Is Fixing Your Old Car Worth It? The Honest Math Most Owners Ignore
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Car
Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a type of SUV that can drive on rough roads and trails. People like it because it looks cool and can go places other cars can't.
Term
brakes
Brakes help your car stop when you press the pedal. They need to be checked and fixed sometimes to keep you safe.
Brand
Nissan
Nissan is a company from Japan that makes many types of cars, including small cars and SUVs.
Brand
Peterbilt
Peterbilt is a company that makes large trucks used to carry goods over long distances.
Brand
Mack Trucks
Mack Trucks is a company that makes big trucks used for carrying heavy loads and building things.
Concept
diesel endorsement
A diesel endorsement means someone has special training to work on or drive trucks that use diesel fuel, which is different from regular gas.
Term
fleet maintenance system
It's a way companies keep their cars and trucks in good shape by checking and fixing them regularly so they don't suddenly break down and cost a lot.
Term
five o'clock surprise
It's when a car repair shop tells you about a big repair you didn't expect, usually right at the end of the day, which can be frustrating.
Concept
maintenance-free claims
Sometimes cars are said to be 'maintenance-free' but actually, all cars need some care to keep running well.
Concept
vehicle maintenance
Taking care of your car by fixing things that are broken and doing regular check-ups helps your car last longer and keeps you safe.
Car
Wrangler Tj Wrangler
The Jeep TJ Wrangler is a type of Jeep that is good for driving off-road and has round headlights. It was made starting in 1997.
Concept
truck wrecking yard
A truck wrecking yard is a place where old or broken trucks are taken apart to reuse parts or scrap the metal.
Concept
crusher
A crusher is a place where old or broken cars are smashed to recycle the metal and parts.
Concept
pre-purchase inspection
A pre-purchase inspection is when a mechanic checks a used car carefully before you buy it to make sure it doesn't have problems.
Term
structural integrity
Structural integrity means how strong and solid the car's frame and body are. If it's good, the car is safe and won't easily break or bend.
Term
car payment
When you borrow money to buy a car, you pay a certain amount every month until you pay it all back. This monthly amount is called a car payment.
Term
car loan
If you don't have enough money to buy a car right away, you can borrow money from a bank or lender and pay it back little by little. This is called a car loan.
Term
upside down
If you owe more money on your car than what it's worth, that's called being upside down. It means you might lose money if you sell it.
Car
Dodge Valiant
The Dodge Valiant is an old car from the 1970s made by Dodge. It was a smaller car popular back then and is now considered a classic.
Car
Plymouth Valiant
The Plymouth Valiant is an old car from the 1970s made by Plymouth, which was part of Chrysler. It was a smaller car popular in its time and is now a classic.
Car
Chrysler 200
The Chrysler 200 is a medium-sized car that’s good for families or anyone who wants a comfortable ride. It has nice features and is easy to drive around town or on longer trips.
Term
vinyl seats
Vinyl seats are seats in a car made from a plastic-like material instead of cloth or leather. They can get very hot in the sun and might feel sticky or uncomfortable.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a type of SUV that is good for driving on rough roads and outdoors. Many people like it because it is tough and can handle different kinds of terrain.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger XLT is a type of small truck that has extra features to make it nicer and more comfortable. People use it for carrying things and everyday driving.
Part
cylinder head
The cylinder head is a part on top of the engine where the fuel burns to make the car go. It has important parts inside that help the engine work.
Car
Kia Rio
The Kia Rio is a small, simple car that doesn’t cost a lot and uses little gas. It’s a good choice if you want a car that’s easy to drive and won’t cost much to keep running.
Concept
clutch replacement
Clutch replacement means fixing the parts that help the car change gears smoothly. This usually means taking out some parts and putting in new ones so the car drives better.
Concept
due diligence
Due diligence means checking a car carefully before buying it. This includes looking for problems and making sure it is worth the money so you don't get stuck with a bad car.
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
The Chevy Blazer is a type of SUV that can go on rough roads and is good for families or outdoor activities.
Term
safety inspection
It's a check to make sure a car is safe to drive and doesn't have any problems that could cause accidents.
Concept
pre-owned vehicle
A pre-owned car is a used car that someone else owned before you. It usually costs less than a brand new car and loses less value right after you buy it.
Concept
depreciation
Depreciation means a car loses value as it gets older. New cars lose a lot of value in the first few years, so buying used can save money.
Car
Chevrolet Malibu
The Chevrolet Malibu is a type of car that was made by Chevrolet. The 1980 version had a V6 engine and was a popular family car.
Car
Bristol Bullet
The Bristol Bullet is a special, handmade sports car from England that has a strong engine and looks very stylish. It’s a car that people who really love cars often want to own.
Term
cooling system
It's the part of your car that keeps the engine from getting too hot by moving special liquid around to cool it down.
Term
transmission service
It's a checkup for the part of your car that changes gears, making sure the fluid inside is clean so the car runs smoothly.
LIVE
Good morning folks, you're tuned in to Car Connection where the coffee is strong, the
stories are real and the wrenches never stop turning.
I'm your host Niall Motormouth Jenkins coming to you from the Car Connection Workshop, where
the smell of fresh oil, little elbow grease is all part of a balanced breakfast.
Around here we don't just talk cars, we live them, whether it's a 25 year old Jeep Wrangler
getting a second chance at life, or an eSan Rogue getting its brakes back in order, or
a mystery leak that's got everyone scratching their heads.
This is where we roll up our sleeves and get it done, with a little wit, a little wisdom
and a whole lot of fun.
The Car Connection isn't just about nuts, bolts and diagnostics, it's about connection.
Connection to our vehicles, to the people who drive them, and to the community that
keeps Niagara rolling.
Because when you fix a car, you're not just turning a wrench, you're restoring someone's
confidence, freedom, and maybe even their sanity.
We're here every week, Monday through Saturday, with the Motormouth Morning Drive helping you
keep your ride safe, reliable, ready for whatever the road lies ahead, so whether you're a weekend
wrencher, a daily commuter, or someone who just wants to understand what that strange
rattle really means.
So welcome aboard, stick around for shop talk, expert advice, and a few good laughs, and maybe
a flashback story, because I'll tell ya, four decades in the automotive service industry,
eleven years having my own shop, and all the years prior to that, working with big rigs
for Mack Trucks Canada, Peterbilt of Ontario, grabbed my diesel endorsement, that took me
about sixteen hundred and seventy hours, who's counting, that's about it.
And here we are, behind the microphone, and sharing my expertise with you, and all the
experiences that I've had, I've been blessed to have, some great teachers, and if you got
questions, guess what, it's Saturday morning, we have made it to the weekend, we've made
it to the weekend, and for those who work weekends, hey, God bless ya, you're doing a great job
out there, whatever it is you're doing, you're doing it, you are a team player, I've worked
weekends now for thirty two years, I don't even know what that is anymore, somebody
says, oh what are you doing on the weekend, what's a weekend, oh, I don't even know when
it's long weekends anymore, haven't for a long time, well let's jump into our weekend
weather shall we, yes being brought to us by Niagara Block at five thousand, Montrose
Road Niagara Falls, building Canada since nineteen thirty one, with building supplies
and hardscape landscaping materials to help you create that amazing backyard space that
you've always wanted, that living space, that extra living room, you know, my neighbor,
she vacuums her outside living space, I'm just saying, I find that a little quirky,
but it's alright, I just use the leaf blower, it's fast, it's effective, it's efficient,
I'm surprised nobody has made a leaf blower to deal with dust in the household, open the
doors, open the windows, and just kinda, you know, make sure you've got the wind direction
correct, and just take those dust mites and everything like right out the door, imagine
the time saving, I do that to automobiles, you know what I do, I take my leaf blower,
if I can't get to the compressed air, I'm giving it a little trade secret here, you
want to clean your vehicle out in a hurry, but you gotta be careful, okay, you don't
want to be taking too much air to something that won't handle it, as I take my air hose
out in front of the shop, I open the doors, I take everything out, floor mats you name
it, and I make sure I got the wind direction right, so lick your finger, get that up there,
get your wind direction, and then blow all the dust and dirt down in the vehicle, and
then it makes it quick and easy to vacuum, top it up with a shine and a polish, and some
shine juice, and put everything back in and organize it, and you're done, and I use, if
I can't get to the shop air hose, I use my leaf blower, just as effective, wireless,
so if you have an electric one, or a gas jobby like I have, you gotta make sure you batten
down the hatches, okay fellas and fellas, if you're gonna do it that way, make sure
everything that's loose is put away, so I just get a pail, anything that's loose I put
in the pail, or a box, out of the way, and anything else you have in there that could
become airborne and impale somebody, like a pen, or a snow brush, pretty soon we can
put the snow brushes away, but pretty soon, coming up quick man, we are almost at the
first quarter of March, and the first Saturday of March, and we have the robins here, the
cardinals are back, squirrels are doing what they do, squirrel, stuff, digging up stuff,
and soon to be taking the winter tires off in the summers on, I can't wait to do that,
I really gotta get my, I really want my vehicle all cleaned out, I hate the winter sludge
and stuff that gets in there, the gravel and grit and whatnot, little hard to take care
of in the winter, but I do the best I can, house cleaning in your car is a big deal,
for me, I like to keep them clean inside and out, a little anal retentive with that, but
you know what, at the end of the day when you decide to sell a 20 year old car, there's
people standing in line with their wad of cash going, that's mine, I licked it, the taillight,
I licked the taillight, that's mine, I'm buying that, so here's what we got for Saturday, Saturday's
low is going to be 45 after 11pm, the high will be after 11pm, who cares, you know, it's
a Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune news and go to bed isn't it, so 45 degrees after 11pm and
the high will be 62 degrees between 12pm and 1pm, so you better suck it up, you got one
hour at 62 and then what happens, the temperature range will feel like 35 degrees to 52 degrees,
that's still good, you know, 52 is alright, wind will make it feel cooler than the actual
temperature, so what do we got for, we got a chance of some RAIN, some rain at .9 of
an inch and that looks like it's kind of show up somewhere between 12 and 6pm, so thank
you to Niagara Block for bringing that to us this morning, connect with them and they
can connect you with a contractor that will help you with that backyard space you want
to create, that outdoor space, I certainly enjoy having that out back, having a nice
covered in porch and a super big deck and I think it's crying out to have some former
band members come over and do a block party, yeah I think it's calling out for that, we
haven't really christened the deck with some live music, so I'm thinking we might have
to do that this year, see how the summer goes, well let's jump into our topic, I've got multiple
topics today and Saturday is a one hour show with Q&A, so you know somebody's got to kick
that off at some point, you own cars you have questions, you know nothing about cars, you
have lots of questions, email me questions, motormouth.jankins at gmail.com and I just
might be answering your question live on the mic Saturday morning for Saturday mornings
Q&A one whole hour, we are working on bringing phone lines in to do a live Q&A on Saturday
mornings from 8am till 9am, so when my buddy Ty gets back from his six months being down
in the Florida Keys, I wonder if they had snow down there, highly unlikely, highly unlikely,
so I need his help to just put our phone IP over in that internet through one of our devices
so that we can take live calls, so that's coming up, we're working on that and then
we can have guests, I can introduce you to some of the people, some of my peeps that are
in business that can help you a great deal with some specific or specific areas of your
life and you can tap in and get that knowledge, did you know that most $5,000 car repairs
start as a $200 maintenance item, did you know that, well now you do, consider being
told, would you rather spend small money on a fleet maintenance system or would you prefer
big money on a surprise, surprise, you ever had one of those, yeah I used to call them
a five o'clock surprise, when I was working for a VW dealer after I closed my shop and
they had a chap there and unfortunately he didn't make the team, he didn't want to be
a team player, we had to get that dealership turned around and going in the right direction
because things were in jeopardy and he loved to do the five o'clock surprise on people
and that just is in my books, that is not acceptable, people need to be in the know
what you're doing to their vehicle at all times so that at five o'clock they don't go
what, 800 bucks you told me it was going to be like 250, yeah that's a five o'clock surprise
and he was really good at that unfortunately and there are a lot of shops out there that
don't keep the customers up to date and now with technology we can shoot a little YouTube
short and fire it over to you and show you what's going on and then you can fire something
back and say yeah go ahead I see that, yeah go ahead and take care of that, what's it
going to cost, boom we can send something back over so you know it saves a lot of running
around, saves a ton of time if we can get that communication, that line of communication
open, get questions answered and away we go, Bob's your uncle right, fan is your aunt, exactly
and she was but anyways that's a different story, today what am I talking about, well
it's Q&A so if you send me questions I'll give you answers it's 28, you can send your questions
ahead of time Monday through Friday, Fridays are now Fun Friday just pick a topic and we'll
toss it around, this week's was do you name your vehicles really, do you allow your peas to touch
the carrots, I'm just kidding, do you weigh your food at the table, I'm just saying these things
just you know pop into my head, you know why don't sheep shrink when they get wet, no one
has an answer for me on that one yet, still up in the air but do you name your automobiles
and if you do send me an email I would love to know that I'm not the only quirky one that does
that because I have friends that go motorbike, why do you name your stuff, shut the front door dude
like you made me get rid of my spoon rack and my floral couch, I dislike you still, somewhat
name my cars, yes I do, I name the vehicles that we have in our service fleet so that you
don't want when I have to have multiple drivers they know the names of the vehicles I go go and
get real, oh okay or get orange crush, you got to go up to so-and-so, here's the key,
batteries in it is ready to go bring it back so I can just check some things over go get
orange crush, we're taking orange crush and the list goes on, I was mentioning that this morning on
the Friday Fun Friday show, I did list a number of vehicles that we have, we have two still ready
to come in now, they're in the staging lanes to come in and you can help us decide which one it's
going to be so if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel you really got to do that because
you are missing the boat when it comes to learning the five things about basic vehicle ownership
and the basic fundamentals of maintenance, what it is, where it is, how it works, how it breaks
and what could you have learned to avoid that extra expense, that's my job, that's our YouTube,
we have some fun on there Skippy's an amazing videographer and yes she laughs at me behind
the camera and I know she takes shots of me when I'm not looking, it's a bit creepy but she posts
those up on on our Facebook and Instagram pages and also Stevensvilleontheweb.ca so those are
you'll find videos there that you will not see anywhere else but if you haven't signed up for
our YouTube channel we have almost 200 videos up there now and I haven't even included the 105
podcast episodes so I'm definitely going to post those on YouTube as soon as I have a moment
to see how that's done, apparently it's simple and we can get those up there as well, our podcasts
are archived on our website somewhere, Professor Mike that does the he's our webmaster
takes care of that stuff and I'll have to check on that I know he was he emptied out our radio
broadcasts from the archives and I said I'd like to put some podcasts up there if you could if not
you can tap into our iHeart radio link all the links for every platform we are located on
I'm just having a brain fart for a minute no coffee yet trouble
on the on the go the homepage or website gives you a ton of information very very quickly
all the links are there under the logos just click on the logos for a program partners that
make everything possible they keep us going right now but we need to get monetized we do
that will change make things totally change that we'll be able to afford to buy parts put the parts
on for people and fix their vehicles for widows orphans those going through some financial cramp
and also for especially single moms that really bust their butts with a couple of kids in a minivan
trying to look stellar that's a tough job right there yeah we we go overboard for them and I have
a couple that I go and do little service calls for to help them out because uh you know the widows
they don't have husbands at home and the husbands usually looked after their vehicles so I jump in
if I if my schedule is a bit if I my schedule allows me and I'm available I just grab some tools
and go but uh subscribing and not just watching the video videos really cheeses me off I'm just
I gotta say that I'm just putting it out there okay I'm cheesed off about that 93 percent of you
are sponge bobbing here you're enjoying the videos this I know because I watch the analytics you
can't tell me otherwise but you're not subscribed how is that yeah the bell is ringing for you
hop to hop sing get subscribed ring the bell so you get notified when the next videos come out
and you're going to learn a ton about your automobile that's going to put a a great big
wad of cash back in your pocket so we're working on putting a page up on our website to make our
fleet maintenance system available to you to uh look at it read all about it how it breaks down
and how it saves you money and how you can order it safely online and pay for it and it's on its way
bang bang boom so we are working on that right now if you want more information about it
send me an email motormouth dot jankins at gmail.com or nyle no s at ccbusnet.com you can email me
through stevensville on the web dot ca all our links our top right hand corner on the home page
of our website at ccbusnet.com it's just short for car connection business network.com and after
you type that in yeah you deserve a cup of coffee so use the shortest version we have ccbusnet.com
it's always in the descriptions for youtube videos and also on stevensville on the web dot ca
that's connecting the businesses of stevensville to the community and they have a real communal
thing going on with that that website that uh our skippy our videographer created they have over
seven thousand views on that uh that website so they gave us a free profile page because my pops
has lived in uh stevensville my mom passed in 2022 and he still has his faculties he still drives
a lexus turbo he's a crazy maniac out there let me tell you ripping it up yeah but he's big on
maintenance now but if he borrows your car that's a different thing he drives it like he stole it
don't tell him i said that but anyways um stevensville on the web dot ca click on the businesses
tab to find us there you can email me there you can email me through our website there's a website
form there just uh include the word fleet and i'll know what it is that you're looking for
we are working quickly to get that put up on our website a full page for our fleet maintenance system
that will save you thousands of dollars in maintenance and you won't be buying a car every
three to five years paying interest and principal are you kidding me the never never plan that is
going to go on a on a t-shirt yeah don't get sucked into the never never plan and the maintenance
free mumbo jumbo because that's all it is it's they don't want you fixing your cars folks they want
your being in debt the rest of your life paying for an automobile does not have to happen doesn't
i'll let you know when we get a schedule for car shows and stuff you come out and take a
look at vehicles that we paid very little money for and turn them into tools to bring them out
for fundraising events car shows which turn into fundraising events and we let the kids have their
picture taken with the car or sitting in the car and all these tools didn't cost a bundle of money
it just meant they needed to be cleaned and respected and detailed and fix what's broken
folks fix what's broken do the maintenance don't neglect maintenance as a piece of machinery
that's the way you got to look at it your vehicle is a fleet vehicle whether you have one or ten
or three or two follow the maintenance system we have put together that's laminated and you
can use it over and over and over again and you can be a complete idiot like me and know how
to use it that's how simple it is it doesn't matter ladies and gents whether you don't know the
difference between the glove box lid in the hood and over the power bar and it doesn't matter
i teach you all that stuff on the fleet maintenance system and through our youtube videos you can
watch right if you can watch the boob tube you can certainly watch our youtube channel
and laugh and also learn at the same time laugh and learn that's what i i uh firmly believe in
you can laugh and learn and you can laugh with other people but don't laugh at them okay that's
i hear that's disrespectful but if somebody whacks their funny bone i can't help it but laugh
because while they're suffering you'll see i just started laughing just like that
it just is it's funny so q and a saturdays help us to get that going
through the monday through friday email me your question and i'll answer it on the on the air on
saturday it's that simple just send me an email if you want to know more about the the fleet
maintenance system that i've created that will save you thousands of dollars in needless repairs
and you'll be able to keep your vehicle like i do 300 400 600 000 k miles without a problem
exactly because you will be well ahead of the service and maintenance so things don't get spinning
out of control because that's what happens every single one of the fleet vehicles that we put
together for car shows do you know why how we got them so cheap because nobody did the maintenance
got to a point where they're just like uh i'm just not going to put the money into it that's how
we got them run back to the shop pull all the interior out clean everything fix everything
that's broken put it back together do all the mechanicals bam you got an excellent car right
there just like that and go into our youtube channel and watch the 1997 jeep tj wrangler
rescued from the crusher in the truck wrecking yard niger on the lake brought it back here
and less than two years later it's going to be driving out of the shop tomorrow morning
yep it's going to be driving out of the shop and i will capture that first drive out of the shop
to the outside in its entirety from being pushed in in a million pieces because i did a lot of work
on it outside when i got it that was june of 24 june of 24 it took us six months to find an engine
after we discovered the engine was completely destroyed but the big kicker is when all is said
and done i'm going to redo the big reveal what did it cost to bring that thing from going to the
crusher back to a reliable vehicle that will be part of our fleet and i'm going to use that instead
of my fj for pulling loads of wood out of the bush for me so i want to save the fj not to say
we're going to destroy the 97 tj but it's it's more suitable for doing that the fj goes to car
shows and stuff and it just takes too long to clean it up so this is going to help us a great deal
and it's a workhorse that's what it is we'll take care of it and we'll keep the maintenance up
but you'll get a chance to see what did that cost to put it together you are going to be shocked
when it's going to cost you $58,000 to buy a jeep this afternoon out of the showroom
base price yeah maybe you can arm wrestle and get it down to you know maybe 57,995 i don't know
but at the end of the day the day with tax shipping and freight you're going to be like
64,000 that's a lot of doughnuts man that's like you could have a loaded coffee card pretty much
for the rest of your life just got my card yeah anyhow all right let's get back on topic here
let's reel this in and say thank you to url and louise grant making it possible for us to be here
on the airwaves on the digitals now city auto sales and leasing url and louise grant fantastic
couple you have got to meet them if you want to buy with confidence and be traded with nothing but
honesty and integrity for 25 years they are the greater Toronto area's premier pre-owned auto
store they sell no junk there their vehicles i would buy a vehicle off of url and louise
in a stinking heartbeat low mileage top quality vehicles sourced from their resources for the
last 20 25 years fair prices you can't beat that somebody's done the homework for you
they're all cleaned up and they look like they look simply marvelous simply marvelous they do
so check them out click on their logo on our homepage at car connection business network
connect with them it is worth it that's the second largest purchase you're going to make next to a
home if you can buy one don't get me going on that it's like talking about car insurance
we are going to talk about car insurance very very very shortly and i'm sure a lot of you
are going to have questions and or comments send those into me through the email make sure you
write down our email address or at least log it in somewhere so that you can send a signal
the smoke signal over to me at nile at ccbusnet.com or motormouth.jankinsatgmail.com that's j-e-n-k-i-n-s-n-i-l-e
correct that's correct nile at ccbusnet.com or motormouth.jankinsatgmail.com
yeah that's right so today putting money into an older car is it worth it one of the biggest
questions i have fielded on the radio on a number of different networks am and fm sports channel
we were on espn for 12 and a half years with car connection our live saturday calling program
and now we're on fully digital and i'm really getting hooked into this now because it gives
us a whole lot more freedom to instead of being tied into circles of population we're north south
east and west 360 degrees on the planet sorry you are flat earthers yeah when you can show me the
edge i'll believe you all right yeah we'll just leave that discussion right where it is when you
can take me if the earth is flat flat earthers if you can take me to the flat side edge i'll believe
you that the earth's flat till then she's around she's around like a you head okay yeah pretty much
so let's talk about that question when when is it a good time and when is it not a good time to
put money into a jay loppy that's where i always give you the same we'll always give you the same
recipe of for that first of all we need to do a 100 no additives no preservatives inspection
that means gloves off both eyeballs open take the welder's mask off and let's look the car over
completely completely and if i do it for you i include a review on the inside the body
and the underside structure and then all the mechanicals fluids belts hoses you name it
because we need to see the big picture how do we you know if you had somebody call you
could you give them a haircut over the phone no if somebody called you and said
can you tell me what a banana tastes like could you could you break that out for him
of course not well how can i answer that question honestly and ultimately here on the microphone
if you ask me should i put more money into my automobile or not it's 10 years old well
you know i did order and and pre-order a magic wand antichrist of all nothing yet just a
notification of backorder so i have to rely on my peepers to tell me what's going on with your car
so i mean sometimes i'll say if you could go to your car right now put your right hand on the
passenger side front fender and just remain still i'll see if i get a reading at this end
it's probably not going to happen probably not no so how how and what do we do next
a 100 percent like i said no additives no preservatives evaluation of every single aspect
of that vehicle and as long as the structural integrity is there and i don't see any major
boogity things going on with the power plant everything seems to be a go then yes absolutely
you can keep that thing going for another 10 years very very easily
do you know how much money that saves you an interest in car payments just do the math
if you're making a car payment here i'm going to give you a little homework grab your crayon
always have a 16 pack of crayolas those are my favorites they smell good but they taste bad oh
i wasn't supposed to divulge that yeah i used to be a crayon eater but now i'm i'm not my name
is motor mouth i used to be a crayon eater but i don't crayon eat anymore yeah so a 16 pack of
crayolas and a folded leaf bag that looks like a laptop now you can take some notes so you want
make sure that you're writing down all the details every single thing that that vehicle is going to
need but here's your other homework if you're making a car payment right now write down what that
payment is okay just write it write that down and how many years have you got left to pay that off
so just get your calculator going on your phone or electronic device
and tap that in if you've got three left three years left on your car loan times it out time it out
15 months 18 months 24 months 36 months and and look at that number look at that number
that's how much money you're going to save to keep an older car going you're not going to be out
that much money to keep it going we keep a whole fleet going for a whole lot less than what most
of you are paying in a whole year on car payments my neighbor got rid of his pickup truck he said
it's gotta go i'm paying 2200 a month for that and i went yuddy yuddy yuddy what i said what did you
say yeah 2200 a month i said is like like all in gas oil maintenance insurance no that's just so i
can keep it the bank doesn't take it he says i i gotta get rid of it like i'm getting upside down
and sideways with my home and the truck it's gotta go and i'm i walked away from that conversation
go oh my do the math on that one just one year worth of payments that one's easy 24 over 24
thousand dollars in one year holy smokes folks even if that's 1500 even if it's 800
even if it's 600 even if it's 450 a month that's a lot of dough big time
and if you evaluated your old car i mean if it's so rotted out in the chassis and everything is rotted
out you got nothing to work with then you gotta grab something that you can work with and that's
when i say you need to go meet url and louise grant pick yourself a goodie and then take care of it
and you're gonna have that for the next 15 20 years period yes you are because i'll tell you i don't
have a whole lot of faith in 2026 models i'll tell you that i just don't i feel sorry for anyone
buying something new i'd be going back 10 years and buying something pre-owned before i do a 2026
from what i see i don't want to touch it i don't want it in i don't want to own one not interested
my 07 that's just fine the 08 ragu that's what i nicknamed it that's its name now is ragu
because if you just change a couple of things on rogue you can make the word ragu so it's now known
as the ragu yeah so yeah getting back to that is if you if you name your vehicles then it'll
help me not feel so weird and uh i shared on the friday um program fun friday i think i tried to
remember as many vehicles as possible even from past that i don't even own anymore um everything
was named like 76 dodge valiant plymouth valiant back then uh i i got that given to me didn't even
know what color it was or anything just key fob with a chrysler key on it and go to bay 200
downtown hamilton it's in the underground somewhere my sister hasn't driven it for probably
we don't know we don't even know what it is but this is the key here's the paperwork we're going
golfing with the ladies to florida so their husbands were very successful they were all widows
and they had their little clique going they did lunch ins and then they got on a plane and they
fly and play golf and i thought it was so cool because they were you know in their 80s and
they're still driving and hanging out so that car when we eventually found it and got it washed off
i nicknamed it gert gertie and i and i thought it fit it was green yeah it's you know sometimes
it's very very difficult to be green it was green with a green vinyl top four door
that thing was amazing i never had a chrysler before excuse me
it was amazing that car i liked it except one thing
do not wear shorts in the summer on really really really hot vinyl seats bad news the skin
gets irritated and it might even come off yeah because you just kind of iron yourself to the
vinyl so excuse me that was one of the things i didn't like about it was either have a blanket on
there or make sure you got some kind of protection against the hot vinyl because it was not forgiving
it was like you know making a one of those toasted sandwiches
exactly you can't get out of the car fast enough but that was gert and i was trying to think of
some other ones i've had in the past well one i forgot this morning is um my third bronco i still
own it that was a real good bronco fan i had two i used them for quite a while and looked after them
and i sold them off and the one i shouldn't have sold came from the ucon sold that to my parents
and then they traded it in and i really wanted to get it back but it was too late so the one
that i have is my last one that i own 78 um that is a uh xlt ranger yeah xlt ranger i put a 7.3 big
block 460 gas sucking pig in there and you're going to get to see that as well so the engine's in
and it's just sitting out front i just moved it the other day it's getting ready to come in
to the shop it's probably going to be early summer when that one comes in
i think i i think i stepped on that a little bit yeah you get to choose what vehicle we work on
next in the shop on our youtube channel it's going to be one of two if you want to vote in on that
and and um we'll see which one you guys choose as a whole for me to pull out and bring into the shop
and get it running after well the oldest one is uh from like 1992 i've owned it since 1992 ish
i'd have to look up look it up in the file uh 71 feet at feet spider 1608 convertible of course
i got all the paperwork on that from when it was brought from a military man who was in the military
in europe and had it brought to canada yeah in and around that time so i have its first tank of fuel
paperwork at a shell station and all the paperwork i went to the the fiat dealer that was around at
that time was gulliver's motors that was i believe stony creek ish highway eight and um yeah that needs
it was just starting to show signs of um oil coming up in the cooling system which is a head gasket
and so the engine had been rebuilt a couple times by the dealer in canada lots of money
spent on it but i don't i don't see anything where they machined the cylinder head so that's
where the problem is so we got to take the cylinder head off and do a bunch of maintenance
on that one uh to get it back out on the road it ran good up until i said it can't run it anymore
got a wheel coming up so we got a problem engine problem developing let's get that fixed uh number
two is rio well the uh the 71 feet spider i called tony and the reason being is we always nicknamed
fiat's fix it again tony yeah and anybody worked on him was service tech fix it again tony so and
then the 92 folks wagon gulf karman cabrio lay is from california it's spotless underneath like
brand new and the top side that is a two-door convertible of course with air conditioning
that all works but it also needs a bunch of mechanical work done to it as well some electrical
and a whole list of stuff the parts are already for that to do it we got to put a clutch in there
the pedal's harder than a walnut depress so something in the pressure plate has bent
is out of place whatever transmission's got to come out and probably replace the clutch i would say
99.9 correct in saying it needs flywheel machining clutch pressure plate throwout bearing pilot
bearing stuff it back in so you get to choose which one which project we bring in next so you
can do that through our youtube channel you can email me which one would you like to see
brie be brought back to life and get it running and get it back out on the road neither one of those
has been roaded so i've owned them i put them in a in a in a barn and took care of them and
have nurtured them but have not put them on the road yet i bought them because the fellow that
had the fiat was going through a very nasty time in a divorce and the car was left in a wooden
um carriage house on the hamilton mountain that was falling over and the building was condemned
he had nowhere to take it he had no means to take care of it and i had one of my workers at the time
told the fella come and see my boss and maybe he'll buy it and just put it in his collection
somewhere and take care of it later on so that's what we ended up doing helped him out i didn't
really need it but it's a cute little car and it's a 16 o'clock cc it's good it's pretty good
and uh so let us know which one would you like to see on our youtube channel
so back to one of the main questions i have fielded for 31 years on radio
and this is our first year on digital platforms is putting money into an older car is it worth it
yes or no i'm going to say absolutely yes providing that you have
done your due diligence and had a complete evaluation of that vehicle an honest open
to the nut evaluation and if the the structure solid you've got a really good contender if the
engine solid and transmission are doing well they're healthy they seem to look healthy and run
healthy then you got a really good contender to put a lot of money back in your pocket and here's
what i don't want you to do i don't want your mindset to go here well it's not worth spending
money on an older car who said that who sold you down the path to that is factual because it's not
if the vehicles bought and paid for that's like having a gold bar you're not in you're not in
partnership with the bank or a lending institution you own it you own it outright
so let me put it this way you pay off your mortgage now you don't have a mortgage do you
get rid of the house well we don't want to put any money into it it's an older home you know we've
lived here 28 years it's paid off now we should probably get rid of it see where i'm going does
that make any sense to you well we're just you know we could end up putting a ton of money into
this place what if it needs a roof what if it needs a a whack of plumbing the same thing applies
with the car it's probably going to need some stuff just keep it going even if you have a
thousand dollar repair bill how many car payments is that
there's a question for you how many car payments would make up that thousand bucks
my neighbor 2200 on a pickup truck a month then gas and oil and insurance on top of that
and maintenance hello that's what you got to look at don't look at what it's worth
curbside that's where i'm going if somebody says well you know things only worth like 500 bucks is
it really is that all it's worth is 500 bucks i love those cars man i can't tell you how many
people i bought 500 car from they're still going some of them are in our fleet oh it's just an
give me 500 bucks for it okay done bang bang boom for less than two car payments it's back out on
the road folks with some elbow grease go through it mechanically again check make sure that it's
structurally sound wham you got yourself a real goodie there i don't care what it's worth curbside
do you know what it's worth to me paid off and reliable and i it can be fixed and it can be maintained
again if you've got a 3600 dollar bill on an older car that's paid off and it's solid
how many monthly payments is that we'll tell you right now on a brand new Jeep this afternoon right
out of the showroom 58,000 comes in around 64 67,000 all in that's only a couple payments
three that's three payments so if you got a bill for 3600 to get your old jalopy back up to steam
that's three payments on a new Jeep
not including insurance gas oil maintenance that's it just to have it just to have it that's what
you're going to pay is that a cheap ride or what 3600 get everything all caught up that's tires
brakes fluids filters belts hoses bring the thing right up to a1 and then maintain it and use the
fleet maintenance system to keep it going you are off to the races you are putting thousands of
dollars back in your bank account it never left could you afford to put some money in that older car
you bet your bippy you can yes you can and keep it going like i do that's all i do exactly what
i'm telling you is what i do and i don't make car payments anymore i told the story this morning
or yesterday rather friday yeah that would be yesterday morning of the 1984 short boxed
four-wheel drive pickup truck limited edition i bought back in 1984 and i didn't buy it new
there were only 500 made worldwide and its number is 222 and i hunted like a dog to get one and i
couldn't get one the dealers depending on the size would get maybe one maybe two and they were
already spoken for so anyways it so happened i found one in the hamilton spectator for sale
up in london i called the guy said yeah i bought it for my wife she cannot drive a stick so and i
remember it as though it happened yesterday he said i'm getting her a chevy blazer so i'm gonna
be trading it in but you're gonna actually buy it through me through the dealer back into your hands
i go yeah i get it i totally get that i said it's mine i'll take it was $11,200 1984 so if i was able
to pay cash for it with no interest it would have been allowed 11,200 they took care of the
safety inspection and all the paperwork transfer the plates and my brother took me to the hamilton
bus station and i had the check to pay for it from the bank my license plates and on the bus
all the way to london the gentleman's name was david and i remember the last name and everything
picked me up at the bus station we went to the dealer they played it all up and everything had
it all ready for me and i drove it back home so that day if i was able to pay for it was $11,200
and it had uh just shy of 12,000 kilometers on it so i was 22 years old there you go you can do the
math don't say it just think it i don't care if you didn't know when you were born you'd never
know how old you are anyway and you know sleeping's way overrated you can get so much done when
everybody's out of your way anyhow i was paying you ready interest rate 1984 17.93 percent
that's right not making it up babies 17.93 percent on 11,200 i was a first year apprentice
putting i lived in my own place and i was going to mohawk college for my trade
paying my way and i was working that was to me was a pretty hefty car payment i'll tell you right
down to the nut i paid it right down to the nut 20 almost 23,000 by the time it was paid off with
interest and principal yeah doubled the money doubled it so i had a loan for five years and
after five years was still some payments left so they refied what was left and at the end of it
would have cost me just shy of 23,000 all in payments and interest yeah i don't like car payments
so i still have it and um his nickname is moh because he's short for mohavi
and it's 100% mechanically sound and uh we had that out two years ago to uh car show at safari
niagara it was pretty cool i don't think we have any pictures up on our youtube channel for that
maybe we'll have to see if we can pull some up it's pretty cool looking but i say all that to
say this when you're making car payments it doesn't matter if it's 10 you know if it's
you got a vehicle that's 10 years old it's solid keep it stay away from the car payments
if you can save up enough money and moves move forward with a newer vehicle pre-owned
that's what i recommend pre-owned let someone else take the hit for depreciation
because they're gonna lose depending on what what manufacturer make and model
they're gonna lose 15 to 25 per year so let them take the hit and you walk in
buy it for a third of the price and walk away with a solid vehicle that now you can keep that thing
for 10 15 20 years if you want but you got to have a plan to do that and that's why i developed the
i i turned what i used as a tool when i was servicing fleet vehicles into a service
system that works on light truck passenger vehicles no matter how many you have and what it is what
you're making model doesn't matter it's universal and it's reusable so you never have to get another
one just keep using it over over and over and over again thank goodness for dry race markers
and sticky notes and velcro and zip ties those are four of my favorites let me know what your
favorites are i don't think i can live life without sticky notes zip ties in the other yeah i don't
think so i don't think i can and coffee absolutely not so let me know what vehicles you've had past
present or even thinking about in the future do you name your vehicles and what's the name and
what's the meaning behind giving it the name and i remember one of my favorite cars i didn't own it
for more than a year i don't think ronda that was a fat that would have made a fabulous sleeper car
guys was navy blue um chevy malibu like 1980 and it had the v6 in it 231 and that thing was a bullet
and i bought it off the original owner bought it brand new and i actually serviced that that ronda
the malibu wagon at my shop on the hamilton mountain and they bought a suburb forester
and i got the thing kathy the owner she just said you know give me a couple hundred bucks for it
i'm happy and i took care of it but then i you know i heard of a single mom with three kids
didn't have a car and so you know it it was worth passing it on to that person and helping them out
and i learned about that through my apprentice at the time so getting back to the question
putting money into an older car is it worth it yes or no that's all that's something that you
have to decide if you put a place a curbside value on it and say well it's only worth 500 bucks
i'll be right there to buy it because i'll turn that that $500 beauty into a real beauty and help
somebody get down the road with a cheap ride and reliable transportation and then teach them how
to take care of it and go as long as you want 300,000 400,000 600,000 k miles and even keep going
it's a mindset it is a mindset well coming up on monday we're going to monday's uh morning drive
with motormouth we're going to be talking about cooling system service and transmission service
this time of year especially coming out of the winter how important that is to get your vehicle
into summer shape ahead of time and again it's all about keeping it going the best vehicle in the
driveway is the one that's paid for and that's what you would hear sitting down with our certified
financial planning professionals tony mealy and larry tea tro they'll tell you that best car in the
driveway is the one that's paid for keep it going treated as oh that's the last vehicle you could
buy and it's the last one on the planet that's the mindset you have to have and take care of it
treat it that way it's the last one you're ever going to be able to have because there's no more
to be had how would you treat it you would treat it like kit gloves right absolutely next question
i got time for another to cover another question um is it worth having a paying a service tech
to do a complete vehicle review yes if you're serious about evaluating it to make a decision
whether you move it out sell it off for what you can get for it and move into something else and
again i i highly recommend pre-owned don't go win way over your head and be car broke if you have
to move forward on another vehicle then you want to move forward smart that you're not working
home to work home to work home to work home to work home to work and that's just the first
week to make a car payment if that's the case that's not a good idea you keep it going but if
you can limp it along for another year and pack some money away and buy a pre-owned the following
year that's what i would recommend but if the evaluation shows that you know for a couple of
thousand bucks you can get the thing right back up the par absolutely that's a no-brainer i don't
care if its value is 200 bucks on a trade-in it's paid off and for a couple of grand you can keep
that baby humming down the road absolutely if there's something major wrong with it then that's
where you really got to take a look at what is it what would the initial investment be and what would
your return on that that repair be how many months how many years for that to pay back that's when
you really got to take a look at it if the engines hurt or the transmissions hurt you got to look at
the rest of the vehicle and see is it worth putting a transmission in if everything else
is in tip-top condition if you spent five grand and put a rebuilt transmission in it what how
many car payments is that it's not even a year's worth it's not when you add it all up car payments
gonna be more than that in a year absolutely question number three after you've had the
evaluation what do i do next well here's the answer what's your game plan if you haven't
been really good with your maintenance up to this point and you suck at it what's your game plan
you gotta have a game plan it's just like this time of year ladies and maybe some fellas
you're looking at you know what i put on a few pounds over the winter i'm gonna look like a
beach whale in my one piece you're going i gotta do something about like honey does this make me look
fat is that the time exactly don't answer it guys drop the phone or whatever oh i'm sorry
oh i think i left the barbecue on i gotta oh i gotta go i'm late for a meeting
yeah you gotta come up with a game plan don't you what's it gonna be you're either gonna look bad in
your one piece on the beach this year or you get serious and you go yeah i think i put on
like 15 pounds i see it too i can see that yeah and what are you gonna do about it what's the
game plan your car is the same thing so you get the evaluation so you know what it needs
and it's worth keeping what's your game plan to take care of it if you don't have one that's
where i can help you you need to get hold of us to find out how you can get a fleet maintenance
system so you can track that maintenance and keep that baby going as long as you possibly can
and bank cash and especially in this the economy that we're in well over 74 percent of the population
in canada is less than 200 from being bankrupt it's a sad state of affairs it's not a good time to get
into debt it's a good time to get rid of debt and it's a good time to not take on debt and especially
payments on an automobile if it's gonna put you in a super tight financial spot if one
you know you don't want to be living with the house of cards i've been there more than once
and when your financial planner says motor mouth one card shifts you won't have
a good financial record till about age 71 and i'm thinking at that point i'm
unstretching pants velcro shoes and buffets buddy who cares no in all seriousness you don't want
to be financially wiped out so we're gonna pull over and park and leave it there monday we're
gonna be talking about cooling system transmission service yes that's something that you definitely
have to do you have to do it
and take care of everything no matter what it is you gotta be a good steward of what's been
handed to you and when you're not then you're constantly working to replace the same things
you've already put good money out on i see you know an example a good example is a lawn and garden
tractor i could take you to a couple of homes where where they finished with it
back in the summer is where they left it all winter go price out a garden tractor today
they're not cheap they're made dirt cheap they're junk they don't last
why would you do that if it's worth say three grand five grand if you left that money and cash
on your kitchen table would you leave the room there's my question for you for the weekend
so remember just a reminder saturday's one hour show and we're two minutes over q and a
questions and answers you got questions shoot them to me throughout the week and i will set them aside
on my clipboard for saturday morning and i will answer all those questions live on the
microphone like right now okay so it's nile at ccbusnet.com b u s isn't sam net dot com
if you can't remember that it's motormouth one word dot jankins j e n k i n s at gmail.com
and i always put that information in the description of our videos in our podcast and
i say this take the time to read the descriptions for our youtube videos and podcasts i put a lot
of tech tips in an effort into those descriptions to give you more information a lot more so it's
while reading it and even take some notes so have yourself a great weekend we'd like to thank
our certified financial planners tony mealy and larry teacher of 50 years experience as fiduciaries
with ig wealth management they'll give you an hour and a coffee of their time excuse me i got a
frog in the throat this afternoon this morning they'll give you an hour and a coffee that is a
discovery meeting and here's what i'm going to tell you leave your wallet at home no sales
no sales tactics they're going to listen to where you're at where you want to get to from where you
are and formulate a game plan for you so whether you have a portfolio with the bank you certainly
need to sit down with them you're not making any money the bank is number two dealing with debt
number three estate planning you have a checkbook and a bank account you have an estate that needs
to be planned for you have children add those in there with the health proxies a mortgage you need
a mortgage put together i haven't been with the bank for 15 years i get my mortgages through
ig wealth management they have a phenomenal mortgage department at great rates while others
were scrambling and getting five six six and a half seven percent we got a mortgage locked in
for five for three so you know what i love working with them i don't like working with the banks the
banks are part of the financial food chain and i know exactly what position they're in for me
life insurance critical illness insurance none of us plan to get ill or die but we're people and we
don't get out of this alive and you can make sure that you've got your family and your finances
protected so connect with tony mealy or larry titrell and arrange that hour in a coffee and again
leave your wallet at home you will not be needing it thank you to our non-profit
faith-based organization looking after men women children widows orphans single moms with meals
love hope and programs to help them move forward they help the kids after school they feed them
they play games with them and they also help them with homework and mentor them and they can
take music lessons at the dream center for free and they put hot meals out the door every tuesday
and every friday and right now they're serving they tell me they're serving almost 300 meals
out the door every tuesday and every friday so if you can help them with that or volunteer do
something send some gift cards for every 25 you will get a tax receipt they're a non-profit
faith-based organization serving men women children and young adults in the niagra region
so till monday have yourself a wonderful weekend stay out of the puddles and happy healthy motoring
and we'll see you monday morning at eight a.m for another motormouth morning drive
peace patience and kindness always bye for now
About this episode
Dive into practical advice on maintaining and repairing older vehicles with insights from a seasoned automotive expert. The host shares personal stories, shop tips, and the importance of proactive maintenance to avoid costly repairs. Listeners get a behind-the-scenes look at workshop life, learn about effective vehicle cleaning hacks, and hear about upcoming interactive Q&A sessions. The episode also touches on the value of clear communication with repair shops and the community aspect of car ownership, making it both informative and engaging for anyone interested in keeping their ride reliable and well-loved.
Original notes
Is putting money into an older vehicle worth it - or are you just throwing cash away? In todays episode, Motormouth breaks down the real way to answer that question with an honest, no-nonsense vehicle evaluation. No additives, no magic fixes, and no sales pitches - just a clear look at the condition of the vehicle and what it actually needs.
Most car owners make repair decisions based on emotion or panic. Instead, we walk through a smarter strategy: performing a complete vehicle review and building a maintenance game plan using the Car Connection Fleet Maintenance System.
When you understand the condition of the vehicle and prioritize repairs properly, something interesting happens - you stop reacting to problems and start controlling costs. That's how older vehicles can become reliable and affordable transportation instead of a money pit.
Topics covered in this episode:
1) When repairing an older car actually makes financial sense
2) The difference between reactive repairs and strategic maintenance
3) How a full vehicle inspection changes the decision completely
4) Why small ignored problems turn into expensive failures
5) How the Fleet Maintenance System helps owners stay ahead of repairs
If you've wondered whether you should keep fixing your current vehicle or start shopping for another one, this episode will give you a practical framework to make that decision with confidence.
Merchandise available in our online store @ (ccbusnet.com) Grab some Car Connection, Motormouth gear,Join our crew in helping those struggling with addiction get the help they need at Total Freedom Addiction Campuses Canada & USA.where a New Life awaits then there! Thank You so much friends. Love Y'all NMJ
More episodes and...project details & links are available at Car Connection Business Network
( ccbusnet.com ) you'll find everything on our homepage if you'd like to follow the build & repair work we do connect with our program partners click their logo to meet them. Thank You!
Listen, Watch, Like, Subscribe, Comment your thoughts, Share, Follow, Ring the bell get notified of new videos, all these things help our platforms to grow, keep the ignition on, our engine running smoothly. Reach & help more people. Tnx for you support we appreciate you friends.
Happy Healthy Motoring, Peace Patience Kindness Always. NMJ
Car Connection Workshop
Nile Jenkins
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67:19