Why Loving Your Vehicle Makes You a Better Owner

Good morning, folks.

You're tuned into Car Connection,

where the coffee's 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 and a little elbow grease

is all part of a balanced breakfast.

And 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 a Nissan Rogue getting its brakes back in order.

Or perhaps 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 at 8 a.m.,

helping you keep your ride safe, reliable,

and ready for whatever 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,

welcome aboard.

Stick around for shop, talk, expert advice,

and a few good laughs, and maybe even a story or two.

Well, Car Connection Workshop is brought to you

by Crystal Ridge Dream Center,

serving men, women, and children, meals, love, and hope,

changing lives one at a time in the Niagara region.

In times when the community sport is crucial,

Crystal Ridge Dream Center shines as a beacon of compassion

and transformation.

Visit 385 Derby Road, you can find all our program partners

and sponsors on the homepage of our website

at carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com.

Thank you to Earl and Louise Grant,

City Auto Sales and Leasing,

providing low mileage quality vehicles at fair prices.

Their GTAs, the Greater Toronto Area's

premier pre-owned auto store.

By with confidence, we treat it with nothing less

than honesty and integrity.

Thank you to Rita and Ramiz Shenouda,

the brothers at Rainbow Motors and Garage

in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

Sales and service, you can trust.

They have a small car lot, get in touch with them,

let them know what you're looking for specifically.

If they don't have it, they can find it.

You can have all years and makes and bottles

of vehicles up and to,

and including light commercial vehicles,

service at Rainbow Motors and Garage.

Sales and service, you can trust.

Thank you to our Certified Financial Planning Professionals,

Tony Miele and Larry Teacho,

combined at 50 years experience,

IG Wealth Management,

managing investment portfolios,

debt retirement, estate planning,

powers of attorney, mortgages,

life insurance, critical illness insurance,

and a whole lot more.

Services are available to you.

Book that hour in a coffee, that discovery meeting

at no cost to you whatsoever.

Just give them a call, set it up, do it by Zoom,

by phone, in the boardroom, coffee shop,

or at your home, wherever you're comfortable.

Call them and get your questions answered

by those who have the fruit on the tree.

Niagara Block, 5,000 Montrose Road,

Niagara Falls, Building Canada since 1931,

with building supplies,

hardscape, landscaping materials to help you design,

build, and enjoy your backyard space.

So get in touch with the Grimoire family at Niagara Block,

5,000 Montrose Road, Niagara Falls,

that can help line up a contractor for you,

help to create designs and figure out

what materials you need,

and you can be sitting in your backyard oasis

this summer, 2026.

It's a total freedom, Darien Center, New York.

They are an addictions campus,

open to Canadians and USA residents,

and what they deal with is those who are ready

to deal with their addiction.

That's what they do.

There's a new life waiting for those

who are struggling with addictions,

that total freedom, addiction campuses, Canada, and USA.

Well, let's jump right into our morning here together,

which we made it to the weekend.

So thank you for tuning in.

Thank you for being a part of Car Connection

and Car Connection Workshop.

Don't forget the biggest drawer in our toolbox

and where everything that we talk about lives.

It's on the homepage of our website

at carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com.

So when you get to our homepage,

and I always put all this information

in our description of each podcast on iHeartRadio,

we're on all the platforms,

all the major platforms, Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music.

Wherever you pull your podcast from,

just search Car Connection Workshop,

you'll find us, we'll be there.

So on our homepage are all the logos

of the companies that I just mentioned.

All you have to do is click on their logo

and it will open a profile page

that has all their contact information

readily available for you so that you can reach out to them.

I'll get it right this morning yet.

It's not enough coffee.

That's what it is.

Or I'm trying to talk too fast and get it all in.

That could be as well.

That's why they call me motor mouth.

That's what it's all about.

So their logos are there, click, reach out,

and thank you for giving them your business ahead of time.

We appreciate that.

They've been with us for a long time.

We wrapped up 31 years of Car Connection,

our live call-in automotive program on radio,

on several radio networks for 31 years,

and here we are on the Digitals.

And now we can reach a lot more people

north, south, east, and west.

We've got our YouTube channel going

with almost 100 videos in the library right now.

And all those videos are teaching videos,

showing you what I do, how I do it,

and the basic fundamentals of vehicle ownership

and preventative maintenance

and how you can very easily understand more

about your automobile through the five things

that I always teach.

What it is, where it is, how it works, how it breaks,

and what could you have known or done differently

to prevent that damage from happening,

costing you money.

And how to keep a vehicle long-term

with a long-term engine and transmission.

We know how to give it longevity

if you follow along and put money back in your wallet.

So if that's of interest to you,

then you need to grab on my coattails

and you are in the right place.

Sign up for our YouTube channel.

Make sure you like and subscribe, share, follow,

ring the bell, and help us keep the ignition on

with our YouTube channel.

And help us to grow our iHeart radio platform as well.

Share us with your friends.

Help us out with that.

To also ignite the fire and build the program

so that we can reach many, many more people.

So hand us out and hand us off to your circle of friends,

all your peeps, and let them know

if they wanna know how to keep their vehicle long-term

and give it super longevity, that's my specialty.

I know how to get it done through fleet maintenance.

That's what I did for a long time

was working on different companies' fleet vehicles

because they don't just pass them off

until it's ready to go.

And generally, it will receive its last cycle of maintenance

and then it's scheduled to go down the road

and they generally go either back to leasing company

or for auction, but they don't turn in a piece of junk.

I worked for a company short term

where they went to auctions where fleet trucks

were available to put bids on and they would buy the trucks

and we would go through them, refurbish whatever needs

to be refurbished and they would sell like hotcakes.

Absolutely.

So let's dive in this morning

and remember top right hand corner,

the homepage or website, I almost forgot.

All the links are there for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

and my Skippy, my videographer always puts funny outtakes

and bloopers and reels that you won't find anywhere else

except for on Facebook, Instagram.

You might see one pop up on stevensvilleontheweb.ca,

click on the businesses tab to find our profile there.

My parents have lived in Stevensville for almost 40 years

and I have a lot of contacts there as well.

And our Skippy is from Stevensville.

She created that website, which I think is brilliant

to bring the community and the business owners

in Stevensville together as a community.

I think that's absolutely fabulous.

So we support that 100%.

I Heart Radio link is there

and our car connection motor mouth gear store

is right there as well.

Click, purchase what you like,

order your size, your color and pay online safely

and it gets delivered right to your door.

Proceeds go to total freedom addiction campuses,

Canada and USA.

So help us to reach out and help those

who are struggling with addictions

to get to a total freedom addiction campus

where they can get the help they need

and find that new life that awaits for them there.

Well, let's jump into our swiggy this morning.

If you're just joining us here on a Saturday morning.

Yep, it is, it's Saturday morning.

We made it and for those who are driving into work,

double check your order before you leave the drive-through,

lock it down in your cup holder.

We don't want any serious spillage going on,

keep an eye on the road and one eye on your beverage

and hand over the 16 pack of Crayola crayons

and the leaf bag so that your co-pilot

can take some notes this morning.

If you happen to miss a program,

just click on our I Heart Radio icon on the homepage.

The link is right there.

Just click, boom, over to our library.

We're going to be shifting gears very shortly

into season two, episode 101.

Yeah, we have almost a hundred series put together,

well, not series, but episodes put together.

Today's episode is series one, episode 87,

entitled Why Loving Your Vehicle Makes You a Better Owner.

We're going to talk about that big time

because you know what that spells out?

M-O-N-E-Y in your wallet, back in your wallet,

not somebody else's and it is very, very doable.

So let's have a swiggy together,

whatever your morning beverage is.

Ours is a high octane, 99.5% octane boost.

So we count it down three, two, one

and have a beverage, that's what we call

a morning swiggy together.

Ready, three, two, one.

Yep, I like that.

That'll get things rolling this morning.

Let's jump into the week in weather,

see what we got coming up for Saturday.

Here's what we got for today.

Today's weather forecast brought to us by Niagara Block,

5,000 Montrose Road Niagara Falls,

building Canada since 1931,

the building supplies and hardscape landscaping supplies

that can help you design and line you up with a contractor

that can give you a proper estimate,

start the work and finish it.

Whatever building needs you are requiring around your home,

get Niagara Block involved

so that they can help you with that.

Absolutely, so say thank you to them

when you stop by to buy some supplies.

Saturday's low will be 25 degrees after 11 p.m.

Okay, and the high will be 34 degrees

between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The temperature range will feel like 18 degrees to 31 degrees

and this is all Fahrenheit,

I don't do the Celsius thing.

You know, inches, foot pounds, inch pounds

and Fahrenheit.

The wind is gonna make it feel colder

than the actual temperature,

so dress warm, looks like we still have winter,

especially here along the south shores of Lake Erion

and we're gonna take some, I'm gonna ask Skippy,

we're gonna go on and grab a cup of Joe

and head down to the lake and shoot some video for you

so that if you live in, I don't know where you live,

so if you wanna send me an email sometimes,

let me know where you're listening from.

I find that very interesting

and we'll show you some pictures of winter here

along the south shore of Lake Erie

and what they call the ice caves.

We'll take you to a couple of beaches

and take some video there

and just have some fun with it and show you,

here's where we live.

Here's what we get to look at in the winter time,

so if you're in a warmer climate,

you're really gonna enjoy those pictures

in those short video clips

because you may not ever get a chance to see that,

but we're gonna give you an opportunity

to see what we get to see along the lake shore

and yeah, we get snow almost a couple times a week

when we have winter

and this year has been a very typical great Canadian winter.

Yeah, you know, my mucklucks have been frozen

to the ice a few times

and our dogs had team,

we had to plug it in a couple times too,

it was just way too cold to get them going.

So anything, let's see if there's anything

from precipitation saying zero, zero inches,

so that's good because I think the snowblowers

are just starting to cool off.

I got one broken one that has to be taken care of

but it's another carburetor issue.

If you haven't watched that video,

I did shoot a video because Skippy said

you should show them how to do that,

how to fix their own snowblower

for like $2.50 for a carb kit.

Instead of $29 for a carb kit,

I found them on the,

and you gotta be careful when you're shopping online.

I mean, for parts and stuff,

I have my go-tos and I'm pretty happy with,

I'm very happy with the results.

Most of the time I get what I need

and it's not an issue once in a while,

something, oops, something goes wrong.

It's usually me, I clicked on the wrong thing

or I didn't understand the write-up on the parts

and I ordered it and it's not what I really wanted.

And that happens but I found these carburetor kits

or Tecumseh engines and Briggs and Stratton

and that's most of the engines

that run our lawn and garden equipment

and our snow removal equipment.

I paid $29 for one carb kit

and I'm like, that's a lot of money for a gasket,

two gaskets, a little holder for the needle and seat

and I'm like, wow, that's like a lot of dough,

that's 30 bucks for nada.

Yeah, I felt ripped off, you know,

like going through the drive-through

and ordering something and looking forward to having it

and then you take a sip of it,

it's like somebody else's tea and it's like, what?

Black tea, is that what, if I wanted black tea,

I would order black tea.

So anyways, I found the carburetor kits,

I bought five for 12 bucks.

That's right, five for 12 bucks.

And most of the time, if your snowblower's

starting to die and starting to dying

or it's revving up and down,

you're like that, there's something wrong in the carburetor

and you don't need to go out and buy a ton of parts,

but if you go to our YouTube channel,

I showed you how to fix a snowblower there,

fix the carburetor in literally minutes

and back out into the snow for a road test

to make sure that everything's working as it should be,

cost $2.50, not too shabby.

Well, I gotta do the same thing to Goldie,

that was a hot rod red and he's been performing

really, really well, so since that,

everything seems to be normal, starts really easy

like it used to, one pole in a way, hot rod red goes, man.

That little thing, yes, it's probably still glowing

a little bit after the last five and a half hours

and I kid you not, when I say five and a half hours

on the blower, south shore's the Lake Erie,

wait till you see these ice caves and the ice pile ups

along the south shore, because the lake,

this is the first time in a couple of years

the lake is frozen, so we'll get you some pictures of that

and just as a special video, we'll put them up

on our YouTube channel so you can enjoy those,

you can shoot me an email anytime through our website,

carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com,

if there's a specific topic you'd like me to cover

or a special video, we've done a couple

of special videos for people, one was asked,

what is all the gobbledygook written

on the sidewall of a tire and I'll tell you what,

if they make the, it's like going to the pharmacy,

yeah, and you're reading labels, good luck,

that is not gonna happen without a magnifying glass,

I'm sorry, but you know what, my name is not Clark Kent

and I don't have X-ray vision, but the sidewall

of a tire is very confusing, there is a ton

of information there and there's stuff

that you really don't need to know

and I shot a video for that for a couple of people

that requested, can you explain the lettering

and the information on a sidewall of a tire

and so I took care of that, so feel free

to shoot me an email, even send me a comment,

putting comments in on our YouTube videos really helps us

to ignite this ignition on the channel,

we wanna grow it big and the reason for that is,

I don't need any more goodies or trinkets or stuff,

we're actually wanting to downsize some more

and kind of trim things back,

the whole idea of the channel is to teach you

how you can have an older vehicle,

keep it as long as you want, put 300,000, 400,000,

600,000 K miles on it and still turn the key

and you own it and it still has value and it's reliable,

that's putting money back in your wallet

and that's the channel, teaching you the basics

that you can do and understand and follow along

and treat your vehicle as though it was part of a fleet

and you're maintaining it and you're scheduling

its maintenance, not waiting till stuff is breaking,

broken, hanging off, falling off or you gotta go back

on the highway and try and find it, you're missing a piece,

then it becomes a collector's piece, not so funny.

So that's what we wanna do with our channel

and that's what we have been doing is teaching that,

but there's other things and it means a ton to us

to get to our goal, our vision.

So if you're subscribed to our channel,

first of all, make sure you are subscribed,

leave a comment, I don't care how short it is,

but all these things matter to grow the channel.

So we've got about 93% of our viewers are not subscribed.

If you were subscribed, I'd do a happy dance

in my tidy whities in the front lawn of the house

for 20 minutes because what, well, maybe not 20, 10, 10.

What we want to accomplish is I got a group of guys

that are all with me that we, over the winter,

we build every year a muscle car

and then we sell tickets by selling our merchandise

for you guys to get a chance to win it

and it'll all be legit, I've already talked to our attorney,

they're more than willing to handle that for us,

pro bono, to take care of that, how we do that.

We want to give away a muscle car every year,

something classic, a classic vehicle

and the team's all gonna get in on it and do their bit

and then it moves on to the next guy, they do their bit

and by the time we get to the end,

it's ready and it's showtime

and we can sell and raffle off tickets

and it goes to another caregiver to carry on with it

and the proceeds, the profits from building the classic

go to a local charity in our very own backyard

and we want to do that on an annual basis.

Every single year we build a classic

and we offer it up for somebody to win it

so that's another reason.

Another reason is our merchandise store

is there for you to grab our car connection,

motor mouth gear, be part of our car connection crew,

proceeds going to help those struggling

with addictions to get to a total freedom addiction campus

and get the help they need to get back on their feet

and there's a new life waiting for them there

when they come out the other side,

they're ready to face the world

and that's what they've done there for 25 years.

So I always like to let our listeners

and have for 31 years on the radio,

we have not because we ask not.

So that's our goal and we want to achieve that goal

so that we also have resources

which means we have monies coming in

that we can buy parts and fix vehicles for widows,

orphans, single moms, those who may be going through some,

what my granddad used to say, financial cramps

where things aren't going well,

we'd like to be able to offer our services

and in lieu of shooting some videos on their vehicle

so we can keep them rolling

and we can teach you at the same time.

So there you have it.

That's the whole magic of the whole ordeal

but the main recipe is we need people to like, subscribe,

follow, leave a comment, ring the bell for notifications

when new vids go up, all that helps us

to keep the ignition on and move forward

so that we can accomplish those things.

So thank you for hearing me out this morning

on a Saturday morning and let's jump into our topic.

So Saturday mornings are going to be this way.

A one hour, approximately one hour program.

The podcast during the week,

I am really cutting them back

so that I don't take up too much of your time

and I want the weekly Monday through Friday podcast

to be about a half hour.

And then Saturdays we go full bore and do one hour.

And so you can enjoy that at eight a.m.

while you're having your morning cup beverage or whatever

and enjoy an hour of the car connection workshop.

And we're next working towards being able

to take live phone calls so that you can call in

and be a part of the program.

And you can also always right now,

send me an email if you got a question.

And if I use your question on the podcast,

as long as you give me information

so I can connect with you,

we like to send out a gift card

to those people that participate.

Don't forget, we're still promoting

our 30 day fuel savings challenge.

And I'm still waiting for those emails

to come through our website,

carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com saying you're all in.

Sign me up, I wanna do it.

So here's what I need.

I need an email, you gotta give me

contacting information and what vehicle

is going to participate with you

on the 30 day fuel saving challenge, okay?

So once we have enough people signed up,

then we're gonna let her rip.

I'm gonna be your coach all the way for 30 days.

And at the end of 30 days,

we're gonna see how much money is gonna be saved.

And even if it was $100 a month

on one car in the household,

that's $1,200 in savings, fuel savings in one year.

How many of you are gonna get a $1,200 raise this year?

In 2026, how many gonna get a tap on the shoulder

or surprise in your paycheck

that you got an extra $100 for the month?

Probably more than not likely.

That's what I'm gonna say.

All right, let's jump in.

Why loving your vehicle makes you a better owner?

I'll tell you this straight up.

It'll make you a smarter owner.

Why? A number of reasons.

If you take care of your automobile,

and I don't care how old it is,

as long as you've got something to start with.

And it's just like I've built a lot of cars

over the years, I still have a few projects

tucked away that we will share

with you in the car connection workshop

because there is a huge following on that stuff.

I really don't wanna do it, but I'll do it

because there's a following on that.

And you can learn a lot of things about restoring a vehicle

and a lot of it is just loving the vehicle

more than the person did before.

They gave up on it.

That's what happens.

And the first car that I want to give away

is a vehicle I bought.

I didn't want it.

I really didn't want it because I had, at the time,

I had closed my shop, I had a car collection,

I had 16 vehicles and I chiseled it down

to I think I have six left, six or eight left.

And it is one that I added to

the repertoire, not because I really wanted it

and I couldn't sleep a wink without it,

was I was approached to come and look at the vehicle.

I'll tell you what it is.

1984 legit Monte Carlo SS, last of the model year.

So if a lot of you watch NASCAR,

you would have seen Dale Earnhardt Sr.

driving the same vehicle, was his Wrangler vehicle.

Wrangler jeans was yellow and blue.

I have the car somewhere.

Somewhere in the studio, I have that car.

I was a huge NASCAR fan, but things keep me busy

and I'm not much of a sitter, I like to get stuff done.

So anyways, that's gonna be the first one I offer up.

It has originally 66,000 kilometers.

I went to look at this car at the time

I was working with a dietitian.

This all ties in with the why loving your vehicle

makes you a better owner.

And it all ties in together.

Just be patient with me here, we'll get there.

So I went to look at it in the hubby.

He bought the car, I don't know how many years ago.

Well, he drove it till it broke.

And apparently it broke just coming up the street.

They lived close to the Niagara River

and just driving up to their house up the hill, it quit.

So the neighbors helped them push it into the driveway

and then eventually it went into the garage

and it stayed there.

That's what happened.

That was the end of that ride.

It was tucked in the garage.

Well, I said to the wife, I said,

well, yeah, I'm interested and I'm not.

I said, here's my card, here's how much I can give you for it

and I'll take it off your hands.

But you know what, if you won't hurt my feelings,

if that number doesn't work for you,

but right now I really don't need it

and I have to find somewhere to put it

till I'm ready to do what needs to be done to it.

But here, I'll leave this with you.

A year goes by, a year.

And I get a phone call from the wife.

Now, yeah, it's so-and-so.

Oh, how are you guys doing?

We're having a baby.

Oh, congratulations.

Have you had it or you're still working on it?

She goes, no, working on it, but the car's gotta go.

I said, is it still in the garage?

She goes, yes.

And my hubby knows I'm getting rid of it

because he's converting the garage into a baby room.

Oh, so that's a problem.

She goes, yes.

Will you still stand on your offer

that you gave us a year ago?

And I'm kind of like,

I'm thinking all this stuff I still wanna get done

and I wanna get these vehicles done

and either use them to go to car shows

and fundraising events and let the kids sit in them

and get the picture taken, all that kind of stuff.

They're tools, not toys.

And I'm thinking I'd like to get all these things done.

And if we're not keeping it,

then find another caregiver to take it

and continue where I left off and really take care of it.

And it's going through my mind as she's going

and I go, okay.

So I said, does it run?

She goes, no, it still doesn't run.

So I said, you know, what happened when it quit?

Well, my husband just said it kind of gave out

a big backfire and smoke came out from under the hood

and it was over.

I said, was there any oil or anything underneath it

to leave a big skid mark, exon, Valdez on the road?

No, the neighbors pushed it in and it's been there ever since.

So I packed up some stuff and I said, okay.

I said, I'll be there in two days.

So I packed up a distributor that I had rebuilt

and I figured it sounded like the distributor exploded

inside.

So anyways, long story short, I go there,

I work on it and within an hour I had it running

and it was smoking so bad, you couldn't even see me.

And the neighbor across the street

came running over screaming, hey mister, are you okay?

Are you in there somewhere?

Are you all right?

Do you need some help?

And I step out of the smoke.

It was bizarre.

The smoke was so thick.

I couldn't see anything around me, not even the car.

When it started up, it was crazy bad.

And then it just smoothed right out and I drove at home.

It wasn't too far from where we are right now

where I'm broadcasting from.

I drove at home, literally not even two kilometers.

And I parked it in my backyard at my rental property

at the time and I just said,

that's where it's gotta stay until I'm ready.

And so that's the story of the first muscle car

we're gonna put together and it's not a piece of junk

by any means and that's gonna go to someone else

and they'll be the next caregiver.

And that's exactly what I want to do

is with a group of guys, we've already got it planned.

Soon as we're at the point where we can purchase

what we need to get to it and get it done,

we're gonna get it done and then we'll offer it up

and raffle it off.

It'll be the first one on our docket

and then we'll do one every year from there in.

So I say that to say this.

When that vehicle, that 84 Monte Carlo SS

goes to someone else.

I don't want it going to someone who's just gonna drive it

and beat it to death.

We want the cars to go to someone

who's gonna love on it and take care of it.

And you can rely on it as well.

You can hop in it and drive it 1600 miles straight

if you want it.

And that's what you can do with your everyday driver.

When you go to car shows, you may be a car nut,

you may be not, but most people when they see vintage

automobiles, custom hot rods and salvage vehicles

from yesteryear and you see the love and the tender care

that they're given, there's no reason why your daily driver

can't be like that, because mine are.

I see the value.

And you know, I've told the story before

about my 1984 Toyota short box four wheel drive pickup truck,

one of only 500 in the world.

And I paid a lot of money for that in my early 20s.

I was 22 years old when I bought it.

I bought it from a couple up in London.

He'd bought it for his wife and it turned out

she could not save her life to drive a stick.

And so he bought her something else and it was for sale.

And I was disappointed because I had my name

on the list for one and I didn't get it.

And then I happened to be looking through

the Hamilton Spectator and I saw it for sale

and I called and I said, that is mine.

And I want it, I'll pay you when you're asking.

So that's how I ended up with it.

But what I remember was how hard I worked

at 22 years of age, paying 17.93% on a car loan

and I was an apprentice.

I was still an apprentice mechanic

and I was working hard to get to my second year,

putting myself through school, living on my own.

And I'd left home at age 16.

I'd been out of the house since I was 16 years old.

Yeah, independent.

I knew what I wanted and I went after it.

So I learned from that vehicle

that you don't just drive it and make the payments

and there's nothing left.

I took care of it and I took care of it

really, really, really well.

And that's why I still have it.

Because that vehicle reminds me how important it is

to take care of the things that you have.

Then you're not trading time for money.

You gain your time back

and you put money back in your wallet.

We don't need to be replacing vehicles

every three to five years.

That's insanity.

And being a tech for 44 years,

I've seen it happen where people wrecked beautiful vehicles.

My goodness.

And I think of all the money blown

that could have been saved is crazy.

It's crazy, folks.

If you just learn to put some effort in

and every single vehicle you see at a car show,

that's just it.

What is the bottom line?

I love meeting the owners

and I love hearing the backstory and seeing photographs.

They dug this thing out of a barn

and you know what?

There's YouTube channels all over the place.

I have my favorites and they rescue these things.

They rescue them.

I've done it myself.

That's how I got the Monte Carlo.

I have a 71 feet spider from Europe.

I rescued on the hottest July day

on the face of the planet in a pair of coveralls.

Get dragged out of my shop on the Hamilton Mountain.

You got Nile, you gotta come and get this car.

The city's condemned the building it's in

and I'm going, oh, it's gotta be good.

And this fella comes in.

His name was Leo.

If Leo, if you're listening, I still have it.

And my coworker, Jeff, said, Nile,

you gotta go look at it.

You need to go look at that.

And I go, I need another vehicle right now

like I got a hole in the head.

So anyways, it was a desperate situation,

circumstance in the chap goes,

Jeff told me how you look after vehicles.

I'd like you to take it.

I said, well, what kind of money are we talking?

And he told me and I go, wow, okay, where are we going?

So he drives me somewhere on the Hamilton Mountain

to what looked like an old carriage house.

It was all wood and the things leaning over to the side.

And I go, it's in there.

He goes, yeah, I said, I'm not going in there.

No way, that thing's gonna,

he goes, well, the city's condemned it.

I split up with my wife and I gotta get this,

this car's gotta be gone today.

Well, that's short notice.

So I had the money in my pocket to pay the man.

And I said, you open the doors, I'll stand back.

And he pulls this big tarp off of it.

He goes, what do you think?

Said, is it a run?

Yeah, but it needs a head gasket.

There's oil coming up in the cool.

And I'm going, okay, so it needs some work.

I said, how come the windshield's broken?

Well, the body's kind of sagging.

And I knew right away, it's the castle panel

on those types of vehicles, same with the MGBs, TR6s.

So I go, all right, I'll take it.

So I called the tow truck driver

and I paid the man and he left.

And he left me on the side of the road.

It was like 90-something degrees,

no shade to be seen anywhere, and he's gone.

Here's the title, here's the keys,

here's an extra set of keys.

It's all yours, it's gonna be gone today.

I said it's gonna be gone in an hour

as soon as a tow truck driver can find me here.

So that's how I ended up with the 71, be it Spyder 1608.

And it came from Europe.

I have all the documentation on it.

It was purchased by a military man in England

and he was stationed in Italy and he bought it in Italy

and had it shipped to Montreal, back to Canada.

So story on that.

So I say that to say this,

that person who I never met before Leo knew

through my worker that I would take care of it.

He didn't want the car going to someone

who was just going to trash it.

And so I have driven it.

It's gonna be coming in the shop

and we're gonna get that cylinder head issue

taken care of because the engine's new,

but it's starting to leak some oil up

because the cylinder head was not fixed right.

It wasn't a plane before they put the head on.

Anyways, that's getting too technical.

But I say that to say this, again,

why loving your vehicle makes you a better owner.

I got the whole backstory on that little Fiat

and it kind of broke my heart.

And I'm like, you know what?

We'll bring that thing, we'll bring it around.

And a couple of guys helped me out

and they restructured it, did a great job,

got it solid and square and straight.

And so the rest is easy.

The rest is easy.

It's not a piece of junk or anything.

It was a good buy.

It was a very good buy.

But that's what you can do with your own vehicle.

You need to look at your vehicle differently.

Yeah, they depreciate.

They depreciate huge, huge.

Some vehicles hold on a little bit more money,

but you know what?

They depreciate just the same.

They're not an investment really, but they are.

If it's paid off and you're not making payments,

you own it outright and it's still structurally sound,

you have yourself a bar of gold with rubber wheels on it.

Because every time you drive that, it's making you money.

You're not working hard to make a stupid car payment.

And I'm not saying that to disrespect anyone,

but I remember exactly what it was like at age 22,

working my stinking butt off as a first year apprentice

trying to get to my second year

and paying for that truck at 17.93%.

That's right, was the early 80s.

Interest rates, I had a mortgage at that time was 12%.

11.86, how do I remember that?

Because you know what, you do.

It's just like a dog, if it gets hurt somewhere

and it doesn't know how it happened, it won't go back there.

If it can't figure out how it hurt and it whelped,

it won't go back there.

And that's why I think about how hard I had to work

for five years straight, put myself through Mohawk College,

trade school, play for my apartment,

and everything else on top of that.

In the interim, I bought a home, got married,

and there were expenses coming out of the wazoo.

And I was only 22 years old, 24 years old at that time

when we got the house, got married,

and I was still paying it off.

And I remember that, having to make that payment.

And most of the payment went for interest,

a big chunk of it anyway for five years.

And that was when I said, you know what,

I am not doing this again, I don't need to do this again.

I can buy something, refurbish it quickly

and get the mechanicals and all the neglect taken care of

and get this thing looking good inside and out.

And I have very little money invested in it.

And I can keep it going until the cows come home.

That's what I'm talking about.

And it is very doable.

I don't care who says, well, you know,

I want a reliable vehicle and you know,

that's why I buy a brand new one, that's okay.

You go ahead and do that.

But for like 74% of Canadians right now,

they're less than $200 away from being broke.

So a paid-off automobile is worth how much to you?

Could you make a $1,500 car payment?

$800, $900 car payment, could you?

In this economy, probably not.

What's more important?

Essentials, daily essentials.

That's why that night, in 1984, Mo taught me a lesson.

How hard I had to grunt it out, working after hours,

working late nights in the shop,

changing a transmission and getting paid cash to do it,

and sock that down to get the truck payment gone.

Cause it took a big chunk of my paycheck.

You know, apprentices back then were making

a whole lot of dough, let me tell you.

I was getting paid pretty good,

but it still wasn't a whole lot of dough.

So owning an automobile and not looking at two things,

the mileage and its age.

That's what man wants you to think about.

That's not what I want you to think about.

I don't, I don't even look at my odometer.

I don't care, I don't care how many kilometers are on it.

Cause I can keep spoon feeding it and keep it going

and it's paid for, paid for.

And just stay ahead of the maintenance.

Love on it, why?

Why do that?

Because it's gold, it's money in your pocket.

Vehicles, even after you've bought and paid for it,

once you're outside the warranty, when stuff breaks,

who's paying for that?

You.

So whether you buy another vehicle or not,

you gotta spend money on your piece of equipment, period.

But if you stay ahead of it and schedule it in

for maintenance, it's just like dentistry.

I'm gonna use that as a great example.

If you never go to a dentist, at some point,

the pain is gonna be so bad, you'll want someone to kill you.

Please put me out of my misery.

Because you're scared to set up an appointment,

go to the dentist on a regular basis,

would have prevented that pain and suffering.

Cause I'll tell you what, I think mouth pain,

other than, I hear the ladies are ready.

If you birthed a child before,

no and I don't plan on doing that.

But next to childbirth, I think mouth pain

ranks up there huge.

Let me know in the comments, send me an email,

what you think?

And I had that recently and what happened was,

during the COVID campaign, I couldn't get to my dentist,

who I had in the US, I couldn't get there.

So I've had three years, three, four years

without six month checkups, like clockwork.

And I never had a problem when that was going on.

And that's why I'm sharing it.

I always had a spring appointment and a fall appointment.

Every year, spring appointment, fall appointment,

spring appointment, fall appointment, no mouth issues,

no teeth issues, four years not going

and I got a disaster going on.

Yeah, cavitation and it all is money.

But when everything was being set up for me,

spring appointment, fall appointment,

spring appointment, fall appointment, no problems,

stayed ahead of the curve, four years, no appointments,

problems.

Yeah, huge, I don't even want to get into it,

but it only just happened in 2025, tail end.

It was a mouth nightmare.

I had to have surgeries and teeth extracted by,

what do they call them?

Just call it an oral dental surgeon.

Yeah, and yeah, it was a nightmare.

And the whole time I'm thinking, you know what?

If I was still on that regiment

of preventative maintenance, mouth maintenance,

this would not have gotten to that point.

But my passport ran out and I never renewed my passport.

So I was still on a non-program issue

with my dental health and boom, it blows up.

A car is exactly the same.

I'm telling you, I spent years keeping fleet companies,

vehicles going flawlessly, flawlessly.

Some of them with 800,000 kilometers on them

and still running well.

How is it done?

Fleet maintenance.

So we've got a, if you haven't been tuning in until now,

we've got a YouTube video coming up

and I'm going to break down fleet maintenance

and how important that is to you to adopt it,

grab on to it.

And I have a way for you to track yourself

through our car connection maintenance schedule

that I created out of my fleet service schedule

that I made up for myself.

So when I had a fleet vehicle in my service bay,

I followed my checklist

and I didn't miss anything on that vehicle for service,

whether it was a huge truck,

a small commercial vehicle or a van

that was part of a 100 or 200 piece fleet.

Yeah, it works on everything.

And so if you've got the foundation in your hands,

you're already ahead of the other guy.

And what I mean by that is,

you don't have a collector's piece

where it's so rusted out and destroyed, it's done.

Then that means, you know what,

that's a vehicle that I would say,

she's singing and it's time for it to go to the crusher

if you don't have a foundation.

And it's no different than push, pull and drag,

a muscle car or a vintage car out of a field or something.

It's either fixable, restorable or it's parts.

That simple.

You pull something out of a field

and it is rougher than a stucco toilet seat.

It's over, it's a parts car.

That's all it is, because it's gonna be way,

unless it's one of five in the entire world

and it's valuable because of what it is

and the number of them created, that's different.

But if it's just an everyday whatever

and they made hundreds and thousands of them,

then it's a parts car.

But if you drag something out of,

like I dragged the 71 Fiat Spider

and the 84 Monte Carlo SS came out of a little garage

and it had been out of the weather.

The Fiat was out of the weather,

but he had to stop driving it, I found out afterwards

because the rocker panels filled up with water

and that's how the castle panel rotted out

and the car was sagging a little bit.

It had some play to it and it cracked the windshield.

That's how you know, on like an MGB or a TR-6.

If the windshield's cracked,

it's because the body's flexing.

But anyways, we got that fixed.

The guys did a great job on that for me, wonderful.

We did some trade off work,

some guys on the Hamilton mountain and yeah,

that's how we got that car back in order

and it will be back out on the road.

I used to drive it until the oil was coming up

in the radiator too much.

So I shut it off and that was it.

So anyways, and it's funny because a little tale story

to that was I had a co-op student, his name was Jeffrey

and if Jeffrey tunes into this,

I'm sharing a bit of the story, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey was a co-op student that I first one ever

I took in and he recently reached out to me.

I can't remember what platform we're on, he found me

and he said, oh, I'm watching your YouTube videos.

Amazing, do you still have the Fiat?

I said, I sent him a message back and I go, yeah,

and he's now a mechanic himself.

And he just, you know, was giving me some kudos.

I'm a humble guy, so yeah, he was just sharing

from his heart how much he enjoyed working

at the shop with me and what he learned and stuff.

And Jeffrey really fell in love with that car

with the little Fiat and we could drive it in and out.

We'd bring it in at night to the shop

and take it out the morning.

But he really took a shining to that little Fiat.

But you know what, it doesn't matter what you have.

If it's bought and paid for and it runs well

and it's mechanically good, then you gotta keep

that baby going because that sucker is making you money.

When you're turning the key and you're loving on it,

keeping it clean, keeping it clean on the inside,

the outside and showing it love,

that vehicle will pay you back 10-fold.

I see it myself.

You know, I had to go to the accountants this morning,

drop everything off for the year end, month end

and whatever, all the tax gobbledygook.

And I was just thinking as I was driving the O7FJ Cruiser,

we're heading for 400,000 K and I was just thinking,

man, this thing is so good on the road.

It's fabulous to drive, easy to clean.

And people ask me all the time, what year is that?

I said, it's the first year of the FJ, O7.

Oh my gosh.

And I go, yeah, it's self-cleaning, self-maintaining.

Get out of here.

No, you gotta take care of it.

Well, the thing looks like new.

That's the attitude you gotta have.

That thing looks like new.

Because the longer you can keep it and take care of it

and love on it and service it, not when it's broken,

but preventative maintenance is gonna pay you back

10 times what that vehicle was worth brand new.

Minimum, 10 times.

Doesn't matter the mileage.

Doesn't matter what its value is.

I don't care.

It's an IDK, that's what Skippy and I always say.

Is that an IDK?

Yup, that's an IDK.

I don't care.

You can keep it as long as you want and save money,

like crazy, yeah.

Do I have to spend some money on the FJ?

Yup, it's due for an oil change,

gotta do an oil change, I'll check everything over

and make sure I don't have anything developing

over the few winter months that we're into.

And anything that it needs, I just plan to get it done.

I don't let it go.

Why?

I don't wanna replace it.

And B, I don't have the money to replace it

and even if money were no object,

I'd just keep it going anyway.

I don't need to go and spend money on a vehicle

when I have a perfectly good one right in front of me.

And then in the summer, I take one of the crews

and fundraising vehicles and I'll drive it part-time

for the summer and love on it and take care of it.

And take it to some shows and go and hang out with

some of the local car shows.

There's a place in St. Catharines, I wanna get to.

Cars and coffee, been invited to go there.

I think it's Thursday or Friday nights until the fall.

And meet people.

That are like-minded.

They have older vehicles, they're loving on them,

they're caregiving to them and they're valuable.

Because they're bought and paid for

and at the end of the day,

it'll be worth something to somebody else.

It's that simple.

So I hope I'm striking a chord with you guys and you gals.

Because what I'm telling you is gold.

It's money back into your home.

It's money that you're gonna save, you will save,

and you can apply it to pay down some debt.

But you don't need to go back in debt to buy a vehicle,

make interest in principal payments for the next seven years

to own a vehicle, to impress someone

you don't even know or you don't even like, period.

It's your everyday driver.

Treat it like it's the last one on the planet.

And drive it till you can't.

Something major goes wrong with it.

Then it's time to move on.

Then you look for something that's in the budget

that you can pay for, either cash upfront

from someone who's selling something off

and moving into a new vehicle.

Those are the grabs.

That's what I call those.

Those are the grabs.

That's how I end up with the 07 FJ,

came out of Kingston, actually Wolf Island,

just off of Kingston.

They live, I think, on Wolf Island or something like that.

They take the ferry every day all winter.

It just happened, my producer at the time knew I was looking

and I had given up because there was nothing out there,

FJ Cruiser that I could afford

with the budget that my financial planner, Tony Miele,

had given me.

And he said, now, here's the budget.

Don't call me for $1 more.

You gotta sell your vehicle, use that money,

plus this money to get you that FJ.

If you can't, then you can't.

You continue with what you have.

That's how you work with a certified financial planner.

And it all panned out.

My vehicle was sold just by a whisper.

And the money was in my hand.

We don't care if it takes a year of motor mouth,

that's ours, we licked it.

Yeah, it's yours.

But if I don't find what I want, then I gotta drive it.

Then we'll wait another year, but we want that car.

It was a 98 Honda CR-V.

It was amazing.

I didn't really wanna let it go.

If I didn't have to, I'd still have it.

And I took care of it, very much so.

So it was my producer that found it.

He goes, Nile, I think I found what you're looking for.

When I came off the air at ESPN,

he goes, I think I found what you're looking for.

It was our Canadian Thanksgiving.

So he goes, I've already sent her an email,

told her you're interested.

What?

He goes, yeah, you gotta jump on these things.

And that was the one for me.

It all panned out right down to the dollar.

Didn't have to ask Tony for one more dollar.

It all worked together for good.

And that's how I got it.

And I've loved it ever since.

I care give it.

That's what I do.

I'm the caregiver.

And I take care of it because I do not want,

I'm done, period, car payments and interest.

I'm done with that.

Absolutely done with that.

So I hope you get something out of this program.

Anytime you have a question, comment,

or you'd like me to cover something,

we're gonna cover this in more detail yet

when the video comes out.

I've just written the program.

I don't usually write a program,

but on this specific one,

I wanna make sure I cover all the details

so that you really get a bird's eye view

into what's in my head.

And so I can share it with you so you can understand.

You know what?

Stop listening to the white noise.

Start listening for the signal.

I'm the signal.

Anything else where somebody's saying,

oh, the mileage is too high.

Oh, the car's getting old.

You shouldn't put any more money into it.

That's man speaking.

That's not a CFP speaking to you.

Let me tell you,

because Tony or Larry would say,

you're not in a position to buy another vehicle.

You better start loving on what you have

because you're gonna be needing it for a long time

to get you out of the hole.

That's what you'd be hearing.

That car is gonna be with you for a very long time

so you better start kissing up to it

and loving on it

because you ain't getting another vehicle

for quite some time.

You got a long way to go

and it's gonna be a long haul

to get out of the position you're in financially.

That vehicle that's in your driveway,

whether it's 10 years old, 15 years old,

and it's got 300,000 K,

is your ticket to freedom, baby.

That's right.

It's your ticket to freedom.

So until next time,

we'll talk to you on Monday morning at 8 a.m.

for another motormouth morning drive.

Have a great weekend.

It's Valentine's Day weekend.

Remember, fellas, the trifecta.

Got it?

Candy, chocolate, copious quantities of chocolate,

flowers, beautiful ones.

Don't cheap out on the $5 one, guys.

And dinner, cook her dinner,

take her out for dinner,

but you know what, treat her like a queen

and she'll treat you like a prince.

Maybe a king someday, maybe, just maybe.

So have a great weekend.

It's family day weekend here in Ontario.

Get out there, enjoy the winter weather.

Go skiing, ice skating,

cross country skiing, whatever.

But do stuff.

Do stuff with the kids, the grandkids,

the nieces and nephews.

Get out there, enjoy the weekend.

We'll see you right back here for more of Car Connection

and the Car Connection workshop

with your host, Nile Motormouth Jenkins,

in the driver's seat and still a little raspy.

You know what?

I've had this cold thing, all stink and winter.

It goes away, comes back like a bad smell.

I'm telling you.

Yeah, we'll see you Monday morning,

bright and early, eight o'clock.

Put the coffee on and we'll enjoy the morning drive,

but have a super fantabulous weekend

and have a good time.

I think it was Daytona 500 this weekend,

if I'm not correct and enjoy.

We'll see you next week.

Happy healthy motoring, peace, patience and kindness always

and put that coffee on

cause I'm gonna come to your house.

Why Loving Your Vehicle Makes You a Better Owner

About this episode

Jeep Wrangler

Nissan Rogue

carburetor kits

muscle car

classic vehicle

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

NASCAR

barn find

Fiat 124 Spider

head gasket

castle panel

MG MGB

Triumph TR6

Porsche 914 Spyder 1600

cylinder head

maintenance

warranty

restorable

fixable

parts car

Fiat Spider

Monte Carlo SS

rocker panels

body flexing

mechanically good

oil change

Toyota FJ Cruiser

Honda Crv

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