The SIX cars that I absolutely hated working on! Nightmare repair stories from the CAR WIZARD!
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
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will listen and help. 🚘🚙 Some vehicles are just nightmares to work on. Here is the story of SIX cars that the CAR WIZARD 🧙♂️ absolutely hated work on! He still has nightmares today. 🚘🚙
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David my son gave me his old gaming computer. see if you can find one used or someone that's upgrading those things are bulletproof for what we need to use it for.
Why is it the first vehicle stated, you don't hate working on?
For anyone, especially the teens this sponsorship was aimed at, who is considering BetterHelp, I greatly encourage you to research the innumerable lawsuits against them for mistreating and endangering their clientele through the dissemination of their personal and private information as well as countless other misdeeds. There are tons of other avenues to look at in terms of affordable therapy-this is by no means a discouragement to anyone looking for mental health treatment! Just don’t look here…
Going to the metallica / pantera tour would be good therapy !
oof Better Help was exposed as being a sketchy company that was taking advantage of people and was not providing proper services while just taking their money. There are many horror stories regarding that company.
I want doctors to make similar videos: "The SIX people I absolutely hated working on!"
And a smoker comes in: "I need you to fix my lungs, It has sentimental value for me."
I thought there was only two kinds but then again there's that gender thing.
Three surgeons are drinking and the 1st one says, "Accountants are easy to operate on because everything inside is numbered". 2nd one says, "Electricians are because everything is color coded". 3rd one says, "Nah, politicians are the easiest because they have no brain and their head and their ass is interchangeable".🥁
I’m a retired (still licensed) RN. We have our Top Six too
I’m on that list
Thought it would be 6 BMW's 😂😂😂
BMW = Bring Money Wad when it comes to repairs. 😂
Not difficult
😂
@@justinianyi3838 , even a better comment!!!!!
@@justinianyi3838 i swear everyone was high when they designed these shitheaps
16:10 - THIS is how a boss takes care of his people. THIS is how you treat people. It’s so sad that this even has to be said.
Hats off to Dave, aka, THE Car Wizard. ❤❤❤
Until an employee says he doesn't want to work on 75% of the cars that come in.......claims workers' comp for a bruised finger nail........calls in sick every Wednesday before Thanksgiving and every Friday after.....insists on having Juneteenth off (paid) or claims discrimination.......takes 4 hours on a 1 hour job......takes 3 months (paid) every year to care for a sick uncle (in Colorado) with a guaranteed job when he returns......."whistleblows" to OSHA and the state about unsafe working conditions....."whistleblows" to the EPA about that squirt of refrigerant that escaped when doing an AC service....comes in drunk, gets fired, then sues for medical discrimination because it's a disability, you know......takes 3 months off (paid) (Colorado) to deal with substance abuse disability with a guaranteed job when he returns.....
I ALWAYS wash my car before bringing it into the repair shop. It should be as common courtesy as brushing your teeth before going to the dentist.
I'm in New England. The thought of bringing in my car without a good wash WITH undercarriage spray during the winter is unthinkable to me, but I know people do it all the time.
My old dealership used to wash it as a courtesy 🤷♂️
Me two.
I'm a dentist and patients are usually outside having one last cigarette before their appointment, nowadays.
@@bakgammon yea but you don’t bring a truck covered in pig sht in like that
A friend of mine was a mechanic. He raced in his spare time. One day, he found an ex-works Honda sedan advertised for sale. We went to look at it and it turned out that the seller owned a pig farm. The farmer had bought it for his son, who raced one season and lost interest. The car had stood in the farmyard for a year and several pigs had set up home in it. It was disgusting, but the price was very low because nobody wanted it. We put it on the trailer and took it back to the shop and got the jet wash out. We all got liberally sprayed with well matured pig crap getting it cleaned up. Horrible job. Even after we stripped it out, took it back to bare metal and re-sprayed it, we could never get rid of the smell of pigs from it.
You never get that smell out, it is impossible. I swear the stink of pig crap bonds to things on the molecular level.
The steel became pig iron.
You must ozone treat the vehicle. Scotty Kilmer talks about it in one of his videos about removing car odors. Ozone knocks out all odors.
Store an open bag of old fashioned wood chunks type Charcoal!
It absorbs things like moisture and stink lol.
Our extended family had a pig farm..now a series of chicken farms but I'm no longer involved.. I lived in a community of Chicken farms...my neighbours were chicken farmers.
August September is Spreading time..that stink can penetrate glass. It definitely goes through walls lol.
Pigshit is purdy by comparison lol.
I've had pigs for so long growing up I literally cannot smell thr smell much anymore. I've been told by my friends and families that my truck inside smells like it from the pig crap that was on my boots that got onto thr floorboards. Being noseblind is a real thing...
So basically its not the cars that you hated, just the situations accompanied with it. I can understand that.
No, he probably actually did hate the VW. Having owned (and constantly worked on) a few of them myself, those early water cooled VWs could be a colossal pita. Ask anyone who has ever let one run out of gas. Especially the early (pre 1980) units. VW didn’t galvanize their bodies, or fuel tanks early on. So not only would electrical gremlins randomly start to appear, usually because of a leaking windshield seal right above the fuse box, but running out of gas just once was usually enough to clog the micro mesh filters in the Bosch KTronic injection’s fuel distributor with enough rust particles to render the entire fuel delivery system kaput.
I definitely had a love/hate relationship with mine. Mostly modded Sciroccos. When they ran well, they were fun. And constantly working on them was part of VW ownership. But to not own this car, and have to work on it... DEFINITELY a recipe for all consuming hate. 😂
@@MF-le7fp As someone who just had to spend days replacing a fuel system and removing and cleaning the fuel tank on an excavator that had rust and algae in the fuel tank, please keep your metal fuel tanks full. It makes a world of difference when it comes to rust and contaminates getting in the fuel system.
If I’m Dave I’m driving the car to a car wash and billing it at my hourly rate.
No there’s extra charge for having to take their vehicle to clean it before service . Convenient charge for thinking a mechanic should have to work in manure
My Dad used to have to work on garbage trucks that would have maggots and stuff raining from them... it's just part of the job. 🤮
funny enough, i live in Edmonton, Canada. My brother had taken his '15 Lancer into the shop because of an issue we'd been having with his car... $80CAD diag (for a battery drain) and a fuse later (wed looked but had no idea) my brother gets his car back, they tacked on a $10 biohazard fee for taking a dead bird out of his wheel well. if i was running my own shop that would have been $50. i think Dave and his mechanics would be really busy and have Crazy Dee take it out to get it washed, even then that wastes the mechanics time and i think they all would rather focus on just working on the cars rather than cleaning them.
@@supermustang9 I can't imagine what actual biohazard would be made better by either $10 or $50... especially to the poor SOB that actually had to deal with it.
@@TheBrokenLife that sounds nasty having to work on garbage trucks that would have maggots and stuff raining from them.
I won a GSA auction, a 2000 K2500 with 43K miles. I got it for $3500 but later discovered it was at the National Zoo in Washington DC. I took a cheap one way flight from Atlanta and mass transit to the Zoo motorpool. I drove it home with a massive intake coolant leak and worn front end parts with about 3 inches of steering wheel slop. I dialed it in over the next four months but dealt with a lingering animal cage smell that lasted for at least 6 months. It's still serving me and my needs 16 years later....
using an ozonator, about 50$ now for the little ones, ie 5000 units/something, made in china, works really well for inside cars.
I may do that on a retired K9 Crown Vic cop car.
That dog smell is so overwhelming🤢
Wizard, when ever in the past a boss of mine said “theres the door” I never said another word to the guy and walked out. One or two of them called and said “come back” but I never ever did.
I’ve led my life like there is only one way and that’s forward, yes I had bills to pay and a wife and child to care for, but I never let anyone talk like that to me.
I’m retired now and I’ve done good, whenever I’ve walked out of a job, I always found another, but that’s me 🤷
You have the benefit of being selective. That's a good thing. Been going to the same mechanic 27 yrs. When I walk in, I know my vehicle is in good hands with an honest person. Great place to be.
And he retired last week :( hehe
We ALL have the benefit of being selective - when we don't take ridiculous $&*t and refuse to deal with terrible people.
See, people don't value you anyway if you don't stand up for yourself. Or when you work too much for too little, too long. _They hate weakness,_ essentially. Shitty people can only treat you as well as you treat yourself.
A friend on mine in Kansas ran a shop and when a farmer came in usually on a bad weather day with the filthy truck they would take it to the wash bay clean it up and charge them. All of a sudden the customer stopped at the wash rack and did it themselves. 😛
what the customer should have done the first time!
that and when they come in with no gas in it.
@@alexhanson4101 the price of gas just went up to California level!
He’s definitely the type of guy (or so it seems) that was screwed over by bosses and vowed never to do that to his employees if he were the owner.
I remember my early years I worked on a rabbit, came back next day with windshield and hood smashed. He said hood came flying open on highway and its my fault. My boss came by and started picking more rust pieces from the hood latch and told him ur latch rusted away and beat it 😅
In the 70s I worked at a large Chevy dealer and our 2 heavy truck mechanics had to work on the used cow trucks from one of the rendering plants. Those trucks would stink so badly in the warmer months that it was hard to work. A couple of times, when the wind was right, the smell would make it into the showroom floor and get the salesmen pretty worked up.
That attitude makes you a prosperous mechanic today, your patience is worth it.
My friend who is a Mechanic says everytime a PT Cruiser came to his shop he refuses to work on them cause it's so tight and no room under the hood, and he hates those pieces of craps anyways.
As a mechanic myself and a DIYer prior to that, ease of maintenance is something I consider a priority when I buy a car or when I recommend one to others. A car that's bad to work on or hard to get parts for will cost considerably more long term.
I learned that the hard way, when I bought a Mazda speed 3 and a BMW ix.
Plane Jane for me from now on
@@wtf1231122 I had a Mazdaspeed 3 myself. Loved how it drove, hated working on it.
I drive a Honda Fit and a V6 Accord now. Much simpler to work on and the Accord is close to the Mazda in performance since it had the 6 speed manual.
I was open to a 10th gen Civic, except I hate electronic parking brakes and that was a deal breaker for me.
@@SkylineFTW97 same opinion on the speed 3!
I have an 01 f150. No electronics, aside from sensors and digital odometer.
Really easy and cheap to work on.
@@wtf1231122 My Accord is the perfect blend of analog and digital. The Fit, being a 2015, has direct injection which I don't like, but Honda at least made the injectors and high pressure pump easy to get to. Also the intake is on the front, making the valves easy to walnut blast. That and everything else is pretty analog.
So is Toyota and Honda still the top brand to go for. Keeping this idea as a top criteria.
Ive been fortunate. The three times I went to pack up my tools after being told by the shop manager if i didn't like it, I can leave, the owner was there and my pay went up.
At least you or the shop got paid for working on those hoopties..but you pointed out that your boss was one of those "if you don't like it, there's the door" kind of guy. I tell you, I've had to deal with those types too when I was working, and while I always did what the boss told me to, when the boss gave me the ultimatum I couldn't wait to move on after.
I am a Agricultural Mechanic and that Dodge Dokota story is pretty much how it goes in our shop.
It comes in clean or it isn't getting worked on. Though crap tends to always pile up behind panels that you need to work behind lol
If I had a shop and the vehicle came in dirty like that, I'd tell the customer, "please clean it off or we'll charge you an extra shop hour to clean it ourselves"
i allways wondering if these kind of people going unwashed to the doctor too...
@@UnbekannterNrE1nsprobably
"At the time I wasn't car wizard, I was dave"
I would have gone with car apprentice there myself.
A wizard needs another wizard to run a shop u cant always be there😅
If you have worked on cars for more than a day, you have had those "I hate working on those cars" . I have been working on cars for over 50 years and DAMN, could I tell some stories.
First car that made you question the trade?
The car I dislike working on the most is my own. When I dismantle someone else's vehicle and find a problem I earn money for it but when I dismantle my own I just see time labor and expensive parts
Car Wizard is #1 honorable Mechanic.
We ❤ you!
Wizard!!!!!!!!! I had a 'day' today!!!! Life can be a real bitch sometimes! I'm glad to hear that you're using a sponsor like the better help - there are lots of hard working folks out there that can use a helping hand, but are too proud to ask for it! Hoovie had a similar online therapist when he was going through his troubles, and it makes this kind of help more approachable for the average Joe. Good for you buddy! The world needs more Car Wizards just like you.
That boss he had, had no respect for the wizard to keep telling him about the door.
My several mark 1 Rabbit GTIs were the easiest most pleasurable autos I ever worked on. So easy to get to everything. Once I learned the mechanical fuel injection (simple by todays standards) I had it sinched. Granted none of them were rust buckets/ restoration like yours. They were SCCA raced and bent up regularly.
Brings back memories of those late '70's Rabbits with the "bowl of spaghetti" vacuum hoses!
Car Wizard" I have been watching you now over a couple of years now
And I can remember so many stories
That you shared with your viewers and always with a straight, seriously uncomedic tone that makes you so
Funny and unique and informative
That helps me work on my own two
Antiques corvette....I turned 78 and
Need to keep my knowledge up watching your videos....
GOD Bless You and Ms Adorable Wizzard....
I usually skip ads, but I’m really happy to see Better Help as a channel sponsor! As a guy, and a psychiatric nurse, I love seeing men destigmatizing getting help improving your mental health. Way to go Wizard and Hoovie! Sometimes even strong tough guys need a boost and that’s so ok!
Car Wizard keeps Hoovie, 2Varish, and our own personal Jared&Jack popular. Car Wizard is a true WIZARD 💯.
I agree with the pig poop. In high school auto shop, one of our teaches who also had a pig farm, brought in his beat up Mazda pickup to have work done. The whole shop stunk for days!
Oh those Mazda based Ford Rangers
@@42luke93 it may have been even earlier than that. It was a late 70s. Mr MacLannan’s stinking rust bucket. Lol
The WORST car I ever owned was a 1982 VW Rabbit diesel. It was the hardest car to work on that I've ever had, and it would suffer a major breakdown every month. It left me stranded multiple times, and the worst part is that everybody was telling me how these things last forever! The car was only about 7 years old, and I finally had to get rid of it because I was tired of sinking money into it all the time. I'm really glad I'm not the only one to have a bad experience with a VW Rabbit.
We had a 1976 VW Rabbit. Bought it used in 1985. It was very rusty. Weirdly enough, it ran fine for years and years. Once it stalled and I had no idea what was wrong. But I took a look at the fuel pump. It's located out in the open underneath the frame. Probably had 1/4 inch of crusty rust over every part of it. I gave it a few thumps and then it worked fine for the next three years. Dumb luck. The brakes were not power assisted so you had to plan every stop ahead of time. Fortunately never had to do any quick unexpected stop. Also the complex Bosch fuel injection system never caused any trouble, even though it was totally crusty. Must have used up most of my luck with that car. I finally gave up on it when a front coil spring just cracked in two.
Dave’s earlier days like many of us, is a learning experience and teaches us what to avoid 😊
Sometimes sentiment is everything. The cars could've belonged to relatives who passed away... Their children's cars who passed...a boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband. Apparently the shop owner understood that because he kept accepting them for repair.
As a diesel mechanic that worked on yachts, one company I worked for had a customer that getting him to pay his bill was like pulling teeth. Found out after a few years, the customer owned a collection agency. He became a cash up front, from then on.
I work at a shop, and my boss gets so annoyed when people drop of their cars with almost no gas. I’ve heard him call people and say, “If you want us to test drive your car, I’ll have to pay my technician half an hour labor to drive your car to the gas station, plus whatever gas he puts!” It never fails, the customer shows up shortly afterwards with a gas can lol.
I feel your pain Wizard. My brother had a senior member of his church that had a Nissan Hardbody pickup truck. He wanted a muffler installed and brake work. The truck was a rust bucket. It was a truck that had been his son’s and there was a sentimental attachment. I realized this was a lost cause when I went to pull myself out from under the truck and my hand went through the rocker panel. I fixed the exhaust but it leaked. I worked on the brakes and the brake lines blew out because they were rusted through. It was a cascade effect and I eventually told them to call a tow truck and take the truck to a professional garage. It caused tension and I never felt comfortable going to the church again.
I've a 1996 Porsche 993 and I do curse at the tightness/complete lack of space.
I love these video's, Dave. I was a tech for over 50 years and I think I could write a book on my career. Not only was it the cars I hated working on but some of the customers were a pain as well. Some people should never own a car.
I have had a 1987 VW Cabriolet for almost 10 years and while the CIS fuel system can be a nightmare I still love that car.
About the Heston unit. I’ve learned that Masons will treat each other a lot differently than they would non Masons. That could have been happening if the shop owner was a Mason.
I worked in a service industry and it never failed to amaze me that customers think you are REQUIRED to do the work because they’re paying you. One even told me I needed the money so I had to take care of him. Some money is not worth having.
I will pay you to retract everything. You know you need the cash.
Great advice on owning a business and keeping employees happy! As a business owner myself, I 100 percent agree with you! Have a great weekend!
"there's the door!" was always a kicker for me... "alright, well good luck to ya! buh-bye!"
Wizards ... yes we all have those days. I have been literally going through hell, now for 2-years, in my recovery from an ischemic cerebral stroke I suffered in 2021.
I had my fare share of incompetent bosses too, Car Wizard, I completely get your point of view. I hated to do something I was told, if it was stupid. And then the 'new' boss type who changes everything for the worse because he thought he had invented the warm water again! Glad that I work as an independant now.
I worked in a muffler shop for a few years during high school. There is nothing that goes to a muffler shop that isn't garbage. I learned so much about bailing wire and desperation. People are amazingly crafty.
3:15 - when you are a car mechanic, but deep down you want to be an actor.
When it comes to that farm equipment scenario and the boss is like "There's the door" .... Honestly is like "well screw you I'll slam it on my way out. You want to make a dumb decision ON THAT LEVEL, I don't want to to work for you."
That boss gives off the Boyd Coddington and his shop manager Duane vibes from American Hot Rod
The farmer had some dirt on the boss.
I used to work as a computer tech. When customers brought in machines covered in all kinds of bodily fluid, we were allowed (actually obligated per service agreement with manufacturers) to refuse service. I've seen (and smelled) my fair share. Human _and_ animal-produced. First clue usually came in the form of several layers of tied shut plastic bags…
@@jkeelsnc That reminded me of a specific company where all the employees smoked in their offices. The computers were all a strange, dark yellow color. Until we touched them, that is… Then the real light beige color appeared, whilst your hand became dark yellow, slimy, and worst of all, particularly stinky. 🤢
😅 Sorry for laughing but the pig poop truck is familiar. My HS friend might top yours. He was a highly skilled mechanic; started on cars, moved to a machine shop, and then to heavy equipment, a great paying job with the local garbage company. Trivia: Garbage trucks leak. Frame rails would often be covered in debris and maggots. Shops that work on farm equipment sometimes have a pressure washer on wheels to wash off debris... his shop eventually had one where the trucks drove over a row of jets to remove some of the worse gunk. It helped, when drivers bothered to use the wash station weekly.
Late 90’s I bought a 1986 Dodge Colt Turbo for $60. I don’t remember what the seller said but it ran and drove. It had been sitting next to the alley behind his garage. One of the tires was sitting trapped in 5” deep ice. I had to let air out of that tire to free it. What I failed to do was closely inspect the body. Finally one day I started following the rust down from the drivers side A pillar and it was bad. A body shop guy looked at it and told me that it would just fold up in a collision and said you should park it, which I quickly did.
Hah! In the words of Bill Clinton, "I feel your pain." The Dodge Dakota pig story brought back memories of my misspent youth. In the early 1970's I was given the task of putting a drain line into a pigsty. I initially did a bit of gagging when I got started but after a couple of hours my sense of smell failed me. At lunchtime I hopped in the pickup truck with the backhoe operator and drove to the local Burger King. I walked in and got in line. Almost immediately everyone in front of me turned and looked at me and, again immediately, they changed lines and moved as far away from me as they could. I grabbed my order and got back in the truck and ate my lunch. The backhoe operator finally gave up eating his lunch and simply sat there retching in agony. It still makes laugh!
Nice
Awesome video Dave!! You and Misses Wizard rock!!!
Totally off topic but I think Wizard and Mrs Wizard are such a lovely couple! Couple goals ❤!
Great old school transition to your sponsor, reminds me of ye olden days when products were introduced during the show, from old radio/tv to Marlin Perkins "Wild Kingdom'; "the tree sloth climbs to protect herself and her babies, you need protection too from Mutual of Omaha"......
At the end of the video the voice you made reminded me of my father and his shop that was 35 yards from the house. Trying to get paid is the hardest part of any repair environment where it’s expected to be done quick with minimal labor diagnostic cost. Mrs Wizards last video in the history of omega was so well done. Thank you both for excellent content.
Wizard, that was a truly magical sponsor segment, I didn't even recognize it till I started wondering about your email statement. Love your content and happy to support you!
There is a great Canadian classic song . "The Daves I know" . I think it is worth a listen . It's on youtube.
Having a car that you have an emotional attachment to will break the bank. I decided to restore mechanically my grand-godfathers MK3 VW that was passed onto me. 4000$ later and it runs like new, I replaced EVERYTHING but the engine itself. The only reason I decided to do this was because it was a garage kept rust free car and it was super easy to work on. It still needs a repaint because it has a ton of spots where the paint has been touched by small rocks and the primer is exposed but 0 rust so far. At the end of the day the whole thing will fost me around 5500$, for that I could have gotten the same car immaculate with 80000km, not 300000km, but in my particular case I think it was worth the hassle. Had it been a rustbucket I would have just done fluids, brakes, plugs and the coil and use it till it wouldn't wanna move.
I have found that many mechanics really don’t like working on my 2002 and my 2003 vw Passat wagons. I’ve been told up front to get rid of them, that they don’t like working on them. My 2002 V6 GLX four motion just crossed 50,000 miles too. I can get brakes and tires done but any deeper than that I get the “I’d rather not get into it”. VW specialists usually have long lines and or are very far away. Oh well. I’m just venting. 😊
Find a new shop because they seem lazy, a 2002-03 VW passat is like most other cars, money is the same color for everyone, every car.
The best kind of manager to have is the one that doesn't pass on the jobs that he wouldn't work on himself.
My dad was a mechanic in Wisconsin. He had several farm customers whose truck were manure spreaders - they spread manure on roads and in his shop. But the guys with pigs were the worst. (He also had a customer who was a raw fur dealer. Mink musk permeated those cars.) In the Midwest rust is a way of life. My uncle had a '56 Oldsmobile whose body rusted off the frame, and the seats and engine held it up when it went. I had a '60 Chevy. The floor boards rusted almost completely out. I learned how to form sheet metal and rebuilt the floor from the firewall to the rear seat. The floor pans would hold about 5 gallons of salty slush water. Jegs and Classic Industries now offer stamped steel replacement parts.
Those stories resonate with me. I worked as the head fleet mechanic on a big farm for many years. Farmers are crazy hahah! They run them until they break, leave them in the field, then panic several days before harvest or whatever, and expect it to be fixed. I used to actually lock tractors in the sheds so they couldn’t drive them away without the proper repairs being made… they had livestock including pigs too and had an old Chevy flatbed that was the pig and cow manure truck at pretty much all times. Good things about the job and thank god for farmers too but man, they many times don’t respect the expensive machinery…
Not a mechanic, but I hate working on my '05 350z. It's not particularly hard on most things. It was one of my dream cars. I didn't realize how small and compact it was. Gotta take off the bumper or wheel to change the headlight. And almost everything it like that. Makes what should be a maybe 15-30 min job take way longer. I normally work on my own stuff. I'm cheap like that. But I will take it to a shop now. Saves me a day
You are fully right.
Costumers are obliged to make the work for mechanics as easy as possible.
So that means if the car is full with mud and dirt, clean it first.
Wizzard You don't need to tell me how it smells. I worked 6 months in the slaughterhouse and one weekend pig stile as a logistic technician and it was just one weekend when we were working and installing new cables there. There weren't even pigs at that time. I think i was smelling at least one week after that in my nose or 2.
14:12 -- Ugh, stupid bosses are so painfully relatable...
I warned previous bosses of mine NOT to accept checks from a new client we just got since he was a convicted scam artist who made the news a couple of times.
Bosses didn't care and accepted the scammer's check for the $3000 worth of work provided. Can you guess what happened next? 😂
Of my cars the ones I hated working on were our 1990 Aerostar minivan or my son's 80 something Escort.
Mine was a Ford Aerostar v6. It was wife's car, we liked it, it did us well. The serpentine belt somehow snapped. No biggy, bought belt.....then found no belt diagram to install belt so it took me many, many attempts to figure out the belts route. Lots of cussing that day.
Took me an hour a day a half to change my 1990 Aerostar V6 head light and I lost 2 screws. Took 5 minutes to change a head light on my parents Mercedes 300SD. The Ford V6 ran strong but at the gas stations people kept asking me if the transmission gave out yet. This scared me so much I traded it with 95K miles for a 1995 Oldsmobile Arora.
Took me an hour and a half to change my 1990 Aerostar V6 head light and I lost 2 screws. Took 5 minutes to change a head light on my parents Mercedes 300SD. The Ford V6 ran strong but at the gas stations people kept asking me if the transmission gave out yet. This scared me so much I traded it with 95K miles for a 1995 Oldsmobile Aurora.
First car, I might be able to match that. We had a regular customer who trapped pigeons for a local hospital as a side gig. He brought his Nissan pickup in for some work one day.
In the hottest part of summer.
After the dead birds had been, um, fermenting, in the back for a couple of days. Hundreds of them.
Even the shop owner said "Get that out of here!" once the stench reached his office. (Didn't take long). While the customer was angry, we at least got to work without catching the plague.
The most shocking thing about this is none of the cars you mentioned were BMWs. Thanks to Hoovie, we all know what you think of those cars from Bavaria.
Hooptie appears to have a significantly more dedicated guy for Beamers in particular… especially pre-2000s ones…
How about a video on future of Car repairs? E.G. working on EV/Hybrids, electornic issues and experience/training one will need.
I’m happy for you that you’re no longer stuck between those rocks and hard places.
I had an Escort that was rusted so badly that some shops refused to work on it. I used it to deliver cases of phone books one year.
I used to have an appliance repair business in Scotland and one customer had the washing machine in the garage. There was no drain plumbing so the machine would just drain onto the garage floor and out into the street. The machine was rusting away and mouldy. I hated working on that machine!
You also have a pretty good flow of exotic cars visiting your shop.
A dirty farmtruck doesn't belong in that same shop. Does that mean anybody with car worth less than $10k shouldn't shop there? No. It just means you want their Buick LeSabre or their Ford Ranger to be presentable.
Agree. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to wash the cars prior to bringing them in if the vehicle is crusted in mud and manure, and if they don’t want to, then the shop can do it based on the hourly rate before they pull it into the bay. Your choice, bucko!
When I was stationed in Germany back in the 70s, the dealership always ran the car through a car wash and steam cleaned the engine before moving it into their pristine garage.
I've got that exact same Rabbit convertable Great car. Runs great. Awfully small to work on. hard to get under the dash.
I thought it would be 6 Chrysler products with the 2.7 liter V6
I"m surprised a BMW isn't on your list. I had a friend who had a BMW only shop(non dealership) He decided to retire so he offered all the shops in the area his 130 customers. Not a single shop wanted any of them. BMW a real PIA to work on.
A coworker has one and takes it to the dealer for repairs..talk about getting HOSED
From a 'maintenance headache' perspective, the current lot of BMWs is very, very closely followed by VW-Audis.
Thanks for the many years of service. Thanks for the many years of service advice! Love the channel and the great content.
I thought for sure one of the cars would've been a BMW.
Stories when you're old? You already remind me of the spokesman from the old Pepperidge Farm commercials.
I forget how much Mother-in-law got for Grandma-in-law's '92 red Escort that had only been driven to church and a weekly dine-out for the last 15 years.
I really enjoyed your stories. Hullo from Adelaide Australia and I will always make sure my car is clean now before I take it to a mechanic 👍
When we were RV'ing in retirement with a custom built International toter to tow our large 5th wheel trailer it was my practice to hit the truck stop Lube-it centers to get mileage indicated oil/lube/filters done and one time I'm lined up waiting my turn when there was a rea commotion going on in the bay. It turned out it was a commercial Kenworth sleeper rig operated by a threesome of "over there's" that had cut a hole in the floor to poop through and you can imagine the surprise of those lube-it guys when they got down in the pit under there. The truck was ejected with prejudice to never return and they were told every Lube-It franchisee was getting an e-mail of the trucks particulars. I cannot imagine people actually willing to work in that manner and be relatively comfortable with squatting over a hole in a moving truck to let-er-rip without one thought to the bottom of that truck and those following along behind it.
I take issue with the ford escort . It is a solid car as long as it is not rusted. And it was super easy to fix! It was easier to work on than my 04 BMW. I miss mine😢.
I can truly understand the situations accompanying those vehicles, it's just that some people are simply NOT considerate to your well being, your time and effort and your safety as well, it's just the mindset that you're a mechanic and you will fix their cars regardless on the difficulties and challenges the various vehicles bring with them and/or how difficult the owners can be..
But hey, you are amazing at what you do, what you teach us and I respect you for how fair, honest and respectful you handle each job (as long as the difficult customers don't randomly lash out on you or your staff). I've learned that each job you decide to tackle, good or bad, give you more experience and lessons.
In my first car accident I t boned a mid 80s volkswagen cabriolet. It was abandoned sideways on a country road in the middle of the night, no plates either. I was confused, the cops were confused, my insurance was confused it was a mess. Not super related to your story but cabriolet owners are an enigma for sure.
Thanks for the mental health shout-out, Wizard, and thanks for the episode! I'm with you; clean your own s#!t before you bring it in!😂 Have a good week, you guys! ✌️❤️🙂🇨🇦
I like the Zenith Radio in the shelf unit.
Good stuff wizard. Thanks for taking care of your people.
I had a 1978 rabbit and a 1985 Golf GTI. Never again. Never
When i was new the shop i worked for did similar things, they would take in all sorts of weird things, boat motors, semi trucks, etc. I remember getting put on a semi truck when i was only there a few months knowing nothing about air brakes but figured it out. Always a good challenge to be taken out of your comfort zone i guess
That rabbit story is interesting. I have one my self. Its a diesel. Yess I did spend a lot on it. However ... i frankly don't mind. Yess basicly everything was broke. Bit by bit everything got replaced. But it runs , drives , for 5th year now literally Just oil change. With 4.5 liter per 100 km fuel economy. It pays for it self. I throw a key near it and it starts.
And no car i could buy does that.
This quickly went in a different direction than I expected.
I've had 3 of that generation of Escort (and still own and drive one today) and you pretty accurately described my experience with the first one. It had terminal amounts of rust when it came home and was just supposed to be a "get me by" vehicle that my girlfriend at the time needed to bridge a gap in circumstances... and it "got by" about 80,000 more miles over the next 4 years, on the tightest of budgets, while she did nothing to improve those circumstances. The clutch throw out bearing went out of it and there was absolutely no chance of being able to get the transmission out of it even if I had wanted to, and then I started taking a better look at the rest of the car and realized it was a hazard to itself _and_ others. It was time for the big soup can factory in the sky. When it drove itself onto the trailer for its final voyage, the air conditioning still worked. 😂
It was replaced by a _much_ better version of the same car, which inherited a few parts of the old one (as did mine) before it went to the crusher. As far as I know, they're both still going strong. Outside of the rust, those cars are pretty pleasant to work on.
I live in New England, and everybody hates repairing farm trucks. In our mid-sized Town there is only one shop that will do it. The most expensive one.