Why men are THE problem, plus, how I talk lots of car buyers "off the edge"

Hey, folks, welcome back to another edition of My Car Guru.

I've got several car life scenarios to go over with you today.

I went camping this weekend, Tara and I went to a beautiful campground down on Douglas Lake

in Jefferson, I guess Jefferson County, Tennessee.

And it's just an example of somebody who decides, okay, I'm going to build a campground

that people are going to brag about and they're going to want to come back because it's so

perfect.

I don't know what Disneyland is like or Disney World is like now, but when I went, it was

spotless.

You know, if you saw somebody drop something on the ground, and within seconds somebody

would be there to pick it up and scoop it up and put it in the garbage can for you.

That's what this place looks like.

It's called Anchor Down.

And it's probably, let's see, it's probably eight miles from, maybe 10 miles from Sevierville,

Tennessee near Pigeon Forge, not too far from Gatlinburg.

Great place to camp.

If you can get in, I've actually made reservations two years in advance there before, so

pretty popular place.

But every time I go, Tara and I walk around the place, that's my wife.

And her mind is all in this pretty, look at the pretty lake and all the nice campers and

stuff.

People having fun.

I'm thinking, boy, that's a nice camper.

Wouldn't mind having one of those.

Boy, look at that motorhome.

I wonder what that would be like to own.

I really don't like the way I think sometimes because too often my mind is in acquisition

mode.

Do you ever get like that where you just can't be satisfied?

You think that by buying something, it's going to satisfy some type of an itch, and it rarely

does.

So my wife had some things to do, so I'd gotten in the truck and drove to Camping World

and to another place down near Strawberry Plains near Knoxville that has, it's a

big camper center, RV, something or other, I can't remember what it's called.

But anyway, I went to look at motorhomes.

This guy was sitting next to me in this big, beautiful motorhome, and I've got this little,

well, it's not little, it's a 34-foot travel trailer, and it just, it looks kind of little

and cheap compared to that motorhome.

So here I am comparing things, and I decided I'm going to go look at motorhomes.

Well, I looked at them online and went down to see the specific things in person.

And so when you go to this camping place, not Camping World, but the other one,

you have to go in through the front door, you have to register, they pay just salesperson,

he does a little interview with you to find out what you're interested in, and then they

take you and start showing you different things.

Well, I wanted to see this four, it was a diesel pusher made by Thor, T-H-O-R.

It's a big old thing, I think 39 feet long, 340 horsepower diesel engine.

And I mean, as soon as I saw it, I said, I could see that in my driveway.

And then I got inside and he was telling me, show me all the features and everything that

it had.

And I said, well, how did the slides come in?

Are they real noisy when they're coming in?

What type of mechanism do they use?

He said, oh, it's a state-of-the-art mechanism, and now they're not real noisy.

He was wondering why I asked that question, and mine goes, eh, you know, it's just

terrible.

Sorry I made that noise.

It's irritating.

And so he pushed the button, it was pretty quiet, however, slight problem.

So I'm standing there watching this, and when he gets it about halfway in, all of a sudden

I hear the rushing of water, and it, folks, it wasn't just like a drip, drip, drip.

It was like somebody pouring out a bucket of water off the top of that slide out after

it had penetrated into the inside of the motorhome of the $368,000 motorhome and was dumping water

all over the passenger seat and the floor.

And I looked up at him and I said, now don't you just hate it when you're a salesperson

and something like that happens?

He just laughed.

But then I'm sitting there thinking about, you know, well, I mean, I could buy it

for a whole lot less than that.

This was actually a used camper, camper, motor coach.

People had bought it.

It's a 2024 model, four, as I said, and they had bought it and driven it to East Tennessee

and a little bit more and said, we don't want this thing.

It had 3,000 miles on it, 2024 model, and they were asking online, I think 239, something

like that, which is, I'm not doing that.

You know, if they could have gotten it down into the mid-100s, I might have been able

to semi-justify that.

But here I am, I'm trying to build a scenario where I can justify it.

See that's the worst thing that, well, I'm going to say this, women don't do this

as much as men do.

Maybe they do on a small scale on small ticket items.

Men, you know what I'm talking about.

You will justify big, expensive things because of how you're going to use them, because of

how much it's going to save you and so forth.

Just think, honey, think of all the hotel bills we won't have to pay.

Yeah, but it's a quarter of a million dollars.

Come on, you know?

And we do that with side-by-sides and golf carts and motorcycles and lawnmowers

and, oh, we just justify, justify, justify.

And our wives just sit there and look at us and shake their heads and saying, I can't believe

I married this guy.

But they usually find a way to go along with it.

And then two or three years later, when none of those dreams and plans materialized, and

we didn't save any money, matter of fact, it's depreciated $150,000.

And now we've got to unload it.

Insurance is too expensive, maintenance is too expensive.

We're not camping.

It's just sitting out there collecting dust.

That's what happens to men's toys.

So guess what?

I didn't buy it.

I went to Camping World, similar experience.

You walk in the place.

You got a register.

They pay you a salesperson.

They sit down and interview you.

Then they take you outside.

Over there, I was looking at fifth wheel campers.

I said, well, you know, I'm not paying a quarter of a million dollars for something.

Let's go down and look at fifth wheels.

And, you know, they were really nice and really massive and really big.

At that point, I was losing my enthusiasm.

I was ready to go back to my little 34-foot, 2018 bullet premiere with all its faults and

just be satisfied for once and not need to go out and spend that money.

I don't need to spend.

So think about this as somewhat of a lesson for you.

Just think how much more money you'll have and how much less frustration you'll have.

Chasing after that one thing that you think, if we get this, I'll be set for life.

No, you won't.

I'll be back in just a minute.

Okay, I am back.

Folks, don't forget about the My Car Guru guidebook.

You know, I could call it a handbook.

I remember when I was in the Boy Scouts, I still had my Boy Scout handbook.

If I need advice on how to make a certain kind of knot, I'll go get it.

Open it up to the knot tying section and say, oh, yeah, that's a half hitch.

Or that's a four-leaf clover or whatever.

You know, there's so many different things that handbooks can do for us.

I remember when I first got married, my wife and I, well, let's see, married in 78.

In 80, we bought our first house.

It was a project house.

So I couldn't afford to pay anybody to do anything.

So I bought the Time Life books on home improvement.

Got the whole series.

Oh, man, I was throwing up sheetrock and wiring outlets and fixing plumbing and everything.

And, you know, that was great when I was younger.

Now I just, I place a phone call.

That's how I take care of things now with a phone call.

But yeah, guidebooks, anything that can help us, well,

prevent us from making a mistake.

And so the My Car Guru guidebook is available online.

How do you get it?

You send me a text, 423-552-2020.

And just send me your email address, and I'll send you a PDF version.

Don't know what that is, but it's a version that you can get on your computer.

And you can read it.

And you can print it out and roll it up, put it in your glove box.

Read it first, though.

Especially if you're getting ready to buy a new car, or use a car, or going into a finance

office, dealing with a service advisor or repair situation.

You think you own a lemon.

You want to apply for credit, or you want to improve your credit.

These are great things, folks.

And some of them may just be thought starters for you, and you need more information.

That's where you call me.

Instead of just reading the guidebook, you pick up the phone, or just pull your

phone out of your pocket, and send me a text, and we'll have a conversation, 423-552-2020.

Or you can send me an email to LennyLawson2020 at gmail.com.

Lenny is L-E-N-N-I-E, by the way.

So you've got to have this.

You've got to read it.

If you have a relative, or somebody else that needs, or maybe they're thinking

about buying a car, send it to them.

I mean, why not go into a car dealership ready to do battle with all the tools

that you need?

What tools, Lenny?

Words.

It's just words.

Isn't it amazing where you can actually use words to save you thousands and

thousands of dollars?

That's what the guidebook will do for you.

So, let's see.

Talk to a truck buyer and a listener the other day.

Talk to him off the ledge.

Folks, this is the, again, this is a guy thing.

He was getting ready to buy a new Ford F-150.

Not for me, he didn't live near me.

He just listens to the podcast.

He said, I need your advice on this.

So I want this new F-150, it's a Lariat, and it's equipped just like mine.

Mine's three years old, but this one's got that new tailgate, and they're

asking me just over $24,000 difference between the trucks.

Let me ask you a question.

Yeah, go ahead.

Do you like your truck?

Love my truck.

Is there anything wrong with it?

No.

Is it still under warranty?

No, the warranty's out, but I bought an extended warranty.

Okay.

Do you owe anything on it?

No, it's paid for.

So, let me get this straight.

You're thinking about paying $24,000 for a tailgate.

Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't sound right.

It was so funny.

We had the best conversation about other things.

But yeah, $24,000 is a lot for a tailgate.

I mean, this tailgate opens like a normal truck tailgate, okay?

Or when it's up, you can open it like a door.

It has the, I guess the middle two, well, kind of a middle section.

I start to say the middle two-thirds.

Maybe it is two-thirds of the total tailgate space, but you can open up like a door.

It's handy.

I have it on my F-150 Platinum.

And it's wonderful.

I never really lower the tailgate unless I have to throw my garbage can up inside there,

which I have to occasionally.

But no, I just use it.

It's great for loading gas cans and stuff because I have a lot of mowing to do and

four-wheelers and side-by-side.

You know all that other stuff I bought that I didn't need either.

But somehow, I could justify it.

You can't justify $24,000 for a tailgate.

I don't care how you do it.

I'd say most wives would push back on that one.

Okay, another company is in the news.

Scout, you remember the scout, the international scout.

Used to be a competitor for the Ford Bronco and Jeep and vehicles like that.

They went out of business.

The company was bought out by Volkswagen.

And I guess Volkswagen saw how successful the Ford Bronco was.

And how many Jeeps are being sold.

And somebody was digging through the archives one day and said, hold on a minute.

We own the scout name.

So some brilliant person decided, well, let's start building scouts.

Let's build them in South Carolina.

But let's make them all electric.

Yeah, that's going to work.

It's worked so well for Rivian and

some of these other electric companies that have gone belly up.

These companies that say, we're going to build 150,000 of these a year and

they build 150.

And it just doesn't work out.

Well, scout, I think scout's going to be a colossal failure.

They are all over my Facebook feed, which I resent very much.

I would block them, which I can.

But I just enjoy seeing the comments because 90% of the comments

are, well, I'd buy one if it weren't an EV.

And that's what they're going to run into.

Because even though one of the models has a range extender,

it has a little gasoline engine that will extend the range of it.

I mean, what's the point?

Just put a gas engine in it.

I mean, Donald Trump's president, we don't need to worry about EV push,

at least for another three and a half years or however long.

Unless another Republican administration gets in there.

And if they do, that's another four years or

maybe eight that we won't have to worry about EVs and

having them crammed down our throats.

I drove an EV to lunch today.

I went to Chick-fil-A and drove the Nissan Aria.

And it's fantastic.

It drives so good.

It's smooth.

It rides good.

It's about the size of a Ford Edge or, well, let's see,

maybe a Honda CR-V, something that size, kind of a smaller SUV.

It's got all kinds of room, smooth power, just wonderful.

Would I buy it?

No, no, I'm not buying an EV.

I don't recommend you buy one either.

But if your political persuasions make you lean that way, then okay, fine.

If you live in a city and the gas is expensive, if I lived in California and

I didn't have too far to drive, I might consider an EV.

Except for those times when Mr.

Newsom decides to have rolling blackouts to conserve electricity because of droughts

or floods or whatever thing that's going on out there happens.

And then all of a sudden, I've got a brick in my garage.

I can't do anything with it.

I could sit in it, but I can't charge it.

I can't go anywhere.

So I'd have a backup gas engine vehicle.

That's what I would do.

Volkswagen has failed already with their new van,

their new little retro-styled minivan or bus or whatever you want to call it.

It's, people were paying window sticker for them or

over window sticker when they first came out, but that died real quickly.

Because the range isn't good, it's a real quirky kind of a vehicle.

You look at the instrument panel and you have to have a translator to

help figure out how everything works.

Now they're not selling, you can get a really good buy on them right now.

Just like you could on this area.

Again, lease it for good and sake if you're getting an EV, don't buy it.

Lease it, let the people who made it eat it when you're done with it.

But yeah, if you get some type of an invitation on Facebook or

whatever for the all new scout, that's what it is.

It's Volkswagen, trying to get into the SUV business to compete

with the Ford Bronco and the Jeep Wrangler.

Of which both of those competitors have gas engines.

Even Wrangler, Jeep is scaling back their plans to have an EV version of the Jeep.

You know, Jeep buyers, they don't care about electric vehicles.

All they care about is having a bunch of ducks lined up on their dashboard.

That's it.

They want to drive around with the doors off and

have a bunch of ducks lined up on their dashboard.

Have you noticed?

This is what they do.

I was in Pigeon Forge and I already said that this weekend.

And there was some type of a Jeep thing had gone on,

I guess maybe Friday and Saturday or whatever.

My gosh, I've never seen so many plastic ducks in my life.

Some of them were stacked so

high you could barely see out the windshield.

So I don't know what the deal is.

I know it's some type of love fest going on between Jeep owners.

There's a pretty Jeep, let's go put a duck on their hood.

That's okay, if that's what you want to do.

If that's what makes you happy, then you go right ahead and do it.

Just keep those ducks away from my Bronco.

I'll be back in just a minute.

Okay, I am back.

Keep getting this warning notice on the dashboard of my 2024 Porsche 911 T.

And it's a countdown basically of when my oil changes do, my second oil change.

Now I've got 5,900 miles on it, it's due for its second oil change.

Now it's, there's hopefully a lot more to it than that.

I bought a protection package.

Well, I basically got this deal on prepaid maintenance.

Let me tell you why.

So if I were to take it back to the Porsche dealer and

get the first four services done over whatever period of time that would be.

It's usually once a year is when you're supposed to get those things serviced.

And so if I had paid for those individually when I went in there,

the total would have been $7,500, I know.

Isn't that ridiculous?

It's another one of those guy things.

So what I decided to do, they had a special deal on prepaid maintenance.

So my salesperson called me and said, hey, Lenny, you want to save some money?

And I said, I sure do.

Cuz you normally don't get a call from a Porsche dealer and

that's one of their first lines.

You want to save money?

So I said, how am I going to, how are you going to save me money?

And he said, well, I'm going to sell you a prepaid maintenance package that will

cut your maintenance cost in half for the first four oil changes.

At that point, I didn't know what it was going to cost to begin with.

Well, he enlightened me and I was shocked.

And I said, so the package is like $37.50.

And he said, yes, I said sold.

Here's my credit card number.

Now, yeah, you gotta ask, well, Lenny, why are you willing to do that?

I mean, you could buy a Toyota Camry and it would cost you,

well, maybe $200, $300 for the first four oil changes, entire rotations.

I don't want a Toyota Camry, you know?

I mean, we do, we buy what we want.

We got to be willing to pay up when, you know, when the time comes.

And you need to be aware of those extra costs that you're going to face when you

buy a car, especially if you buy like something that requires, you know,

has a high compression engine.

You got to put premium fuel in it all the time.

You take it into oil change.

It's, you know, typical oil changes maybe at less than $100 and

you got to pay $500 or $600 or in the case of a Porsche, you know, $2,500.

It's just something that you need to know.

And a lot of people don't realize that.

And then next thing you know, they're ready to trade the thing within a year.

And they take a terrible financial beating because of that.

So know all the costs involved, costs to ensure your vehicle.

That's another one.

The cost involved in repairing your vehicle.

I was ranting and raving on Facebook the other day.

I wrote a whole soliloquy.

Well, it's probably not what it's called.

It was an essay.

Let's call it that.

About why can't we just start simplifying cars so that they're more affordable?

Why do they have to have all these infotainment stuff in them?

I understand the safety devices.

I mean, I'm a big fan of airbags and analog brakes.

You know, I like fuel injection.

I like a lot of this stuff, but there's so much of it.

Just think how cheaply a car could be made if it didn't have a lot of that tech.

But see, now what they're wanting to do is to put a lot of tech on every car, you know,

to where they can have these uniform builds.

Every car gets every option, but the only way to activate it, some of those options

like heated seats and dynamic cruise control and all the other features that it has,

you pay a subscription fee to activate those.

But it's on the vehicle.

You just have to pay to use it.

I mean, this is big.

This is something that when we went to the Ford meeting, I think it was a couple

of years ago in Las Vegas, they were bragging about all these subscription services

and how much dealers could make by selling those things to people.

I think it's a great cause of resentment on the part of customers that they have to,

you know, if they want to feature, just let me buy it.

Don't make me pay you a monthly fee that you have to hit my credit card

or my Apple pay account every time I want to turn on the bun warmers.

But yeah, I'm all about simplification.

But if it's not going to be simplified, then by golly, I'm going to educate you on how

to navigate some of this stuff through these podcasts, this radio program,

and through the My Car Guru guidebook so that if you're going to have to pay

for some of this stuff, you might as well get it as cheaply as you can.

The problem is you can't negotiate with the manufacturer.

You can negotiate with the dealer.

But if you're buying a scout or a Tesla or something like that, there's no negotiation.

You pay full retail, you know, unless they have some kind of a special offer.

You're paying when to sticker.

Personally, I don't like to pay retail for anything.

I like to negotiate.

And you can negotiate successfully, too, if you just remember this phrase.

Is that the best you can do?

And most of the time, you'll get a price reduction.

And that advice is totally free.

And you won't beat that price anywhere.

Well, thanks for listening to this edition of My Car Guru.

Send me a text 423-552-2024 with My Car Guru guidebook, and I'll see you next time.

Why men are THE problem, plus, how I talk lots of car buyers "off the edge"

About this episode

Ford F150

Ford Bronco

Nissan Aria

Ford Edge

Honda Crv

Volkswagen Bus

Jeep Wrangler

Porsche 911

Toyota Camry

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