Cool Cars with Chris: Car Talk, Driving Tips & Auto Life Dec 15, 2025

013 | Ford F-150 Engine Failure?! Dealership Disasters & DIY Car Fixes

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Today on Cool Cars with Chris, we are discussing what it's like taking your vehicle to the dealership.

Dealership horror stories, dealership stories in general, repair stories in general.

Courage joins me on this episode, and you're not going to believe what happened to my Ford F-150.

You'll hear all about that in this episode. Let's go.

Welcome back to Cool Cars with Chris, and we have the fantastic, the wonderful, the amazing

Courage himself. How you doing? Did he Courage?

Doing good. Don't make my head too big headed. Appreciate it.

It's pretty big as it is. I get that. Yeah, I mean,

I'm appreciative, man. I'm excited to talk about cars as usual.

Oh, man. Speaking of cars, man, how is your awesome, sweet, you know, four-door sports car?

Doing. It's doing great. It is on four jack stands right now.

No way. They're broken down. What happened? It is. Luckily, it's not right now,

but I'm doing some, I don't want to say overdue maintenance. It's been time to do the oil for

less, like week or so, but getting an oil change, I'm going to be doing brake pads as well,

probably bleeding the brakes for the first time as well. So just a little bit of,

a little bit of maintenance for now. And obviously now, since it's raining,

and I wasn't really planning to drive the car in the rain anyway, it's perfect time.

Yeah. What kind of oil does that thing take? So it's kind of a weird one. Some folks end up

going with five-weight 30, which is kind of, you know, kind of the standard with a lot of cars,

but OEM is actually zero-weight 30. That's full synthetic, I would think, right?

It is full synthetic. Yeah. But yeah, the, the rating is a lot different from any other car

that I've had. Pretty much every other car that I've owned has been five-weight 30. And so,

you know, and now having like two different oils in my garage, like at certain points,

it's always a little nerve-wracking too, because you want to make sure you put the right stuff.

But again, five-weight 30 still works in these cars, especially if you are modifying them.

But right now it's like, yeah, it's the zero-weight 30. So I had to go to a specific spot where I

usually get it all the time. So really what brand of oil do you use? Like your favorite?

I use, I go with mobile. Mobile one. Yeah. That's good stuff. Yeah. I just go with

whatever the dealership gives me, you know, speaking of breaks, I said,

I took my truck into oil change and they said I needed breaks on the rear,

which is always kind of weird because I would think the way the way physics is designed

is that the front brakes would go out faster than the back brakes because all the weight's

being thrown towards the front of the vehicle. And I don't haul a lot of stuff in my truck.

I'll heavy stuff my truck regularly. So I was kind of wondering why the back ones

going out on the front ones are okay. I was kind of, I was kind of odd.

But yeah, that would be a question I would be asking too, because a lot of times it is,

a lot of times like where I would usually do all four, it was because the front ones were

the ones that were going out or were ready for it. But yeah, it's, I don't know, maybe just

bias in terms of break, because you know, you can get into break bias of like, you know,

what, what part is breaking more than the other, but that is different for sure.

Well, I think someone did tell me that has something to do with the fact that it's a

truck and people put stuff in the back of the truck. And so the weight, but I said,

I'm not hauling, you know, rocks or anything heavy. I've hauled some stuff like one time.

I've done some heavy lift to heavy loads in my truck, but like one, it wasn't like a regular

occurrence or like one time event kind of a thing. And so I don't think that one time event

would have did damage or I guess wore out the brakes this far, you know, years later.

Yeah, to cause that much more wear than like the front. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know. I got something I got to look out for and take it in. Is it

probably next time or next couple of times, take it in and get the brakes done in the back?

Like great. But props to you, man. You do everything yourself because I would get frustrated

and pissed off and just end up, you know, taking the car to the dealership anyways.

And I won't say, I wouldn't say at all that I do everything. Like there's some,

dude, I draw the limit at some things for sure. Like a transmission fluid is one of the

big ones because transmission fluid and manual cars is a very, very messy process to like both

drain it and put it back in. You basically have to use like a big, like one of those like

turkey baster pumps, like the larger ones. Ah, yes, yes.

Back in it and transmission fluid smells awful. Just like differential fluid smells

absolutely awful. Like there's those are, those are the two like, and there's other

things too that I'm like, I'm not dealing with that. Like I've gotten to oil changes and brake

pads down just cause I've done it a few times, but certain major stuff.

Can you do the brakes in my truck? Can you do the brakes in my truck for me?

Yeah, I was, I knew you're going to ask me. I'm like, it's, I think we talked about this earlier.

It's one of those things where like, you get excited. Like, well, yeah, it's time to do

maintenance on the car. Like I'm going to get everything ready and it's going to go super

smooth and you're like 10 minutes in and you're frustrated just cause you're trying to jack

the car up and it's not going the way you expect it. And then you spill oil somewhere.

Well, the brakes should be easy on my truck. They're just the back ones.

You just pull the tires off and the brakes right, right there because it's under the

will, will the, of the truck bed. So it's not like it's probably plenty of space in there

would think to kind of work around versus trying to come all the way up here to

to make it. I might have to, I might have to, you know, you know,

it's going to save me some money. I might have to do that.

First of all, the dealership is going to charge you and speaking of dealership.

So today on cool cars with Chris and courage is that you want to discuss like what it's like

getting a car at a dealership, right? Or yeah, but basically dealership experience.

And it doesn't necessarily, I was thinking too, it doesn't have to necessarily be like

the buying process. But, you know, even if it was like maybe, you know,

you had a great experience or a terrible experience with, like you say, like with

maintenance even just like over, I wanted to make it maybe generalize it to overall

maintenance or overall dealership experience. If that makes sense.

Now, as far as I know, as far as dealers go, because I know in Temecula or everyone in

San Diego, you got different companies have their own dealers. It used to be a big deal,

but it was like Joe blows, Toyota or whatever. You know what I mean? They're

signed and they're, you'd see like their brand on TV and their commercials.

Remember the old guy? I'm probably too young for, too old, too young for this, I guess, when they

had the guy on TV with like the walking, like the lions or the walk, walking the bears or whatever

on the dealership lot. And the guy, the cowboy hat. What was that? I heard, you know, talking

about it's probably from like Midwest somewhere where they had the guy that do these crazy

sales. Like if Tiger King had his own, like his own dealership or something.

Yeah. I think it was something like that where the dealership guy would be the owner

of the dealership or whatever, crazy Lou or whatever. And he have like whatever exotic

animal on display. They're walking it through the dealership. You know, look, we've got these

ones. We got these cars. We got these guys like point the different cars are on sale.

So flashing prices come this weekend, buy now, sell, sell, sell, whatever it is, you know,

the crazy stuff. And these have all those crazy like, like local dealership commercials

like that. And I don't think I see too many of those anymore on TV that are like that.

That's a good point. I mean, I, I have watched like what I'm like maybe traveling for work or

something. And I'm like in a hotel and I'm, you know, or Airbnb or whatever. And I happen to

like be on a local channel. I have seen that every once in a while where it's like the local

dealership, you know, promoting, you know, they're, they're, you know, whatever brand

that they're promoting for that commercial. It definitely is not on the level of that

at all. It's like production circus kind of style stuff. Yeah. Like it's,

it's definitely more of like, you know, they're, they're very corporate about it. And they're really

trying to be like the face of the brand. Yeah. They use a lot of stock footage video from like

the main commercial, like the main Toyota commercial, like those like rolling videos

and stuff and rolling shots and all that stuff of whatever car. Speaking of trucks,

today I was at Costco and they had a Toyota Tacoma four by two extra cab. It's really

basic. It had the tiny wheels on the thing. It was like lifted. It was a higher up. It wasn't

like low, it was higher up. I guess things are all higher up now, but it was like 36,000.

That's what it had. So I'm going to show a little ignorance here. What does four by two mean?

Oh, or like, well, I'm sorry. It's a tool drive, tool drive. Okay. So that's all I mean,

because I was curious if it meant something else because I, because I've heard like four

of those four wheels on the ground, I guess, but there's like tools that power it.

But there's two. Yeah. Okay. Cause yeah, cause I hadn't heard that in a while, but

it's like a sticker too, as I four by two, I was like, okay, that must mean tool drive. I'm

guessing cause I guess four means four wheel drive power. So cause that's going to cost you

more money. Like yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So most people get the four wheel drive and those things

and those things do, supposedly they're supposed to last a long time and things like

that. And then it's still, it's still a lot of money for like a base. It was like a base

model. Like it might have, it might have had Apple carplay and might have had power windows

and AC. Cloth seats. Yeah. The basic stuff, the normal stuff you expect in a car, but the

wheels looked very like a stock. I was telling my son, we walked by this. If you were to get,

said if you were to get this, I mean, you might want to like get like bigger wheels,

bigger tires, you probably get a lift on it. You're already letting them know like what,

you know, what you should do. Yeah. You can do. There's probably a ton of aftermarket

stuff for the Toyota lineup, for Toyota Tacomas. Huge aftermarket. Random fact for you,

which you probably already know too, is you, do you know what they call like the Wrangler,

the electric Wranglers? E something or other? E. The four by E. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. When I first

like started hearing that, I was like, that is kind of like a genius kind of deal. Like the,

like, you know, you're taking on still like that, you know, that persona of the four by four,

but then you're sliding in the electric with the E. Like I thought that was kind of genius

marketing in there. And they, and they do that too, where like on the, on the emblem,

it's four by E, but the E is blue in this lower case. Yeah. For the environment, for like,

you know, I don't want to say green, but yeah. Blue for electric because you think of,

you think of like electric eel and electric stuff and you think of like blue,

like lightning blue or something. Maybe that's what it is. I don't know. I'm not marketing.

I don't know how this stuff works, but dealerships themselves, like,

you know, I've taken my other F 150 I have back to the dealership. I had problems

with the oil. It was funny. I have problems with the oil here too. Cause they say the oil in my

new F 150, it burns oil. And I say that's normal. Okay. If it lungs doesn't break,

okay. Which I hope it doesn't cause it's totally out of warranty right now.

Now my other F 150 had the first generation by point O coyote. And I was so excited to get

that motor. Cause I heard about that motor coming out and I was like, holy crap,

the five O is back. It's double over cam finally, you know, it's 32 valve double over

cam finally, you know, we're getting some serious power finally, you know,

all these things. And they're putting that same engine in the Mustang and they're putting it in

the, in the F 150. And I was like, well, I can't use a Mustang. I got newborn on the way.

I had newborn, maybe in the way. And I got like, you know, kids and stuff.

So the F 150 was great. So I got the F 150. Great. Love that engine. Right.

But I noticed one day I'm in the drive through at Starbucks hot summer day.

They're really hot sitting in the Starbucks drive through. So it's just sitting there,

idling, you know, and my truck has like, you know, your standard gauges, but like also in the center

of my new F 150 and the old F 150 had this little miniature display in the middle.

It told you different things. You can kind of scroll through the display and like

check different things and all that kind of stuff, fuel gauge and fuel mileage and stuff

like that. And all of a sudden this big red warning thing comes on and starts flashing on me

and saying no oil pressure. And I'm like, what? That can't be right. What's with this new

work truck? What was that? You know, so I thought it was just a glitch. I thought it was just hot,

glitching. I don't know. Turn the truck off, turn it back on. It went okay. It went fine.

And then I'm like, you know what, let me check the oil when I get home. I checked the oil

when I get home. Nothing. I had nothing. That can't be good. So then I run to

the quickest, cheapest place I could find to get oil. I think it was like an auto zone

or a Riley's or something like that. I get the courts of oil, get like five courts,

whatever it took. I don't know what it was. Put it in there, got oil on the dipstick to show up

on the dipstick, like up to like where the markers were at. I ran it to the dealership that

very same day. And I said, so the problem was, and so what they decided to do was

check the oil and they changed the oil. They will change the oil and we'll put

like a marker level on the dipstick to see if, you know, we'll see where we're, you know,

we'll come back and check it or whatever kind of a thing. So they did that and sure enough,

a little while later, did the same thing again. And so I took it back to the dealership. I said,

you guys here, keep it and figure it out and get back to me. Literally, you know,

what would you say is like, if you remember, like what was the timeframe and, you know,

when you, when they did the test and then when you were like, when you noticed that again,

I'm going to say it would probably was definitely within the same year.

So it might have been within a few months. And I think about it later. I'm trying to remember.

I'm trying to remember when I got the, got the truck. I thought when I got the truck actually

taken in because when I took it in, they did a full like microscopic like investigation into

like the cylinder heads and the piston rings and all this stuff. And they determined that the,

the oil was bypassing the piston rings or something like that. I think that's what

he said. Yeah. And so since it was under warranty, it was a fairly newer vehicle.

They were able to give me a brand new engine block. They just replaced it. Yeah.

Whole new engine block for my truck. It was all done in house, but unfortunately,

so it was gone for two weeks. They gave me a rental car. Now you would think

they would give me an equal sized vehicle. Yeah. I'm excited to see where this goes.

But because it's under Ford warrant, maybe it's going to warranty, maybe

different warranties do different things. Maybe because this was covered under the factory warranty

of Ford, not like some aftermarket thing, not anything special, just your generic regular

Ford warranty. Yeah. They said, we only allow you a certain dollar amount for a rental car,

which was like the lowest amount they had, right? So they put me in some freaking stupid

clown car. It was like, no, it was, it was, it was the Hyundai. What are, what is a small

size? The accent maybe I'm thinking. So they, it wasn't even a Ford car. No, it was like, they had

like a fleet. They had like a enterprise on site. Interesting. And so they just sent me over to

their enterprise on site, enterprise people or whatever over there. They've got rental

something or maybe it's close by something like that. That's such a missed opportunity

in my opinion. Cause I feel like certain brands have like gotten dialed in where they like, they,

if you're in a, in a loaner car, especially for like a longer period of time,

they would want you to be in a loaner car of something that again, of their brand, essentially,

if they have their own cars, if they have their own cars, but yeah, again, no one,

you know, that they could just do that. Like that's probably easier financially for them to

partner with enterprise, but, but yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. So I had newborn, well,

not newborn, but he was in, he was in the car seat and all that kind of stuff.

So I had to pack all that crap in this tiny little, I'm pretty sure it was four door,

but it could have been two door. Cause they did have the accent around what,

cause when was this, what was the year I think was like 2013, 2014, some run there.

So yeah, the accent probably was still around. Like they did, they did have like the Elantra,

the Sonata was a lot smaller of a car back like, but like the Sonata now is like a mid-sized car,

but the Sonata used to actually be pretty compact itself.

Yeah. It was like Toyota Corolla, I think so. Yeah. So I mean, it could have been one of those

too. Yeah. So they, so two weeks went by, well actually a week went by and I called them

and I said, what's the story on the engine? Oh, it's still out of the truck and blah,

blah, blah, blah, whatever. And so, but what's funny is that the guy,

oh, could they give you, when you do major surgery on a vehicle, they usually have

your service guy you're dealing with. Like you're, like you're a dedicated guy,

your contact at the dealership. It's a person running your file, running your case,

running your, like use your, here's your go-to guy for your particular car.

Right? Yeah. And so, so I was talking with this guy, dealing with this guy,

but at the time the dealership, I got to know this when I took a truck in obviously,

the dealership was changing ownership. Yeah. They were changing ownership to a new company.

Like dealers do this a lot. They sell, they change names and they're like, that was that

company, now it's some other company. Yeah. And it turns out the guy working on my truck,

like the guy that was telling me all this stuff, he was, he told me when the truck was

being picked up, he told me to be ready on this day or whatever or something like that.

He told me that because the dealership is changing ownership, that they are not keeping

him on when they change ownership. And I'm like, well, who am I going to talk with?

Like, who am I going to talk to about my truck and knows all the, all the stuff?

So when I went to pick the truck up, he was gone because it's now it's like,

I guess new ownership or whatever. I don't know. It's like literally just changed

like the day before, like it just, it's very fresh. Yeah. So when I get my truck,

you know, get the basic like paperwork for the dealership that you can't even read because

it's like it's weird codes and stuff on there, a bunch of like dealership information,

like stuff that they understand or guess code, you know, you've ever seen like a receipt

from the dealership of any kind of service. Yeah. It's got your vehicle and your mileage

and like stuff you understand, but then the bottom is got like these part numbers

and codes and different things and all the stuff. Yeah. So I'm trying to find somebody

to help explain to me what they did to my engine. Like what did they do? What did they do?

You know? And so I had to find somebody who's looking at it. Oh, it looks like

they fixed something. They did a very generic like, yeah, I know that. I know they fixed

it. Yes. I know. Tell me, like give me the real information. Right. What did you, I mean,

I mean, what did you do? Like, I mean, I heard they had to like resurface the heads. Yeah,

resurface the heads of the block and match the block, new block or something. I don't know.

So it wasn't like they didn't just drop in. Like it wasn't like a, you know,

I don't say a crepe motor because obviously that's no, they did get a new block.

They said the block was new, but then everything else attached to it.

They had to like, I guess do something and put it back in there.

So sort of technically speaking, it was a massive rebuild of the engine, but

I guess when you're changing the block, like that really is like the core, like a specific engine.

So I guess, I guess you can at that point say that it's a new engine in a sense when you're

like, you put the block, but then you're stacking on all the, you know, maybe you have

some shared components from the other engine. And that's what I kind of wanted to find out

when I was asking, like, look at this like list that all, what does all this stuff mean on this

paperwork here that I can't really even understand? Well, that's a valid question too,

because like, if you, because like, again, like in my mind, if thinking like, if you got a new

engine, like they dropped in a new engine, but in reality, yeah, like if they kind of mix

and match like older parts with newer parts, like you still have to kind of be, you know,

in a sense, like you want to be on top of like what still might go wrong. Like what's still,

what's still on the, from the older car that I would still need to keep like maintenance records

on to know, like it's time to replace this, even though this is a quote unquote new engine.

So no, that's a valid point that you look at nobody really helped me. And so I just got the

thing first, the first thing I did honest to God, I popped the hood. First thing I did,

I popped the hood, make sure the only extension was actually there, but I make sure like,

like, because if they do some major, major surgery on your vehicle, like major stuff,

like that is a major operation. Like I told the guys at work, that was being done on my truck.

That's like a major operation. That's not like, like an oil change. That's not a break job.

That is some serious surgery. And so, I mean, I will pop the hood and I want to make sure

that what I'm looking at it, like it actually is, like I could tell, because you can kind of tell

of a vehicle has had work on it by the shiny new parts, you know? And if everything looks

all dirty and like, like they haven't touched it, you know, I would have been so pissed. I'm like,

I would be so pissed if it looked like they didn't touch the vehicle at all or something.

I'd be like, what the hell did they just do? But I looked at it. It looked, it looked newer.

It looked, it looked a little different, you know? I mean, of course I haven't seen

the engine in a while, but, and then I drove, it seemed fine. Everything ran fine and ran for

a while. I haven't had any issues at all with that engine since I bought it. I put,

I put on, that was about 45,000 miles when that happened. And maybe less than that.

And I ended up trading, trading it in at 120,000.

Oh wow. Oh, so you put a lot of miles on that afterwards. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I had like an oil pump issue. And the funny thing about the oil pump issue,

no, sorry, the water pump issue was water pump. And it was funny. I heard like a squealing sound

coming from underneath the hood. Like a squealy, high pitched squealy sound. Like

that's kind of weird. And when it rained, it kind of went away. Okay.

And so that's when I took it in the dealership. They found out it was a water pump leaking or

something like that or whatever and something on the, like the, the belt or something.

And so on that particular warranty, that was under the aftermarket warranty. I bought the

extended warranty on the truck and that covered that, but I had to pay a stupid deductible.

That's the thing you don't tell you that when you get the regular, regular warranty,

the most factory cars give you, you get automatically you get like,

like I got, I got the small little Hyundai and I got like the end of the peanut out of pocket,

they took care of everything, whatever. The other time I had to pay the $100 deductible,

but they did give me like my choice of rentals. So I did, I did, I did rent full size expedition.

Yeah. And that was only like one day or whatever it was.

And that was on the extended warranty. Yes. Yes. But I think it's been a while since it's

been so long ago. I think it might, I might have paid out of pocket and they reimbursed me or

something goofed. There was some few extra like hurdles had to go through. It wasn't like a straight,

you know, straight across or yeah, kind of like health insurers or something where like you're,

you're paying, you, you're pre, well, hey, the health insurance, you kind of get it paid in

some instances, but like, like pet, like pet health insurance, I guess is a better example

where we call that, we just put the dog down. I mean, I was just talking to somebody

about that too. And like the sad unfortunate thing is like, you know, when you get hit with

like a $7,000 bill on a dog, you know, or a cat, like, you know, as much as we love both,

both animals. I know. Yeah. I know. I know. I mean people, I mean, people love their animals.

They do. They really love their animals. I mean, I love animals too. Don't be talking

wrong. You know, I've loved dogs and I had dogs, dog with ex-wife and

you know, so I get you talking $7,000. Yeah. I mean, but do she paid like

almost that for the dog itself? Wow. What breed of dog was it? Oh, it was, it was called

the hoppy bee bear. And it's a special breed of dog. It's only bred in Seattle, Washington.

Huh. But she had to fly up there to get the dog and bring it, bring the dog back

in puppy crate and on the plane and all that stuff. So she paid like, yeah,

paid top dollar for the dog. So, so, but anyways, but back to the dealership thing. So

they gave me the expedition. It was great. I had it for like one day.

And so they were fine with that, but, but there's times I've taken things to the dealership,

like that same truck, the, it was, oh, the air conditioning, the air conditioning for some reason

that the air conditioning has got like four settings. It's like, it's like a turn dial,

you know, actual physical, it's not digital to physical, you know, lever or like knob.

And so you turn it from like one, two, three, four full blasts as high. And I noticed for

some reason only it was off or full blasts with the only ones that were working, not the in between.

So I took up the dealership and they were saying like, Oh, we can't see it this week. It's going

to be like two weeks later. And then it's going to be like X amount of dollars. Look at the thing

and all this stuff and blah, blah, blah. So as I'm driving back, I noticed there's a little

mechanic shop that says air conditioning on, on the door or whatever, like new air conditioning

stuff like pulled in there. Ask the guy, Oh yeah, it's this little few as we can get

done like next week. It was like a hundred bucks. Like, okay, I'll go with you guys.

And we did it. Yeah. And we, and we can do it tomorrow. Like, you know, right.

So that's, that's one, one case where I said, well, I'll try some other place, not the dealership.

But that's kind of been my dealership, dealership experiences,

not including financing. Of course, that's a whole nother gamut. But what do you have?

What is your dealership story? No, that's good. That's interesting.

There's, you know, you've, you've maybe had a little bit more diverse experience than I have

overall. But, you know, I've had some good, I've had some really good experience with

dealerships. And I've had, I wouldn't say bad. Like I haven't had like a really just

terrible experience. I've had some frustrating ones. And I maybe talked about the one that

we talked about earlier, but, you know, just to start with the good is actually,

because I shared that I, you know, I have a infinity M 35, a 2008 M 35 that I've had

for like going, I was talking to my wife today about it, had it for almost seven

years now, which is pretty crazy. But, you know, the car has been, been awesome.

Like, you know, it was a one owner car before me and super well maintained.

And it was actually maintained at the dealership that I used to go to down in San Diego,

that I lived next to, I was, when we moved, we had an apartment that was like within like

five minutes of the dealership. And so I would, you know, I would take the car there for all

the maintenance, all the oil changes, like anything else that it needed. I did some extra

things too, because the car when I bought it had 140, 130,000 miles. Wow.

Right. Yeah. It was, it was, you know, it was no way, you know, is a lot of highway miles,

which is the case with a lot of these like kind of more full-sized sedans or like SUVs.

And also I think Southern California too.

Yeah. Because it just takes you, you know, where our highways take, you know,

it takes a long to get between like cities and then people commute a lot. Like,

it's just kind of common to see cars that have like kind of gotten miles that are

quote unquote kind of racked up. But, you know, he did a lot of commuting,

because I think he lived in like Insanitas area and he worked down South or something like that.

But it was, but the car overall just checked out, you know, I hadn't inspected and everything

really checked out well. But I took it, I took it to the same dealership that I bought it from.

And I started to build a relationship with some of the guys there. Like they knew me when I

was coming in, to be totally honest, like my, my car was like one of the nicest like

M's that were still like on the road at the time. And so like whenever I came in,

like they would all, oh yeah, he's back. Like he's, he's, he's like keeping the car in the

state that he bought it in, which is not usually the case with a lot of these like second hand,

like M cars or like G, G 35s. Like, you know, once they start to change hands at a certain

point, you start to see it kind of go downhill in terms of maintenance and upkeep and things

like that. But yeah, I started to build a relationship with these guys and was

taking it to them. And one time, particularly one of the guys, one of the service texts there,

he, he, he basically was like, yeah, you know, we, you're due for like a little bit more of a

major service this time around, like, you know, you can obviously kind of opt out of these if

you want, but like, you know, I definitely recommend it like down the road. And I told

him, you know, well, to be totally honest, like, because I, they had a very great like

rental car fleet there, because they're one of the ones that would actually kind of rent out

like, or, you know, basically give you their cars that were on there. They had a rental fleet

specific to infinity. So they had a whole. Yeah, I think BMW does that too, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. So you, you still get like the placard on the back window that says like,

you know, courtesy car from, you know, say infinity of San Diego or whatever, but

they were still really nice, you know, rental cars. And so, you know, coincidentally,

we, we, my wife's family was in town and I knew that we were kind of considering

doing something with them for the day. And I like, I told them, I can't quite remember his name now.

I think his name was Garrett, I think. But I told him, hey, you know, I got actually family in town

and, you know, they drove down, but like her dad didn't really want to drive his car around.

And, you know, we're going to be turning the car in a day. Like, you know,

definitely do all of it because I just want to make sure like we're on top of everything

because it's an older car and everything. But like, we would really like to get like a full

sized car to like be able to like kind of take them around and have a little day trip.

It was like, oh yeah, no, 100%. Like you, you know, you're here, like we know you,

you're always maintaining the car here with us. You basically just choose whatever you want.

And so they, they had like the QX 60, which was, that's a big guy, right? So that's like,

the, it's big, it's a three row, but it's not the biggest that they have.

They actually had a QX 80. That's something of the 80s, right?

That's the big one. The Armada style, like the big huge, big daddy one.

The V8 and everything, right?

With the V8 and everything. And it actually was, it wasn't a limited model,

but it definitely wasn't a base model either. And, and he was like, yeah,

just choose whichever one you want. Like, you know, and we'll get things taken care of with the car.

I was like, cool. Like, you know, so I go out, you know, we, we choose the QX 80 because

I was like, man, I want to experience what that's like. Why not? Go big, go home, baby.

Yeah. You know, had a fun day with the deal, drove all the way out to like

Encinitas or whatever, spent the day at the beach, like came back and they,

they were done the same day. So we, you know, we brought the car back right,

like right before they closed or whatever. And it was just cool,

like kind of building that experience with them and, and, you know, having that ability to

just like, Oh yeah, let me take that one. Like, you know, I hadn't had that experience

at all, like with any other dealers before that, you know, the other side of the coin,

though, is that, you know, the maybe more negative side, and we talked about this a little bit,

is unfortunately is the Hyundai experience, which, you know, to be totally honest, when I first

got my car back in 23, I believe is when I bought it, you know, when I first got used

to kind of going there and, and seeing that a lot of times, like folks that are showing up

for service in their cars, or a lot of times like, you know, early 2010s cars, you know,

older Sonatas, like, you know, older Santa Fe's that like are pretty rough, but they're, they're,

they're in there not for general maintenance, but because they have like some pretty big problems.

Major surgery. They're going in for major surgery. It's like the environment's a lot

different. It's just like overall, like the workers there, the service tax are just a little bit

different in terms of their mentality. The people there that are just waiting, like they're not,

you know, maybe sipping on coffee, just kind of waiting for their car. Like they're frustrated

because they, this is probably like, you know, the third time they've been there this week,

checking on like the status of their car. Like it was a different experience. And, you know,

I had a, I had a good amount of oil changes because I got, when I bought the car, I got

free oil changes for like, you know, for three years or 30,000 miles, I think.

And the car is still under warranty. So, you know, I was still taking it there for that.

But I'd share with you that I took it there one time and was just curious about

some condensation that I started getting in the, in one of the headlights. And it would only

happen like times where maybe it was like really hot. And then like any evening it kind of

cooled down drastically. So you start to get like a bit of moisture to build up.

So I just asked them, like, could they take a look while they were doing the

oil change and some other stuff. And I, I showed up after and the guy, you know, says like,

yeah, so we did your oil change. Like obviously that's free because I was still on the,

that's what they had to do. And then he's like, yeah, but, you know, we,

we were going to take a look at your headlight. But unfortunately the tech said they couldn't

take a look at it because you had a modification to the headlights.

No way. What kind of modification? It's not a modification.

Oh no.

I have a, I have a bad like, so they're called badge skins, but they're literally just like

a vinyl strip that's on the outside of the headlight that kind of covers the DRL. So they

like you, my DRLs are like yellow instead of, instead of the white kind of, you know,

the stock color, but it's literally applied vinyl over the top of the headlight. It's not as if

I removed the headlight to put it on. It's not as if I opened the headlight up and put it inside

that's covering the LEDs. It's, it's literally a sticker at the end of the day. It's like a glorified

sticker, but to them because, because it's something that's on the stock part, they,

they didn't even want to look at it, touch it, like even investigate slightly what was going on

with it. And that has kind of set my tone for the dealership experience overall, where

again, now I've shared that, you know, I do have some other modifications done to the car now.

Oh my God, a therapy, like this car, we're not touching nothing.

Now I'm surprised, I'm surprised they didn't say nothing and they changed the oil,

because they changed the oil there about the hood, they can see stuff too. I would,

I didn't say nothing for anything at all. No, no, that was like, if I wouldn't have even

asked them about the headlight condensation, they wouldn't have said anything. They would

have just say, oh yeah, we did the oil change, like you're good to go. Then, but because

particularly what I asked them to look at had something that was different from factory,

they, they just closed the door on it. Wow, dude. That's, yeah, I think, I think in their defense,

I think they're thinking that like, we can't, we can't fix this because it's, we can't

be responsible, I guess, maybe a better word responsible for anything that can go wrong.

And I get, I 100% get it from that perspective. Like, you know, and, and I would,

I would totally own up to that with the, like with a true modification as if I was, like, you know,

I, again, I, you know, I have an intake on the car, like, you know, if anything goes wrong,

like, yeah, they can say like, okay, maybe the intake contributed to that.

Right. Like say throttle body, can I do, see? The throttle body.

Yeah. The throttle body issue. And then they're like, oh, oh, so there's a recall

on the throttle body, right? You took it in, they would like laugh at you to get out here

with that. Yeah. They would, they would, they said, well, your intake is touching

the throttle body. Your intake is touching the throttle body. Yeah. Like I would accept that

100%. You know, a sticker over a part of the car, even if it is the headlight itself is,

you know, that just seems silly to me. Like at the end of the day. And I, you know, again, I

now just kind of knowing that it's not as though like I would never ever take my car to a Hyundai

dealer. I'm not saying that at all, but I avoid it as much as I can. Like I said,

I do my own oil changes now. Like I changed my own brakes. Like the things that I can kind of

control, I actually just control it myself now at this point. Funny thing though, I'm actually

really impressed with them though, is that they, they, they have a, they sent me a letter

probably like three months ago on the high pressure fuel pumps. They had a recall on those

and they had like kind of some different situations where they were kind of,

you know, toying around with some different scenarios, but they sent me a letter that

said that the high pressure fuel pump is now a 15 year, 115,000 mile warranty product. So

essentially, even if your car is out of warranty with everything else, the, the high pressure

fuel pump is under warranty for 15 years or 150,000 miles.

Why would they even do that? Why, why did they need to say that?

I, I'm not sure.

It goes back to Hyundai in general, because I remember when Hyundai kind of like made this

big push, I mean, hundreds of, hundreds of an hour for a long time. But if you remember,

sometime it was at the early 2000s or something like that, when they made a big giant stink,

what they're saying, we're the only company that gives you a 10, was it a 10,000, 10,

yeah, 10 year, 100,000 mile that it was something like that.

Which they still do. They still, they still have that. Okay. The only reason I

don't have it is because it doesn't apply to the second owner. It only applies to the first owner.

Really? Man, the fine print, man. They get you on that stuff for sure. You know,

but I remember hearing about that 100,000 mile like warranty, like we brag about,

we have a 100,000 mile warranty. And, and I think it probably got a lot of people in the

dealership to buy Hyundai's new buyers anyways, thinking like, I don't 100,000 miles because

you know, things go wrong and things happen. But once you start like doing modifications

on the car, they're like, well, I don't know about this. I don't know about that or this or

whatever it is, you know, and things like that. So, and it's unfortunate too, because like, you

know, again, be with them, you know, really embracing the end brand now. And, and you

know, they're, they're with that, they know that they're kind of bringing sort of the type

of buyer that is into, you know, the car scene is into possibly modifying their cars.

Again, they don't, it's not to say that they have to now accept that within their warranty that

like if you modify the car, they need to be on the hook for it. Like I'm not, I'm not saying that.

But I think it's for all dealerships though too. Like every car company probably has a void of warranty.

Oh yeah. If you do any kind of modifications to the area that needs to be worked on.

Yeah. I would, I would think, I mean, all of them do that. They all got to do that. It's

got to be like covering their butt kind of a thing. So like, for example, if, if you're JB,

what JB four tune you have, if you create a thing up to 11 and it blew the engine.

Honestly, anything that goes wrong with it. Yeah. And I'm wholeheartedly accepting that

anything that goes wrong, powertrain wise, like I'm not, I got a, I got a guy that I'll take

the car to. I'm just going to say, I'm not, I'm not even going to take it to them.

And I wouldn't do that because that's, you know, in all honesty, that's dishonest.

Now, had you had no tune or no modification on the vehicle at all, something does go wrong.

The first thing they're going to ask you, they ask you as if everybody who blows your engine

is, uh, did you change the oil?

Or proof it was changed really. Cause it happened to happen to my sister once,

a long time ago. She had a, I think she still has a car. I mean, she got rid of it. It

was like an old Toyota Celica and it was a stick shift and it was sitting in her yard

forever. But I think when it, when it used to run, when she used to drive the thing,

is she used to like loan the car out because, you know, she's had extra cars. She's like,

Hey, you take my whatever car. I don't care. And so somebody drove, one of her friends

drove it, you know, another girl, not saying girls to aren't great mechanics, but

or know anything about cars. Not saying that. I'm just saying, for this particular case,

that is the truth. So this person just drove it, just changed the gas,

you know, new gas change, oil, what's, what's oil? Is that a thing we have to do this?

What was it? What's the oil you speak of? And so it like broke the engine, like either

like through a rod or something happened. Anyways, it did a whole replacement engine.

And the war, it was under warranty. She's like, well, it's under warranty, whatever.

They were fighting on her on it because that she couldn't prove she changed the oil or anybody

changed the oil. She couldn't prove it. And I don't know how she got it, got it,

got the chain to fix it, how it worked out. I don't have to have records or double records

or somehow they check something. But that's why like, I know you change the oil yourself, but

I was kind of wondering like they can track. Yeah. How do you prove that when you have to do

some serious engine repair work? Because you're going to, you need to prove you changed the oil.

And that's why I, and also from the hassle of all, like changing in the oil and having the mess of

it all and all that stuff. It's like, I just take it into place. I just take it in somewhere.

When you take it in, they're supposed to log it in their system, especially at the Ford

dealer, maybe at these other places too, they all log it in some system. So there's yeah,

the car fax, you ever pull the car fax in your car? They're pulling it. Yeah.

It has all the, all the repair, they call it service records and that includes like oil changes.

It'll call it like service record. I don't think all the specifics, but they say service records

on the car fax and that you can use that as evidence to say, yes, I have,

I've done some service in this vehicle. It's proof that the oil has been changed.

So. No, super. That's a really good point. 100%. And yeah. And I think we talked about this

too, is that like it, you know, to be honest, like, you know, I would probably still just be

taking the car to the dealer if it was still completely stock, like with nothing on it,

like I would probably still be taking it to him, but I do enjoy it. Like, you know,

it's, it's, it's kind of my time to listen to podcasts, which, you know,

hopefully folks are listening to this one, but you know, it's my podcast time. It's my

music time. Like my, my youngest is actually like super into it too. Like when I'm doing

anything on the car, he's like super excited to see stuff going on. So I enjoy it for that reason,

but, but yeah, like, you know, there's, there's a benefit to just being able to take it in,

get it done, especially if it's, if it's covered, like, you know, if you're getting

free oil changes, you know, things are in a warranty, but I do much really that.

I mean, they're expensive. They're not like crazy. I mean, they're not crazy. We're

not talking a Lambo here, you know, which is like a whole engine out kind of oil change

or talking like, or at least like dropping a whole bunch of panels and things like,

do my Z has so many damn panels under the front of my Z had this big,

like, I think I like 30 different like screws or whatever you're like,

Bolson. Yeah. Like, and that's, that's where you start to see like the, you know,

the, the labor cost goes up because they had to just deal with stuff like that for sure.

But yeah, I guess, I guess to your, to your point though, the only, the main track record,

I guess I have of oil changes is I actually always get my oil filters from the, from Hyundai

or from wherever, like even, even when I do maintenance on the infinity, like I, I still get

OEM filters from the infinity dealership here, along with like the crush washers that you're

supposed to change out every time you, you open the drain plug. Yeah. Like I've replaced those

every time, like I, every time I open the drain plug, I put a new crush washer.

I wonder if the dealership does that one ticket in. I don't have no idea.

I 100% don't think the Hyundai dealerships are like, I, I 100% don't. And the, the,

my main evidence around that is because I always have to ask them to give me one when I buy,

when I buy an oil filter, they're like, I never have to find under where we keep those things.

Yeah. And it's, yeah, like usually, like with the infinity dealer, like he knows,

like, and it's the guy I go to pretty often over here, like in the service department,

he knows like, okay, you know, crush washer or oil filter. And he didn't even have to,

like, I didn't have to ask him. He just told me, like, Oh yeah, we'll throw, we'll,

we'll get you the oil filter or the crush washer along with it for Hyundai. Like every time I go,

I have to make sure I asked them because the one time where I didn't ask them, I open up the box,

not, not realizing that I didn't ask and they didn't have one. And so I had to go back and

just buy, you know, I bought two or three at the time. So I wouldn't have to like worry

about it for a little while. Oh, nice. Nice. But yeah, I'm pretty, I'm 100% sure they're

not doing that. Well, it sounds like you're really on top of your vehicle. And I know that

if you have a cool car, you listening at home or have a car you're proud of, I know that you are

definitely on top of any issues. You hear it sound like a weird sound. You're on top of it,

like the same day or changing the oil on time, not too late. I mean, my ex-wife would

wait to her car, went into like a little pinging sound it made on the, on the dash,

oil change, oil change needed. And like, why do you take it? So why even like,

it's got 5% left for good, you know, or whatever it says it is, you know, dude, I've been changing it

at like, at like 20% or 30% somewhere in there. What would you say that is in terms of mileage

if you, if you know, I think it's right around five to 7,000. Gotcha. Yeah. So the, according

to the Ford booklet, according to Ford themselves, my truck in particular, same with my other

engine, cause it's the same engine, same oil, I guess, same oil pan, I guess,

says it was good for 10,000 between oil changes. This is what it says. Now I asked the guys at

Ford, they said, probably you probably should do it every seven or five. And they talked some

old school mechanics. They'll save it for 3000. Yeah, I don't care. I don't care what it says.

Which is what I'm on, like the, the ends on like 30, every 3500 miles or so.

My Z, I did it every, about every 5,000 on the Z. I think it was 6,000. I don't know,

something like that somewhere. And I say like, you know, a thousand miles over like usually,

cause right now actually, to be totally honest, like I'm, I'm about like 11,

cause I've just been like just a whole bunch of stuff going on and haven't been able to do it.

But like I'm, I'm maybe 11,000 or 11, 11,000, 1100 miles over. So this, this one's probably

more like 4,000 mile interval versus like the 3500 or the 3000 that I'm normally at.

Okay. Yeah. You know, a thousand like here that like that's, I'm usually not like that,

nitpicky. You know, obviously like if you're, if you're rated at five and you're going to 10 or

11, like that's a different story in my opinion. Cause your car have like a, cause the Ford's have

the oil life sensor where it tells you a percentage, like a battery on your phone.

Does yours do that too? No, mine is definitely like more just a manual, manual deal. Like,

so you could, you know, essentially, you know, just kind of shut it off or like reset it

without actually doing anything, which I don't do obviously, but like it's possible to do. But

it's more the older system where it's literally just the computer tracking your mileage. And then

once you reset it, it just retracts the mileage. So yeah, it doesn't have like an actual like oil

life sensor. The oil, it does say that, but really it's just tracking mileage. Yeah.

Yeah. With, with the Forge one, I thought I was like that too at first, but then I found out

with, with my ex-wife's car, when she did a lot of towing and it dropped down real quick to like,

look, we just changed the oil. So yeah, but if you do more wear and tear in the vehicle towing

and hauling and things like that, it does. Yeah. I don't know how it works, but it does, does

definitely the percentage is, I don't see accurate, but it does show you, but it knows

that like, there's a variation. Like you haven't just been driving this on the highway.

Like there's more load. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So if you do a lot of heavy hauling or

towing, it will, that percentage, you'll see it drop quicker. And so like, I can check my,

it's changed it yesterday. So it's probably at 99 or at least 100% probably 98% or whatever.

I did a little driving, you know, since then. So you'll see, you can log in on the dash

and on my app of my phone, I can check it on the phone and I can see where it's at.

And I kind of be going off of that, but of course the dealership always puts a little

cute sticker in the windshield. I think most oil change places with the little sticker in

the windshield. They put the little sticker. Yeah. It says like miles were changed and like,

when you should change it again and things like that. So I usually don't go off of that.

I usually been going off with a sensor in my truck tells me. And when it gets like,

when it starts dropping below 50% and I start keeping an eye on it, checking the oil,

things like that and making sure that like, like, I don't, I never want to take it

down to zero, but like 20% ish range. I think it was 28 or 29% yesterday when I took it in.

Yeah. So one thing I was gonna, it came to mind actually, because you asked you,

you mentioned about the car facts and, and how that kind of tracks your like maintenance schedules

and things like that. Yeah, yeah. Not sure if you know that car facts now has like a way where

you can, you can actually click like a cell, like a DIY maintenance, you know, kind of toggle

because you can actually adjust like, because it'll right now, like all of my cards are on

car facts. And so it like sends me information. And if it sees that like the car is passed,

like it's maintenance schedule, you start to get an alert. Oh, yeah, emails or whatever.

Yeah. But what I do now is like, once it goes, once I see that I'll go in, or sometimes I do it

ahead of time is you actually go in and then you can mark certain services as like self done

or self performed. Oh, nice. And you can put in like, you can actually attach pictures of like

receipts. No way. That's awesome. Yeah. And, and showed it like, yeah, the maintenance was done

by not, you know, not a dealer or a shop, but if you take it in and you say you sell to somebody

and they do the pull the car facts on your car, like, it's all blank. It's, there's no maintenance

on the thing at all. You know, so that does definitely help because the first thing people

are going to pull or dealerships going to pull is going to be the car facts,

not the car Fox, different one, not the car, the car facts. And I think it's,

it could cost me to do that. You might be able to do a basic. You do. Yeah. You have to,

you have to pay. And I asked for it when I bought my Z. I asked him for the car facts.

They did pull it on my Z. I had the whole thing and made copies of it, all that stuff.

And it was kind of irritated. So they changed the brakes, but they put the wrong brakes on

there. Cause the thing did squeal first day, one knows the breaks are squealing. Cause

that doesn't sound right. And like, well, maybe it, well, maybe I don't know. I don't,

I don't ever owned a three 70 Z before. Maybe, maybe it's what it is. I don't know.

You know, they kept squeaking this week. I was like, this doesn't sound right.

What did they say about that? Cause I've, I've heard that cause it, cause it's actually an

issue on the, on the M, but it has that issue where like when, especially when they're, when

they've been, when it's been sitting outside for a while, it'll, yeah. First, first drive,

I used to back out of my driveway and my driveway at the old house was a slight, well, this

is a hill too, but that was a hill also, but it was like dropping out of the driveway.

It was like squeak, squeak, you know, and I'm like, so embarrassed.

But it seems to kind of go away after a little while I noticed, but

and that's the same deal with that. Yeah. So that seems like a normal thing.

But they said with the steel brakes, they said they had to be,

everything had to be replaced. The rotors, everything. And so I think what happened was

that the dealership that bought the used car. So I bought the car from a Dodge dealership.

Not a, not a, not a Nissan dealership, a Dodge dealer. I bought the Nissan at

the Dodge dealership. So you got the mistake, what number one? Okay.

But that's, that's the dealership that sold my car that had the car for sale.

So that's where I bought it from. And so they said they changed the brakes.

I said on the car facts, they changed the brakes. I see it right there.

But what I think happened is they just might just change the pads and didn't use the right

material. Cause I think he said at the shop that changed it, it had to be a specific type of material

of the pad to match the certain type of rotor. So something like that, if I remember correctly.

And so, and because they were mismatched or whatever, they were squeaked and they made,

you know, they were bad or whatever. So when I, it's funny, when I did take it into the

regular shop to do the, the work on the vehicle, which may be a future sponsor, we'll see, you

know, they actually told me, I dropped it off there and they told me when they actually

drove the car around into the shop bay, it was squealing so loud, the brakes that

everybody in the whole tire building was like, what was that?

It was so loud. I was like, yeah, it's pretty loud. I noticed it. You know, I mean, if I'm,

if I'm taking it here, then we got a problem because I mean, I mean, it's that bad. We're at

the point of like, let's get this thing fixed kind of issue. And what you always kind of wondered

me because I was like, the brakes are new. They said they just changed them. The dealership

says they changed them. Yeah. And that's the issue with like, yeah, I would break it.

And I'll probably end up like, because I mentioned I was doing brake pads, probably end up changing

out the rotors at some point, but, you know, you can resurface rotors and, and, you know,

kind of get them to the point where you like change pads. You don't always have to change

rotors when you change pads, but at a certain point, if they've been used a lot, like you

can, you have the option to resurface them from my knowledge, at least, or you, you know,

if you, if you have resurfaced them multiple times, you, you would need to get them replaced,

but it's always kind of a gray area of what that point is. And so a lot of times, yeah,

like, you know, I'm sure a dealer like looks at it where like we want as little costs wrapped

up into this as possible. So we're just going to do the pads and call it a day.

Especially the reselling the vehicle. Like they bought that car used from somebody.

I think the guy said he, somebody traded it in on some other car. I forget, maybe traded

it on like a, I don't know, like a challenger or charger or something like that, or who knows what.

And so they take the car and they got to flip the thing. So they do the basics, whatever it needs,

they just do whatever they got to do, basics, flip it and then sell it. And they screwed me over

so bad after getting to that. And another time they screwed me over so bad on the dealership

there because, because they double dipped on my sale. I didn't realize that I looked at

the stupid bill sale, the big Gila page. And yeah, there was two salesman there kind of like,

you know, there doesn't mean that equally they, I got, I got to pay them both salesman fees

to get combined each separately. But I did, I paid so much money after craft or craft,

looking at that thing. I'm like, holy crap, all these extra fees and service fees. And

I bought the car. I was like, throw everything at it, throw it, give me the,

the extra warranty, give me the, the maintenance package, service package, whatever, throw it all

out there. And so they did, but they also threw in a bunch of like, here's miscellaneous dealership

fee for like two grand. Oh, here's another one for three grand. I'm like, what the hell are these

fees for? You know, and, and next thing you know, I think, I think in fees and maintenance

and crap alone was almost, almost equal to the price of the vehicle.

What? Yeah, man. Yeah, that's insane. So when I bought my new truck and I tried pulling that

game at the new, at the dealership, my new truck, I said, absolutely not. I'm only paying for

the payment on the vehicle. And that's it. Not paying for anything extra. Don't give me

the one. Not even, not even like the, the license plate cover, like whatever, whatever

extra crap, like, like, you know, I said, don't, they tried pushing so hard for the service

package. They tried to sell me that service package. They tried pushing me all that maintenance

crap, all the extra warranty. The guy, the guy put out the calculator, he's throwing all

the kinds of numbers at me, all this stuff. And I was like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope.

And he's like, Oh, but he's like, if you change it for oil, for oil changes,

this much money and this much, this, and you save it, you know, all this stuff.

And I'm like, no. And first off, oil change are not $250 in oil change. I know that

because I've taken my other truck here before. I know it's not that much.

And so, Oh, but if the engine blows up or this and this and that, so guess what dude,

Ford's giving me a 60,000 mile power train, you know, five year on the engine and transmission

and a 30, it was a three year, 36,000 mile on everything else. I think I'm good. I think

I'm good. Oh, but after that, whatever, well, by the time I get to that, hopefully the car's

paid off by then and hopefully I could, if something happens, heaven forbid, I'll just

pay for it out of pocket. And so that's why I've kind of looked at things ever since

that. And I try to like not get screwed when it comes to like all the extra fluffy add-ons.

They try to, they really sell you because they make money on that stuff. I get it. It's all

big money grab, you know. And I know things happen with cars. You got to take it in for

warranty. And I know all that stuff that does happen. Things go wrong. But if the manufacturer

has given you a standard warranty, like 10 years for the Hyundai, like yours,

why would you need to buy a 15 year one? I mean, I guess you could. Why would you need that? I mean,

you don't need that. You know, by that time, hopefully the car is like well paid off and

hopefully like, you know, I mean, you could probably afford to pay for something.

Yeah. Just pay for whatever. Because hopefully everything big has been done during the warranty

and like, even if it's not, even if it's not, I think the money you spent on the warranty,

you could have saved it, which I did do, and then save it and then put it towards a big job later

if something does come up. Yeah. No, I mean, I, I'm, I'm witchy on that because, you know,

I've had that option too with, with even the old, with the M when I first bought it,

like even with the, you know, 130,000 miles, like I could have, I could have gotten extended

warranty on that, which, you know, I haven't really had to do anything major to that car

since I've owned it. You know, I paid, you know, a little extra for certain maintenance

items, just, you know, just because just to get it out of the way. But, you know, I, I haven't had

to do anything that would have justified doing that. And, you know, yeah, I think, I think there

have been some situations where like, you know, people have gotten some use like Land Rovers or

like some crazy, crazy cars that they know they were going to need the maintenance,

maintenance done or like just things were going to go wrong and they got that and it

actually ended up paying for itself. But a lot of times, yeah, you're, you're just kind

of giving some money away and you're not even going to really get enough kind of reaping the

benefits of having it. And they're not cheap either. Somebody's service plans are like into

the multiple thousands of dollars and you're thinking, well, an engine block is 10 grand.

Yeah, I guess. But the odds of that happening, unless you don't change the oil, but the odds

of that happening are probably pretty slim that, that your engine is going to throw a rod.

I mean, not saying it won't happen, but if you just change your oil and do the basic

maintenance, you should be clear of that happening. You should know.

And if you're a cool car person and cool car dude and you like cars and you take care of your car,

it's probably not going to happen unless, unless you cranked up your JB four, two and two, 11,

and you're trying to drag strip somebody down the track. You just, you're just going to take

it to 9,000 RPM every time. Go, go, go. Yeah. Or you're missing the shift. Oh yeah. Then

they can clonk clonk. You're like, and these parts are flying at the back of your car.

What happened there? Yeah, that can't be good, man. So, but the courage has been so fantastic,

man. Having you stop by today in the rain, man. I know it's been raining outside and

thank you and I appreciate you and everyone listening home. I appreciate you too, man.

About this episode

Chris and Courage dive into the ups and downs of dealership experiences, sharing personal stories about vehicle maintenance, warranty repairs, and the frustrations of dealership fees and policies. Highlights include Chris’s Ford F-150 engine replacement under warranty, the challenges of DIY car fixes like brake and oil changes, and contrasting dealership service quality between brands like Infiniti and Hyundai. They also discuss the impact of vehicle modifications on warranty coverage and the value of extended warranties. The conversation blends practical advice with relatable anecdotes about navigating dealership hassles and maintaining vehicles.

Dodge Challenger Dodge Charger Ford Expedition Ford F-150 Hyundai Accent Hyundai Elantra Hyundai Sonata Infiniti QX60 Infiniti QX80 Jeep Wrangler Toyota Celica Toyota Corolla Toyota Tacoma

Original notes

In this episode of Cool Cars with Chris, we're diving deep into the real-life drama of dealership repairs. Chris shares the shocking story of how his Ford F-150 nearly died in a Starbucks drive-thru, leading to a full engine replacement, a clown car rental, and a dealership that literally vanished.

With special guest Courage, the duo also breaks down the ongoing debate of DIY car maintenance vs dealership service, plus oil change myths, brake wear mysteries, and why some mechanics panic over a simple headlight sticker.

If you’ve ever dealt with frustrating service departments or wondered when to skip the dealer and grab a wrench yourself, this is your episode.

🔧 What You’ll Learn:

Why rear brakes sometimes wear out faster than the front
What happened when Chris’s F-150 lost all oil pressure 😱
How dealerships handle full engine swaps (and what they don’t tell you)
What voids a car warranty — and what doesn't
The truth about “free” oil changes and rental cars
How to log your own DIY maintenance in Carfax

Courage’s VIP experience with Infiniti — and a nightmare at Hyundai

00:00 🎙️ Intro – Dealership Stories & Courage Returns

00:51 🛠️ Courage’s Car Maintenance: Jack Stands & Brake Work

02:25 🛢️ Oil Talk: OEM Specs, 0W-30 vs 5W-30

04:00 🔧 Rear Brake Wear on Trucks – What’s Up With That?

05:42 🚗 Chris Asks Courage to Do His Brakes

06:45 🏢 What’s the Deal with Dealerships?

08:25 📺 Crazy Local Dealership Commercials

09:57 🚙 Toyota Tacoma at Costco – Worth $36k?

11:32 📊 What Does “4x2” Mean Anyway?

13:00 💥 Ford F-150 Engine Failure in the Drive-Thru

19:35 🔄 Dealership Changes Ownership Mid-Repair

22:30 🎪 The Clown Car Rental During Warranty Repairs

25:45 🧾 Extended Warranty Wins & Rental Hacks

27:40 🚙 Infiniti Dealership Loaner Experience (VIP Style)

31:00 😤 Hyundai Service Center Letdowns

33:00 🚫 “Modded” Headlights = No Service?!

35:40 ⚙️ How Mods Affect Warranty Coverage

39:20 ⏱️ Oil Change Timing – 3K, 5K or 10K Miles?

41:25 🧼 Crush Washers, OEM Filters & Dealer Shortcuts

43:30 📅 Tracking Maintenance Yourself via Carfax

45:45 🏁 Final Thoughts: DIY or Dealer?

🙌 Support the Show

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow, rate, and share Cool Cars with Chris!

This episode covers key topics like Ford F-150 engine failure, dealership horror stories, and the debate between DIY car maintenance vs dealership service. We discuss rear brake wear issues, oil pressure problems, and what happens during a full engine replacement at a dealership. You'll also hear about Hyundai dealership service frustrations, Infiniti loaner car experiences, and how car modifications can affect your vehicle warranty. Plus, we break down oil change intervals (3,000 vs 10,000 miles) and how to log your DIY repairs in Carfax to maintain accurate service records. Whether you're wrenching in your garage or battling dealership quotes, this episode is packed with real-world car advice.