August 4, 2015 • 38 mins
Every now and then Scott likes to mix things up by bringing in a topic that Ben knows nothing about. Tune in to hear if Ben is up to the challenge!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the Wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuff Works dot com. I welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott uh and I've been and also,
of course our super producer Noel is here as always Scott.
Today I proposed that we give each other. Everybody gets
(00:22):
a nickname, everybody, everybody gets a special occasion. Uh, well,
we've got some situations. I was cracking up because I
was making a big deal about being ready to record
this episode, and then as soon as we're ready to go,
I stopped and had to drink some coffee. So I
guess I will be the Java Lunatic, been the Java
Lunatic poland, oh, you gave your own nickname, or you
could do. I was worried that I had to do
(00:43):
one on the fly based on today's topic, which you
don't know, yes, right right, which will make this uh
let's see, that would make Noel the It's called Noel
Mysterion Brown like it? Yeah, like it. I also like
Joval Lunatic. That's all right, Joval Lunatic. It's probably the
name of a coffee shop somewhere. Roll off the tongue
(01:03):
right and se but jo that's it's apt description I'm
making up on the fly. I'm rolling with the punches
right now. So's I was thinking, Scott the rumble, Benjamin,
is it audible? Because I'm hungry right now? Then my stomach,
my stomach is rumbling. As we said before, it's like
(01:24):
distance thunder. It's it's coming. I'm very, very hungry right now.
So let's let's try to do this quick. We can
get out of here and grab a bite eat maybe together.
I'm always down to eat something you eat, maybe our favorite. Yes,
all right, well, I think we'll think about it. The
show we would do if we weren't doing a car show, absolutely,
and there's more than enough material. I'll tell you that.
So listeners, today our mystery episode series returns earlier. If
(01:48):
you will recall I got to jump on Scott and uh,
I think that will work pretty well? Those are those are?
That was a good time. Yeah, that was fun. We
talked about Tesla, Yes, and today is my come ups
because I have no idea what you're going to talk about. Yeah,
you may have a hint because I have brought in
my um My Owners Manual from my car, my new car,
(02:10):
and I've got the I've got the Owners Manual. Here,
I've got the Oh, if I give that, I can
tell you this right now, you'll know exactly what we're
gonna talk about. But I'll tell you this is my
warranty and maintenance section of my manual. Manual. Guys, see
where you're going. The question that I would like to
ask you Ben today and and our listeners is all
(02:31):
about um the dealer recommended service intervals and what they
do at those intervals. And this is just kind of
a loose talk. I don't know if we even spend
a whole lot of time on this. Maybe there's one
last little thing that I want to talk about at
the end. It was a suggestion or a question rather
from a listener that I would like to get to
at the very end. That don't let me forget that
if facebook question? Yeah, all right, back to the service.
(02:56):
Now here's the here's the score, here's the situation. Here's
the scene right now up on level seven of the
parking deck. Right now, that's where I park. That's the
scene on level seven. That's it's very dramatic way of saying,
were my cars? So here's the scoop. I I'm at
I'm at forty two thou miles in that car. I
bought it with like thirty seven thousand one D and
(03:17):
I bought it. I bought it as a certified pre
owned vehicle. And I didn't those searching for that or anything.
It just happened to be the car that I wanted
was a certified pre owned vehicle. And I know some
of the pitfalls with that. You know that a little
more for it, and do they really do all that stuff?
And is it really worth it? Um? All that I get,
I get all that, but it did get me an
extra two years on on warranty, which is nice, you know,
(03:40):
the powertrain warranty and all that. Now that the recommended
service intervals, I'm beyond the point where they will do
them for free. I think that's prior to and it
varies by manufacturers, so all this is different. But this
is going to follow along generally with other manufacturers as well,
the way that they handle things. Um. So it's a
(04:02):
certified pre owned vehicle and you know, buying it at
thirty seven thousand miles, the dealership had already done the
forty thousand mile service in the car, so there's an
extra you know, us the ten thousand mile interval between
the normal services on this vehicle if you take it
to the dealership, which is a long long time when
you think about it, ten thousand miles or one full year,
(04:22):
whichever comes first. That's a long time, you know. When
you think about getting oil changed. Typically they say three months,
three thousand miles. Here's Volkswagon saying, you know, one year
or ten thousand miles. Well, this one is going to
have an additional two thousand, nine hundred on it, you
know when I take it in, so it'll be like
twelve they like, going twelve thousand, nine hundred miles before
(04:43):
I get the next oil change in the car. And
then I talked to them about this, is that something
I can do because that seems like a long long
time to me. It's like it's like three times what
or three or four times what I normally would wait.
And he said, no, don't don't sweat it. That's exactly
way it is. Ten thousand miles that's are recommended. You know,
these cars carry any you know, just in general terms,
he said, a lot of our cars have you know,
(05:05):
seven quarts of oil on them, and they're they're big,
huge reservoirs. Of oil, and he says it takes a
long time to use up all that oil. And I
kind of squinted to them a little bit when he
said that, but I'll go with it. You know, they're
recommended services ten thousand miles. So I started looking at
my book, my my manual. This is a long way
to get to the spend. But I'm looking at my
manual and the fifty tho services you know coming up soon.
(05:27):
I gotta consider if I want to go to the
dealership or not. What's your feeling on going to the
dealership for these these big you know, milestone services and thousands, etcetera.
Based on what they do while you're there. I mean,
some of the things are valuable, I understand, as far
as UM and I may stay valuable. I mean, um,
(05:48):
more than you could do at home in your gridere
checking the timing belt or maybe accessing a sealed transmission
that has no no fill or no dipstick that that
happens with a lot of new cars. So diagnostics as well, Yes, diagnostics,
that's another great one. But but then other things like
I can check the operation of all my lights myself.
I can look at the tires and you know, determine
(06:09):
if they need to be rotated, which you know they'll
rotate them, but they're going to charge me for it
at this point. And you know, I can look at
them and determine if they need to be done or not.
But but I can't. I can't do that myself in
the garage without you know, buying another set of jack stands.
I guess, um some of the stuff seems like, yeah,
I definitely want to take it in for that, but
other stuff like it seems like I could do of
(06:30):
the like you could change your oil, you can change
your spark plugs. Yeah, exactly right. I mean there's stuff
like that that you can do. And that was part
of the forty thousand service. And and when you start
looking at your manual, at the list of what they
offer for different milestones, it's dramatically different. It's not the same,
you know, from ten thousand to one hundred thousand, right,
it's different recommendations. And I'm gonna show you one page here,
just this one helped listeners. But it's a page in
(06:52):
a booklet. On the on the left side is the
forty thousand service required, and on the right is a
fifty thousand service required. Now one is a full page
of you know, bullet points of two columns each two columns,
and the other side is the half half the page
two columns, but half the page, maybe even a third
of the page. It's it's very very well, it's very
(07:14):
very small the list, right, and and the stuff that's
listed there is is you know, basic routine maintenance stuff
to I mean, of course oil change and replace the
oil filter that's always in there, that every time it's
in there. But it's things like check the rear window operation,
you know, the the nozzle sprayer, um. You know, come on,
I don't need to take it to the dealership to
do that. My care doesn't even have that one, so
(07:35):
I can cross that off. Another one is for um,
you know, something for the diesel engine only, and I
don't have that, so I can cross that off. So
already this list on the fifty services getting smaller, but
it does have things like, well we're gonna check the
you know, the tension on the um on the timing
belt and you know, of course it wouldn't need it
(07:56):
at fifty, but if it's loose, I would like to
know that and maybe maybe yeah, it is time to
do it. Um, So you know, it's stuff that I
could potentially do in my own garage, but it would
be a huge hassle to do it. I mean, change
in the trans fluid and filter and stuff like that.
I guess you can in a modern car, but some
of these, like I said something, and I don't know
if it's the case with this one. I'll have to look,
but I don't know if I can even access the
(08:18):
fill or the dipstick for this thing. So I don't
it would be a something that might even require special tools,
you know, like dealership tools. Would be an investment of
time and money. Yeah, you might have to buy special
tools for some of this stuff. So I don't know.
I'm really on the fence about this, and I'm I've
got this car that I would like to I would
like to keep it around for many, many more years,
because you know, I just just bought it, and I hang on.
(08:39):
I tend to hang on the cars for a long time.
I mean, you know, well in not a long time
according to some listeners seven years or whatever. But um,
you know, for I'm looking at kind of a long
term investment. I wanted to last. Do I really need
to go to the dealership to get that stuff done.
I'll tell you this, uh, and this is not to
disparage any dealers nor any service you know, service advice.
(09:01):
If you have a mechanic you trust, I would say
go to that mechanic because the thing is that many dealers,
at least in my experience, many service providers are working
on a commission. Yes, you're right, and in particular the
service advisor, the guy that you talked to first before
anybody else. You need drive it into the the you know,
(09:23):
the lane that they have open there that meets you.
That guy's working on a commission typically, so the more
he sells, the more he makes, right, And this is
something that people are used to running into. I don't
think that necessarily means someone's going to be dishonest with
you at all. And I'm not saying that either. And
(09:44):
again you said it at once already I feel like
I need to say it to like, we're not out
to get dealership or the service text journalists. No, No,
not at all, not at all. So so with that
understanding that, yeah, sometimes you're gonna come across people that
are just really really um, you know, upfront with you
and honest shot. That's worthy about it. You're also going
to come across the occasional one that we'll try to
(10:06):
upsell you with. That's just the thing. Just about everything
that's the thing's got. The motivation is there, or the
potential that's probably a better word. The potential is there.
I I personally, when I have found a good mechanic,
I will I will stick by them I found when
you know, growing up, my family always stuck with this
(10:30):
one mechanic who he would go by the he would
go by the maintenance book right with all the hours,
the manpower hours, the labor cast, that kind of stuff.
And then he would also so on average, this a
job may well end up being uh costing more because
like he went by the book, literally by the book,
(10:52):
and his guys were good. So if they finished something
in a short amount of time, this will charge us
for you know, the thirty minutes or whatever of labor
it was supposed to take. Sure. Yeah, that's a that's
a very fair way to do it. I mean, if
it if it's scheduled to take Because they do that,
they do lose time studies and they and they say
(11:12):
that this repair is going to take one and three
quarter hours and it's gonna require two mechanics at some point,
not through the whole time, but you know, for whatever.
But they do these time studies, and you know, if
you go by the book, as you said, you know
the dealer recommended time that it takes um you can
stand to gain money if if they work faster, and
you lose money if it takes long. And that's the thing, Scott,
(11:35):
that's the thing, you uh, the ideal mechanic is gonna
be a mechanic like this guy would go by the book.
So you're absolutely right in the point where you say,
you know he would. He would probably gain some money
if they finish something more quickly. But if there was
a problem, a complication of some sort, then we would
still just be charged for what, you know, the recommended
(11:58):
hours here, which is nice, really nice, and I think
it could be. Luckily we didn't have terrible cars, so
it wasn't always a super super deal. But here's the
thing that here, to me is the one of the
number one signs you've got a good mechanic. If you
take it in and your mechanics says, here's the small thing,
(12:20):
I fixed it for free, or if your mechanic says, well,
it's not there's really nothing. You had a loose bolt,
and that that's something especially for people who are not
for people who only treated car as a thing to
an end, to a meeting or means to an end
rather um that that kind of mechanic is the kind
(12:42):
of mechanic those people need. Oh sure, Like you go
in with something that you think is a catastrophic failure
of your engine and they're like, oh no, it's just
a loose connector and I plugged it right back up
in right, Like my car keeps dying and the mechanics says, well,
it's you need to tighten the battery. Oh yeah, sure,
you like you got a loose terminal and that's what's
(13:03):
causing this intermittent electrical problem and stuff like that. If
they do it for free, they say it's no charge.
Just maybe next time when you're you know, coming, you
come back to us, Like if you're gonna have an
oil change, come on, you know, to Austin do because
you know those people don't change oil. It seems like
it's right, and you know, there's uh, it seems like
there was a tire story around that we used to
do that all the time. It might have been discount
(13:24):
tire now that I think about it. If you would
go to them with a tire that had a nail
in it or you know, slow leak of some kind,
they would often fix it, or you know, they even
plug it to take it off and plug it and
it would do that free charge. But they would just
say as you leave, you know, maybe think of us
next time you're gonna get new tires put on this car.
I think that's cool in a light service. A lot
of places, you know, we'll we'll patch a tire for
(13:47):
patching and tire for free or for the eight bucks
or whatever is minimal uh, minimal costs for some great advertising. Yeah,
and it works. It totally works. So that's a yeah.
So that's what I think is sign a good, good mechanic.
But I say all that to say that the issue
with a service provider is that a service provider, just
(14:09):
by the nature of the profession, is incentivized. Two is
incentivized if they are unscrupulous to say, oh, we had
to replace your battery. Well, okay, and I know that's
that's a very very very small percentage, But I'm just
saying that's the thing. So it's not to say that
(14:29):
service providers are bad. It's just to say that if
I have a mechanic that I trust and I'm hitting
the fifty or especially the hundred thousand, especially that then
I'm going in, Um, I'm going into the guy I've
known for years. You know, someone you trust, someone you've
got built a relationship with, right, someone who will uh,
(14:52):
someone who knows how cheap I am and will give
me the breakdown and stuff. The way that I would
want to hear it, which is here is you're right
now problem. This is gonna be a problem if you
don't fix it in a month, you cheap skate. Yeah,
and this, just so you know, is going to be
bigger down the line if you don't do anything. You
(15:13):
type wide, but you don't have to do it today.
But you don't have to do it. And I see
that's nice. So when you when like when you walk
in the door, his eyeballs don't current change into the
dollar signs rightly and I which would be very painful,
by the way, that would hurt. Yeah right now now.
I will say, however, that if you have an exotic car,
if you have a high performance car, uh, and you
(15:36):
get it from a dealership, it is probably best to
go to that dealership. Will it be more expensive? Quite possibly?
Quite possibly? Is like the nicest way I can say, Well,
I think if you've got an exotic and you take
it into just about any dealership or small town place,
they might even say, I'm sorry, we can't really work
on this. We don't know how to do this right exactly.
(15:57):
So you're gonna in those situations, the dealer is already
part of the cost of ownership that you should factor
in when you're thinking about the car, because it goes
way beyond and just the monthly payment or the suitcase
of cash. You well, yeah, I know, but something okay,
some things are going to be universal. I mean they're
gonna be able to do certain things, but not everything,
(16:18):
not everything, and maybe not with the level of care
you would want. And the other thing that you know,
you'll hear a lot when you go to the dealership
or services that they're using genuine folks like in parts,
genuine genuine crisis, whatever it is. And and that's part
of selling that that experience and that you know they
they are not going to use a remanufactured part they're
(16:39):
not going to use something that well, you know, maybe
they will use remanufacturer, but not the Yeah, exactly, from
an outside supplier and an outside vendor that sells something
that's similar but not up to the stand the quality
standard of the original factory peace or who knows. Maybe
maybe it's above, maybe it's better from the outside vendor.
Who knows. But um, okay, So coming back to this though,
(17:00):
I mean in my particular case, and I almost it's
actually a question that I would like to know because
I'm I'm going to be coming up to this and
who knows how long where this is like eight thousand
miles away and they said, yeah, I'm at forty two
and this is like a fifty thousand mile questions, So, um,
I got eight thousand miles still to burn in this car.
And when I get to that point, do I take
(17:21):
it in? And you know, because the warranty is not
really an issue at this point, it's sort of is
sort of and I'm on the powertrain warranty and all that.
So so you understand my dilemma there. I've got to
kind of figure that out in my head. Um, I've
got a a sort of you know, the certified pre
owned warranty to deal with. But I gotta I think
I have to talk with the service manager about this.
You know what's going on here. But if I don't
(17:43):
take it to them and I have something done to
it outside, then do I then do I endanger my
status with my certified pre owned warranty? I mean is
that they say what they say, Well, they didn't bring
it into our dealership for the fifty tho mile service,
therefore you violated the terms. And I could say, well,
I had them do the exact same fifty mile service there.
(18:04):
It was just cheaper. It was instead of eight hundred
dollars or whatever it costs, it would it cost me,
you know, three d dollars You get everything done there. Um,
but it's the same parts of the same material whatever, Right,
I mean, these are all things that I'm having to
think about right now. And if I go there and
ask them, that's the other thing, is that you go
and ask the service manager. Of course he's gonna say, well,
you need to bring it in here to have it done.
(18:25):
But I really want to know. I want to find
it in print somewhere. I want to find it somewhere
that says you know, you can you can do the
oil change yourself in your garage and that still counts
as you know, like well you change the oil at
the right time, and you can reset the interval lights
and all that. But you know, maybe you bring it
into the dealership just for the trans service and just
to have the timing belt check, but you do all
the other stuff at home in your garage. Does that
(18:47):
count as doing the full complete fifty service on the vehicle?
I mean, I think it does, but I don't know
if they would count it as far as like their
extended warranty and all that. Maybe maybe if you keep documentation,
like you keep the receipt or the invoice, I still
feel like that would all just fall apart, Like it
just wouldn't. It wouldn't ever stand up if something happened,
(19:07):
you know what happened. But if you if you had,
if you had written proof, like let's say you go
and get um fluid changed out. Fluids changed out, okay,
and uh, let's see they do the trends, and so
you have the documentation that they charged you this much
(19:29):
and let's just assume it was below the dealer price
and that's why you went there. And it specifies what
you've gotten right and fluid, the brand right, and it's
all spot on and it's what is supposed to be
in there. And then you know, you go up to
you have something that's covered under the warranty that goes wrong.
You bring it up and they say, wait, but we
(19:51):
don't have any record of you having these things serviced.
And then you say, I have my receipts and this
is exactly what you would have done, So I did it.
Here's the odometer. I feel like you have a case
to make because otherwise you wouldn't be you wouldn't be
violating the warranty as far as that your your end
(20:11):
of the upkeep. You're just neglecting it. You're right, you're
not neglecting it. You're just not doing it at a
more expensive place, which I think is I think it's
difficult to um. You know, again, I'm not I'm not
a warranty lawyer and listeners. This should not be construed
as legal advice, but but I would I would say like,
(20:35):
if if you do that, um, you know, if you're
in the wrong fluids right, you're using wrong fluids in
this case, then they probably have more of a case
to say, well, buddy, you're the one who pooped the
bed here. What a thing. Absolutely, that's that's um, that's true.
I mean, but that would be the case if I
did it in my own driveway too, you know, if
(20:57):
I if I decided that I was going to change
the transfloud and I did it on my own and
I just used whatever, and there's no receipt proof of that.
Just make a receipt for yourself. You don't do that. No,
I've never never done that. But that's something I have
to talk about later, all right. So that's interesting. And
you know, to be honest with you, ever, never, prior
to this vehicle, have I ever even considered doing this.
(21:18):
I mean, I've never thought about well, you know what, Okay,
there was one time that I that I considered it,
and I just I just kind of put it out
of my head because I didn't have the money to
do this. It was a used vehicle. It was an
Audie and when I had my Audi A four a
long long time ago, and um, it was out of
warranty obviously, but but you know, had they had their
(21:38):
regular routine Audie interval service procedures that they would do
you know, like the ten thousand mile thing, just like
v W of course parent company and UM. And I
considered for a moment doing that, and then I realized
how much it would cost, and it just was out
of my reach at that point, and I decided, well,
I'll just get the all changes on my own, I'll
watch the timing belt, I'll do this, and and I
was totally fine with that. And then with all of
(21:59):
my other vehicles, no problem doing that, you know, an
oil change, it right there on the driveway or in
the garage. I never even thought twice about it, you know,
I just kept my eye on the time belder. I'd
take it somewhere and have them check it. But for
whatever reason, right now, Ben, like as I'm approaching this fifty,
I'm thinking, I gotta get it to the VW for
the service. I gotta think about that in the future,
(22:21):
like what's that gonna cost me? And what you know,
what are the what are the angle? What are the
what's the angle on this? What are they gonna throw
in there? That's gonna be the extra eight hundred bucks
that I'm not expecting. Yeah, I don't know why I'm
thinking that way, but I just I just feel like
that's what's what's coming well, especially it's the first time
you've done this. Yeah, I guess, I mean, but what's
what is it that's so scary to me about like
this new vehicle versus like my old Honda that I
(22:43):
had no problem you know, tearing apart the suspension and
putting it back together and doing my own breaks and
doing my own fluid changes because it's all the same,
it really is. But for whatever reason, because I've just
gone through like buying it at a dealership and all
the process and the money and everything, and and you know,
with the certified pre owned thing, I feel like that's
the way to go. But in the back of my head,
(23:05):
I do know there's no problem I could. I could
do all of this stuff that's on the fifty tho
mile service except for're checking the timing belt. Maybe I
might even be able to figure that out. I could
probably do that in my garage. I don't know why
I'm all freaked out about this, but I kind of am, mm, well,
what if you just uh and and freak. That's a
little strong, I guess. I mean, yeah, once I once
(23:25):
I got all of the tools and you know, started
working on it. I'm sure it would be just like
any other car obviously, But um, I don't know why
it is that I'm that I am again apprehensive to
even start that process. Just go in, Just psych yourself
out and go in. Uh you know, in a you
know what, you gotta have the psychological edge. Do something weird,
(23:46):
you know, like go in there with a goat, like
also have a goat goat? I might have a different approach.
I'm getting you back for that time you advised me
not to fix my lawnmower and instead to rent a
go Do we ever talk about that on air? Maybe?
I don't know, But it's a good idea. It's a
solid idea. You're still standing behind. I still stand by
(24:07):
that idea. And now you have to have a fence
or at least a three or killing but a goat
instead of a lawnmower is a is a great idea.
So guys, one time I was I was getting irritated
because I had this old pos lawnmower that I had
put together and taken apart a couple of times. I
(24:27):
replaced a couple of parts. And small engines are relatively simple, right, Um,
But the problem was that every time I fixed something,
and I was teaching myself to fix this thing. Every
time I fixed something, either inadvertently broke something or the
more was just so old that something broke just by
virtue being moved around, you know, like every homeowner has
(24:48):
dealt with this, right and uh so I was getting
frustrated with it, and I was finally getting to the
point where I was thinking why I should buy a
new one. I was asking Scott here for for some advice,
and I said, you know, well, this is what I'm
I'm thinking. It's this, Now, what if I do this? What? What?
What's your advice? Man? Because I come to you for
(25:10):
advice often, and you said, buy a goat. Well, it
was a stop gap procedure, right, I mean it's something
in between. Because you had a bad lawn more, you
had mode your grass in three weeks it looked horrible. Yeah,
and you said, I don't know, I'm thinking about getting
a new lawn. More. When you say something like that,
that means that you're it's gonna be like two weeks
before you get it. So I'm thinking it's a five
(25:31):
week time span that you've got to fill with something.
You've got to either pay somebody to do it, yeah,
or you just get a goat. I thought you were
joking and then you came back and you're like, you know,
you can rent them too. I'm sure you could find
somebody with a goat they would be abilling to part
with for a couple of weeks. You're feeding that goat, well,
so they should pay you if we get the same goat. Uh.
Though you could borrow it to go to the dealer,
(25:53):
but at this point, at this point, I would say,
unless you know, unless you have someone that you are
already established with, uh, then I don't know, Like it's
it is tough to work on it yourself and still
have the you know, some kind of documentation if something
(26:13):
goes wrong. I can of just make one clarification because
I don't know if we're going to have an actual
answer here, but I'd like listeners to kind of chime
in on this too, And I just want to clarify
one thing is that I'm not so much afraid really
to do any kind of mechanical work on a car,
because I've done that in the past with other vehicles.
Just for some reason, a brand new car that you
just bought up the dealership. You know, it's a used car,
(26:33):
and it's on this certified bre own thing and you
know all that other stuff. It's like, for some reason,
I feel like, um, and I haven't really done anything
mechanical to this car yet. I haven't had it long
enough to have anything break. Really, I haven't even replaced
a ball on it, like a light bulb or anything.
I mean, I barely got the key fob program that
you gotta dig into. I would say, you gotta, you
gotta get in there and do some stuff just more comfortable.
(26:55):
You're right, I haven't even added washer fluid yet because
I haven't run out of washer fluid yet, because I
haven't driven enough. I mean, it's it's barely been road tested,
practically been So that's the thing, like I'm I'm just
a little apprehensive about starting. But once I do, I
think that, you know, I'll be able to handle everything
that's on the list of the fifty service, the sixt service,
and until I get to the point where it's like
changing the timing belt, you know, have absolute time to
(27:17):
change it, not just monitor it. I think that then
maybe I'll take it into a dealership to have them
do that work. But I don't have a trusted mechanic
in the area either, because I had that Honda for
so long with no problems until the day it died,
that I never really built a relationship with a local mechanic.
And I've been here for a long long time. I
just haven't needed any This is good, I haven't needed
(27:39):
any major service. Um. But it's also bad and that
I haven't found anybody like that yet, So I don't know.
It's it's it's a real, you know, quandary that i've
it is, but I've got time to think about eight
thousand miles, so I'm gonna, you know, be sparing on
the on the mileage now. I think we can let
that drop. But that yeah, listeners, let us know what
(28:02):
you think. But Scott, he told me to remind you,
my friend. We have one more thing. Yeah, one more thing.
One more alright. So here's the latest question from someone
on our Facebook page that I thought i'd bring in
here because it's it's an interesting dilemma, I guess another
it's not really a problem to have. This is a
good problem they have, really. Um. It comes from Michael
(28:23):
L on our Facebook page, and Michael says Scott and Ben.
You are my most trusted car guys of high praise,
don't you. That's a lot of pressure though anything. Well,
let's see what Let's see what's on your mind. Michael. Okay, alright,
so Michael says, I thought you had more to hand
to that. I'm sorry, he says. I am currently considering
buying a different car, but I need help with a dilemma.
(28:45):
I can either buy a brand new V six Camaro
with all of the new car stuff for under thirty thousand,
which we just talked about, right, that's one of our
just one of our fastest zero to sixty cars under
thirty k Yes, yes, and we listened that as a
solid choice. Um or a used Corvette that is about
ten years old, practically a supercar for the same price.
(29:06):
Now what do you think? And oh man, this is
this is a tough decision. I'm gonna need some more information.
I wait, I think I would do too, But I
mean this is a wow. I mean a ten year
old Corvettes were talking like a two thousand five Sixall
Park Corvette, which is a really nice car. Love Corvettes,
or the brand new V six Camaro with with all
(29:26):
that new stuff. I mean, that's awful tempting as well
for under thirty thousand. Um, not a V eight, it's
V six. But but still that's a great car and
and all the benefits of that, you know, like being
able to go back to the dealership with warranty issues
and stuff. Yeah, okay, because the Corvette is gonna have
a V eight though, it will strong, strong V eight,
(29:49):
but it's also got probably ten years of hard use. Yeah.
I would say, is that somebody's Is that somebody's baby?
That's that's the big question to me, Like, what what's
the mileage? First question? Yeah, I shouldn't have said hard use.
I mean maybe just just use. I guess you'd have
to know the owner or the owners of that vehicle
to know how they treat it. Yeah, Michael, if you
(30:10):
haven't checked out our podcast on things to look for
when you're buying a used car, then I would highly
recommend you give it a listen. We recommend some good strategies,
tips and tricks, good things to see as well as
things to watch out for that's gonna be invaluable. I
would say. The thing is, though, if you get the
(30:30):
brand new, if you get the brand new Camaro. Then
you also get a little bit of a safety net
with the warranty. Um, the insurance is probably going to
be cheaper on the Corvette. Yeah, maybe because of the age.
Because of the age. Uh. And I've got a gut
feeling on this, which I think, Okay, where are you
(30:52):
going my gut feeling out it's Corvette. Go Corvette. I
mean that's the other thing, because if it's already ten
years old, if it is indecent shape, and be very
very thorough when you check this out. If it's in
decent shape, I would yeah, man, I also recommend the Corvette.
(31:12):
The Corvette is just cooler. There you go, okay, so
but but but again, Scott, oh my gosh, massive asterix
if it has a boatload of miles on it. If
you get if you're getting these messages where the person
selling it to you has little things that pop up like, oh, well,
you know, just sometimes every so often blah blah blah,
(31:33):
watch out for that minor electrical issue that pops up infrequently.
But it's the sure yeah that don't don't mess with that.
As a matter of fact, I would say, uh, probably
the best thing to do if you if you really
want to get the Corvette, which is objectively the cooler
of the two cars. I always said, objectively, than then
(31:54):
what one of the best things you can do is
um any car guy, buddy, any mechanic that you trust,
like the kind of we were talking about earlier, just
borrow the car, take it for a test trip, bring
it to that person and have them look at it
for you, or at the very least, have them come
with you on the test drive and with you to
(32:15):
look at it even maybe even a better idea. And
if you're if you're if you're well versed and you're
comfortable and you don't need that, then that's fine. But
even if you are, it always helps to get a
second opinion before you decide you're gonna have to buy
a second car. Like that I do like, but so
so just in general, we both got instinct was to
say the Corvette, well, just the Corvette Schooler. I just don't.
(32:38):
I don't want to without knowing the situation with a
used car. I don't want to out and out say that, Yeah,
so the Michael, we're just covering our here. I don't
cover in my body. Yeah. We don't want you to
come back and say like you told me to buy
that car now that it was flight Yeah, yeah, something
like that. But but gut feeling on just the types
of vehicles without knowing any of the details over you know,
(33:01):
between Corvette and Camaro, like a new Camaro and an
older Corvette, I would go with the older Corvette. Yeah,
and right back, And you know, I'm interested to know, Michael,
what are you driving now? And what do you want
the car for? Like is a daily driver? Is it
gonna be? Clearly? Wants it to haul heavy things? And
maybe a trailer something like that, Yeah, maybe do a
(33:21):
little off roading. And the type of vehicle it is,
maybe driving Uber yea the most impractical Uber car would
be so cool though you get charge extra, Okay, So yeah,
I hope that answers the question. I'd love to I'd
love to hear back on those on those suggestions. And
and either way, man, tell us what you get. I
(33:41):
don't think that answers the question at all. I think
he's still confused. I bet after he hears us, you know,
talk about this in our uninformed way here because we
don't know about anything about the Corvette. We don't really know, uh,
I mean, we got the Camaro, though, Yeah, we do.
Corvette is a big question mark. Yeah, that's true. If
it was if he was asking between two brand new vehicles,
(34:02):
that might be an easier one to answer. But you
know something that's that's used in ten years used versus
brand new, that's tough because I again, it just comes
down to the condition the way. So if it's in
good conditions, so cool. I'll tell you this just to
speak for myself here where I in your situation, Michael,
and this is again a great problem to have, then
(34:23):
I would be heavily biased toward that, toward that oh
six Corvette. Uh, and I would probably try to figure
out ways to make it work, even if on paper
it didn't seem to be the best idea. So be
very careful about a lot of people. I mean, it
sounds like you and I've been. I mean it's it's
(34:45):
kind of one of those bucket list cars that you'd
like to say at some point, I owned a Corvette.
I mean, I think a lot of people would like
to say that. I mean, yeah, of course, get get
a Corvette. I make it a garage kid if you
can and take good care of it, and you will,
you will never regret it. I think you're right. Yeah, well, uh,
(35:07):
that's true, Scott. We probably did not completely answer Michael's
question except to ask him more questions about it. But
please do right back to us and let us know
the details, Michael, let us know what you end up getting. Uh, Scott,
we're gonna get on the way here and uh, I
think you'll get some lunch maybe. Yeah. And I thought
that I thought that was a good topic, uh, that
(35:27):
that you picked and uh, you've got eight thousand miles
to think about. Well, thank you, man, I appreciate that.
I just uh, I wasn't sure if we're gonna be
able to stretch this topic to that point because I
thought you're gonna have a a clear feeling one way
or the other. But it sounds like maybe you're saying
that for the most part, you're saying to take it
to it outside mechanic, but there might be some of
those bigger things that yeah, you do go to the dealer,
I mean with with your car, with with your car.
(35:52):
It sounds more like it's just Scot that that shine
that newness to it. Uh. And it sounds like you
don't yet have a guy that that you think is
is a solid mechanic. I got some recommendations, and we
live in the online age, so it's pretty easy to
find some too. Uh. But you knew from the jump
man before we got behind the microphones. You knew I
(36:14):
was gonna say go to the cheaper place that I
know that and that would be the local mechanic. And
you're right, and I know that that would be the
answer for you, But I was just une sure what
you're gonna recommend for me. But yeah, yeah, I appreciate
your thoughts and uh, and I would love to hear
what listeners have to say about it as well. Yeah,
until us how it turns out, because you know, some
of those dealerships have really great garages too. Yeah. And
there's something to taking it someplace that has you know,
(36:36):
the genuine VW parts to use on it. I mean.
And sure, it's just something mentally about it that you
you know, it makes you feel good once you have
the service done, like a clear conscious like it's uh,
it's back to the way it should be. I mean,
it's a thing man. For sure. There's some people who
hold that stuff sacred and will only go to the dealership. Yeah,
full stop. Absolutely talk to a Harley Davidson owner. Call
(37:00):
good call. Alright, So yeah, let's mose on out of here.
I am in the move for pizza usually what about you?
Always in the mood for pizza, my friend. So listeners, uh,
give give us some advice. Let Scott know what you
think about dealership versus an independent mechanic for his fifty
(37:21):
check in. And you can tell us about this on Facebook.
You can find us on Twitter. Michael L. Came to
us via Facebook where car Stuff hs W on both
of those. Check out every podcast we've ever done on
Car Stuff Show dot com. And if you want to
write to us directly with recommendations about dealerships, mechanics or
(37:42):
the best pizza and don't play around with that last one.
There's a serious question, then write to us directly. We
are work back down. For more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast
at how Stuffworks dot com. M h m hmmmm hm
Go behind the Wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuff Works dot com. I welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott uh and I've been and also,
of course our super producer Noel is here as always Scott.
Today I proposed that we give each other. Everybody gets
(00:22):
a nickname, everybody, everybody gets a special occasion. Uh, well,
we've got some situations. I was cracking up because I
was making a big deal about being ready to record
this episode, and then as soon as we're ready to go,
I stopped and had to drink some coffee. So I
guess I will be the Java Lunatic, been the Java
Lunatic poland, oh, you gave your own nickname, or you
could do. I was worried that I had to do
(00:43):
one on the fly based on today's topic, which you
don't know, yes, right right, which will make this uh
let's see, that would make Noel the It's called Noel
Mysterion Brown like it? Yeah, like it. I also like
Joval Lunatic. That's all right, Joval Lunatic. It's probably the
name of a coffee shop somewhere. Roll off the tongue
(01:03):
right and se but jo that's it's apt description I'm
making up on the fly. I'm rolling with the punches
right now. So's I was thinking, Scott the rumble, Benjamin,
is it audible? Because I'm hungry right now? Then my stomach,
my stomach is rumbling. As we said before, it's like
(01:24):
distance thunder. It's it's coming. I'm very, very hungry right now.
So let's let's try to do this quick. We can
get out of here and grab a bite eat maybe together.
I'm always down to eat something you eat, maybe our favorite. Yes,
all right, well, I think we'll think about it. The
show we would do if we weren't doing a car show, absolutely,
and there's more than enough material. I'll tell you that.
So listeners, today our mystery episode series returns earlier. If
(01:48):
you will recall I got to jump on Scott and uh,
I think that will work pretty well? Those are those are?
That was a good time. Yeah, that was fun. We
talked about Tesla, Yes, and today is my come ups
because I have no idea what you're going to talk about. Yeah,
you may have a hint because I have brought in
my um My Owners Manual from my car, my new car,
(02:10):
and I've got the I've got the Owners Manual. Here,
I've got the Oh, if I give that, I can
tell you this right now, you'll know exactly what we're
gonna talk about. But I'll tell you this is my
warranty and maintenance section of my manual. Manual. Guys, see
where you're going. The question that I would like to
ask you Ben today and and our listeners is all
(02:31):
about um the dealer recommended service intervals and what they
do at those intervals. And this is just kind of
a loose talk. I don't know if we even spend
a whole lot of time on this. Maybe there's one
last little thing that I want to talk about at
the end. It was a suggestion or a question rather
from a listener that I would like to get to
at the very end. That don't let me forget that
if facebook question? Yeah, all right, back to the service.
(02:56):
Now here's the here's the score, here's the situation. Here's
the scene right now up on level seven of the
parking deck. Right now, that's where I park. That's the
scene on level seven. That's it's very dramatic way of saying,
were my cars? So here's the scoop. I I'm at
I'm at forty two thou miles in that car. I
bought it with like thirty seven thousand one D and
(03:17):
I bought it. I bought it as a certified pre
owned vehicle. And I didn't those searching for that or anything.
It just happened to be the car that I wanted
was a certified pre owned vehicle. And I know some
of the pitfalls with that. You know that a little
more for it, and do they really do all that stuff?
And is it really worth it? Um? All that I get,
I get all that, but it did get me an
extra two years on on warranty, which is nice, you know,
(03:40):
the powertrain warranty and all that. Now that the recommended
service intervals, I'm beyond the point where they will do
them for free. I think that's prior to and it
varies by manufacturers, so all this is different. But this
is going to follow along generally with other manufacturers as well,
the way that they handle things. Um. So it's a
(04:02):
certified pre owned vehicle and you know, buying it at
thirty seven thousand miles, the dealership had already done the
forty thousand mile service in the car, so there's an
extra you know, us the ten thousand mile interval between
the normal services on this vehicle if you take it
to the dealership, which is a long long time when
you think about it, ten thousand miles or one full year,
(04:22):
whichever comes first. That's a long time, you know. When
you think about getting oil changed. Typically they say three months,
three thousand miles. Here's Volkswagon saying, you know, one year
or ten thousand miles. Well, this one is going to
have an additional two thousand, nine hundred on it, you
know when I take it in, so it'll be like
twelve they like, going twelve thousand, nine hundred miles before
(04:43):
I get the next oil change in the car. And
then I talked to them about this, is that something
I can do because that seems like a long long
time to me. It's like it's like three times what
or three or four times what I normally would wait.
And he said, no, don't don't sweat it. That's exactly
way it is. Ten thousand miles that's are recommended. You know,
these cars carry any you know, just in general terms,
he said, a lot of our cars have you know,
(05:05):
seven quarts of oil on them, and they're they're big,
huge reservoirs. Of oil, and he says it takes a
long time to use up all that oil. And I
kind of squinted to them a little bit when he
said that, but I'll go with it. You know, they're
recommended services ten thousand miles. So I started looking at
my book, my my manual. This is a long way
to get to the spend. But I'm looking at my
manual and the fifty tho services you know coming up soon.
(05:27):
I gotta consider if I want to go to the
dealership or not. What's your feeling on going to the
dealership for these these big you know, milestone services and thousands, etcetera.
Based on what they do while you're there. I mean,
some of the things are valuable, I understand, as far
as UM and I may stay valuable. I mean, um,
(05:48):
more than you could do at home in your gridere
checking the timing belt or maybe accessing a sealed transmission
that has no no fill or no dipstick that that
happens with a lot of new cars. So diagnostics as well, Yes, diagnostics,
that's another great one. But but then other things like
I can check the operation of all my lights myself.
I can look at the tires and you know, determine
(06:09):
if they need to be rotated, which you know they'll
rotate them, but they're going to charge me for it
at this point. And you know, I can look at
them and determine if they need to be done or not.
But but I can't. I can't do that myself in
the garage without you know, buying another set of jack stands.
I guess, um some of the stuff seems like, yeah,
I definitely want to take it in for that, but
other stuff like it seems like I could do of
(06:30):
the like you could change your oil, you can change
your spark plugs. Yeah, exactly right. I mean there's stuff
like that that you can do. And that was part
of the forty thousand service. And and when you start
looking at your manual, at the list of what they
offer for different milestones, it's dramatically different. It's not the same,
you know, from ten thousand to one hundred thousand, right,
it's different recommendations. And I'm gonna show you one page here,
just this one helped listeners. But it's a page in
(06:52):
a booklet. On the on the left side is the
forty thousand service required, and on the right is a
fifty thousand service required. Now one is a full page
of you know, bullet points of two columns each two columns,
and the other side is the half half the page
two columns, but half the page, maybe even a third
of the page. It's it's very very well, it's very
(07:14):
very small the list, right, and and the stuff that's
listed there is is you know, basic routine maintenance stuff
to I mean, of course oil change and replace the
oil filter that's always in there, that every time it's
in there. But it's things like check the rear window operation,
you know, the the nozzle sprayer, um. You know, come on,
I don't need to take it to the dealership to
do that. My care doesn't even have that one, so
(07:35):
I can cross that off. Another one is for um,
you know, something for the diesel engine only, and I
don't have that, so I can cross that off. So
already this list on the fifty services getting smaller, but
it does have things like, well we're gonna check the
you know, the tension on the um on the timing
belt and you know, of course it wouldn't need it
(07:56):
at fifty, but if it's loose, I would like to
know that and maybe maybe yeah, it is time to
do it. Um, So you know, it's stuff that I
could potentially do in my own garage, but it would
be a huge hassle to do it. I mean, change
in the trans fluid and filter and stuff like that.
I guess you can in a modern car, but some
of these, like I said something, and I don't know
if it's the case with this one. I'll have to look,
but I don't know if I can even access the
(08:18):
fill or the dipstick for this thing. So I don't
it would be a something that might even require special tools,
you know, like dealership tools. Would be an investment of
time and money. Yeah, you might have to buy special
tools for some of this stuff. So I don't know.
I'm really on the fence about this, and I'm I've
got this car that I would like to I would
like to keep it around for many, many more years,
because you know, I just just bought it, and I hang on.
(08:39):
I tend to hang on the cars for a long time.
I mean, you know, well in not a long time
according to some listeners seven years or whatever. But um,
you know, for I'm looking at kind of a long
term investment. I wanted to last. Do I really need
to go to the dealership to get that stuff done.
I'll tell you this, uh, and this is not to
disparage any dealers nor any service you know, service advice.
(09:01):
If you have a mechanic you trust, I would say
go to that mechanic because the thing is that many dealers,
at least in my experience, many service providers are working
on a commission. Yes, you're right, and in particular the
service advisor, the guy that you talked to first before
anybody else. You need drive it into the the you know,
(09:23):
the lane that they have open there that meets you.
That guy's working on a commission typically, so the more
he sells, the more he makes, right, And this is
something that people are used to running into. I don't
think that necessarily means someone's going to be dishonest with
you at all. And I'm not saying that either. And
(09:44):
again you said it at once already I feel like
I need to say it to like, we're not out
to get dealership or the service text journalists. No, No,
not at all, not at all. So so with that
understanding that, yeah, sometimes you're gonna come across people that
are just really really um, you know, upfront with you
and honest shot. That's worthy about it. You're also going
to come across the occasional one that we'll try to
(10:06):
upsell you with. That's just the thing. Just about everything
that's the thing's got. The motivation is there, or the
potential that's probably a better word. The potential is there.
I I personally, when I have found a good mechanic,
I will I will stick by them I found when
you know, growing up, my family always stuck with this
(10:30):
one mechanic who he would go by the he would
go by the maintenance book right with all the hours,
the manpower hours, the labor cast, that kind of stuff.
And then he would also so on average, this a
job may well end up being uh costing more because
like he went by the book, literally by the book,
(10:52):
and his guys were good. So if they finished something
in a short amount of time, this will charge us
for you know, the thirty minutes or whatever of labor
it was supposed to take. Sure. Yeah, that's a that's
a very fair way to do it. I mean, if
it if it's scheduled to take Because they do that,
they do lose time studies and they and they say
(11:12):
that this repair is going to take one and three
quarter hours and it's gonna require two mechanics at some point,
not through the whole time, but you know, for whatever.
But they do these time studies, and you know, if
you go by the book, as you said, you know
the dealer recommended time that it takes um you can
stand to gain money if if they work faster, and
you lose money if it takes long. And that's the thing, Scott,
(11:35):
that's the thing, you uh, the ideal mechanic is gonna
be a mechanic like this guy would go by the book.
So you're absolutely right in the point where you say,
you know he would. He would probably gain some money
if they finish something more quickly. But if there was
a problem, a complication of some sort, then we would
still just be charged for what, you know, the recommended
(11:58):
hours here, which is nice, really nice, and I think
it could be. Luckily we didn't have terrible cars, so
it wasn't always a super super deal. But here's the
thing that here, to me is the one of the
number one signs you've got a good mechanic. If you
take it in and your mechanics says, here's the small thing,
(12:20):
I fixed it for free, or if your mechanic says, well,
it's not there's really nothing. You had a loose bolt,
and that that's something especially for people who are not
for people who only treated car as a thing to
an end, to a meeting or means to an end
rather um that that kind of mechanic is the kind
(12:42):
of mechanic those people need. Oh sure, Like you go
in with something that you think is a catastrophic failure
of your engine and they're like, oh no, it's just
a loose connector and I plugged it right back up
in right, Like my car keeps dying and the mechanics says, well,
it's you need to tighten the battery. Oh yeah, sure,
you like you got a loose terminal and that's what's
(13:03):
causing this intermittent electrical problem and stuff like that. If
they do it for free, they say it's no charge.
Just maybe next time when you're you know, coming, you
come back to us, Like if you're gonna have an
oil change, come on, you know, to Austin do because
you know those people don't change oil. It seems like
it's right, and you know, there's uh, it seems like
there was a tire story around that we used to
do that all the time. It might have been discount
(13:24):
tire now that I think about it. If you would
go to them with a tire that had a nail
in it or you know, slow leak of some kind,
they would often fix it, or you know, they even
plug it to take it off and plug it and
it would do that free charge. But they would just
say as you leave, you know, maybe think of us
next time you're gonna get new tires put on this car.
I think that's cool in a light service. A lot
of places, you know, we'll we'll patch a tire for
(13:47):
patching and tire for free or for the eight bucks
or whatever is minimal uh, minimal costs for some great advertising. Yeah,
and it works. It totally works. So that's a yeah.
So that's what I think is sign a good, good mechanic.
But I say all that to say that the issue
with a service provider is that a service provider, just
(14:09):
by the nature of the profession, is incentivized. Two is
incentivized if they are unscrupulous to say, oh, we had
to replace your battery. Well, okay, and I know that's
that's a very very very small percentage, But I'm just
saying that's the thing. So it's not to say that
(14:29):
service providers are bad. It's just to say that if
I have a mechanic that I trust and I'm hitting
the fifty or especially the hundred thousand, especially that then
I'm going in, Um, I'm going into the guy I've
known for years. You know, someone you trust, someone you've
got built a relationship with, right, someone who will uh,
(14:52):
someone who knows how cheap I am and will give
me the breakdown and stuff. The way that I would
want to hear it, which is here is you're right
now problem. This is gonna be a problem if you
don't fix it in a month, you cheap skate. Yeah,
and this, just so you know, is going to be
bigger down the line if you don't do anything. You
(15:13):
type wide, but you don't have to do it today.
But you don't have to do it. And I see
that's nice. So when you when like when you walk
in the door, his eyeballs don't current change into the
dollar signs rightly and I which would be very painful,
by the way, that would hurt. Yeah right now now.
I will say, however, that if you have an exotic car,
if you have a high performance car, uh, and you
(15:36):
get it from a dealership, it is probably best to
go to that dealership. Will it be more expensive? Quite possibly?
Quite possibly? Is like the nicest way I can say, Well,
I think if you've got an exotic and you take
it into just about any dealership or small town place,
they might even say, I'm sorry, we can't really work
on this. We don't know how to do this right exactly.
(15:57):
So you're gonna in those situations, the dealer is already
part of the cost of ownership that you should factor
in when you're thinking about the car, because it goes
way beyond and just the monthly payment or the suitcase
of cash. You well, yeah, I know, but something okay,
some things are going to be universal. I mean they're
gonna be able to do certain things, but not everything,
(16:18):
not everything, and maybe not with the level of care
you would want. And the other thing that you know,
you'll hear a lot when you go to the dealership
or services that they're using genuine folks like in parts,
genuine genuine crisis, whatever it is. And and that's part
of selling that that experience and that you know they
they are not going to use a remanufactured part they're
(16:39):
not going to use something that well, you know, maybe
they will use remanufacturer, but not the Yeah, exactly, from
an outside supplier and an outside vendor that sells something
that's similar but not up to the stand the quality
standard of the original factory peace or who knows. Maybe
maybe it's above, maybe it's better from the outside vendor.
Who knows. But um, okay, So coming back to this though,
(17:00):
I mean in my particular case, and I almost it's
actually a question that I would like to know because
I'm I'm going to be coming up to this and
who knows how long where this is like eight thousand
miles away and they said, yeah, I'm at forty two
and this is like a fifty thousand mile questions, So, um,
I got eight thousand miles still to burn in this car.
And when I get to that point, do I take
(17:21):
it in? And you know, because the warranty is not
really an issue at this point, it's sort of is
sort of and I'm on the powertrain warranty and all that.
So so you understand my dilemma there. I've got to
kind of figure that out in my head. Um, I've
got a a sort of you know, the certified pre
owned warranty to deal with. But I gotta I think
I have to talk with the service manager about this.
You know what's going on here. But if I don't
(17:43):
take it to them and I have something done to
it outside, then do I then do I endanger my
status with my certified pre owned warranty? I mean is
that they say what they say, Well, they didn't bring
it into our dealership for the fifty tho mile service,
therefore you violated the terms. And I could say, well,
I had them do the exact same fifty mile service there.
(18:04):
It was just cheaper. It was instead of eight hundred
dollars or whatever it costs, it would it cost me,
you know, three d dollars You get everything done there. Um,
but it's the same parts of the same material whatever, Right,
I mean, these are all things that I'm having to
think about right now. And if I go there and
ask them, that's the other thing, is that you go
and ask the service manager. Of course he's gonna say, well,
you need to bring it in here to have it done.
(18:25):
But I really want to know. I want to find
it in print somewhere. I want to find it somewhere
that says you know, you can you can do the
oil change yourself in your garage and that still counts
as you know, like well you change the oil at
the right time, and you can reset the interval lights
and all that. But you know, maybe you bring it
into the dealership just for the trans service and just
to have the timing belt check, but you do all
the other stuff at home in your garage. Does that
(18:47):
count as doing the full complete fifty service on the vehicle?
I mean, I think it does, but I don't know
if they would count it as far as like their
extended warranty and all that. Maybe maybe if you keep documentation,
like you keep the receipt or the invoice, I still
feel like that would all just fall apart, Like it
just wouldn't. It wouldn't ever stand up if something happened,
(19:07):
you know what happened. But if you if you had,
if you had written proof, like let's say you go
and get um fluid changed out. Fluids changed out, okay,
and uh, let's see they do the trends, and so
you have the documentation that they charged you this much
(19:29):
and let's just assume it was below the dealer price
and that's why you went there. And it specifies what
you've gotten right and fluid, the brand right, and it's
all spot on and it's what is supposed to be
in there. And then you know, you go up to
you have something that's covered under the warranty that goes wrong.
You bring it up and they say, wait, but we
(19:51):
don't have any record of you having these things serviced.
And then you say, I have my receipts and this
is exactly what you would have done, So I did it.
Here's the odometer. I feel like you have a case
to make because otherwise you wouldn't be you wouldn't be
violating the warranty as far as that your your end
(20:11):
of the upkeep. You're just neglecting it. You're right, you're
not neglecting it. You're just not doing it at a
more expensive place, which I think is I think it's
difficult to um. You know, again, I'm not I'm not
a warranty lawyer and listeners. This should not be construed
as legal advice, but but I would I would say like,
(20:35):
if if you do that, um, you know, if you're
in the wrong fluids right, you're using wrong fluids in
this case, then they probably have more of a case
to say, well, buddy, you're the one who pooped the
bed here. What a thing. Absolutely, that's that's um, that's true.
I mean, but that would be the case if I
did it in my own driveway too, you know, if
(20:57):
I if I decided that I was going to change
the transfloud and I did it on my own and
I just used whatever, and there's no receipt proof of that.
Just make a receipt for yourself. You don't do that. No,
I've never never done that. But that's something I have
to talk about later, all right. So that's interesting. And
you know, to be honest with you, ever, never, prior
to this vehicle, have I ever even considered doing this.
(21:18):
I mean, I've never thought about well, you know what, Okay,
there was one time that I that I considered it,
and I just I just kind of put it out
of my head because I didn't have the money to
do this. It was a used vehicle. It was an
Audie and when I had my Audi A four a
long long time ago, and um, it was out of
warranty obviously, but but you know, had they had their
(21:38):
regular routine Audie interval service procedures that they would do
you know, like the ten thousand mile thing, just like
v W of course parent company and UM. And I
considered for a moment doing that, and then I realized
how much it would cost, and it just was out
of my reach at that point, and I decided, well,
I'll just get the all changes on my own, I'll
watch the timing belt, I'll do this, and and I
was totally fine with that. And then with all of
(21:59):
my other vehicles, no problem doing that, you know, an
oil change, it right there on the driveway or in
the garage. I never even thought twice about it, you know,
I just kept my eye on the time belder. I'd
take it somewhere and have them check it. But for
whatever reason, right now, Ben, like as I'm approaching this fifty,
I'm thinking, I gotta get it to the VW for
the service. I gotta think about that in the future,
(22:21):
like what's that gonna cost me? And what you know,
what are the what are the angle? What are the
what's the angle on this? What are they gonna throw
in there? That's gonna be the extra eight hundred bucks
that I'm not expecting. Yeah, I don't know why I'm
thinking that way, but I just I just feel like
that's what's what's coming well, especially it's the first time
you've done this. Yeah, I guess, I mean, but what's
what is it that's so scary to me about like
this new vehicle versus like my old Honda that I
(22:43):
had no problem you know, tearing apart the suspension and
putting it back together and doing my own breaks and
doing my own fluid changes because it's all the same,
it really is. But for whatever reason, because I've just
gone through like buying it at a dealership and all
the process and the money and everything, and and you know,
with the certified pre owned thing, I feel like that's
the way to go. But in the back of my head,
(23:05):
I do know there's no problem I could. I could
do all of this stuff that's on the fifty tho
mile service except for're checking the timing belt. Maybe I
might even be able to figure that out. I could
probably do that in my garage. I don't know why
I'm all freaked out about this, but I kind of am, mm, well,
what if you just uh and and freak. That's a
little strong, I guess. I mean, yeah, once I once
(23:25):
I got all of the tools and you know, started
working on it. I'm sure it would be just like
any other car obviously, But um, I don't know why
it is that I'm that I am again apprehensive to
even start that process. Just go in, Just psych yourself
out and go in. Uh you know, in a you
know what, you gotta have the psychological edge. Do something weird,
(23:46):
you know, like go in there with a goat, like
also have a goat goat? I might have a different approach.
I'm getting you back for that time you advised me
not to fix my lawnmower and instead to rent a
go Do we ever talk about that on air? Maybe?
I don't know, But it's a good idea. It's a
solid idea. You're still standing behind. I still stand by
(24:07):
that idea. And now you have to have a fence
or at least a three or killing but a goat
instead of a lawnmower is a is a great idea.
So guys, one time I was I was getting irritated
because I had this old pos lawnmower that I had
put together and taken apart a couple of times. I
(24:27):
replaced a couple of parts. And small engines are relatively simple, right, Um,
But the problem was that every time I fixed something,
and I was teaching myself to fix this thing. Every
time I fixed something, either inadvertently broke something or the
more was just so old that something broke just by
virtue being moved around, you know, like every homeowner has
(24:48):
dealt with this, right and uh so I was getting
frustrated with it, and I was finally getting to the
point where I was thinking why I should buy a
new one. I was asking Scott here for for some advice,
and I said, you know, well, this is what I'm
I'm thinking. It's this, Now, what if I do this? What? What?
What's your advice? Man? Because I come to you for
(25:10):
advice often, and you said, buy a goat. Well, it
was a stop gap procedure, right, I mean it's something
in between. Because you had a bad lawn more, you
had mode your grass in three weeks it looked horrible. Yeah,
and you said, I don't know, I'm thinking about getting
a new lawn. More. When you say something like that,
that means that you're it's gonna be like two weeks
before you get it. So I'm thinking it's a five
(25:31):
week time span that you've got to fill with something.
You've got to either pay somebody to do it, yeah,
or you just get a goat. I thought you were
joking and then you came back and you're like, you know,
you can rent them too. I'm sure you could find
somebody with a goat they would be abilling to part
with for a couple of weeks. You're feeding that goat, well,
so they should pay you if we get the same goat. Uh.
Though you could borrow it to go to the dealer,
(25:53):
but at this point, at this point, I would say,
unless you know, unless you have someone that you are
already established with, uh, then I don't know, Like it's
it is tough to work on it yourself and still
have the you know, some kind of documentation if something
(26:13):
goes wrong. I can of just make one clarification because
I don't know if we're going to have an actual
answer here, but I'd like listeners to kind of chime
in on this too, And I just want to clarify
one thing is that I'm not so much afraid really
to do any kind of mechanical work on a car,
because I've done that in the past with other vehicles.
Just for some reason, a brand new car that you
just bought up the dealership. You know, it's a used car,
(26:33):
and it's on this certified bre own thing and you
know all that other stuff. It's like, for some reason,
I feel like, um, and I haven't really done anything
mechanical to this car yet. I haven't had it long
enough to have anything break. Really, I haven't even replaced
a ball on it, like a light bulb or anything.
I mean, I barely got the key fob program that
you gotta dig into. I would say, you gotta, you
gotta get in there and do some stuff just more comfortable.
(26:55):
You're right, I haven't even added washer fluid yet because
I haven't run out of washer fluid yet, because I
haven't driven enough. I mean, it's it's barely been road tested,
practically been So that's the thing, like I'm I'm just
a little apprehensive about starting. But once I do, I
think that, you know, I'll be able to handle everything
that's on the list of the fifty service, the sixt service,
and until I get to the point where it's like
changing the timing belt, you know, have absolute time to
(27:17):
change it, not just monitor it. I think that then
maybe I'll take it into a dealership to have them
do that work. But I don't have a trusted mechanic
in the area either, because I had that Honda for
so long with no problems until the day it died,
that I never really built a relationship with a local mechanic.
And I've been here for a long long time. I
just haven't needed any This is good, I haven't needed
(27:39):
any major service. Um. But it's also bad and that
I haven't found anybody like that yet, So I don't know.
It's it's it's a real, you know, quandary that i've
it is, but I've got time to think about eight
thousand miles, so I'm gonna, you know, be sparing on
the on the mileage now. I think we can let
that drop. But that yeah, listeners, let us know what
(28:02):
you think. But Scott, he told me to remind you,
my friend. We have one more thing. Yeah, one more thing.
One more alright. So here's the latest question from someone
on our Facebook page that I thought i'd bring in
here because it's it's an interesting dilemma, I guess another
it's not really a problem to have. This is a
good problem they have, really. Um. It comes from Michael
(28:23):
L on our Facebook page, and Michael says Scott and Ben.
You are my most trusted car guys of high praise,
don't you. That's a lot of pressure though anything. Well,
let's see what Let's see what's on your mind. Michael. Okay, alright,
so Michael says, I thought you had more to hand
to that. I'm sorry, he says. I am currently considering
buying a different car, but I need help with a dilemma.
(28:45):
I can either buy a brand new V six Camaro
with all of the new car stuff for under thirty thousand,
which we just talked about, right, that's one of our
just one of our fastest zero to sixty cars under
thirty k Yes, yes, and we listened that as a
solid choice. Um or a used Corvette that is about
ten years old, practically a supercar for the same price.
(29:06):
Now what do you think? And oh man, this is
this is a tough decision. I'm gonna need some more information.
I wait, I think I would do too, But I
mean this is a wow. I mean a ten year
old Corvettes were talking like a two thousand five Sixall
Park Corvette, which is a really nice car. Love Corvettes,
or the brand new V six Camaro with with all
(29:26):
that new stuff. I mean, that's awful tempting as well
for under thirty thousand. Um, not a V eight, it's
V six. But but still that's a great car and
and all the benefits of that, you know, like being
able to go back to the dealership with warranty issues
and stuff. Yeah, okay, because the Corvette is gonna have
a V eight though, it will strong, strong V eight,
(29:49):
but it's also got probably ten years of hard use. Yeah.
I would say, is that somebody's Is that somebody's baby?
That's that's the big question to me, Like, what what's
the mileage? First question? Yeah, I shouldn't have said hard use.
I mean maybe just just use. I guess you'd have
to know the owner or the owners of that vehicle
to know how they treat it. Yeah, Michael, if you
(30:10):
haven't checked out our podcast on things to look for
when you're buying a used car, then I would highly
recommend you give it a listen. We recommend some good strategies,
tips and tricks, good things to see as well as
things to watch out for that's gonna be invaluable. I
would say. The thing is, though, if you get the
(30:30):
brand new, if you get the brand new Camaro. Then
you also get a little bit of a safety net
with the warranty. Um, the insurance is probably going to
be cheaper on the Corvette. Yeah, maybe because of the age.
Because of the age. Uh. And I've got a gut
feeling on this, which I think, Okay, where are you
(30:52):
going my gut feeling out it's Corvette. Go Corvette. I
mean that's the other thing, because if it's already ten
years old, if it is indecent shape, and be very
very thorough when you check this out. If it's in
decent shape, I would yeah, man, I also recommend the Corvette.
(31:12):
The Corvette is just cooler. There you go, okay, so
but but but again, Scott, oh my gosh, massive asterix
if it has a boatload of miles on it. If
you get if you're getting these messages where the person
selling it to you has little things that pop up like, oh, well,
you know, just sometimes every so often blah blah blah,
(31:33):
watch out for that minor electrical issue that pops up infrequently.
But it's the sure yeah that don't don't mess with that.
As a matter of fact, I would say, uh, probably
the best thing to do if you if you really
want to get the Corvette, which is objectively the cooler
of the two cars. I always said, objectively, than then
(31:54):
what one of the best things you can do is
um any car guy, buddy, any mechanic that you trust,
like the kind of we were talking about earlier, just
borrow the car, take it for a test trip, bring
it to that person and have them look at it
for you, or at the very least, have them come
with you on the test drive and with you to
(32:15):
look at it even maybe even a better idea. And
if you're if you're if you're well versed and you're
comfortable and you don't need that, then that's fine. But
even if you are, it always helps to get a
second opinion before you decide you're gonna have to buy
a second car. Like that I do like, but so
so just in general, we both got instinct was to
say the Corvette, well, just the Corvette Schooler. I just don't.
(32:38):
I don't want to without knowing the situation with a
used car. I don't want to out and out say that, Yeah,
so the Michael, we're just covering our here. I don't
cover in my body. Yeah. We don't want you to
come back and say like you told me to buy
that car now that it was flight Yeah, yeah, something
like that. But but gut feeling on just the types
of vehicles without knowing any of the details over you know,
(33:01):
between Corvette and Camaro, like a new Camaro and an
older Corvette, I would go with the older Corvette. Yeah,
and right back, And you know, I'm interested to know, Michael,
what are you driving now? And what do you want
the car for? Like is a daily driver? Is it
gonna be? Clearly? Wants it to haul heavy things? And
maybe a trailer something like that, Yeah, maybe do a
(33:21):
little off roading. And the type of vehicle it is,
maybe driving Uber yea the most impractical Uber car would
be so cool though you get charge extra, Okay, So yeah,
I hope that answers the question. I'd love to I'd
love to hear back on those on those suggestions. And
and either way, man, tell us what you get. I
(33:41):
don't think that answers the question at all. I think
he's still confused. I bet after he hears us, you know,
talk about this in our uninformed way here because we
don't know about anything about the Corvette. We don't really know, uh,
I mean, we got the Camaro, though, Yeah, we do.
Corvette is a big question mark. Yeah, that's true. If
it was if he was asking between two brand new vehicles,
(34:02):
that might be an easier one to answer. But you
know something that's that's used in ten years used versus
brand new, that's tough because I again, it just comes
down to the condition the way. So if it's in
good conditions, so cool. I'll tell you this just to
speak for myself here where I in your situation, Michael,
and this is again a great problem to have, then
(34:23):
I would be heavily biased toward that, toward that oh
six Corvette. Uh, and I would probably try to figure
out ways to make it work, even if on paper
it didn't seem to be the best idea. So be
very careful about a lot of people. I mean, it
sounds like you and I've been. I mean it's it's
(34:45):
kind of one of those bucket list cars that you'd
like to say at some point, I owned a Corvette.
I mean, I think a lot of people would like
to say that. I mean, yeah, of course, get get
a Corvette. I make it a garage kid if you
can and take good care of it, and you will,
you will never regret it. I think you're right. Yeah, well, uh,
(35:07):
that's true, Scott. We probably did not completely answer Michael's
question except to ask him more questions about it. But
please do right back to us and let us know
the details, Michael, let us know what you end up getting. Uh, Scott,
we're gonna get on the way here and uh, I
think you'll get some lunch maybe. Yeah. And I thought
that I thought that was a good topic, uh, that
(35:27):
that you picked and uh, you've got eight thousand miles
to think about. Well, thank you, man, I appreciate that.
I just uh, I wasn't sure if we're gonna be
able to stretch this topic to that point because I
thought you're gonna have a a clear feeling one way
or the other. But it sounds like maybe you're saying
that for the most part, you're saying to take it
to it outside mechanic, but there might be some of
those bigger things that yeah, you do go to the dealer,
I mean with with your car, with with your car.
(35:52):
It sounds more like it's just Scot that that shine
that newness to it. Uh. And it sounds like you
don't yet have a guy that that you think is
is a solid mechanic. I got some recommendations, and we
live in the online age, so it's pretty easy to
find some too. Uh. But you knew from the jump
man before we got behind the microphones. You knew I
(36:14):
was gonna say go to the cheaper place that I
know that and that would be the local mechanic. And
you're right, and I know that that would be the
answer for you, But I was just une sure what
you're gonna recommend for me. But yeah, yeah, I appreciate
your thoughts and uh, and I would love to hear
what listeners have to say about it as well. Yeah,
until us how it turns out, because you know, some
of those dealerships have really great garages too. Yeah. And
there's something to taking it someplace that has you know,
(36:36):
the genuine VW parts to use on it. I mean.
And sure, it's just something mentally about it that you
you know, it makes you feel good once you have
the service done, like a clear conscious like it's uh,
it's back to the way it should be. I mean,
it's a thing man. For sure. There's some people who
hold that stuff sacred and will only go to the dealership. Yeah,
full stop. Absolutely talk to a Harley Davidson owner. Call
(37:00):
good call. Alright, So yeah, let's mose on out of here.
I am in the move for pizza usually what about you?
Always in the mood for pizza, my friend. So listeners, uh,
give give us some advice. Let Scott know what you
think about dealership versus an independent mechanic for his fifty
(37:21):
check in. And you can tell us about this on Facebook.
You can find us on Twitter. Michael L. Came to
us via Facebook where car Stuff hs W on both
of those. Check out every podcast we've ever done on
Car Stuff Show dot com. And if you want to
write to us directly with recommendations about dealerships, mechanics or
(37:42):
the best pizza and don't play around with that last one.
There's a serious question, then write to us directly. We
are work back down. For more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast
at how Stuffworks dot com. M h m hmmmm hm
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