Co-worker to me "Do you know about cars?"

Curmudgeon wrote:

Conquest351 wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: There are a LOT of people who view a car as a necessary evil and have as little interaction with it as possible, I see it every day.That generally includes both maintaining and operating it. Then they want to pitch a fit when it blows up and costs them a wad to fix or replace.

I see this day in and day out. Then when you present people with a maintenance plan, they look at you like you're crazy. "I've never flushed a transmission in any car I've ever had, same for the coolant, you're trying to bend me over aren't you?" *sigh*

Oh yeah. Then when the transmission does go belly up or the radiator gets clogged with ethylene glycol goo, you are accused of trying to bend them over even further. That's even funnier when it comes from someone wearing all kinds of expensive jewelry, Gucci handbag, etc etc etc.

Sounds like you're describing my sister. She's had both her cars almost out of oil on at least one occasion and they usually drive around on flat tires. She's never bought a car for less than 2x the cost of any of mine either. Yet when she needs to replace a wrecked tire or pay for repairs she's sooo freakin' upset, never mind it's probably less than her monthly cell phone bill. Even when I offer to do work on her car to save her some trouble she's in too much of a hurry and drives off on a flat tire or whatever.

Here is the problem, cars are really too damn good for their own planned obsolescence. Most will go with the oil changes, tires, and sometimes brakes, until someone is through with it. The consumer has demanded that and the factories have built to that specification, most of the time.

What do you expect in a throwaway society?

I think things like this will become more and more common as time goes on and people become more and more clueless/apathetic towards technology.

Ever see how poorly people maintain their computers? And that doesn't even cost anything to make work well.

Oh, I completely understand all of that. I simply refuse to associate with such people on a regular basis. If you can't care to take care of the 2nd most expensive purchase in your lifetime, kind of makes you wonder about their attitude towards a lot of things, eh? It's not like I expect much beyond "sort of" following the recommended maintanence.

Conquest351 wrote: Since I work at a dealership, it's apparently my responsibility to keep up with my car, the wife's truck, and the daughters car. I make their oil change stickers for 1,000 miles. They CONSISTANTLY go 3-4,000 OVER their oil change mileage. This way, when they look at it and say, "I'm over my oil change mileage" I think to myself, "nope, you're just on time". I do bring the truck in for a complete checkout when we're going to make a trip to New Mexico though. LOL

Meh. Chalk it up to being a good husband/dad. I used to get all bent outta shape about my wife not religiously maintaining "her" car. I gave up being upset about it a long time ago, and just took on the responsibility of taking care of ALL the cars. She makes breakfast in the morning, dinner at night, takes care of the baby and keeps the house clean. The LEAST I can do is take an hour every two months to do a couple oil changes, and I'll be damned if I'm going to throw her into the "Ma'am, I can't legally let you drive out of here on those tires" shark tank.

She cares as much about car maintenance as I do about a pair of dirty underwear on the floor or a fart at the dinner table.

I am always amazed at the amount of cars I see with bald and/or underinflated tires. Especially here in Colorado where it rains and snows seemingly at random and you NEED tread on your tires.

former520 wrote: I was once tempted to top off an ex's oil with ATF when she was packing. Does that count?

Nah, atf is 5wt oil anyways, prolly wouldn't hurt a thing.

HiTempguy wrote: Honest to god, could not put up with a woman like that gents. You have much more patience then I. Willful negligence over the 2nd most expensive purchase in your life is BS.

I helped my wife get in to a car that is interesting to drive (MINI Cooper S) and slowly fixed that problem. Of course it helped that MINIs were "cute" too. She was looking in to getting a Prius before I introduced her to MINIs.

Lured her in to track days and autox under the guise of making her a better/safer driver and sharing my hobbies with me. After the first event she was hooked, and a few months and a few events later she was asking me what she could do to make her car handle better and other mods. She religiously keeps the car clean now too.

e_pie wrote: I am always amazed at the amount of cars I see with bald and/or underinflated tires. Especially here in Colorado where it rains and snows seemingly at random and you NEED tread on your tires.

You're telling me, I picked up my 91 sho in oklahoma and the michelins on it had less tread than the victoracers that were on the superleggra wheels I bought with the car......the more amusing thing was hitting rain on the interstate in Indianapolis......465 apparently holds water.

And one of said semislick michelins blew the sidewall out just sitting in my garage a week ago.....its sat there for 4 months.

poopshovel wrote: She cares as much about car maintenance as I do about a pair of dirty underwear on the floor or a fart at the dinner table.

You got that right.

I don't recall ever seeing my wife check her oil, nor can she recall me ever doing the laundry. We each have our areas of expertise. Her's is not automotive related.

You know, I am the only one I ever see checking their oil when I fill up with gas. When I was filling up yesterday and checking the oil, a guy gave me a look like I had a foot coming out of my forehead. I shrugged.

HiTempguy wrote: Oh, I completely understand all of that. I simply refuse to associate with such people on a regular basis. If you can't care to take care of the 2nd most expensive purchase in your lifetime, kind of makes you wonder about their attitude towards a lot of things, eh? It's not like I expect much beyond "sort of" following the recommended maintanence.

I agree with this. I figure if someone can't be bothered to keep their car up, WTF does the house look like? Or how is their personal hygiene? Do they just let EVERYTHING go? It's not always a 100% accurate indicator of someone's attitude toward various things in life, but it's not the most inaccurate indicator either.

I pretty much handled the maintenance stuff for my ex, and for the vast majority of GF's before that. But, since they drove the car every day and I didn't, I expected them to tell me when something was going south (noise, smoke, warning light etc) or that the mileage for the oil change was coming up.

poopshovel wrote:

Conquest351 wrote: Since I work at a dealership, it's apparently my responsibility to keep up with my car, the wife's truck, and the daughters car. I make their oil change stickers for 1,000 miles. They CONSISTANTLY go 3-4,000 OVER their oil change mileage. This way, when they look at it and say, "I'm over my oil change mileage" I think to myself, "nope, you're just on time". I do bring the truck in for a complete checkout when we're going to make a trip to New Mexico though. LOL

Meh. Chalk it up to being a good husband/dad. I used to get all bent outta shape about my wife not religiously maintaining "her" car. I gave up being upset about it a long time ago, and just took on the responsibility of taking care of ALL the cars. She makes breakfast in the morning, dinner at night, takes care of the baby and keeps the house clean. The LEAST I can do is take an hour every two months to do a couple oil changes, and I'll be damned if I'm going to throw her into the "Ma'am, I can't legally let you drive out of here on those tires" shark tank. She cares as much about car maintenance as I do about a pair of dirty underwear on the floor or a fart at the dinner table.

I really LOL'd at the last sentence. I have actually said that I can't let someone drive out of our shop on those tires or those brakes. The tires were bald, dry rotted, had steel belt worn through and 1 had an impact bubble the size of a softball. The car was a trainwreck but she couldn't be bothered to get new tires on her Escalade with 24" rimz, yo. The brakes were a frozen caliper on the pass rear of a Town Car and had eaten through the rotor to the point that the rotor surface had seperated from the hat and was just hanging there frozen inside the stuck caliper.

I also agree with the maintenance comments. I tell people that there's an additive they need to put in the oil of the EcoBoost engines that prevents build up on the oil squirters. Most people do it, some say, "I'll get rid of it in 2 years, not worried about it." I actually get that a lot about the maintenance stuff. I know Dodge REQUIRES the maintenance be done and documented or the warranty will be voided instantly. They have no problem telling their customers that either. Ford will do that on fuel systems if you can't prove you've changed the fuel filters on a diesel.

We were just talking about the "maintenance free" cars that are out now. Sure Chevrolet advertises 100k mile brakes, but when you DO need brakes, you need pads and rotors and the whole shebang to the tune of $1k-ish. I'd rather have my Ford brakes need replacement at 50-60k and pay $130 parts & labor (my dealership price) for front brakes and the same for rears if I need them.

Maybe that's just me...

yamaha wrote:

e_pie wrote: I am always amazed at the amount of cars I see with bald and/or underinflated tires. Especially here in Colorado where it rains and snows seemingly at random and you NEED tread on your tires.

You're telling me, I picked up my 91 sho in oklahoma and the michelins on it had less tread than the victoracers that were on the superleggra wheels I bought with the car......the more amusing thing was hitting rain on the interstate in Indianapolis......465 apparently holds water. And one of said semislick michelins blew the sidewall out just sitting in my garage a week ago.....its sat there for 4 months.

Oh man I ran in to the exact same situation a few years ago driving through Indy on 465 in a new (to me) car with way bald tires. Was so sketchy.

EvanR wrote: Also of concern: Most Volvos (if it's RWD) only take 4 quarts. If you needed to put in 5 quarts, the engine had negative 1 quart in it. As for bearings, the RWD Volvo redblocks have been known to run without damage sans oil. Check out some of the C4C videos of Volvos on YouTube - they ran a while even with the "liquid glass" in the engine.

The white block Volvos, especially the turbo ones, use more oil. I think the turbo is 7 quarts plus the oil cooler, so closer to 8 total. Given the setup I'm going to guess it was a v70/s70/xc70 or similar vintage.

Yeah, I've seen really bad tires etc. I will tell them 'I can't in good conscience let that go', if they keep saying no, well, fine go 'head on wit' yo bad self but the RO is getting a note so your attorney can't say I should have told you but didn't. And yes that particular one has been tried before at a shop I worked at, thankfully I wasn't the service advisor.

About the 'maintenance free' cars: yes lubricants and cars have gotten better. I don't really want to return to the Good Old Days of 1500 mile oil changes, 12,000 mile spark plugs and a car ready for the junkyard at 100k. But a LOT of these extended intervals are a marketing gimmick. The mfgs know what people want and they want a motorized Maytag. Thay also know it's rare for people to keep a new car to 100k. So they say 'OK, 60k warranty on your engine/transmission' knowing full well that it's very unlikely the car will barf a engine/trans before that mileage. The car gets traded in at, say, 75k for a stupidly low depreciated price then resold with a service contract (mo' money).

93EXCivic wrote: But the Jones have a new car. I don't want this piece of crap.

With a lot of new cars on the market, for me it is more:

But the Jones have a new car. I sure glad I didn't get that piece of crap.

Johnboyjjb wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: But the Jones have a new car. I don't want this piece of crap.

With a lot of new cars on the market, for me it is more: But the Jones have a new car. I sure glad I didn't get that piece of crap.

I wish I could find the video of the ad with the guy on the riding lawnmower showing off his big house, his new car, etc then he says deadpan 'I'm in debt up to my ears. Someone please kill me.'

The wife and I had the car discussion when we got married. Do NOT drive with an idiot light on. I don't care if it's only a mile to home. Park it and call me. We drive old cars, check the oil every other fill up. Getting the oil changed in your car is your responsibility. I'll be happy to do it when asked, but don't expect me to remember to do it. She pretty much handles it. Odd noises she tells me about and I take care of it.

I had the same discussion with my daughter when she got her first car. She came to me a month ago saying she was headed back to school in two weeks. Her car was within 1000 miles of needing an oil change, she had already bought the stuff, would I help her change it. I guess she listened. Her future husband won't have problems with stupid car stuff.

Curmudgeon wrote: I wish I could find the video of the ad with the guy on the riding lawnmower showing off his big house, his new car, etc then he says deadpan 'I'm in debt up to my ears. Someone please kill me.'

Oh I wanna see this! If anyone finds this I promise to make it into an animated GIF.

GameboyRMH wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: I wish I could find the video of the ad with the guy on the riding lawnmower showing off his big house, his new car, etc then he says deadpan 'I'm in debt up to my ears. Someone please kill me.'

Oh I wanna see this! If anyone finds this I promise to make it into an animated GIF.

I think this is it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA

I have actually said that I can't let someone drive out of our shop on those tires or those brakes.

I've had someone say it to me. They change their tune real quick when you ask "May I use your phone for a minute? I need to report my car stolen."

I've told all my ex-girlfriends to run distilled water thru the engine to clean it out.

dculberson wrote: I think this is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA

Aww he doesn't actually say "somebody please kill me." I'll still GIF it up later.

I just consider it my job to check up on the wifey's car every so often. It's not a bad job, and it has benefits.