Horrible taste ("distressed" everything); horrible show
A common theme here is that it's cool for things to be rusted, torn, and damaged. One flagrant example is the "rustoration" of that old roadster; Mike gushes over how great the "character" is and how cool the piece looks. For another example, Mike is designing the interior of a new shop building and tells the help to "distress" the metal shelves and make them look as old and worn as his merchandise! I remember another instance in which he buys a record player and goes on to talk up vinyl, saying that only vinyl will "rock through you" or somesuch. The superiority of vinyl audio reproduction is a myth perpetuated by nostalgics, hipsters, and an industry upset to have lost the obscene profits of the 1990s, when people were re-purchasing their albums en masse in a format (compact disc) that was cheaper to produce than any before it, and threatened by the Internet's cheapening of digital content. Mike is clearly pandering to a hipster clientele with many of his purchases.
No character on this show is a real treat, but Mike Wolfe in particular makes himself out to be a bit of a tool throughout. (And I only notice this show because my déclassé parents would watch it religiously whenever I was home from university.)