Fast food isn't good for you and it's not good for your car....why fast-lube places are bad for your vehicle

Hey, folks, welcome back to another edition of my car guru, where you learn the ins and

outs, the ups and downs of the car business, and how it affects your car life.

That's really all that matters, isn't it?

Although we delve into the history of the car business, cars in general, you know, I

don't know that that many people are really interested in the car business, except how

it affects them.

This little section of Four Lane Road down here, in Greenville, Tennessee, we call it

the 11E Bypass, although when we moved here in 1971, people kept referring to the

Lebanese Bypass, and my mom said, Max, that's my dad, what is the, where's

Lebanese? He said, honey, I don't know. Everybody talks about the Lebanese

Bypass, and nobody seems to know where Lebanese is. It was 11E. It's just what we

do here in Tennessee. We, you know, we're poetic. We change words so that nobody

outside of this area can even remotely understand them. But I call this little

section the gauntlet, because it's kind of, it's very dense. The road really

closes in there. You don't have the big berms. You have no berm, basically, on

each side of the road. There is a turn lane in the middle, but dare not use it.

I mean, if you use that, that turn lane, your life is in jeopardy. If you're

trying to get into, well, there's lows and there's a big rental place there

and there's multiple grocery stores and shoe stores. It's really just too

compact. It needs to be bypassed. It really does. I used to have a car

lot, a little used car lot there. And we suffered from people just not wanting to

go into it because it was just too congested there. Well, now they're

building a fast food place for cars. That's what I call these fast lube

places. And it's going to be right there in the gauntlet. And people, I

guess, when they're in a hurry, say, Oh, gosh, I need an old change. They're

going to drive in there and feed their vehicle fast food. Now, my

cardiologist says that, Lenny, don't eat fast food. Stay away from French

fries, anything fried. It's not good for you. You need to put good stuff in.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you need to put good stuff in to your

vehicle. And your vehicle deserves more than a five-minute experience at a

quick loop place. I know it's convenient. It's ready when you are. You

know, everything has to be fast in this society now. Instant. We need instant

gratification, instant information. How do libraries survive? Who knows? You

know, everything has to be open all the time. I remember when we first

moved to Greenville, Tennessee, that none of the stores, none of them, were

open on Sunday. There were no liquor stores and you couldn't buy any type

of alcoholic beverages, beer or anything on Sunday. You could on

Saturday. And if you were inventive, you could buy it just about any time

you wanted to. That's one of those things that teenagers figure out,

right? Unfortunately. Hope there's no teenagers listening. But you know,

there's just certain things that you should not worry about getting

done quickly. We're cheaply for that matter. Because some things are worth

paying for, paying a little extra for. And one of those things I believe is

your automotive maintenance. Now, if you're a consumer of everything fast,

you don't like waiting. You don't want to wait. You don't really see the

value in it. You've always had your oil changed at the fast loop

place. You know, when you need tires, you just go to the tire store

when you need a battery. I don't know where you go. And nobody's really

looking at your vehicle on a complete basis, actually inspecting it from

one end to the other and following the maintenance schedule that's in the

owner's manual. Speaking of owner's manual, is your owner's manual in

your vehicle still wrapped in plastic in the glove box? I would say

that probably 50% minimum are. We sold a Ford Bronco this morning, and

the customers were picking it up. And I went to the vehicle, because I

just wanted to check if my salesperson had done his job. So I

opened up the glove box. And the window sticker was in there, the

cleanup shop had done their job. They had pulled the window sticker off

and stuck it in the glove box. That's what we do. But there was the

owner's manual in the warranty book, nicely wrapped in plastic as it

came from the factory. That's not how we do it at Gateway. And I went to the

salesperson, I said, that's not how we do it at Gateway, right? No, sorry,

boss, I just got I was going to get to it. I said, okay, I'll give you the

benefit of the doubt. I had it in my hand and I handed it to him. And so

I think it's important as a car dealer when we're selling new vehicle to go

over. Some of the documents that are in the glove box, you know, some

cars don't come with manuals anymore. They think everybody has a

smartphone or an email address. And they think that's all they have to

do is saves them on paper cost. So they just draw it up one time and

then send it to people. And that's good. I can appreciate that. I'm

I'm an admirer and lover of technology to a certain extent. But

the problem is people just don't look at it. They don't go to the

maintenance section. And they say, Okay, what needs to be done at

at each mileage interval, to be able to keep my car in good shape,

the motive for doing that should be to keep your car in good

shape and to improve the resale value of your car when you trade

it in. To me, that's common sense. You know, how many other

things that you own, carry value with them as they as you

go down the road over time. Now, granted, cars depreciate. But

still, it's probably the second or third or four, it's in the top

10 anyway, of assets that you own. And if you take care of it, do

you take care of the other stuff? I mean, your stocks and bonds

and your gold and your arrowheads talk to a gentleman the

other day who collects arrowheads. Big time. I guarantee

takes care of them, you know, keep some nice and displayed and

watches over them, even though, you know, the actual cash value

is not that great. But the car is different. I mean, if you buy

$100,000 car, probably three, four years from now, it's still

worth 50 if you've taken care of it. But if you haven't, it'd

be like a vehicle we traded for last week. Fairly late model,

I'm not gonna say what it is, because I'm afraid they might

be listening. But it was a could have been a very nice car,

easily worth in the high 20s, low 30s. But because it's been

abused and not taken care of so many different flaws. It has

some serious issues that could have been solved early on if

they had had it serviced here. But no, they went for

convenience. And they had their oil changes at a big box

store that does that, you know, something like a Walmart or a

Target or probably Walmart. And so their vehicle was in sad

shape and worth in the lotines. And that's on them. And I'd be

willing to bet that they don't take care of hardly anything.

You can tell a lot about people about how they take care of

their car. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm being judgmental. But it's

true. I mean, they can be good people, but take care of

what you own. And you will be rewarded for it. The best place

to do that if you buy a new vehicle, or you buy a late model

used vehicle, take it to the dealership that sells that brand.

Yeah, but they give terrible service. Well, if you've had a

bad experience, make sure somebody knows about it. Go

complain or go to another dealer that sells that brand.

They're not all bad. Matter of fact, some of them are

pretty cool. I think our shop is really cool, our waiting

areas and and our people, they're nice and they're friendly

and they're competent. And so are our texts. Do we make

mistakes? Yes, we're human. People make mistakes. What do

they do when they make one though? That's the key. Okay, I'll

take my first break. I'll be back here in just a minute.

In the my car guru guidebook, which is available to you for

free 32 pages of automotive experience and wisdom for my 47

years of doing this, just saying that makes me feel tired. But

now I still have plenty of energy because my goal is to help

people improve their car life. Because everybody has one. You

know, it's kind of like those stickers that you see on the

back of cars that says Lake life or salt life. Does that

mean they like salt? Or that they just really like being at the

beach? I never have been able to figure that one out. But yeah,

the car life is is very impactful. When you agree, then

your life kind of fall apart when your car's in the shop and

you're have or you're without, or you have to borrow

something from somebody else. You know, in the car guru

guidebook, I talk about the importance of complaining. When

you get bad service, it's very common. I had my daughter, my

middle child had to be in the hospital this weekend. Well,

Monday and Tuesday, they had to do a lot of testing,

everything's fine. But you know, sometimes you have these

aches and pains and so forth, and they need to be

diagnosed. She had just hit 40 to imagine that. But she's

fine. But there were very stark contrasts between the

level of service that was given by different people in that

hospital. And in a funny how people can be looking at you,

but looking right through you and really not listening and

not providing things that you ask for until you ask the third

or fourth time. Yet other people very attentive. I mean,

just jump up as soon as you walk in and look you in the eye

and smile and make you feel good. And oh my goodness,

doesn't it just improve your experience when that happens?

It's one of the reasons I like to go to pals or Chick-fil-A. You

know, they're just I don't know. They're working hard on

making their people warm and accommodating. What's

McDonald's doing? Putting up screens that you have to

interact with and eliminating people that you have to

interact with. I don't even care if I ever go to another

one of those restaurants, because they don't care about

people. I'd rather give people jobs, not computers, not AI. I

know it's coming. But I'd rather deal with folks even though

they fail sometimes. But it's a learning experience, right? So

in most card, this is from the cargo route guidebook in most

new car dealerships, there's a basic organizational

structure in the service department that you need to

be aware of. At the bottom of the pecking order is the

greeter. And I'll summarize here. And then there's a

service advisor. Now if you are having a problem, and you

want to escalate it, you do it nicely. And the next person

you talk to is a service manager. And in some dealerships,

you think that you were trying to talk to the president of

the United States. He's not. He's just a service manager. But

sometimes they think they're so important that they don't

have time to talk to you this way. Have you talked to a

service advisor? You know so. But there are others like my

dealership. If you want to talk to the service manager, all you

have to do is ask for him and here he comes. And he wants to

know what he can do to help you. That's what you want to see

isn't it? Now if you have a legitimate complaint about an

issue, in the right kind of dealership, you know what

happens next? That week when they have their service

advisor meeting, your situation will be brought up. And

they'll be talking about okay, how can we avoid or prevent this

from happening again? But if you hadn't gone in to complain,

you said, I'm just going to go to Walmart. Then you haven't

done them a service, you haven't done yourself a service,

the only people you've helped is Walmart and they don't need

any help. So what did I do about my experience? Well, I

have a buddy that works is in administration in that

particular hospital, or that hospital conglomerate. And I just

think he needs to know about it. You know, it's a cultural

thing. It's also you can't control people's moods on a

daily day to day basis when you have thousands of employees

somebody's going to be sour. That's just the way it is. But

you have to continually make them aware of it, you're

not going to be able to change all the behaviors all the

time. But if you change enough behaviors, most of the

time, it will reflect positively on your business. So

complain, but be nice. You know, if you're really upset, I

understand that sometimes folks need to escalate beyond the

service manager, maybe talk to the general manager of the

dealership, I would always do that before I complain. But

please never threaten that you are going to do something on

social media, if you don't get what you want, because

you know what that is. That's extortion. And they can

actually sue you for that. It's true. It's happening all over

this country right now where people are bad mouth and

businesses, and or threatening to where they go into a

business and they say, if you don't give me that that

free oil change, then I'm going to rip you apart on

Facebook. And if they have a recording of you saying

that, which a lot of businesses do, they'll have

cameras up all over the place and they can record what's

being said, then you're in deep doo doo. But that's the wrong

way to handle it anyway. I mean, be a human. Be nice. Go in

and talk to the people help them improve their business. You

know, they'll really really appreciate you as a

customer to they'll treat you with kid gloves. And you

want them to you want when you drive into that

service department, you want that service advisor to

look up and say, Hello, Mrs. Jones, what can we do for

you today? And it's just easy. And you trust them. You like

them. And they do good work and they want to do good work for

you. You go in yelling and screaming and pitching a fit.

People don't want to help people like that. They probably

have to but they just really don't want to. So get to

know your service advisor. So he will get to know you

that's right out of the cargo route guidebook. One of

the other things that I want you to do is go get

your car checked out. If it hasn't, let's say you've

been going to the fast loop place for the last eight or

10 times. And you just haven't, you don't have any

relationships at the dealership. You're driving a

Hyundai or Kia or, you know, it doesn't matter what it

is. Then go back to that dealership and we're

making an appointment, call him. So I need to get

my car checked out for the winter. You know, bad

weather is coming. I want to get it serviced. I

want you to check my cooling system breaks. I

want to end to end inspection. They normally do

that when they change your oil. That's one of the

big advantages of going to a car dealership is they

use something called a multi-point inspection

form. And so they check all of this stuff and they

may find something. You know, when you come to my

dealership, for example, I invested a ton of money

in this laser scanner that when you drive your

vehicle into my service drive, I think it's hit

with 48 different lasers. The front end, it doesn't

burn holes in it. It actually measures the toe end

and the either the caster or the camber. I can't

remember, but it tells whether your car is in

alignment or not. And it doesn't cost you

anything. We look up on the screen and it'll

say it'll give either green or red. If it's in

the red, then you need to have a front end

alignment. If it's in the green, you're good

to go. So that's free. But you're not going to get

that at the fast loop place. Nor are you going

to get all the other important systems

inspected. Yeah, well, they always try to sell

me something. Well, it's because your vehicle

is due for something. Now, I am not a big fan

of flushes. The only flush, you know, as far

as a coolant flush or a transmission flush, all

that stuff, the only flush that I'm

interested in is the cooling system flush. I

want to get all that old coolant out of there

out of the engine block out of the heater

core, get all that out of there, put fresh,

high quality cooling in my system so that

winter comes. I'm protected to minus 20

degrees or whatever. And I also want to make

sure that they pressure test the system, that

I don't have any leaks. And then I want

my battery tested. I want to know what my

cold cranking amps are and how much they've

deteriorated since I installed this

battery. And if it's weak, then I want a new

battery and I want a battery that matches

the factory specifications, what it calls

for. Because as sensitive as the electrical

systems are on modern vehicles, you better

get exactly the right battery. So if

you're driving a Honda, get a Honda

battery. If you're driving a Ford, get

a Ford battery. Make sure it's for your

vehicle and see what we do at the

dealership and what they would do at the

Honda or Toyota or Hyundai or whatever, is

they're going to get the battery based on

what your VIN number is, your 17-digit

VIN number. Because that tells them what it

was born with. And that's what you need to

put back on it. So I want my battery

good. I want my tires good. You know, if

my tread depth isn't good and we do

happen to have some bad weather, then I

want to make sure that my tires have

adequate tread depth and that my tires

aren't too old. You know, really? Your tires

can get too old? Yeah. They're over seven

years old. You need to replace them. And a

lot of people think that, well, that's

crazy. Lenny, I've never heard it. That's

true, though. That's what the tire

manufacturers say. You think they have

have a little bias built into that?

They may. They just might, but the

auto makers suggest that as well

because rubber deteriorates. It's a

natural product. And over time, high

temperatures, low temperatures, it starts

developing cracks. And those cracks can

lead to catastrophic tire failure when

you're going down the road. Okay, I'm

going to take my last break and I'll be

back in just one minute or so.

So I shipped out a bunch of copies of

the My Car Guru guidebook yesterday. If

you need one and you need to print

it out, just call the dealership 423-639-5151

and just tell that whoever answers the

phone, hey, I need my Car Guru guidebook

printed out and they'll write down your

name and address and I'll send it to

you. Otherwise, just send me your or

text me to 423-552-2020 your email

address and I'll email you a PDF

version of the My Car Guru guidebook.

Now, the guidebook does not supersede

the maintenance schedule or anything

like that in your owner's manual. That's

something else you need to review,

especially if you just bought a new car.

Like this lady just took delivery of the

new Bronco. You know, if that thing was

left in plastic, it would probably be

in plastic 36 months from now. It's

important that the salesman takes

that out and says, you know, you

really need to read this. Not the

whole thing. I mean, it's about the

complete operation of your vehicle,

but review the maintenance schedule,

understand what the warranty is. Plus, she

bought an extended service contract. She

needs to know how that works with the

factory warranty and which one, you know,

you need to use and when. You know,

there's so many people that buy stuff

at car dealers, you know, especially in

the finance office and they forget

that they have it. I mean, it's

amazing. I think the number of people

who buy prepaid maintenance, I think

it's like 70% use it. 30% forget

they have it and they start going to

these fast loop places and and it's

just wasted money. So that's why I think

it's a big mistake when people don't

get their paperwork out the day after

they buy a car or a couple days later

and just review everything. Make sure

that, you know, what they said they

were going to do, they do. Make sure

that they follow up that they wrote

down somewhere that you were supposed

to get free floor mats and vent

visors and a free trailer hitch or

whatever. Get all that stuff in

writing and then review it. Just get it

out on your kitchen table or wherever

while you're sitting there watching

Wheel of Fortune and just look at it

and just make sure, wait a minute, what's

this? I didn't know I bought an

extended service contract. You know, if

you deal with a payment packer and

that's those dealerships that

close the deal based on payment, you

didn't really know what you paid for

the car and you're dealing with

folks who illegally pack payments

with products that you didn't know

you had, then the best time to

take care of that is 24 hours later,

not 48 hours, 24. You know, if you

bought a car on Saturday, go in on

Monday and say, listen, I don't know

what all this extra stuff is, but I

don't want it. I didn't agree to this.

Well, you signed it. Well, I didn't

know it was in there. He was

shoving so many different papers in

front of me and I was just signing

everything he said. I've heard

that so many times. I mean these

people that listen to my show,

especially locally, and then all

of a sudden they come down and

it's been a year or whatever and they

say, well, you look at this paperwork.

I said, sure, when did you buy the car?

Well, a year ago and I didn't know I

bought all this stuff. I mean, I was

wondering why this one elderly

gentleman came in and they had

printed out all his stuff. Well, they

didn't print it out. They put it on

a flash card and he didn't even

know what that was. He said, I

think they said my paperwork's on

this. I put it in my computer and I

said, do you know you paid $5,000?

It was over $5,000 for an extended

service contract on a Nissan Altima.

He said, no. I said, well, that's not

good, but you can cancel it. But he

had financed the vehicle and so his

cancellation was going to go to the

bank. It wasn't going to do anything

to his monthly payment. He wanted

his payment to go down and I said,

that's not happening unless you

refinanced the car and then that

probably won't happen either. But

you need to cancel this warranty

if you don't want it because

it's extremely overpriced and he

didn't know he had bought it. He

didn't remember anything and I don't

doubt that because that's how these

yahoo's operate. So you just got to be

careful. Read the paperwork, know

what you're signing. Don't just

sign everything they put off. No, you

need to sign here, sign here, sign

sign. You know, it is, it's the

pressure, it's the speed of the

transaction that they're counting

on that you won't notice what

you're actually signing. It's

unfortunate, but that's life. Well

thanks for listening to this

edition of My Car Guru. Call me if

you need me 423-552-2020 or send me an

email to LennyLawson2020 at gmail.com

and I'll see you next time.

Ford Bronco

Nissan Altima

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