Freddy "Tavarish" Hernandez is an Automotive YouTuber and writer.^[15] He is well known for his YouTube videos about buying, fixing, and modifying depreciated used performance and luxury cars.^[16]

Tavarish (Freddy Hernandez) was born in 1987 in Novomoskovsk, Russia which at the time was part of former Soviet Union. His family moved from the USSR to New Jersey in 1990 right before the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. At first his family lived in poverty and was barely able to afford food, however they were able to build a comfortable life for themselves and buy a house. ^[4] Tavarish grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey and attended Elizabeth High School, graduating in 2004. ^[17]

The pseudonym Tavarish was a screen name Freddy Hernandez had used since he was 12 and it eventually stuck. He chose the name since Tavarish means comrade or friend in the Russian language. ^[4]

Tavarish lives in Central Florida with his wife who he married in 2013. The couple previously lived with Tavarish's parents in New Jersey before moving to Florida in 2016, buying a 3,000 square foot home on 1 acre of land. The main reasons he moved to Florida from New Jersey were the lower property prices and taxes in Florida. Other reasons included the less restrictive motor vehicle laws in Florida, lower crime rates in the community they were moving to, and nearby cruise ports. He chose central Florida over the coasts because of the lower cost of living, property prices, and to avoid hurricanes ^[25]. Tavarish is a right libertarian according to his political compass. ^[3]

Tavarish's first job after graduating High School in 2004 was working as Youth Speaker for the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation from July, 2004-May, 2006.

From March-October, 2009 he worked as a Medical Biller for Neighborhood Health Services Elizabeth Port.

From August, 2011-December, 2014 Tavarish worked as the Vice President of ScootersNYC Rentals & Tours. In this role he focused on marketing, management, and expansion. ^[17]

Tavarish had long been a car enthusiast and enjoyed working on, repairing, and modifying cars or wrenching as he calls it.

He gained writing experience by posting about what cars he was working on and what projects he had going on online forums. He first started writing on a Nissan Maxima forum and a Toyota Supra forum. From posting on the forums and arguing with other users he learned how to argue and set up an argument along with how logical fallacies worked. ^{[6] [20]}

In 2011 Tavarish started his own website APiDA Online which he created as hub for DIY car knowledge and culture articles. At the time he mainly wrote about experiences he had from buying and selling cars after fixing them up and modifying them. He would post the articles in Facebook groups about cars to gain feedback. One of his first articles was titled “Five Reasons it Sucks to be an Auto Enthusiast”. By posting Tavarish was also able to develop a fanbase. Tavarish then started posting articles on Opposite Lock the open forum of the motoring blog Jalopnik. Some of his posts ended up also being reposted on to Jalopnik. ^[6]

In June, 2014 after gaining experience writing on Opposite Lock, he wrote an open letter to Jalopnik's Editor-in-Chief Matt Hardigree that he had content no one else was writing about and would be a good addition to the team.

He even offered to work for free just to gain experience.

A month later in July, 2014 contacted Hardigree hired Tavarish to be a paid Contributing Writer for the site.

While working at Jalopnik, Tavarish found the best part was being able to meet people he looked up to in the automotive industry including Adam Carolla, Henrik Fisker, Ian Callum, and Alex Roy. ^[6]

In 2015, Tavarish started regularly posting videos on YouTube about different project cars he had bought. He soon gained a large following and by the end of 2017 had over 130,000 subscribers. His videos and articles follow him buying used fully depreciated enthusiast cars in running but poor condition then using his DIY skills to fix and modify these cars before selling them to buy more cars. Many of his articles and videos have headlines or titles such as "I Bought An Aston Martin V8 Vantage For The Price Of A Toyota Camry". ^[16]

As of July 2019, Tavarish has 828,000 subscribers on YouTube. His most popular videos include "I Just Bought The Cheapest Lamborghini In The Country!", "Rebuilding (And Heavily Modifying) A Stock 200,000 Mile Toyota Supra In 4 Days" and "Rebuilding (And Modifying) A DESTROYED BMW Sports Car In 4 Days".^[4]