The car engine’s roar blurs out the noise of street life in a metallic harmony. Every tire tells a thousand tales, and every driver brings those stories to life with each mile tacked on the odometer.

Video editor Archibald Henderson, and yours truly, open this motor show with a couple 2001 Toyota Camrys — which aren’t the most glamorous car but they make up for their basic nature with shocking efficiency.

“Usually my needle is hovering around 1/16 of a tank to empty, and that’s enough to go to work for the week,” Henderson said. Gas prices are unrelenting. I remember when choosing a car, the one thing I refused to budge on was its gas mileage. I needed something that could run for a while and was cheap to fill. Lucky for me, the Toyota Camry is one of the best in that field.

Henderson has tested the car’s limits, taking it on trips long and short. He managed to cruise it through Bodega Bay in a storm before taking it on a quest to White Castle in Las Vegas, with an engine light or two.

“I’ve had several extremely close calls on account of a failing suspension and less-than-optimal brakes,” Henderson said. There is no denying that any 25-year-old car is going to suffer through some detrimental maintenance problems, a reality I am grimly aware of.

From ripping out my dashboard to pulling half an engine apart just to replace an oil pump, my car, “Kurtis,” has survived many trips to Pick-n-Pull, a beautiful junkyard heaven built for every motorhead.

Despite how much old engines wear out, the Toyota Camry still holds its strengths, working as a valuable daily commuter.

Editor Rosemary Cromwell has also managed to make “The Exploder,” a 2010 Ford Explorer work — despite a few attempts of self-destruction.

“I had to replace everything: the compressors, all the hoses and the water pump,” Cromwell said. “I was driving to NY Pie once and the whole car started shaking. My thinking at the time was that I’d get the pizza and then roll back down to the shop.” No matter the problems, Cromwell still gets the most out of the Explorer in the four years they’ve had it.

Another entry into the fleet is podcast editor Kevin Terlizzi’s 1993 Lexus SC400 “Lexy,” which has seen better days.

Having received the car from his father, it boasts a grand 276,949 miles and lost the inner lining of its passenger side door somewhere along the way.

“I have dragged it everywhere, from the freeway to the tops of mountains,” Terlizzi said. “Once I took it to the top of Glass Mountain years after the fire for a trip up there and slept in the car.”

Although he has owned the car for six years now, Terlizzi has been on the hunt for some- thing a bit more reliable, hopefully with a fully intact door.

Stepping away from some everyday vehicles, ad manager Nick Vides’s 1973 Chevy Camaro LE named “Pearl” is a bonafide movie star.

The wineberry pearl colored car was featured in “The Haunting of Hype House,” a movie directed by Matt Farren, a friend of Vides. “We needed an era car for it. I have one from 1973, so why don’t we use that?” Vides said.

Vides and Farren stuck Pearl out in the middle of a green open field in Cotati to shoot a few scenes. Despite the 30-degree weather, and the car struggling to start after an hour of letting it sit, they still made it work. “It was beautiful to see on the big screen,” Vides said.

Despite its long run, the Camaro is not quite the oldest car on this list, with reporter Megan Brown’s 1968 Volkswagen Bug beating it by five years.

The coffee colored Volkswagen Bug named “LaFawnda” has been with Brown for around 13 years, surviving with the help of her brother who used to work at Viking Auto Parts and Repair in Novato.

“He worked on old Volkswagens there for several years and now does it out of our garage,” Brown said. “We have maybe 12 cars in front of our house right now.” There aren’t too many cars as iconic as the Volkswagen Bug; these decades-old cars are a staple of the classic car world.

Brown crossed paths with many other Volkswagen owners on the road, each happy to retell their Bug’s journey.

“One of the guys said that his windshield wipers stopped working in the snow and they had to tie strings around each of the wipers and pull it through the window of the car,” Brown said. While some of the newer cars might be safer or far more efficient, there is a unique feeling that comes with driving an older car. “I feel a tad more attached to my car because it’s older,” Brown said. “I feel so in tune with it; it’s an extension of myself.”

The Oak Leaf has also been a longtime home to our own apocalypse chaser, Mark Fernquest, who used to drive his dream truck, a two-door 2003 Nissan Frontier named “Zoom” for its supercharger. Zoom eventually turned into the “Little Beast” after Fernquest heavily modified it, adding a high-end K&N air filter. Sadly, a couple of years back, Fernquest was mid-drive when the engine seized up and stopped working.

“I had people laughing at me when I was asking $3,000 for the truck,” Fernquest said. “I still got $2,500.” Now he is once again driving a 2003 Nissan Frontier, this time a four-door, which he has named “The Outlaw,” but it just doesn’t feel the same.

“I feel like a dad driving it,” Fernquest said.

Still, he hasn’t lost touch with his adventurous nature and plans to drive “The Outlaw” to the Badlands and the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota.

At the head of the fleet roars adviser Anne Belden’s car, “Ruby,” a 2023 Toyota Highlander hybrid. However, Belden still mourns the loss of the previous Highlander, “Rosie,” a 2004 model.

“Rosie made many trips across the country and back. She got to see the world, stayed and slept in many states.”

Belden owned the car for 11 long years and took it absolutely everywhere. A long-lasting car can often feel like an old friend, so it becomes quite difficult to say goodbye, even when the engine tells you it’s time to go.

“I put in my ad that I was looking to ‘rehome’ Rosie and it made her feel like a real person,” Belden said. “I got a lot of women wanting her. I would highly recommend that when you’re selling a car to personalize it.” Ruby has also made quite a few trips at this point, crossing the country three times and surviving upwards of 16-hour drives.

Yet, no matter how far Belden takes Ruby, the memory of her first Highlander lives on. “I love Ruby, but Rosie was my soul car,” Belden said.

These metal machines may not have lungs or eyes, but an engine is pretty close to a heart if you think about it. Our cars become companions to us, carrying us on our travels to distant places, creating memories with every new leak and worrying sound that emanates from under their hoods.

For the Oak Leafers with cars and everyone else with a box on wheels, firing up that engine can be just as soothing as stepping into your own gas-fueled home.