time since “Car Corner” premiered, videos have racked up millions of views on YouTube, with episodes on 02 sensors and starter maintenance earning 3.5 million and 4.5 million views respectively. The content of the series has lasting relevance—cars will always need maintenance, and a lot of the basics haven’t changed much in the past 14 years.

Earlier this year, Dan got first-hand proof of “Car Corner’s” lasting influence. He was in New Jersey for the 2026 SkillsUSA Championships, a competition for automotive students to show off their skills, when an instructor from another school approached him.

“He said, ‘Hey, you're the guy,’” Dan recalled. “And I'm just like, ‘Yeah, I'm the guy!’” It turned out the instructor recognized Dan from “Car Corner.”

Dan continued: “He said, ‘You're my favorite substitute teacher. I love what you do because it backs up exactly what we cover in the classes.’”

The instructor explained that when he was a substitute teacher, he made a playlist of YouTube videos to show the class based on what that week’s lesson. “Car Corner” was prominently featured in the playlist.

“It's reinforcing what he taught,” Dan said. “And so I thought, man, this is cool. I'm getting to be kind of like a co-teacher.”

The last episode of Car Corner aired in 2019. By that time, Dan and Rich Saxton, the department chair for transportation technologies at CCP who was also instrumental in “Car Corner,” didn’t have time to commit to the project. Instructors at the Auto Tech Building in West Philadelphia (the predecessor of today’s state-of-the-art Career and Advanced Technology Center) had more classes to teach as interest in the Automotive Technology program increased. As a result, educators had less time to make the show. Production became less frequent by 2019, and then complications with the COVID-19 pandemic brought programming to a halt.

“We didn’t necessarily know we were stopping when we did the last episode,” Rich said. “It wasn't like we did a finale or anything like that.”

There aren’t any concrete plans in the works just yet, but CCP’s Automotive Technology team hopes to bring “Car Corner” back in the near future.

“We want to reinvigorate it,” Rich said. “We want to do it more of it… It would be really great to show off this facility.”

The Career and Advanced Technology Center is a massive overhaul of the old Auto Tech Building where the program was originally filmed. The new structure has more shop equipment and vehicles on hand, which expands the list of possible topics. Plus having more space means the hosts can record episodes without disrupting classes.

“As part of the design of this building, we have a classroom with a lift in it,” Dan said. “We had this idea that we would do TV shoots in that classroom. The lighting is good enough and there's a glass wall, so that can give it this really transparent, cool, modern vibe.”

“And we still have more ideas,” Rich said.

CCP will have more to say once the details have been worked out for the series reboot. You’ll have to tune back in to see if Dan’s mutton chops return for “Car Corner 2.0.”