Debunking car owner myths is a constant in my life...here are some common misconceptions

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of my car guru.

I've kind of been a debunking mood.

I've been doing that a lot lately.

People walk up to me and say, well, something like, um, you think

I need new tires, Lenny?

I don't know.

Let's go look.

We'll go look at them.

And no, they don't need new tires now.

They needed them a year ago.

I was driving to work this morning.

It was very cold.

My windshield wipers were stuck to the windshield.

So I finally broke them loose and I'm driving to work and I say,

I got to get new windshield wiper inserts, not wiper blades inserts.

That's what it's called.

That's what wipes your windshield.

How long did they last?

Not as long as you think that's something else I have to debunk.

I mean, I have been told by many mechanics that you need to

change your windshield wiper blades two times a year coming out

of winter and coming out of summer because they wear down the

rubber and you know, depending on how often they're used, they

take quite a beating, you know, back and forth and back and

forth and all the stuff that they wipe off of our windshields.

I mean, it's a, it's a tough job.

So my rule is once a year and I've had my F 150 a year and a

half.

Have I changed my wiper insert yet?

No, I have not, but I'm doing it today.

I know it's just going into winter, but I want to be ready.

So that's the kind of thing that, that I debunk.

I know those seem trivial maybe to you, but you know, if those

wiper inserts, if they wear all the way down and it gets to

the point where you have part of the metal of your windshield

wiper arm touching your windshield, you will cut quite the

little, what would you call that?

Circular, semi-circular groove into your windshield and you

don't want that to happen.

If you see pieces of rubber just kind of flapping around.

It's probably a good indicator that you need to change them,

but I would go ahead and do it now before the winter gets

too bad.

We still have plenty of time and just make sure that, that

when you turn on your windshield wipers that they are not

frozen solid to the windshield because you could damage your

windshield wiper motor.

Also your power window motors, they can actually burn out

if they're tugging on a glass, a side window that's frozen to

the weather stripping on your, on your door.

So don't do that either.

Let, let the interior of the car heat up a little bit so they

have a chance.

Okay, let's debunk a few more things.

This one's a little bit more serious.

Is there such a thing as a lifetime warranty?

Well, I certainly hope so because we offer that on every new

Ford and every new Nissan that we sell.

It's a lifetime powertrain warranty.

Okay, what's that Lenny powertrain?

That's basically your engine and all its internal parts, not

external parts, just internal your transmission and its

internal parts, your drive axle and that's about it.

Anything that's bathed in oil or transmission fluid.

So if you were to have a failure and you have 300,000

miles on it, as long as the defect is due to materials or

workmanship, it's covered.

If it's normal every day wear and tear, it's not.

So does a lifetime powertrain warranty sound better than it

is?

Well, kinda.

It kinda does, but you know, if you have something with 150,000

miles on it and a rod breaks or a ring gives out, you know,

some internal part in the engine breaks and it wasn't due to

the lack of maintenance, then it's going to be covered.

But if it's because of a lack of maintenance, it's not going

to be covered.

A lot of people say, well, how are they gonna know if I

changed my oil?

Trust me.

These people that come in and inspect these things, if they're

having to replace a, you know, $12,000 engine, they know.

They know what it looks like.

It's just like you go to the doctor and somebody dies and they

do an autopsy.

They can look in there and say, well, this person was a smoker

or this person ate too many fatty foods.

Too high cholesterol.

They can tell.

There are telltale signs and of course the general public,

they think, well, there's no way they can say, yeah, they can.

So the key to that is just to follow your maintenance schedule.

Although sometimes you can follow the maintenance schedule

and something will break.

Just like it did on that 2022 Toyota Highlander I was talking

about the other day, just 70,000 miles on it.

And something broke on the inside.

We didn't tear the engine down.

It didn't really matter.

I mean, it was locked up.

We had to replace the engine.

I ended up paying for it.

It was out of warranty and the people bought it as is with no

warranty, but I stepped up to the plate because they'd only

owned it for two weeks and more than likely would have failed

if I had kept it.

If somebody had been out on a test drive, it would have failed.

It would have started knocking just like it did with the customer.

So we had to step up and fix it.

We put their replacement engine in it this weekend, this past

weekend, and hopefully that will be happy about that.

But you would think that the wonderful Toyota company would

have stepped up and replaced that engine, but they denied the

claim.

They said they would have paid for it if it was still in the

hands of the original owner because they had maintained it

faithfully at a need, I'm sorry, at a Toyota dealership near you.

Near us and we were told that Toyota would have paid for it,

but because the vehicle was traded into us on a new Nissan

Pathfinder, we turn around and sold that vehicle within two

weeks to somebody else and then within that two weeks, the engine

locked up.

Nope, they're not covering it.

So I guess their warranty was on the people, not on their

product and that's kind of the way it is with these lifetime

power train warranties.

Let's say that 10 years from now, you still have that warranty

in place and you decide to sell that vehicle to a friend.

He's not covered just you.

And that's the way those lifetime warranties work.

You know, if they call it a lifetime warranty, that that sounds

a little bit more complete than a lifetime power train warranty,

but you need to ask the dealership that you're shopping at.

When you say lifetime, tell me exactly what you mean.

Could I see the policy and see what's covered because all

lifetime warranties are not created equal.

It all depends on, you know, what the document says.

Just because somebody says, Hey, this has a lifetime warranty

or a lifetime power train warranty.

You better read it and find out who's backing it up.

Now do automakers like Ford, Honda, Toyota, do they offer

lifetime power train warranties?

No, they sure don't.

Those are typically only offered by insurance companies.

Now the one we offer is, is by an A plus rated multi-billion

dollar insurance company called Assurant.

So I'm pretty sure that you can be certain that the claims

will be paid if it's not due to some fault of your own.

So and that's important to understand.

And when I come back, I'm going to talk about an interesting

financing analysis that you should do.

If you're thinking about paying cash for a vehicle as opposed

to taking advantage of extremely low interest rates, I'll be

back in just a minute.

All right, I am back.

Now, now this is the kind of thing that a lot of people

don't think about doing.

They take the simplistic approach.

What seems obvious is not always very obvious.

Here's the example.

Let's say that you have $40,000 in the bank.

Well, hopefully you have a lot more than that, but you've

saved that much specifically to buy a new vehicle.

And let's say, okay, let's the bank is not going to pay much

more than probably would three and a half to four and a half

percent.

Now, let's say you put it in a, I don't know, Charles Schwab

account, something that's tied to the stock market.

And it's been really going crazy lately and you could earn

a lot more than 10%.

But let's just say that over a five year period, you average

10% return.

So instead of taking the $40,000 out of the account, you go

and finance a car, $40,000 vehicle and you do it for the

same to five years at 0% and then take out each monthly

payment out of that money market account.

How much will the gain be at the end of five years?

And a lot of people say, well, you're taking all the money

out now.

You're just taking out each monthly payment.

So you're just drawing it down slowly, almost like an

annuity.

So what they call this is an arbitrage, yeah, a R B I T

R A G E style question and the math works strongly in your

favor if you decide to leave the money in the money market

account.

So the way this works is at the end you end up with no car

debt.

The cars paid off and you still have $14,050 in savings.

So your net gain is about $14,000 and that's real profit

not paper profit 0% financing you get the free use of money

10% return that money is working for you while you spend

it.

Now if you had just paid for the car then at the end of

five years you have a car that's depreciated which would

you rather have just the car or $14,050 and the car.

I think that I'll take the 14,000.

Now let's say you can't earn 10% you only earn 5% you're

still going to gain $6,000 if you get 7% you're going to

gain $9,500 so it works at lower interest rates as well.

So this is something that people need to do to analyze it.

The excuse I hear for not doing it most often is I don't

want to make monthly payments and you really don't have to

you just have the money drafted out of your account and

then you'll never know the difference.

I just bought a new vehicle for my wife financed it through

Wells Fargo.

I'm not going to make monthly payments.

It's coming out of my bank account every month.

I don't have to write anybody a check or remember it or end

up accidentally being laid on a payment or whatever.

I just set it up to where it comes out automatically and

then I don't have to worry about it.

So that's a good way to keep your credit pure.

You know if you're never late you never miss a beat then

it's just going to drive up your credit score and even

lower your cost of borrowing money over time the next

time you need a loan now you can't get better than zero

but just keep in mind that most car deals right now especially

at the end of the year or anytime during the year they

don't offer zero unless they take something away.

Normally they'll have a pretty large rebate alternative to

the zero percent financing.

So you have to take that into account as well.

Okay.

Let's see.

I had another myth buster.

I always wondered why they measure tire depth tread depth.

I know you you lay awake at night wondering the same thing.

Why do they measure tread depth in 30 seconds of an inch.

I mean it keeps me awake at night.

No it really doesn't.

But Bill made who used to be my co-host on this program.

I would say you know Bill your tires are officially by law

worn out at two thirty seconds of an inch and he would always

look at me and say you mean one sixteenth you know and I say

yes Bill it's the same but two thirty seconds is the way it's

measured so quit arguing with me.

Well why is it measured in 30 seconds of an inch and so I

wanted to straighten him out and plus I wanted to get some

sleep.

Okay so tires and wheels and most automotive standards in the

U. S. were developed when there was a lot of mechanical

machining it dominated manufacturing.

We didn't use computerized measuring like we do now lasers

and all that and fractional inches were the norm half inch

quarter inch one eighth one thirty second and so forth.

So measurement tools calipers depth gauges they were already

standardized in these binary fractions using 30 seconds fits

perfectly into this system.

It's easy to divide even bill mead can do it easy to read on

simple gauges and consistent with other automotive measurements

so there's your baseline explanation.

Now let's just look at it realistically one sixteenth of

an inch according to the tire experts is to course it misses

important where one sixty fourth of an inch is too fine.

And so it's unnecessary precision one thirty second hits the

sweet spot it's precise enough to track where and simple enough

for technicians and consumers so a new tire is going to be

anywhere from 10 to 12 30 seconds the legal minimum in the

United States now you can't even sell a tire this way you

people do there's a lot of used tires sold with a little bit

of tread but if it's under two thirty seconds it's illegal to

sell a tire in the United States snow traction drops

dramatically at anything below six thirty seconds wet traction

degrades noticeably below four thirty seconds so those

thresholds fit pretty pretty neatly in thirty seconds of an

inch so that's why this I've got a tread depth gauge right

over here you should have one they're cheap you can get them

in any tire store well maybe not tire store but maybe auto

parts store but it measures it shows me exactly what my tread

depth is and when you're measuring tread depth you go all

the way across the tire and take several measurements one on

the you know the outside of the tread one in the middle and

one on the inside the tread and if you get any of those

especially on the inside that are less than two thirty

seconds less than the if you stick a penny put link you know

has Lincoln on it and stick it down in the tire with Lincoln's

head pointing down if you can't see the top of his head you're

okay if you can see the top of his head your head you're less

than two thirty seconds of an inch wasn't that convenient for

the US Mint to make pennies that that you could use to measure

your tread depth on tires that was so nice of them so if you

are going into winter and you have less than six thirty

seconds of an inch you're probably gonna do a lot of

slipping and sliding around you can put snow tires on the back

if you're rear wheel drive vehicle if you're a front wheel

drive vehicle you need to put them on the front if you're an

all-wheel drive vehicle it really doesn't matter because

you can go just about anywhere you want to go as long as you

have adequate tread depth and proper inflation if in your

tires you know some people actually put more air in their

tires because they think it'll get a better gas mileage and

it might help a little bit but it'll also cause their tires

to wear more in the center of the tread it's best to just go

by the little sticker on your in your door jam Darby's side

door it tells you how much air is supposed to be in your

tires and if you go too far below that then your tire pressure

warning light will come in come on on your dash unless you

have it covered up with pictures of your grandchildren or

children in that case you won't know and then also check the

age on your tires there is you want to do you want to have

do that well just get down on your hands and knees and you

will find the letters D O T and then you'll see a series of

numbers and there will be a couple of numbers at the very

end and those numbers are the year the first numbers are the

year that the tires were made and then the second number is

the week of that year that those tires were made and if

they're over seven years old you should replace your tires

that's just because well we've talked about that rubber

ages and they develop cracks and weak spots in the tread

sometimes you will see a bubble or a little bump develop on

the outside of the tire not on the tread you'll never see it

if that happens you'll feel it when you're going down the

road but it will be on the sidewall of the tire and you'll

feel these little irregular bumps and it's probably because

your tires are aged out and very subject to blowing out

that's the worst possible time so if your tires are more than

seven years old and they are in the tread depth is less than

two thirty seconds your past due for new tires now there are

a lot of tire deals out there right now as a Ford dealer

we have a great deal I think they'll let's say what is it

you buy four tires and you'll get a hundred and fifty

dollars back plus a no charge four wheel alignment I think

that's their deal which is very good because Ford has great

buying power and we're able to get tires from them at the

same price that they bought them for and we can pass those

savings on to people who buy them from us so that's a pretty

good deal no that's a real good deal but your dealer may have

a really good deal on tires as well just the important thing

it's not where you buy them it's that you buy them when you

need them that's the most important thing I mean just

think if your tread depth is too thin it's not a problem just

driving straight down a dry road but when it rains when it's

really cold when you're driving too fast going around curves

and or if you have to panic stop you know somebody is stopped

all the sudden in a road and you have to slam on your brakes

if you don't have enough tread depth that could increase

your stopping distance and could end up in their trunk

that's one of the things I just don't mess with breaks and

tires if I can steer and stop I can avoid 90% of all accidents

the rest of them it's out of my hands it's out of your hands

okay I'll take my last break I'll be back here in just a minute

I just got an interesting message from a listener says hi

I've been listening to your podcast and got the episode where

you mentioned racing out to you to see what my trade-in would

be worth they offer their 17 digit I didn't count the digits

but their VIN number they say it's a 10 2011 Jeep Wrangler

unlimited hard top in good condition for its age I've

always kept it clean recently replaced the windshield but

soon it will need new tires it's a one owner me the check

engine light is on which is not great for the exhaust system

and there's a minor scratch on the driver's side above the

rear tire cover I'm located in Houston Texas or else I'd be

coming to your dealership and I appreciate that so much

so this is very helpful to have this kind of information

I'm probably gonna need a little bit more in order to pay

it exactly as far as value but this is what I do in addition

to giving just regular advice on buying selling trading

getting automotive service if you need any specific things

you just send me your information to my cell phone

which this person did 423-552-2020 or send me an email to

Lenny Lawson 2020 at gmail.com or send me your email address

and I'll forward you a copy of the my car guru guidebook

which is like your defense against a bad car deal 32 pages

long in it so send me your email address and I'll send you

a copy well thanks for listening to this edition of my car

guru and I'll see you next time

Debunking car owner myths is a constant in my life...here are some common misconceptions

About this episode

windshield wiper inserts

windshield wiper motor

power window motor

Ford

powertrain warranty

engine

transmission

drive axle

lack of maintenance

Toyota Highlander

out of warranty

as is

knocking

Nissan Pathfinder

Assurant

tread depth

tire wear

30 seconds

2/32 of an inch

snow tires

rear-wheel drive

front-wheel drive

all-wheel drive

tire pressure warning light

DOT code

sidewall

four-wheel alignment

stopping distance

Jeep Wrangler

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