You could say Adam Growe is moonlighting.
He’s not just a comedian; he’s a licensed cab driver – a necessity for the host of Discovery Channel Canada’s Cash Cab, in which passengers on a taxi ride become instant contestants on the TV game show.
When scouring the streets for victims, Growe drives a Toyota Sienna minivan. But when he’s on the road with his wife and three kids, he skips the boring old minivan in favour of a 2010 Toyota Highlander SUV, which he bought with his own cash.
Adam Growe— Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
“We have a family of five. We’d been living with a station wagon for over 10 years. We’d just grown out of it and we wanted to avoid the minivan thing.
“The Highlander has a third-row option, which is a treat for us because we lived so many years with all our kids crammed into a single bench in a station wagon. Although we don’t always use the third row, it feels like such a luxury when you’re accustomed to being crammed into a vehicle,” says the father of 12-year-old Jack, 9-year-old Emma and 5-year-old Lilly.
“I decided to go with a four-cylinder. But they only have a few options. You can’t get the sunroof or leather interior.”
That too bad because he’s not fond of the cloth seats. “The interior looks good, but the material they use for the seats seems to attract and collect hair, dirt. It’s like Velcro. It’s a light-grey colour and literally you can’t get stuff off of it. Its starting to look used compared to when we got it.”
Growe prefers the four-cylinder to the hybrid version. “The four-cylinder Highlander is more fuel-efficient on the highway than the hybrid. I do a lot of highway driving.
“I took the difference in price between a regular engine and a hybrid and I invested that into our home to get a high-efficiency furnace and hot water tank.”
And the four-cylinder proved more than capable on a recent family trip from Toronto to Orillia, Ont.
“We packed into that car all five of us. The cargo space was completely full. I bought a Thule for the top – that was completely full. And I had four bikes on a hitch on the back. You could see the back end of the car lower down. It was very weighted down.
“You couldn’t gun it. But there was never a point where if I had to pass someone I still could. The engine is fantastic – it did the job. Whether it can do that job for 10 years I can only hope,” says Growe, who has performed in radio, TV , and on stage for more than two decades; he’s currently touring with his one-man quiz show.
Adam Growe demonstrates his Highlander's cargo room— Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Growe doesn’t turn over his vehicles often. “We love to drive vehicles as long as we can.
“We had a Mercury Sable station wagon for over 10 years. It was a 1997 when we got rid of it in October to purchase this vehicle. Honestly I couldn’t get any money for it – the dealer offered me 100 bucks! The car had about 300,000 km on it. It was still running well. So I donated it to a high school for their shop [class] and I got a tax receipt.
“I’ve driven mostly clunkers in my life. I’ve driven cars right to the end. Even when I was in high school I had a 1971 Duster. I called it the Ruster. My mom gave me her old Honda Accord and it was a rust bucket.
