This is probably the most \u2018duh\u2019 blog-title ever but I\u2019ve had a few recent experiences that have lead me to see that people really don\u2019t properly maintain their vehicles. While I\u2019m the kind of person who does more than I should, most of the Americans I meet simply do what is required some of the time. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m the kind of car-lover who sees a V8 and thinks, \u201cthat\u2019s an expensive spark-plug change\u201d. <\/p>\n
It costs me $38 every 5,000 miles to change my spark plugs. If I had a V8 Camaro or Mustang, that\u2019s $76 every 3 months just to keep all of the pistons firing reliably. Most economy cars don\u2019t need plugs until you\u2019re at 50 or 75,000 miles but the tuning company that has my turbocharger pushing double the amount of boost as stock recommends very often intervals. When you pair this with the fact I put 20K miles a year on my car and 12K on my motorcycle, wear & tear are huge factors.<\/p>\n
Which is why when I see a kid dreaming about owning a V12 Ferrari or V8 Shelby GT350, I want to grab them by the shoulders and say, \u201cI hope you\u2019re pulling in 300 grand a year one day\u201d<\/p>\n
This morning, I road past the local gas station. They sell unbranded econo-gas that\u2019s low-tier w\/o any added detergents with 10-15% ethanol. My local buddy who drives a 2-door Candy White Volkswagen Golf R (2012) was there filling up. I\u2019m sure he uses 91 octane since that\u2019s what VW recommends but I wanted to pull off and tell him to either stop 2 miles up the road and use the ethanol free gas or go into town and get Shell 93 w\/ Nitrogen or he\u2019s going to gum up his injectors and intake manifold with disgusting carbon. The TSI and TFSI Engines VAG uses are direct-injection in the states, not multi-port like the Europeans get so carbon buildup is a horrible issue. When you pair it with low-tier gasoline, he\u2019s just asking for $800 walnut blasting every 50,000 miles or else he\u2019s going to suffer mis-fires, false-starts, power-loss and MPG economy going out the window.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not alone though. <\/p>\n
I saw another Golf R, a 4-door Candy White at the local Co-Op the other day. I was on my bike and I noticed the guy was running P-Zero tires which are an enthusiast set of rubber and the owner came out and the only reason I struck up a conversation was because of the tires. Most Golf R owners up here (about 8 of them) are people who don\u2019t know what they\u2019re driving. I wave, they never wave back. The only person that does is my buddy who I see on my commute every morning as we go opposite directions. The two people (now three) that I\u2019ve spoken to locally in person say they just wanted an All-Wheel-Drive hatchback. That\u2019s it. They just think of it as a GTI with AWD. Sigh.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I mentioned the tires and the guy, in short, said, \u201cOh, I just bought it. I didn\u2019t know those were special tires. I guess the previous owner had them on there. I just got it because this is good in the winter and I won\u2019t need winter tires with all wheel drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n
Running high-performance summer tires on this car where our winter is 6 months long simply because all 4 of your wheels get power is incredibly stupid.<\/p>\n
I should get back to the point of this post.<\/p>\n
The point is, owning a machine that needs to last you 100,000 miles is important. Unfortunately, when the majority of people don\u2019t do even basic maintenance and put altimax General tires on their car and run their brakes down to the calipers, the used-car market suffers to the point where only someone who is an enthusiast will pay me extra for the money I spent on doing extra. The used car market will set a Honda Accord that\u2019s 5 years old at 12,000 USD with 60K miles (just guessing here). If the owner changed the oil every 3,000 miles with full synthetic, continually oiled and conditioned the leather seats, had a ceramic CQuartz or Opti-Coat applied, used ceramic brakes, had a full carbon cleanup at 50,000 miles only using top-tier gasoline and no pets, kids and used WeatherTech floor mats to keep the carpet looking great\u2026oh and took off the stock wheels running aftermarkets and putting basically 0-mile stock wheels back on the car w\/o any wear or dings before the sale with twice a year professional detailing, that car won\u2019t make any more than the guy who literally never did anything to his car except change the oil once a year.<\/p>\n
\u2026.and this to me is quite sad. We should be rewarded for loving and caring for our machines. I may find a Golf R buyer who appreciates that I\u2019ve only hand-washed my car and that I spent $1800 getting a ceramic paint protection applied and that I clean my air filter monthly, oil changes every 5K and new spark plugs 3 times a year but the guy who doesn\u2019t even know Pzero tires are good will simply see a good looking AWD hatchback and haggle me down to 15% less than the car is worth because there are surface scratches on the piano black interior trim.<\/p>\n
I think everyone should buy the car they can afford to properly care for. If you can\u2019t spend a thousand bucks a year in maintenance on the Civic, don\u2019t buy a 3-Series and run it into the ground. Or if you do, lease it. <\/p>\n
Leases are great for inconsiderate jerks who don\u2019t care about their cars. You should still feel bad because when you turn that car in, it\u2019ll be someone else\u2019s problem and you\u2019re making their life worse by never caring for the vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is probably the most \u2018duh\u2019 blog-title ever but I\u2019ve had a few recent experiences that have lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-10-17T18:14:12Z","apple_news_api_id":"82ce7bee-aa6a-47ec-8fc3-479f7f66d791","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-10-17T18:14:12Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ags577qpqR-yPw0eff2bXkQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-my-car","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1DF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6040,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/08\/01\/my-car-changing-your-spark-plugs-mk7-golf-r-stage-ii-ikh24-denso\/","url_meta":{"origin":6303,"position":0},"title":"My Car: Changing your Spark Plugs – MK7 Golf R Stage II – IKH24 Denso","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "My Car"","block_context":{"text":"My Car","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-car\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Denso IKH24 with 8K MIles, MK7 Golf R","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7436\/27677556735_aeeb0d2665_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7436\/27677556735_aeeb0d2665_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7436\/27677556735_aeeb0d2665_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6124,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/08\/02\/my-car-mk7-golf-r-20k-mile-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":6303,"position":1},"title":"My Car: MK7 Golf R, 20K Mile Service","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I ordered all of the necessary parts to do my 20,000 mile service on the 2016 Volkswagen Golf R. As many of you know, I have a Golf R that\u2019s been modified and has enjoyed a few days at the drag-strip and track. 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Check those links out before continuing. I wanted to do a service to the community by posting a guide on each service interval and what you\u2019ll need to do it yourself. 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