Ron Ananian knows his craft and for over 25 years, motorists have received quality, honest work with a smile at Ron’s repair facility, R\A Automotive. ''We fix everything but a broken heart,'' says Ron. Based in Waldwick, New Jersey, this family-owned professional service business has been named the best in the country by CARQUEST Corporation and the New Jersey Automotive Mechanical Shop of the Year. Growing up, Ron learned some valuable lessons from his father, a mechanic who serviced President Franklin Roosevelt’s DC-3 aircraft during World War II. He got the repair bug helping his father tune up the family car in time for an annual vacation. ''He taught me to respect tools and machines. My dad, who worked as the lead mechanic for American Airlines at LaGuardia Airport, would say, ‘There is a place for everything and everything in its place. Think your way through the problem, use your head, be precise, select the right tool for the job and you’ll find your way'', explains Ron, who got hands-on experience as a teenager taking apart and repairing anything mechanical from lawnmowers, motorcycles, and cars to even a washing machine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from Doubor Now to the Doubor
Saturday Morning Show with Larry Minty. There is one thing,
just one simple thing you can do to keep your
car running smoothly for up to a few hundred thousand miles.
What is that one thing? Here is the car doctor, Ronananian.
(00:23):
Now I know what you're talking about today, Ron, and listen.
I just want to tell you a quick story. It
was about twenty years ago and I had I got
a brand new Ford Expedition and I loved it. I
really did love it, and I was I was driving
it for a few months and all of a sudden
it just broke down. And it was brand new. It
was just a few months and it broke down, and
(00:44):
I brought it to the dealership, and you know, I
had a towed to the dealership, and the dealership said,
have you changed the oil in this? And I realized
I hadn't. In the engine what they call it blocked seized, Yeah, seized.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But how did it cease after four or five months?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Larry, Well, maybe it wasn't four or five months. Maybe
it was a little bit longer than that. That was
a really good question. I forgot what I was talking
to there for a second.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm going to put you through car doctor boot camp.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
There I go. Now, I learned my lesson a week
that was a long time ago. Now I believe me.
I changed my oil when it doesn't need to be changed.
I am such a fanatic about it. That's a big
lesson to learn.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I'll tell you what. I don't think there is
a time when you can't or shouldn't change oil. I
still like the five to six thousand mile five to
six month interval, and I'll tell you why. It provides
vehicle longevity. And it also gives a qualified, trained mechanic
the opportunity to look around and make sure everything is okay.
(01:50):
And that's key, and that's part of what an oil
changes about. And that's where our maintenance conversation is going
to start this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
When you say five to six thousand miles, is that
different for every car or is it pretty much the standard?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's a it's a just a good rule of thumb. Listen,
you know some people are different. I have family members
who won't really be mentioned because I'm afraid they're listening.
And you know it's I have to give them the
I have to give them the short oil change sticker
because I know they're going to go past it by
a thousand miles. And their answer is, but I have
you Yeah, but that's not the point. The point has
(02:25):
come in on time, you know, it's it's like difficult.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Non real quick. Then with that, a lot of cars
these days have you know a gauge or a reminder
since mine says, you know, when you get to fifteen percent,
bring it in. But sometimes you know I could be
under or over that five thousand miles or five months
or what should I look at? Should I do the
(02:49):
old fashioned just bring it in?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Do you own your car? Release it? Natalie?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I own it?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay? You want to drive it forever?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Change it every five to six or every five to
six months. I mean it's just that simple.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So five to six thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Or months five to six months with I'm hitting the
five thousand first okay? Right? Oh yeah sure? And you
know sometimes you can stretch it. And here's that conversation
with your mechanic. What does the oil look like? How
does the car feel? What's the general overall quality of
the vehicle. Oil changes do a whole lot more than
just change oil if they're done properly and it's now listen.
(03:27):
Some places use an oil change as a loss leader.
It's to get people in the door. Let's do the
cheap oil change and sell them thousands of dollars worth
of work which they may not or may necessarily need
right away. Some people do a practical oil change. If
the shop is one hundred dollars an hour, it's seventy
five dollars labor for an oil change plus material. That's realistic.
(03:49):
The place that's doing the cheap oil change is using
it as a loss leader. It's it's just math. It's
it's like the supermarket, right, How many times do you
go to the supermarket and say, how can they sell
me again? Allon of ice cream for two point fifty
this week and I can buy two, but last week
it was six dollars because they played with the price
of something else somewhere along the way to make up
the difference. Oil changes are no different. But an oil
(04:11):
change is the biggest, most efficient method of getting longevity
out of a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But that's not the only one. You talked about getting
your car to last a long time. There's many, many
other things you need to do.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I like the ill change and one of those is
so you go in, you buy a new car, and
you know they go through the maintenance schedule with you.
Look at that oil change list. Is it manufacturer printed
or dealer printed? And I'm not giving away any trade secrets,
but some dealers have created their own maintenance schedules and
(04:45):
they're correct, depending upon environment, depending upon application. Now we're
into a trust thing. Is this dealer really looking out
for my benefit? Do I want to maintain the car
as per them? Because I want to drive like Natalie
to four hundred thousand months? But then do I own
the car? Release it? If you notice, that was my
first question, because if you lease the car, I'm doing
(05:08):
whatever the manufacturer says, not the dealer, not the repair shop.
I'm doing what the manufacturer says. In the three years
i'm going to have that lease, I'm going to do
you know, two and a half oil changes, rotate the
tires once and out the door it goes. I'm not
in it for the long term, but if I'm driving
it a long time, I'm doing that oil change every
(05:28):
five to six I'm going to rotate tires on a
regular basis. When that vehicle approaches the fifty or sixty
thousand mile mark, I'm going to think about other fluids.
I'm going to think about fuel system cleaning. I'm going
to think about doing proper maintenance. Because where this conversation
started and what generated this topic for the radio show
this past week was I was in training class. Last week.
(05:51):
I took another advanced class on cylinder misfire diagnostics because
what else were to do on a Wednesday and Thursday night.
And it came listening to the other shops in the room.
They're doing timing chains and catalytic converters and transmission replacement
and all this heavy, expensive engine work. And they came
around to me and they said, Ron, how much how
(06:12):
many timing chains have you done lately? Zero? You know,
we don't do big, heavy engine work nearly as much
as we used to. And I couldn't understand why, and
then the light bulb went off. I do more maintenance,
and maintenance is the key to preventing that long term,
big failure.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And that gets back to a conversation we have a lot,
and that is you've gotta find someone that you trust
to work on your car, because if you don't, it
could cost you not only in the long run, but
in the short term.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Too, you know, Larry, I'm appalled by my industry to
a point. I spent a good fifteen minutes last week
with a new customer who's driving a ten year old
Dodge Charger with ninety thousand miles on it, and it
never had a lick of maintenance other than oil changes.
And I told them point blank, I said, you're on
(07:05):
the crux of you know, what do you do? Do
you begin the maintenance schedule? Now you got ten years
out of the car, you got ninety thousand miles. We
figured it out where in the last six years he
spent seventy one dollars a month to maintain this vehicle,
and the national average is one hundred and fifty, you know.
And he said, Gee, nobody ever explained it to me
like this, And I'm upholled by that. It's the obligation
(07:28):
of a repair shop to guide you as well as
the repair of the vehicle. It's like coming to a doctor,
no pun intended. It's what we're supposed to do. We
hold your life in your hands in our hands, and
the maintenance comes down to dollars. Is it worth spending.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, how do they know, I mean, forget for the
people that live near Waldwick, New Jersey, they can go
see you, but not everybody lives around that area. If
how do you know that this is the person to
go to, This is the person I can trust.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You're going to. You're gonna love this answer. Go get
an oil change done? How do they handle something simple?
If a repair shop can handle this simple oil change,
give them something more complicated to do, and do it
before you have the disaster. Hey, Larry, when do you
want to go to the emergency room when you're having
the heart attack or when well, you know, I'm a
(08:16):
little I'm hard to breathe and I'm getting a little
pasty looking. Maybe I want to find a doctor and
find out what's going on now before I have the problem.
Isn't that the better way? But we don't do that right.
We tend to a lot of us tend to rush
in at the last minute, fix my problem. I've got
an issue. I think it's some pre planning helps us
along the way to find a good mechanic.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But it can't just be the oil change. It has
to be they have to tell you we need you
to get in for this. We need you to get
in for this. We need you to get in for this,
but you need to trust that too.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yes, but you also need to apply common sense. Listen,
come by the shop later. I've got a twenty sixteen
jeep outside the rear tires are as bald as a
baby's behind. And the answer I got when I said
you need tires is yet, But I only go to
home Depot on Saturdays with it to pick up lumber.
What kind of an answer is that? You know it's
(09:09):
the screw that goes through the tire or the wet
road where you spin out of control, doesn't care where
you're going. It doesn't care how many miles around the vehicle.
It just knows it has no traction.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Ron and Anian podcast host of The Car Doctor, which
is available weekly on the iHeartRadio app. He's also owner
of r A Automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. This has
been a podcast from WOI
This is a podcast from Doubor Now to the Doubor
Saturday Morning Show with Larry Minty. There is one thing,
just one simple thing you can do to keep your
car running smoothly for up to a few hundred thousand miles.
What is that one thing? Here is the car doctor, Ronananian.
(00:23):
Now I know what you're talking about today, Ron, and listen.
I just want to tell you a quick story. It
was about twenty years ago and I had I got
a brand new Ford Expedition and I loved it. I
really did love it, and I was I was driving
it for a few months and all of a sudden
it just broke down. And it was brand new. It
was just a few months and it broke down, and
(00:44):
I brought it to the dealership, and you know, I
had a towed to the dealership, and the dealership said,
have you changed the oil in this? And I realized
I hadn't. In the engine what they call it blocked seized, Yeah, seized.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But how did it cease after four or five months?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Larry, Well, maybe it wasn't four or five months. Maybe
it was a little bit longer than that. That was
a really good question. I forgot what I was talking
to there for a second.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm going to put you through car doctor boot camp.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
There I go. Now, I learned my lesson a week
that was a long time ago. Now I believe me.
I changed my oil when it doesn't need to be changed.
I am such a fanatic about it. That's a big
lesson to learn.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I'll tell you what. I don't think there is
a time when you can't or shouldn't change oil. I
still like the five to six thousand mile five to
six month interval, and I'll tell you why. It provides
vehicle longevity. And it also gives a qualified, trained mechanic
the opportunity to look around and make sure everything is okay.
(01:50):
And that's key, and that's part of what an oil
changes about. And that's where our maintenance conversation is going
to start this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
When you say five to six thousand miles, is that
different for every car or is it pretty much the standard?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's a it's a just a good rule of thumb. Listen,
you know some people are different. I have family members
who won't really be mentioned because I'm afraid they're listening.
And you know it's I have to give them the
I have to give them the short oil change sticker
because I know they're going to go past it by
a thousand miles. And their answer is, but I have
you Yeah, but that's not the point. The point has
(02:25):
come in on time, you know, it's it's like difficult.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Non real quick. Then with that, a lot of cars
these days have you know a gauge or a reminder
since mine says, you know, when you get to fifteen percent,
bring it in. But sometimes you know I could be
under or over that five thousand miles or five months
or what should I look at? Should I do the
(02:49):
old fashioned just bring it in?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Do you own your car? Release it? Natalie?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I own it?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay? You want to drive it forever?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Change it every five to six or every five to
six months. I mean it's just that simple.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So five to six thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Or months five to six months with I'm hitting the
five thousand first okay? Right? Oh yeah sure? And you
know sometimes you can stretch it. And here's that conversation
with your mechanic. What does the oil look like? How
does the car feel? What's the general overall quality of
the vehicle. Oil changes do a whole lot more than
just change oil if they're done properly and it's now listen.
(03:27):
Some places use an oil change as a loss leader.
It's to get people in the door. Let's do the
cheap oil change and sell them thousands of dollars worth
of work which they may not or may necessarily need
right away. Some people do a practical oil change. If
the shop is one hundred dollars an hour, it's seventy
five dollars labor for an oil change plus material. That's realistic.
(03:49):
The place that's doing the cheap oil change is using
it as a loss leader. It's it's just math. It's
it's like the supermarket, right, How many times do you
go to the supermarket and say, how can they sell
me again? Allon of ice cream for two point fifty
this week and I can buy two, but last week
it was six dollars because they played with the price
of something else somewhere along the way to make up
the difference. Oil changes are no different. But an oil
(04:11):
change is the biggest, most efficient method of getting longevity
out of a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But that's not the only one. You talked about getting
your car to last a long time. There's many, many
other things you need to do.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I like the ill change and one of those is
so you go in, you buy a new car, and
you know they go through the maintenance schedule with you.
Look at that oil change list. Is it manufacturer printed
or dealer printed? And I'm not giving away any trade secrets,
but some dealers have created their own maintenance schedules and
(04:45):
they're correct, depending upon environment, depending upon application. Now we're
into a trust thing. Is this dealer really looking out
for my benefit? Do I want to maintain the car
as per them? Because I want to drive like Natalie
to four hundred thousand months? But then do I own
the car? Release it? If you notice, that was my
first question, because if you lease the car, I'm doing
(05:08):
whatever the manufacturer says, not the dealer, not the repair shop.
I'm doing what the manufacturer says. In the three years
i'm going to have that lease, I'm going to do
you know, two and a half oil changes, rotate the
tires once and out the door it goes. I'm not
in it for the long term, but if I'm driving
it a long time, I'm doing that oil change every
(05:28):
five to six I'm going to rotate tires on a
regular basis. When that vehicle approaches the fifty or sixty
thousand mile mark, I'm going to think about other fluids.
I'm going to think about fuel system cleaning. I'm going
to think about doing proper maintenance. Because where this conversation
started and what generated this topic for the radio show
this past week was I was in training class. Last week.
(05:51):
I took another advanced class on cylinder misfire diagnostics because
what else were to do on a Wednesday and Thursday night.
And it came listening to the other shops in the room.
They're doing timing chains and catalytic converters and transmission replacement
and all this heavy, expensive engine work. And they came
around to me and they said, Ron, how much how
(06:12):
many timing chains have you done lately? Zero? You know,
we don't do big, heavy engine work nearly as much
as we used to. And I couldn't understand why, and
then the light bulb went off. I do more maintenance,
and maintenance is the key to preventing that long term,
big failure.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And that gets back to a conversation we have a lot,
and that is you've gotta find someone that you trust
to work on your car, because if you don't, it
could cost you not only in the long run, but
in the short term.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Too, you know, Larry, I'm appalled by my industry to
a point. I spent a good fifteen minutes last week
with a new customer who's driving a ten year old
Dodge Charger with ninety thousand miles on it, and it
never had a lick of maintenance other than oil changes.
And I told them point blank, I said, you're on
(07:05):
the crux of you know, what do you do? Do
you begin the maintenance schedule? Now you got ten years
out of the car, you got ninety thousand miles. We
figured it out where in the last six years he
spent seventy one dollars a month to maintain this vehicle,
and the national average is one hundred and fifty, you know.
And he said, Gee, nobody ever explained it to me
like this, And I'm upholled by that. It's the obligation
(07:28):
of a repair shop to guide you as well as
the repair of the vehicle. It's like coming to a doctor,
no pun intended. It's what we're supposed to do. We
hold your life in your hands in our hands, and
the maintenance comes down to dollars. Is it worth spending.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, how do they know, I mean, forget for the
people that live near Waldwick, New Jersey, they can go
see you, but not everybody lives around that area. If
how do you know that this is the person to
go to, This is the person I can trust.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You're going to. You're gonna love this answer. Go get
an oil change done? How do they handle something simple?
If a repair shop can handle this simple oil change,
give them something more complicated to do, and do it
before you have the disaster. Hey, Larry, when do you
want to go to the emergency room when you're having
the heart attack or when well, you know, I'm a
(08:16):
little I'm hard to breathe and I'm getting a little
pasty looking. Maybe I want to find a doctor and
find out what's going on now before I have the problem.
Isn't that the better way? But we don't do that right.
We tend to a lot of us tend to rush
in at the last minute, fix my problem. I've got
an issue. I think it's some pre planning helps us
along the way to find a good mechanic.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
But it can't just be the oil change. It has
to be they have to tell you we need you
to get in for this. We need you to get
in for this. We need you to get in for this,
but you need to trust that too.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yes, but you also need to apply common sense. Listen,
come by the shop later. I've got a twenty sixteen
jeep outside the rear tires are as bald as a
baby's behind. And the answer I got when I said
you need tires is yet, But I only go to
home Depot on Saturdays with it to pick up lumber.
What kind of an answer is that? You know it's
(09:09):
the screw that goes through the tire or the wet
road where you spin out of control, doesn't care where
you're going. It doesn't care how many miles around the vehicle.
It just knows it has no traction.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Ron and Anian podcast host of The Car Doctor, which
is available weekly on the iHeartRadio app. He's also owner
of r A Automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. This has
been a podcast from WOI
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