The car industry is lying to you… (Part 1) Feat. John Cadogan

Nothing better than 3 Aussie blokes sitting in a room full of Porsches telling the truth about the car industry. The story about the lady with the MG is a belter 🙂

I've got a good one for you and I'm happy to name and shame ha - Northshore VW (also tried Bill Buckle VW Brookvale and had the same response). I bought a T6 Transporter - shortly after purchase i realised there was a recall for leaking rocker cover gasket. Took it to Northshore VW approx 2 after purchase to replace rocker cover gasket. Upon receiving the car back there was a very strong smell of diesel. On inspection there was a very large diesel leak on the top of block around fuel lines above injectors. Immediately took the car back. 6 weeks later i was told all 4 injectors had failed and I would need to pay $4.5k - at my own cost - not covered under warranty. Car had less than 1000kms on it, and had driven less than 20kms since the rocker cover gasket was replaced by the dealer. VW told me they had not touched the fuel system when doing the rocker cover and insisted that, no, miraculously, all 4 injectors had failed. NOT true, as in order to remove the rocker cover, the fuel lines and injectors MUST be removed (the fuel lines are also designated single use by VW and are supposed to be replaced with new ones once removed). After nearly 5 months, and legal action, Northshore VW finally conceded (although never admitted liability) and fixed under 'good will'. The entire time was left carless and never offered a replacement/loan car. Fun times.

Finally an adult conversation(s) about the car industry in Australia & the world. I really enjoyed this two part series from the Redriven team and John.

The stars have aligned. Now if you could fly Scotty Kilmer in to have a chat!!

That poor lady who missed the memo... MG now stands for Mao's Garage

I know of someone who purchased a car from a well-known dealer and took their car back there to be serviced, because most people think that their car will be in the best hands doing that, and when they came to collect their car and started it up, the engine made all sorts of terrible noises. They went back to the service department and explained the situation and they drove the car back to the workshop and 10 minutes later came back and said they couldn't find anything wrong. The car ran normally now. The dealership did not admit to doing anything wrong, BUT WHAT HAPPENED is that when they drained the oil, they FORGOT to put new oil in it. So when they took it back to the workshop for 10 minutes, all they did was put new oil in and it sounded and ran normally BUT WOULD NOT ADMIT TO FORGETTING TO PUT OIL IN IT. The car was only 12 months old and the engine was probably F** because of what they did. BUT remember, take your new car back to the dealer for servicing because they are the best, most well-trained technicians to work on your new car.

Back a while ago I came into a large sum of money where I could walk into a dealership and buy a new car outright with cash. In the end I bought a privately owned 15 year old secondhand car in really good nick.

I was telling my father when he bought a new Holden trax ..."u got a Korean car (Daewoo) dad"....and he thought it was made in Australia 😂

I do this myself. I tell Americans that "I went to school in Cambridge" and let them believe I went to Cambridge University.

Once worked at a dealer as an apprentice mechanic and later on I as their IT person. The front desk service team would get a commission for upselling customers on service items, and none of them had any mechanical background. Astonishing how many power steering fluid flushes would be sold at that place... when 80% of the cars sold had electric power steering...

Enjoyed the podcast, good to see another collab with JC. And on the first topic, MG actually write "since 1924" on their stuff - if that's not misleading I don't know what is...

The point many struggle with in understanding the behaviour of large corporates is that their primary responsibility is not actually to the customer, but to the shareholder, as short-sighted as that might first appear to be. Customers are the means to the end of meeting shareholder expectations, but in the choice between customer and shareholder satisfaction, shareholders win.

I've had the dealership not torque my front wheel lug nuts and had the wheel wobbling loose on the M4... that was enough for me to learn how to service the car myself.

I agree with everything you say about service intervals. I run an independent service and repair shop specialising in European vehicles. We see 3 to 5 year old cars with "dealer" service histories which need thousands of $ spending on them to fix issues. Brake fluid and coolant, never flushed and changed, 24,000 km oil changes leading to sludge, coked up inlet manifolds and throttle bodies. We recommend servicing every 6 months or 10,000kms. It might seem excessive but its what we do to all of our own loan fleet comprising a dozen cars, all of which are between 100,000 and 230,000km and between 9 and 12 years old and none of which gives us any trouble.

Peter Werrett who remembers him

Be careful guys - the idea that an old car lasting longer is better for emissions is not necessarily true. It feels true intuitively, but the very vast majority of a cars lifetime impact is in its use. A surprisingly small improvement in efficiency in a new car over an older one means in many cases scrapping a 10 year old and making a new more efficient one from scratch and running that for 10 years is better than running the old one for 20. So don’t automatically assume keeping an old one on the road is better. In some cases that is true, but it’s not a universal rule.

Hello Oz! Mmmerica here. So much good stuff here in this 2 part series but the point that really yanks my chain is the concept of obsolescence and constantly trading in for an increasingly expensive replacement. I bought new in 1992 a Ford F150 5.8L V-8 truck for $18,600 OTD and I’m still driving it 270,000 miles later. Over the near quarter century I’ve owned it, I’ve replaced a radiator, 2 alternators, 2 sets of brakes, 3 sets of tires and just recently finally rebuilt the starter and replaced the solenoid out of shame. Engine and tranny are original and both have had regular fluid service. It’ll be a classic soon!

I service all my cars - 6 month oil changes for everyone - one Camry 7 years old, Falcon 20 Yr old, Fairmont 53 year Old - all get filters and new oil weather driven hard or not!!! We did the same on the farm when I was a kid - regular oil changes for every tractor truck car!!! SO - they all lasted thousands of hours or 100 000's kilometers!!

As the man of the house, I decided to sell the family fleet of cars in exchange for 2 stroke motorcycles. Now my wife drops our son off at school on a scooter. I ride 105kms a day on a scooter and my garage is an oily smelly mess. And my wife is going bold from wearing a crash helmet all the time.

Speaking of cabin filters, i discovered the Toyota dealer had not re placed my cabin filter as per log book service and stated on the invoice. I complained to the manager who offered my next service free. Low and behold my next service was a major costing $1k 😂