"Five Common Maintenance Mistakes That Cost Drivers Thousands"

Good morning Niagara, you're tuned into car connection,

where the coffee's hot, the tools are ready,

and the talk is always tuned up.

I'm your host, Dial Motormouth Jenkins,

coming to you straight from the car connection workshop,

where we mix a little humor, a little know-how,

and a whole lot of horsepower.

Here, it's not just about fixing cars,

it's about keeping you rolling, saving you money,

and giving you the confidence to understand

what's under that hood, from the classics,

to the commuters, the weird noises,

to the what the heck moments, we've got you covered.

So grab your coffee, you're just tripping through

the drive-through, double check your order,

just saying, lock it down in your cup holder,

and sit back, keep an eye on the other guy and the road,

you know who he is, and join the crew this morning,

because this is car connection,

your Monday through Saturday morning pit stop

for stories, smarts, a few good laughs,

and I'm Dial Motormouth Jenkins here to shift

and drive us where we need to get going.

So thank you for allowing us into your car this morning

or wherever you are listening from,

if this is the first time tuning in,

we're glad to have you on board with us, so welcome.

There are a lot of moving pieces

to the car connection workshop,

after putting behind us 31 years,

we wrapped up in late October, beginning of November,

on radio with our live call-in automotive program

called Car Connection, and we were on a number

of networks for all that time,

and created a lot of listener base,

and now we're spreading our wings,

spreading our wings now, North, South, East, and West,

and not just limited to a certain group of people,

now we can reach and help a lot more,

and our program is always about the five things

you'll always learn, so if you think,

oh, it's just an automotive program,

no, no, not this one, this one is specifically designed

to teach you the basic fundamentals

of owning and operating an automobile,

because at some point, at some point,

it's called vehicle ownership, so stay with me,

we have a great topic for you this morning,

the five common mistakes that cost drivers thousands,

that's right, thousands, and I could go on for hours

talking about those five common mistakes

that cost drivers thousands, because I see it

and had seen it being licensed since 1988,

I had my light truck and passenger,

highway trucks, coaches, diesels, equipment,

license, and my HVAC license for automotive,

so I am up to date and current, yes, absolutely,

so you're learning from my person that has four decades,

I know, not as old as dirt yet,

but as old as a worm they say, I don't know, I don't get it,

so I'm sharing from my heart how to teach you

to learn enough of the basic fundamentals

of vehicle ownership that will save you thousands of dollars,

if you just grab hold of my coattails,

you're gonna always learn the five things,

and that's what we are training our viewers

on our YouTube channel, is we're not,

I'm not building muscle cars, and well, we are,

but it's for a different reason.

Our hope is, and our vision is, is to reach out

and help as many people as we can that need a hand out,

not a hand out, so we would like to be able

to give away muscle car every single year

through our YouTube channel, but our YouTube channel,

all the videos are designed, you see me doing the work

and explaining it along the way in simple terms,

so that you can grasp what it is, the part,

where it is on your automobile, what it does,

so it's function and how it breaks,

and what you could have learned to prevent that breakage

from happening and costing yourself a lot of money.

So those are the five things you'll learn

on our YouTube channel, and right here on iHeart Radio

and all the platforms, Spotify, Amazon, and everything else.

So wherever you pull your podcast from,

you wanna find us, type in the search box,

carconnectionworkshop, and tap in

and grab hold of my coattails and I'll tell you what,

that we can, it's a brand new year

and we can turn things around.

Before we get started, a couple of housekeeping things,

we wanna make sure we get thanks to our sponsors

that help to keep us going as we rebuild

and reach millions of people, not hundreds of people,

and that's what makes the difference.

But we always tie ourselves in

with a nonprofit faith-based organization

that needs our help to get the word out there,

what they do, how they do it, and where they're doing it,

to change lives one at a time in the entire Niagara region.

That's the whole idea behind us working

with our YouTube channel to raffle off a muscle car

once a year, one per year is take out the basic costs

to create that muscle car and apply that

to getting another one and build another one,

but the proceeds of the ticket sales and the raffle,

the raffle that vehicle off would go

to a faith-based nonprofit organization

that is working to help people, all age groups

from small humans to big humans, seniors, widows,

you name it, to give them a hand up.

That's where the proceeds will go in our own backyard.

Right on.

Crystal Ridge Dream Center is our

faith-based nonprofit organization

that we started working with in 2025

and looking forward to continuing to help them into 2026.

They put meals out the door every Tuesday and Friday,

and I'm told just before the holiday season arrived

over 200 meals every Tuesday and Friday now,

and they get no government funding whatsoever.

So in times when community support is crucial,

Crystal Ridge Dream Center shines

as a beacon of compassion and transformation,

located at 385 Derby Drive in the heart of Crystal Beach.

They're looking after men, women, young adults, children,

meals, love and hope, changing lives

one at a time in the Niagara region,

and you too can come alongside

and be a part of that community and help.

With a donation, they can certainly use grocery cards,

gift cards and also time.

If you've got some time, you wanna put some,

donate some of your time into something

that's really, really good into the community,

this would be an absolute.

You can find all our program partners on the homepage

of our website at cartconnectionbusinessnetwork.com,

City Auto Sales and Leasing,

providing low mileage quality vehicles at fair prices.

Earl and Louise Grant, they're car guys,

they've been in the business for 25 years,

making sure that people get a quality,

top quality vehicle.

They sell no junk there.

They also offer in-house financing,

and that's how they've earned Greater Toronto Area's

premier pre-owned auto store title.

Very humble couple, just spoke to them the other day,

and they're having a little time out right now,

but they're there for you.

They have a fairly decent inventory under roof

and outside if you don't find the vehicle

you're looking for, let them know.

They have 20 plus years of resources

to find those low mileage, top quality vehicles.

You can buy a vehicle with confidence

and be treated with nothing less than honesty and integrity.

That's City Auto Sales and Leasing.

Rainbow Motors, a garage in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada,

is run by the brothers, Rita and Ramiz Shenouda,

great team up there.

You can buy something off their lot again.

If you're in that area, you're looking for a vehicle

specific, let Rita and Ramiz Shenouda know

what you're looking for.

Let them do the legwork.

Let them pick that automobile for you.

Sales and service you can trust.

All years makes and models up to and including

light commercial vehicles.

Rainbow Motors, a garage, sales and service you can trust

in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

Car Connection also brought to you by

our certified financial planning professionals,

Tony Miele and Larry Tietro combined

have 50 years experience as fiduciaries

and they work with IG Wealth Management.

They can help you with something

that you already have invested, say investments

with the bank and you really need to sit down

and get that what we call the complimentary hour

and a coffee discovery meeting

because you're not making any money.

The banks are making money on your money

and then they give you the Ziploc bag

and go, this is your share.

That's not right.

So you've got to take the bull by the horns,

get it out of there like a lot of my friends have

and now they're making money while they're sleeping.

They're very happy.

They help to design a debt retirement program

so the debt dragon's not beating you in the head

and with this tail anymore.

Estate planning, wills, powers of attorney

that's not something you do from a cake mix.

Will, you know what I'm talking about, the packet.

Yeah, because if you read it all the way through it,

we'll say you need to have an attorney check this.

Exactly, you need a proper estate plan,

including wills, powers of attorney

to lock your estate down tight

so that your final wishes are taken seriously.

Mortgages and more.

Life insurance, critical illness, insurance.

I have all that.

Tony and Larry are like brothers from other mothers.

I've known them both for well over 20 years.

We included them in our radio program.

They would be on with us once a month,

answer questions and be there to guide you

through what seems to be heavy navigational moments.

Where if you're still finding

you're getting the same results every single year,

you know, you're not moving forward with your finances,

you're arguing with your spouse about it,

intense moments of fellowship, please listen to me.

If I could put you in my head for 30 seconds,

you'd probably need counseling for a few years,

but you would understand what I'm telling you,

connect with Tony Miele or Larry Tietro.

They're available to you on our website.

Just click, open their profile page and connect

and book your hour in a coffee.

Get your questions answered by those

who have the fruit on the tree.

They don't need any more clients, these two fellows at all,

but their promise to us in 2007

when they joined our radio broadcast

was that they wanted to help the listeners.

So because you know me and I'm connected,

well connected with them,

we want to help, they want, they want to help

and I want to help people get out of debt,

stay out of debt, build a solid financial future

for yourself with ready for it, a plan,

a plan on how to get there.

And again, as my professor would say,

don't take advice from anyone who's not standing

where you want to be.

So book that hour in a coffee, it's not a sales thing,

no sales, no condemnation, you know what's gonna happen?

You're gonna get your life in order

and you're gonna have a lot of pressure off

and you know what, your honey's gonna be super happy

with you fellas.

So I always like to mention, if he won't do it,

ladies, you do it.

But the point is, someone booked that hour in a coffee

that discovery meeting by Zoom, phone, in the office,

in their office, at a coffee shop, in your home,

whatever you're comfortable with,

but here's the deal, you gotta lay all the cards

on the table, don't hold back anything.

110% honesty, if you want the fellas to help you,

everything has to be on the table, everything.

And don't just book and kick tires or book and then cancel

because they don't need that.

They're here to help those who are ready,

as my professor would say, motor mouth,

when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Exactly, so take advantage of that.

I really mean that, take advantage of that,

it's a brand new year, we're into day two of 365 days

of 2026, get things turned around.

Procrastination is an absolute death gargle

to everything you want to accomplish,

your goals, your dreams, you're not gonna get there.

You're absolutely not gonna get there

if you're running the same play that you did in 2025

in the last 10 years, what's gonna change?

Nothing, just saying, nothing's gonna change.

It's gonna be the same old, same old.

I've already heard that from people already,

I go, oh, so what are your goals and dreams for 2026?

Oh, I don't bother anymore.

Why bother setting yourself up for failure?

I go, okay, all right, I gotta go get a cup of coffee.

Thank you to Niagara Block at 5,000 Montrose Road

and Niagara Falls, they've been busy building Canada

since 1931, providing building supplies

and hardscape landscaping materials

to help you create that backyard oasis,

that getaway that you've always wanted to have.

Get on their radar now and start talking with them

and get a landscaper lined up

because the good ones are busy.

I waited two years for a landscaper that I saw their work,

they do a lot of work in Niagara and the lake

and I'm like, that's the team I want

and it was well worth the wait to work with people

that have you in mind, not what they think,

you in mind to create that beautiful backyard oasis.

So check in with them, customer service like no other.

And thank you to Total Freedom Darien Center New York

and Total Freedom Sydney Manitoba Canada

at some men only campus.

And both campuses are to help those

who are struggling with addictions to break free

and it's early in a brand new year,

a do over, your new life awaits you, it does.

You've gotta make that decision to,

you know what, today's the day, connect with them.

We wanna thank Total Freedom

for putting together our merch store

through one of the companies that they run on the campus.

They have businesses they've set up running on the campus.

Because we don't like to call it a program

but when someone who's going through an addiction

gets to a level where that now they need

to start working back into the real world.

They give them working positions to help them,

they get paid and the money is monitored

and now they're being trained to get back into work,

get back on your feet, manage a bank account,

be responsible for your finances

and that's how they get them in the door

and out the door and it doesn't happen overnight.

It is a process, it's a process.

So Freedom Expressions is one of the businesses they run,

it started off as a t-shirt business

and why do they run those businesses as well?

They're profitable and it helps for everyone

whether they can afford to get onto a campus

and deal with their addiction, they turn no one down.

That's how they're able to do it through donations

and becoming self-sufficient.

So when you buy our car connection merch

and be part of our motor mouth team from our website,

you're donating directly to Total Freedom

to make that person that cannot afford to be there

because of finances, get them there.

It gets them there and the change happens.

So thank you to all those businesses

that have been a part of car connection for so many years,

standing behind us and encouraging us

as we move forward with car connection

next generation 2.0.

All right, let's jump right in this morning.

First and foremost, make sure that you're driving partner

if you have someone with you in the jump seat.

Give them the crayons, the 16 pack of crayola

and we've decided that in the car connection workshop

that the leaf bag is the ultimate memo pad.

Yeah, fold it up and then you can just keep riding

and unfold it and fold it and unfold it and fold it

and you can get everything captured that you want.

So let's jump in.

You can always listen and re-listen in our iHeart account.

That's where we today's program.

This is episode series one, episode 50 already.

Yeah, we're on the air here six days a week

because that's what it takes to help you move forward

into a new year and get a great understanding

of the basic fundamentals of vehicle ownership.

And you know when you wanna know what is the moment

when you call it your car?

I used to have to do this with people

when I worked for one of the European car manufacturers

in Canada was have to tell people, you know,

there's a point where it becomes your car.

Yeah, not the dealership, not the manufacturer,

not the engineer, not the line people

that put it together, no, it becomes yours.

You know when that point is when you get the key?

Yeah, there's stuff covered under warranty,

but if this is gonna be your car

and you're not turning it in in three years

and we already did a show on leasing versus buying,

if you haven't listened to that, you need to listen to it

because it will tune you up big time,

leasing versus buying.

The moment you get the keys, if you're saying,

I'm purchasing this, I'm keeping it as long as I can,

it's vehicle ownership.

But if you're leasing it and dumping it in three years,

just go back and listen to that podcast that I did,

leasing versus buying before you sign on the dotted line

because your eyes are gonna be made to be wide open, folks.

There's things you had better know

before you just sign on the dotted line and go,

yeah, I can afford to make that payment.

Yeah, you don't get to drive it for whatever the term is

of the lease, like you stole it and just go,

here's your car,

sorry about the, it's a little dirty

and banged up a little bit.

Yeah, you're gonna need some tires and spray.

Oh yeah, and I can't remember the last time

I changed the oil.

Yeah, you aren't able to do that.

Okay, so we got the memo thing taken care of.

How about our morning coffee together?

I call it our morning swiggies.

So whatever beverage you have,

that's your morning wake-up call.

Let's count it down, three, two, one, have a swiggy together.

Three, two, one.

I'm liking that this morning, yes.

Yes, plus yes.

All right, let's jump in.

Five common mistakes

that's costing drivers thousands, thousands of dollars.

In needless repairs every single year.

And then coming up,

I have seven maintenance red flags

to check before you throw your money down

and buy that pre-owned vehicle.

Talking about pre-owned used.

I like to call them pre-owned.

You don't wanna, which vehicles I call used?

Somebody else's pile of junk.

That's what I call used.

Oh yeah, used and very much abused.

And I used to get my hands on those all the time

by accident when we had our automotive shop

on the Hamilton Mountain for 11 years.

Jenkins Automotive repairs.

People just go, you know what now,

we're not gonna throw the money into that old thing.

We're gonna get our son or daughter and something else.

So they go, do you want it?

Take it off our hands.

I go, if you don't want it,

they'd sign over the ownership.

Sometimes I'd pay, I'd go, look,

I gotta give you some money for it.

I'd say, you know what, 500 bucks be okay, boom.

And I started to call them my $500 babies.

Cause what I would do is,

I already knew the vehicle because I was working on it.

Basically pull the file and look at the history

and get re-familiarized with it and go,

you know what, we can rescue this thing.

So I'd take it all apart inside, clean it, detail it.

Do any mechanicals that needed to be done.

Take care of the outside aesthetics of the car.

The people that dropped it off and I would never take it

for free and always offer them something.

I mean, if they's looking at you

and give you a stink eye, go and I said nothing, zero.

You don't know, just get, take it off our hands.

And I was like, okay, all right.

Well, I usually get them a gift card

or you know, like Tim Horton's

or whatever your favorite drive-through is.

So that, you know, they just flash the card

and get the copy.

They'd come back and they go, is that the,

that's not our car, isn't it?

I go, yeah.

Oh my gosh, what happened to it?

I go, I did, I happened, I was the happeneder to it.

The thing looks amazing.

Inside now and I go, yeah, it's ready for somebody else.

Well, I'd give that to my son or daughter

but we just bought them something else.

I go, well, this is what it takes.

And so those $500 beauties became a great way

for my clients at the shop to get a vehicle

for a son or daughter going to school or going to work.

And you're not socking a ton of money down.

And that's another topic for another time is,

we're going to talk about that,

getting your son or daughter a vehicle

and what that looks like.

Who's in charge of the maintenance?

Do they have any skin in the game on it?

Cause I can tell you story after story

where when the son or daughter is with their friends,

yeah, that halo is tarnished.

Your little angel has black wings.

Yeah, comes out every time.

Yep, they don't have any skin in the game.

It's your car.

And if it breaks, it's your wallet.

We're going to talk about that.

All right, let's jump in.

First of all, what I'm talking about this morning

is a complete mindset.

It is, you have to look at your automobile

and go, could I do without my vehicle for 30 days?

Or two days or four days.

For some people, five hours is like dramatic.

I kid you not, the drama would be like,

that's going to be done today.

Like they call and call and call and call and finally,

we just say, please don't call

because the more times you pull the tech off the floor,

that's if they're working on your car,

you're paying for minutes to talk to them on the phone.

That's your money.

Oh, so he doesn't like punch off while I'm wasting his time

for 20 minutes on the phone.

Correct, you're paying.

So how many times you want me to pull them off the job?

So I had a receptionist that her job was to keep us all

away from the phone unless it was an emergency

so that we're spending the minutes that you're paying us for

on your vehicle.

Exactly, so the mindset is this.

Number one, out of the five common maintenance mistakes

that's costing you thousands of dollars, L-O-M.

I call it, we used to call it L-O-M.

I'd say to Jimbo, how bad's the car he goes?

L-O-M, and what that meant was there was a list.

It came in for one thing,

but you're just standing there looking at it and going,

oh my, oh wow, well they ain't that a pip.

That's gonna cost, the list gets longer and longer

and longer and then I have to make the call and say,

yeah, I know you came in for this,

but here's what else is going on.

If you've got a few moments to slide down here,

we can do show and tell and I really enjoyed doing that

because then you know what, you get to see what we see,

but in today's world now, what's fantastic with technology

is we can video that, send it right over to you.

Take pictures, send it right over to you.

So we can continue to do what we do and that is to fix

the car up, get it back to you as quick as possible.

So that is the segue into L-O-M, lack of maintenance.

And that's exactly what I just reported to you,

is you bring it in for one thing

and then we're not even really looking,

but we're seeing stuff going on and marking it down

because that's our job.

As a tech that's looking out for you

and trying to keep your vehicle running for you

so that you don't come in on a flatbed

and you're not losing time off work,

is we'd create the list and go over the list with you,

saying, I know you came in for this,

but FYI, we've got some things here

that need to be brought to your attention

and you know, no matter how we would deliver

that message to you, we're still the stink master, right?

Yeah, it's not our car

and I'd have to have this conversation with you as well.

It's not my car, I'm not the engineer,

I didn't design, build and manufacture

and drop these vehicles off at the dealership

where you bought it.

No, I'm the guy that's got to fix what you bought.

And lack of maintenance is costing you all thousands,

thousands of dollars in repair work

that could have been, most of the time,

a little thing has now gotten to a big thing.

So we've turned a, you've turned a shrub problem

into a tree, now it's gonna cost you.

Yeah, I hope you understand that.

Cause a lot of times, if we have the opportunity

to look your car over, those are the best maintained vehicles

on the planet, that's why when customers say,

you know what, I don't wanna put any more money

into this whole thing, gonna get my son or daughter,

something newer, can you take it off our hands?

Yeah, absolutely, why?

Cause I knew the vehicle, I had a relationship

with the family and the car, I know it.

And I'm going, this thing still can go a long way

because they've been doing the maintenance.

But now, you know, now they're calling it,

saying, that's it, it's getting too old,

we wanna move it out.

To me, that's like, oh, let's make the best cars,

I'm telling you, the best.

Number two, keep this in mind, this is all a mindset.

You have got to change your mind about

look at how you look at your automobile.

As I mentioned, four days down.

I just had a conversation just back in the fall.

Vehicles, both vehicles in their household

down for two weeks, they were freaking out.

I'm like, it can happen, can't get parts,

can't, you know, it's a challenge right now

through with the way the economy is

and all this tariff garbage going on, sourcing parts.

You know, it's not like ordering a pizza,

you know, you got 21 pizza places

in less than two kilometers.

Yeah, no problem, it's there.

Not with the parts anymore.

We spend time resourcing parts now as service tax.

Number two, having the mindset.

Here it is, babies, I'm unloading it on you.

Hang on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride,

pull that five point harness tighter.

Yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That mindset is costing you thousands

and thousands of dollars.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Well, there's stages of it, of term broke.

When we're looking your vehicle over and I wanna say this,

make sure that you have a trained,

licensed, qualified service technician

doing your oil change service

because that's a full service.

And we had a couple of categories for that.

We had service, oil change service one

and what was included in that oil change service

and then full service, which was the full monty,

the package, nothing got missed.

And 99% of our clients, I want the full service.

They wanna know, they want it, that's what we taught them.

We only had 500 steady clients.

That's all I could manage at the shop.

We weren't, we didn't have 21 service base to look after,

but we were busy, we were a busy shop

because we were teaching preventative maintenance.

Stay on it and we're gonna get there in a few moments.

So hang on.

So the fix it or no, sorry.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude.

Your vehicle is one of the worst vehicles

as far as maintenance goes on the planet, period.

Because when we do get a chance to look it over,

the list is super ginormous.

Stuff that's starting to go wrong,

stuff that has been going wrong for quite a while

and stuff that's like,

I wouldn't take that thing to a corner store in back.

Exactly, costing you thousands of dollars.

And just a real quick story.

You have a 99 Honda Civic DX two-door hatchback

that was purchased brand new

by a loyal car connection listener

that listened to our live call-in automotive program

for 26 years.

And I get a note, an email.

Yeah, I'm gonna get rid of my car, are you interested?

Yes, times yes, plus yes, divided by yes equals yes.

And with it came a great big folder

of all the service and repairs

and maintenance done to that car.

And I knew that was the case.

And that's why I said, yes, I'll take that.

Please thank you and give it a good home.

And it's had a good home ever since.

We're at 300,000, yeah, and more.

And it still runs like a Swiss watch.

Maintenance is all up to date.

Car is clean and spotless inside, outside.

We've got a little cosmetic ditties happening at the back,

which is common for Honda's.

And I've been lacing it down

with additional anti-rust sauce

and it's holding it at bay,

but it needs to, both sides need to be corrected.

And then the car is 100%.

And it's been rust-proof.

The lady has done everything to that vehicle

that I talked about on the air

to preventative maintenance, preventative maintenance,

preventative maintenance to keep that car going

for that amount of mileage.

And it's going to make it to the 600,000 kilometer club,

the 600K club.

Yeah.

So that's why I bought it.

I knew it had been purchased new, one owner.

And I knew that the person was following

the maintenance I would talk about on the radio

right to the nut, including annual rust proof.

And I'll tell you, that car is so gooey.

Yeah, you could get stuck to it underneath.

And no one would ever come and look for you.

Number three, another mindset.

You've got every Tom, Dick and Harry working on your car.

You go here, flavor of the month.

Oh, they took me off.

I'm going over there, flavor of the month.

Oh, I heard there's a deal over there.

I'm going over there.

Oh, that really wasn't a deal.

I think it's better over there.

Those cars, I would not touch with a 10 foot disinfected pole.

Why?

Because they are completely, my term, bastardized.

Destroyed.

No one's really gotten to know you as a customer.

No one's really gotten to know your car as the client.

And they're just junk.

You can look at them and go, as a tech,

I'd look at it and go like, where do you start?

Like, that's freaking overwhelming.

Stuff's been worked on, not put back together right.

Bolts missing, fasteners missing.

Yeah, we took it apart, but we didn't decide

to put all the brackets and stuff

to prevent wire harness and coolant hose issues.

And yeah, you put some of the bolts back in the alternator,

but not all of them.

Yeah, because the tough one that's hard to get at

that you can hardly see, oh, they don't need that.

Make a wish, throw it over your right shoulder.

You need to establish a working relationship with a shop,

with the shop owner and the service techs

and the service advisors, that is worth gold to you

to keep your car in top door condition.

If you float around from shop to shop

to shop to shop to shop, I turned those people away.

I just go, you know what?

I don't have the time to touch this

because here's what would happen.

Tom, Dick and Harry have been messing up your car

for quite a while, but you think you were getting a deal.

Oh, you were getting a deal all right.

Yeah, you were getting a deal.

Well, now everything that Tom, Dick and Harry did

on your car has to be redone to the top door standards.

So did you save any money?

Nope, you wasted thousands to have Tom, Dick and Harry

screw your car up for you.

Yeah, that's what happens.

So I generally, you know, I wouldn't even bring the car

in the shop, I just go, you know, let me get my jacket

and I'll come out and have a look.

And I'd look around under the hood

and I'm going, Tom, Dick and Harry's been here.

I go, I'm sorry, but you know what?

I don't have time to fix all that up.

And if you take it in, here's what happens to us.

The moment we touch it, we own everything

that Tom, Dick and Harry did to screw your car up.

We own it.

So I say, you know what, you're better off going back

to see whoever did this artwork here

and get them to fix it because you can't afford me.

That's what I'd say.

You can't afford me because for me to fix all this,

I charge by the hour.

That means start the clock, stop the clock, pay the bill.

Oh, oh, like can't give me a price on it.

I go, start the clock, stop the clock, pay the bill.

So it's better off, you know, you go back and see

whatever Tom did, whatever Dick did,

whatever Harry did and get them to fix their stuff for you.

Okay, that's the best way for me to manage that

because as soon as I touch it, you touch you by.

That's it.

All right, number four of the five,

if you're just joining us, you can re-listen to this later,

but this is one worthy of your time.

Five common maintenance mistakes,

costing drivers thousands.

We're going to wrap this up very quickly here.

Number four, no tire rotations.

And here's what I hear for a long time.

Well, why do I need to do that?

Aren't they going to stay on where they're at?

I go, yeah, if you want to get the mileage

out of the tires, you need to rotate them.

When you take them off and move them,

it's usually side to side because tires are rotational

and that way we can even out the tire service

and you'll get a lot more mileage out of those tires.

At the same time, we can just have a peek-a-boo

and make sure that everything looks good

and the brakes, suspension and steering.

We see any weirdness going on,

maybe in a half shaft, axle shaft,

the CV boots split open or starting to split open, boom.

We can catch that before it turns into

an exploded drive shaft,

ruining the inboard bearings and everything

and seals on your transmission.

Yeah, cause and effect.

The tire rotations, every other oil change.

Every other oil change, period.

Regardless what the dude or dude at says,

cause we're hearing lots of,

oh, you really don't need to do that.

Yeah, you do.

You do.

You need to say, I want my tires rotated.

Entire pressures checked.

Exactly.

And last but not least, number five.

Monitored systems cost me money.

That's what I've heard for almost 40 years.

When service lights started to come out,

people were like exciting at first,

oh, my car's telling me what's wrong with it.

No, it's letting you know and something's wrong with it.

But now we have a lot of monitoring systems

than we ever had before.

And what does that mean?

You're gonna have to put up with service lights.

Service lights, come on.

The money light is what I hear people saying,

that's not my language.

The money light is on.

What's this gonna cost me?

And people are like all over you.

As a service tech, you're standing there

and your hair is being blown back.

My money light is on.

Get it?

I'm like, okay, does that mean

you're gonna stop spitting on me?

Good.

I have no idea why it's on.

But here's the thing.

Even though the car starts service lights on,

doesn't mean everything's good.

It does not.

What it means is something is not operating

to manufacture specs.

We need to find out what that is before cause

and effect happens.

Stop something else from happening

or a few other happenings along with that

that's costing you a lot of money

if we had a God after the service light

when it came on and see what's,

get in there and see what's going on.

There is no little tester you plug it in

and it tells you what's going on.

No, it gives you information.

Now you need to unload that information

and break it out and do some pinpoint testing

to determine the causal component

that has flagged the service light.

Flagged the computers and saying, I'm out of spec.

Sucks to be me right now.

But I'm telling you something's going on, ECM.

Something's going on here.

You better put the light on.

Bam.

That's what that's all about.

And again, it's a mindset.

TPMS lights flashing in the dash

telling you your right rear tires got a problem.

Oh, just keep driving.

Keep driving to what?

The tires coming off the rim like this guy

in a Cadillac Escalade a couple of weeks ago.

The tire was off the rim.

I heard him coming.

This noise coming down the street

and I was outside and go, what the stink is that?

And I see him coming along the road

and the tires off the rim.

It's tore open and it's ripping parts of the fender off.

It was a Cadillac Escalade.

Do you think it has tire pressure monitoring system?

Yeah, it absolutely does.

Was he not kind of paying attention

to the right front wheels?

Should definitely be flagged on the TPMS

and flashing going, dude, dude, the tires down.

Yeah, it had to have been telling him for a long time

that the right front tire was cutting down.

It was losing air.

But did we pay attention to it?

Nope.

No, just keep driving.

Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.

That's what's happening.

Thousands of dollars in maintenance mistakes.

If that person in that Escalade

had have been paying real attention

and noticing TPMS is flagging that right front tires

got an air quality problem or volume problem,

we need to get to it.

No, no, you know what he did, I can tell you.

He drove it till it was completely flat,

then kept driving it.

I gotta get home or I gotta get to some help

and the tire is ripping parts of the fender off.

Do you think that costs less money to fix?

Yeah, that circumstance right there happens all the time.

Learn to prevent that from happening

and paying attention to the service lights

that can help us, not hurt us, help us.

We've got this mindset that it's the money light.

It's always the money light.

Well, vehicles have to have maintenance

just like our own bodies.

When we get lazy and complacent, we get fat and ugly.

And uglier maybe, yeah.

Cars are the same.

When we don't maintain them

and we don't do preventative maintenance,

it sucks to be you

because you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars.

You're costing yourself more money than less money.

And we're gonna talk about that further

as we get into the first quarter of 2026.

You grab hold of my coattails and you follow me

just like that lady I bought her 1999 Honda Civic DX from.

She did that, the car's mint condition.

Didn't do it by itself.

She understood that.

And even in replacing it and getting a larger vehicle

that would help her to accomplish the things

she does day to day,

has continued that pattern of maintenance, guess what?

That vehicle will be in great shape 10 years from now

because of following the pattern,

the SOP, standing operating procedures,

more of that next time.

So stick around, I have coming up for you

in the next podcast,

seven maintenance red flags to check before you

throw your money down and buy that pre-owned automobile.

That's gonna save you thousands.

So until next time, you can visit our website,

carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com.

That is our biggest tool box drill,

that you can pull open,

where you can find all the information to connect with us.

All our links are in the top right hand corner.

In fact, I was just checking the website yesterday

and I need our webmaster to take care of few things

that need some maintenance.

So I noticed not all the links are up there.

So my bad, I was just following the maintenance guys.

So I've sent them an email already.

We need to make sure we have everything up there.

We have our YouTube and our iHeart,

but I don't see Facebook, Instagram,

Stevensvilleontheweb.ca and I see our merch store.

So we'll get that tuned up right away,

but I always put all the contacting information

in the description box for every podcast

and every single one of our YouTube videos,

which we put three new ones out every single week.

Two for Tuesday, one every Friday,

and thanks to Skippy, our videographer,

for putting that together and making that happen.

So till tomorrow morning, join us again

for Motor Mouse Morning Drive.

We're a few minutes over this morning,

but it's warranted when we're talking about things

that are going to save you money

heading into a brand new year.

How would you like to give yourself a couple of thousand

dollars and raise money in 2026?

Well, you better stick around and find out

about our 30-day fuel saving challenge

coming up in the first quarter of 2026.

We're gonna work together to help you

put more money in your wallet,

and then we're gonna help you to decide

what do you do with that as well.

Till tomorrow morning, thanks for stopping by.

Happy healthy motoring and happy new year to all of you.

Hope you're wrangin' in good and hard,

because we need a good one, amen?

Yes, we do, we need a good one.

Let this be the year for all of us.

The best year ever.

So bye for now, put the coffee on.

We're gonna come to your house.

"Five Common Maintenance Mistakes That Cost Drivers Thousands"

About this episode

muscle car

lack of maintenance

Honda Civic DX

cosmetic

Honda

anti-rust sauce

preventative maintenance

600,000 kilometer club

one-owner car

annual rust proofing

tire rotation

CV boots

drive shaft

inboard bearings

oil change

tire pressure

TPMS

Cadillac Escalade

fender

service lights

vehicle maintenance

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