Wrenches, Woes & Dieselgate — Inside VW Tech with Nick Weidelich Ep40

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To learn more about this class-leading VW magazine.

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All right, welcome back to Dub Life Diaries, the podcast where the Volkswagen

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culture, the stories, and the legends come alive.

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Today, buckle up because we are diving into a wild ride through the world of

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Volkswagen with a guest who has lived it from some different angles.

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It's going to be interesting.

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He's a second-generation Canadian, a 310S licensed technician,

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raised in a family shop built on German air-cooled roots.

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He's gone from sweeping the floors to spinning wrenches to running his own VW

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garages. He's even sat across from VW of Canada's CEO.

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We're going to touch on that a little bit later, too.

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He's seen the brand at its best. He's even seen it at its absolute worst.

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We're talking small shop loyalty, dealership disasters, and corporate decisions

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that would make you want to throw a torque wrench halfway across the bay.

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Our guest today is none other than Nick Videlich.

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Did I get it right? Pretty close. Vitalish. Vitalish, sir. Thank you, sir.

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He's got the kind of raw stories that could fill a book, that could fill a TV

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series, or better yet, could fill up Dub Life Diaries podcast.

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This one's going to be for the true enthusiasts, the cult followers,

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the skeptics, and anyone who's ever asked themselves what the hell happened

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to the heart and soul of BW.

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Nick, welcome to Dub Life Diaries. Thank you. It's happy to be here.

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What's up, brother? What's up, man? Oh, not too much. Living the Canadian dream, you know?

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Yeah, yeah. We're going to talk about some of that here. Before we dive too

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deep, let me jump in and thank some of my sponsors here right up front.

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Volksmania Magazine. As most of you know, I feel they're the flyest VW magazine

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on the face of the planet. Why? The quality and the people.

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That's D-U-B-L-I-F-E, the number one zero at checkout. Now, unfortunately,

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this is U.S. subscribers only.

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That'll get 10% off of their subscription.

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Shout out to Salty Dub. Salty Dub from the beach to the bay.

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Salty Dub is tearing up the VW scene with epic VW events and swag.

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SaltyDub.com, cool enough. The same discount code will work on any merch that they have.

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DubLife10, 10% off merch at checkout.

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Last shout out, my buddy Chris White, Riverbank Customs. This guy's out of Pell City, Alabama, man.

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Pretty awesome Volkswagen dude. Just a stand-up guy, all about the scene.

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Great person all around.

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He's Riverbank Customs on YouTube.

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Make sure you go check him out. Give him a follow, a subscribe.

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Riverbank Customs, they got it going on. Chris White. All right, my friend.

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Back to you. It's all about you now. It's all about you. It's your time.

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Your time. That was good. Let's do it.

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All right, let's do it. So let's talk right here from your childhood.

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We're going to start there, all right? What was it like growing up around a

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VW shop with your father?

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Sure. Well, I mean, from a very young age, I got to see kind of the ins and outs of the business.

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It's certainly where I grew up. It's where my dad taught me how to be a man.

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I mean, I got to witness my very German father physically throw a customer out

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the front door once every couple of weeks or so.

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Only for the customer to come back a few days or weeks later,

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apologize and still get work done on the car. It really was kind of the wild west.

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Wow. And I mean, I started out with this little curly haired kid kind of doing

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his homework watching this all go down. You know what I mean?

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What are some of like the most early, I guess, air-cooled memories that really

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kind of stuck with you when you were young?

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A hundred percent. My dad was like the air-cooled man. He was one of the few

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people kind of in this area still working on air-cooled stuff.

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What was his name? Klaus. Klaus.

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Klaus klaus weidelich he doesn't get more german than that you know right on

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man i'm looking for my beer stein he had a few yeah he was always super happy

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when the old air-cooled stuff came,

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in i mean i guess back then

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when i started they were a little more common it was crazy he'd

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be like working on something and you'd hear one go by you know it's

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you know it's an air-cooled volkswagen if you know he'd listen for but

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he'd be like without even looking up oh that's a 1200 that's a

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1600 that someone someone like me

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i don't know man they all kind of sound the same

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i remember we had one guy came in he just snapped a fan belt he just happened

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to be kind of driving by he was never really a customer before or anything like

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that and my dad grabbed one he had just laying on the shelf you know threw it

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on and guys like oh they're super happy and uh he's like what do i owe you and

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he laughed at him and he's like i had fun get out of here you know.

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He loved it yeah that's awesome man how

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did dad's maybe his his roots or

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his you know german training maybe influence the

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way that he worked maybe even the way that he taught you sure

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he taught me he believed in a very simple business strategy you

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offer just good quality service at a fair price and

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we were in a position where like our house was paid off the business was paid

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off we had very low overhead costs so we could basically undercut everyone in

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town give everyone a fair deal we didn't bother negotiating with people because

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we knew you can shop around all you want like you're not you're not going to

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find it any cheaper than us he was a tough man but he was fair and,

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A lot of people who came in and challenged him and things like that,

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he wouldn't stand for that at all. But money-wise, absolute straight shooter.

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And that's certainly translated through to me. As for teaching me to actually

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work on cars, that man demanded perfection.

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If I messed something up early on in my career or just something not ideal,

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he wouldn't hesitate to let me have an earful.

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When he started yelling in German, you knew to watch out.

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I guess work ethic too. I mean, like, you know, some of the technicians I've

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worked with later, they need their like every two hours, need a break, things like that.

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I don't know. Back then, like you got there, you started working.

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If there wasn't a chance for lunch, you don't get a lunch, man.

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You got to, you just keep going.

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I mean, they'd make fun of you if you, if you stopped or demanded a coffee break

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or something. You know what I mean?

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Yeah. These, these kids today, brother, they just, they don't,

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they, I know I laugh too because I have a bunch of them. It's there. It's just different.

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You know, it's a different world now. But I like that where he came from and what he was saying.

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I come from the same background, you know, like, nah, you work,

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you work till the job is done.

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Right. And that's like, you know, we were, we were raised, I'm sure you and

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I are probably similar in age, but we were raised to, you know, you work sick.

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You work hurt. It sucks to work hurt, but you do it, right? You don't not show up.

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That team's counting on you, that person, that whatever, right?

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So, man, that resonates with me for sure.

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But for you, like, when did you realize, at what age, maybe I'll rephrase that,

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at what age did you realize, okay, this isn't just dad's world, meaning automotive.

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This is also going to be my path too. The age where I was going to pursue a career, probably at 18.

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I started working there maybe 14 or so after school, things like that.

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Like I said, started sweeping the floor and things like that.

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But it started out as a punishment.

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And I wasn't getting along with my mom or something like that.

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Or got suspended from school or

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something like that. Well, I'm going to be spending that time at the shop.

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So it started out as a punishment. It wasn't like, yippee-ki-yay,

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I definitely want to do this for a living.

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To get started out as uh no you did something wrong you're gonna

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go work that off at the shop you know what i mean wow we

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kind of i came in maybe the tail

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end of the mark ii era there was like there were still mark twos coming into

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our shop obviously we get like kind of the outer warranty stuff like that maybe

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when i started kind of really knowing what i was doing mark threes were slowly

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kind of disappearing okay and i'd say i found my footing definitely in the mark four era.

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I had to push my dad to get Vagcom.

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He didn't believe in computers. I don't think he ever learned how to turn one

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on or never done a Google search in his life or anything like that.

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But obviously Mark four timing bells turned out to be a great moneymaker and

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things like that. That really helped the business.

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Some a little more complicated Diag that my dad wasn't super comfortable with.

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I mean, you got to understand, he was trained to work on rear-wheel drive,

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rear-engine, air-cooled Volkswagen.

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And now we're front-engine, front-wheel drive, water-cooled, even diesel.

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Yeah. You know, he kept up pretty well right until the tail end of the Mark III era.

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Mark IVs, he used to start kind of telling people, well, this new stuff,

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I kind of brought the business out of the Stone Age in kind of that sense.

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And multiple people have kind of credited me with that.

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But my dad kind of had enough at the end of the Mark IIIs, you know?

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Yeah understandable well as the technology increased if if the training didn't

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then you you can't keep up right it's it it starts to introduce uh many levels

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of things that you just don't understand you look at it you're like i don't

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know right yep as the technology increases,

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so we don't have factory training or anything you got to kind of you got to

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figure it out on the fly you know what i mean so you guys had all all kinds

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of customers coming in both enthusiasts and, you know, just,

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I guess, more or less regular customers.

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Your dad probably dealt more with the air-cooled style enthusiasts,

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and then everything kind of maybe started to shift toward you and maybe the

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rest of the team as the technology stuff came back?

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Absolutely, 100%. Like I mentioned, like electronics. I'd never seen my dad use a multimeter.

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Right, okay. Anything like that. He never really used Vagcom when we had it.

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I think I bought our first Vagcom cable and just started showing up and doing stuff.

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And well, it obviously helped. I mean, what we're going to do,

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an ABS light comes on and like, we're sitting there scratching our heads and

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that was ridiculous. You know what I mean? Like you got to be able to fix cars, man.

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Any wild, any, any wild repair stories or anything that stands out from your

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early days as a kid there?

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Yeah. There was one. I remember, uh, you mentioned, you're going to ask me this question.

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I had to pick one and I'd have to call it what we affectionately called the 10 foot tranny drop.

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So we had one other guy that worked with us. He doesn't want his name mentioned

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in this, but yeah, he was changing an automatic on a Mark two.

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And my dad went out to like, you know, he's running a business.

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He had to go to the bank and things like that.

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And. He got, he's, he's underneath the car. There's going to be just two of

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us kind of haul it out because we didn't have a tranny jack.

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And he got it kind of wedged between the subframe and the engine in a really

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kind of precarious spot. And it looked like it could drop at any time.

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So he took a step back and said, okay, we're going to wait for Klaus here.

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And, you know, so my dad comes back in, what's going on? Why isn't this thing on the ground?

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You know, and like, well, Klaus is kind of stuck. Well, he's like,

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what are you doing? He grabs a pry bar.

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He's still in like his nice clothes from going to the bank, you know,

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grabs a pry bar, This thing drops 10 feet Shatters on the ground Automatic fluid

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everywhere Yeah, and he's like Clean this up and get back to work And he goes

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into his office and starts doing some paperwork,

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Best pick one That'd be my favorite for sure Yeah, cool memory When I put this together,

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In the timeline You had talked about a dealership Maybe outside of working for

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the family Did you start working at a dealership I remember there was something

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that you had said that you mentioned that your family or the family always thought

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that the dealerships had all the special tools and training.

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And then the reality when you got there was what?

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Well the first dealership i ended up working for was not

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a volkswagen dealership we'll say just a korean brand and the

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only reason i took that job was to kind of get my foot

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in the door because that dealer group was building multiple vw dealerships at

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the time the idea was if i did okay there you know they'll make me a major part

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of the the new dealership or whatever but from day one they have absolutely

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no idea what they're doing at least i from i will say you're american from what

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I've seen of American dealerships,

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they seem to have a much better grasp of what's going on.

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From what I've seen of Canadian dealerships, absolutely not a clue.

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We had, within my first month there, so I'm still kind of getting used to just

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being a service advisor at a dealership, using the dealer management service and things like that.

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And my manager had to leave for CPR training on the same day that the advisor

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who was training me booked off. So it was just me.

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And even that day the parts guy decided to quit like no show quit it was just me just me,

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and we know what we got absolutely everything done we figured it out and the

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next day i see the vice president the guy who hired me standing behind my desk

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i thought okay at least i'll get an attaboy out of all this right his only question

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to me was why we weren't pushing the complimentary car washes,

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Dang. His only question. Yeah. Overlook the fact that you did it all yourself.

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Absolutely. 100%. We had what I called the BP oil spill in my first month there.

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You're going to have to pump from your oil caddy to like the waste oil bin outside.

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It goes through a wall and it's middle of winter. It's cold with doors closed.

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And there's no way of knowing if this thing's full. So this apprentice hooks

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up his airline and he, you know, pumped his whole oil caddy,

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which ended up all over the back parking lot.

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My my service manager comes out and he's scooping oil

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filled snow into like milk crates which are like they're

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they have holes in them like this isn't doing anything the next

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day it was sunny out and it all melted across the parking lot again we spent the

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day cleaning it and then we had to do it all over again oh man so it became

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very i mean i walked into this job thinking i've been told my whole life you

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know the dealership man they got it they got it all kind of figures there's

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always that disconnect between this is it this is it this is what i remember

00:14:33.012 --> 00:14:35.732
yes this is what I wanted to touch on. Yes. Okay.

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Yeah. I mean, I came in, I wore like a nice shirt every day.

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I wore a tie. I did not fit in early on.

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Like I was, I was that weirdo that's actually taking this job seriously.

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You know what I mean? Yeah. Right. Right.

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It took me a little while to kind of settle in with people. I eventually did,

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but just certainly not what I was expecting at all.

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The other biggest thing was their reliance on a dealer management service.

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This is incredible how much dealerships rely on this. And all it really is is invoicing software.

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I always just assumed the dealerships ran their own systems.

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It's incredible how much they rely on them.

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There's only a few different options. An advisor that works for,

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let's say, one company could easily move to another dealership with that same

00:15:17.030 --> 00:15:19.910
dealer management service. It's difficult if it's a different one.

00:15:20.790 --> 00:15:24.570
I suggested multiple times when I worked for Volkswagen, Volkswagen should run

00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:28.010
its own proprietary software. Because if you don't, you would spend all this

00:15:28.010 --> 00:15:31.410
time training an advisor who can just as easily go to another dealership.

00:15:31.770 --> 00:15:35.870
You're training your own competition because nobody stays at a dealership that long nowadays.

00:15:36.090 --> 00:15:38.550
Very high turnover rate. You know what I mean? At the very least,

00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:42.510
if you train them on VW systems, you're only really good to be plug and play

00:15:42.510 --> 00:15:43.890
at another VW dealership.

00:15:43.970 --> 00:15:45.990
And it's crazy how much money they spend on it.

00:15:46.190 --> 00:15:49.390
You guys, you ever hear about the CDK thing that happened recently?

00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:53.910
So the CDK was one of the bigger ones that they use. and

00:15:53.910 --> 00:15:56.630
it's one that we used at the at the vw dealership i worked at

00:15:56.630 --> 00:15:59.290
it is it's archaic i mean you

00:15:59.290 --> 00:16:02.490
have software it's customer management software it's

00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:05.870
what you use to make receipts essentially like right okay what it does the sales

00:16:05.870 --> 00:16:11.670
people use it the service staff uses it yeah anyway they got hacked uh-oh basically

00:16:11.670 --> 00:16:15.170
as a ransom thing you know either pay the ransom or when the dealerships were

00:16:15.170 --> 00:16:19.230
down everyone was freaking out like production came to a halt for all these

00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:20.550
dealerships running CDK.

00:16:20.830 --> 00:16:25.210
And that kind of opened the door to realize that, you know, you can't ignore this anymore.

00:16:25.330 --> 00:16:28.590
Like, you're so reliant on this third party, and you're spending so much money

00:16:28.590 --> 00:16:30.290
on them. Why couldn't you just build your own?

00:16:30.570 --> 00:16:34.330
Right. If a dealership's paying $9,000, for instance, dollars Canadian a month

00:16:34.330 --> 00:16:37.950
to run this, I mean, any dealership would be happy to pay, say,

00:16:38.030 --> 00:16:41.870
$2,000 to Volkswagen, not to a third party.

00:16:42.290 --> 00:16:44.950
Right. Or at least you're responsible for your own software.

00:16:45.130 --> 00:16:49.710
There's no somebody else. If they mess up, well, it takes your whole dealer

00:16:49.710 --> 00:16:51.690
network down. I mean, that's insane to think about.

00:16:52.730 --> 00:16:55.770
That's like the first thing you learn is, you know, we're going to teach you

00:16:55.770 --> 00:16:58.730
whatever dealer management service we're dealing with here.

00:16:59.761 --> 00:17:06.181
So break down the dynamic of us versus them versus management versus customer.

00:17:07.201 --> 00:17:10.561
So Volkswagen loves to say, we are all Volkswagen.

00:17:11.161 --> 00:17:14.561
But that's not really the case. And they do absolutely nothing to enforce that.

00:17:14.721 --> 00:17:17.981
The way dealerships are structured, everyone has their own priorities and their

00:17:17.981 --> 00:17:19.501
own goals that they're set out to achieve.

00:17:19.661 --> 00:17:25.881
It almost seems like the higher you go in the company, the less they know about

00:17:25.881 --> 00:17:27.961
kind of what's going on at the ground level.

00:17:28.121 --> 00:17:32.941
Crazy. Um, I would say that maybe like 25, 30 years ago, a potential career

00:17:32.941 --> 00:17:36.981
path for someone could be, you know, getting a job as a detailer out of high school.

00:17:37.521 --> 00:17:40.301
And then, you know, maybe you've proved you're not useless and they put you

00:17:40.301 --> 00:17:42.521
in the shop for a bit and you become a licensed tech.

00:17:42.701 --> 00:17:46.541
And then maybe you're the foreman service manager comes up, they give you that.

00:17:46.741 --> 00:17:49.661
And then, you know, a few years of that, maybe a corporate level job comes up

00:17:49.661 --> 00:17:51.321
and you can apply for it and you'll get it.

00:17:51.781 --> 00:17:55.221
That used to be a career path. So at very least people who had a working knowledge

00:17:55.221 --> 00:17:58.881
of how the business worked from the ground up had influence at corporate.

00:17:59.121 --> 00:18:02.941
That's not the case anymore. If you look at how VW hires and what they're looking

00:18:02.941 --> 00:18:06.261
for, they're looking for business graduates, they're looking for people with

00:18:06.261 --> 00:18:10.821
business degrees and things like that, you know, the spreadsheet warriors, and it's not working.

00:18:11.121 --> 00:18:14.721
Wow. You can see it. It's not working from, from the top down from the,

00:18:14.821 --> 00:18:19.301
you know, the, what was the famous statement, the roof is on fire from one of the Volkswagen CEOs.

00:18:19.641 --> 00:18:21.761
It's not working. And you're seeing that not work.

00:18:22.361 --> 00:18:24.661
Volkswagen loves to describe itself. It's kind of their internal.

00:18:25.688 --> 00:18:30.568
A slogan or whatever they tell their staff is, we're a quirky car brand with a cult following.

00:18:30.908 --> 00:18:36.488
Right. That cult following is the enthusiast. I've heard that exact statement before. Yeah.

00:18:37.248 --> 00:18:40.808
100%. But what does Volkswagen do for those enthusiasts? I mean,

00:18:40.828 --> 00:18:43.428
a few dealerships have a little car show once a year, maybe.

00:18:43.588 --> 00:18:45.908
That's it. There's nothing for them at a dealership.

00:18:46.188 --> 00:18:48.888
I see enthusiasts spend all the money in the world on their Volkswagen,

00:18:48.888 --> 00:18:52.828
but they can't put that money back into the brand. The dealer has nothing for them.

00:18:53.228 --> 00:18:56.648
You know, they call them this dealership. I mean, if you're on Vortex or something

00:18:56.648 --> 00:19:00.828
like that, you know, the Steelership is a pretty common saying and for good reason.

00:19:00.988 --> 00:19:08.388
I'm not one to stir the pot or anything, but I have to say I'm down here in

00:19:08.388 --> 00:19:10.208
central Florida, west coast.

00:19:10.428 --> 00:19:13.508
I'm an enthusiast, St. Pete, Tampa, Clearwater area.

00:19:14.168 --> 00:19:17.728
And me and my buddy, Alan, we put together a few shows a year.

00:19:17.968 --> 00:19:25.628
You know, they have 100 to 300, 400 cars in that range, depending on what show. And here's the point.

00:19:26.363 --> 00:19:31.763
I've actually physically myself gone in person and called over the phone and

00:19:31.763 --> 00:19:36.803
reached out to all the Volkswagen dealers in the area just to get some support,

00:19:36.983 --> 00:19:42.343
maybe even some sponsorship dollars to come and invest back in Volkswagen and

00:19:42.343 --> 00:19:45.143
come hang out with all your people for the day, you know?

00:19:45.503 --> 00:19:49.263
And, and yeah, man, I get shut down at the corporate conversation.

00:19:49.523 --> 00:19:53.823
You know, it doesn't match this. It doesn't match that. But they get shut down

00:19:53.823 --> 00:20:01.403
always by some regional, divisional manager, et cetera, that can't.

00:20:01.543 --> 00:20:03.223
And I'm not here to throw shade.

00:20:03.383 --> 00:20:07.703
Maybe they will support us eventually. Or maybe we just have to approach it

00:20:07.703 --> 00:20:11.543
different. Or maybe we have to have more cars show up. I'm not sure.

00:20:11.823 --> 00:20:16.403
I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep trying. I think it's a great idea for them.

00:20:16.503 --> 00:20:21.983
And I remember years ago, they did here locally, just like I'm sure you remember.

00:20:22.163 --> 00:20:26.003
They used to, Volkswagen dealerships, I know they're privately owned,

00:20:26.283 --> 00:20:30.223
most of them, but I know they used to have, you know.

00:20:31.083 --> 00:20:38.243
Extra whatever it would be, advertising or extra, you know, budget to afford stuff like that.

00:20:38.343 --> 00:20:42.403
And now they don't, it's almost shunned on, you know, it's like,

00:20:42.963 --> 00:20:46.023
nah, man, we got these sales guys and that's it, right?

00:20:46.183 --> 00:20:48.743
Like, can we, can our sales guys come there and sell cars?

00:20:49.003 --> 00:20:52.383
It's like, that's all they care about. It's like, dang, y'all are missing the

00:20:52.383 --> 00:20:57.523
mark because there's a whole bunch of us, you know, in the air-cooled side that

00:20:57.523 --> 00:20:59.343
you guys could come and entertain and look.

00:21:00.023 --> 00:21:04.803
I got three kids right now that are driving. I got three kids that have cars.

00:21:05.763 --> 00:21:08.163
I could have bought a Volkswagen for all three of them.

00:21:09.143 --> 00:21:14.363
Right. If, if it was more of that, I don't know. So anyway, I don't want to

00:21:14.363 --> 00:21:16.443
take away your thunder. I don't want to take away.

00:21:17.703 --> 00:21:20.763
It's funny you mentioned that the dealership I worked at, they had a lot of

00:21:20.763 --> 00:21:24.943
old VW like ads that goes big posters with the beetle and stuff like that up.

00:21:25.363 --> 00:21:27.763
So I started, you know, I was the only one who seemed to care about them.

00:21:27.763 --> 00:21:30.323
So I started reading a few of them and one of them said, uh,

00:21:30.543 --> 00:21:33.563
showing the beetle and it says, you know, we, uh, we would never squash the bug.

00:21:34.263 --> 00:21:39.443
Well, they did once. They did it twice now. Funny. So they got kind of far away

00:21:39.443 --> 00:21:40.483
from, you know, their roots.

00:21:41.063 --> 00:21:45.943
Yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask you about that and have they stepped away from their roots?

00:21:46.283 --> 00:21:50.543
And obviously that answer would be yes. I did. Uh, I would say from what I've,

00:21:50.543 --> 00:21:51.463
from what I've seen of corporate.

00:21:52.434 --> 00:21:55.134
Like, it's not even, that's not even a concern on their mind.

00:21:55.254 --> 00:21:57.614
Like, they're still staring at the spreadsheets thinking that if they stare

00:21:57.614 --> 00:22:01.314
at them long enough, they're going to, you know, there's going to be a car company

00:22:01.314 --> 00:22:03.894
that comes out of this. And, you know, there just, there hasn't.

00:22:04.034 --> 00:22:08.234
I would say, going to AVF, I mean, Volkswagen of America at least showed up

00:22:08.234 --> 00:22:12.514
there and was asking people their opinions, which I thought was pretty good.

00:22:12.754 --> 00:22:16.374
The problem I thought they had was there was nowhere for anybody to,

00:22:16.414 --> 00:22:18.894
like, write anything. Like, this is what I think you should do.

00:22:19.354 --> 00:22:22.174
You know and you could even run that through ai and see what keeps coming

00:22:22.174 --> 00:22:25.774
up you know something like that every question they asked was

00:22:25.774 --> 00:22:28.434
on a scale of one to five blah blah blah blah

00:22:28.434 --> 00:22:31.494
that's something that's going to be put into a spreadsheet and it's

00:22:31.494 --> 00:22:34.234
going to be overanalyzed by people who don't really know what

00:22:34.234 --> 00:22:36.994
to do with that information if we if everyone says you know

00:22:36.994 --> 00:22:39.694
zero out of five you know volkswagen is not doing what it should be

00:22:39.694 --> 00:22:42.454
doing that's great but then what

00:22:42.454 --> 00:22:45.294
direction do you go with is it is it kind of just a

00:22:45.294 --> 00:22:49.074
almost like what am i trying to say like a web there's

00:22:49.074 --> 00:22:52.294
like a tasmanian devil effect is that kind of what the us versus

00:22:52.294 --> 00:22:55.894
them versus the manager versus the customer

00:22:55.894 --> 00:22:58.634
like what is that what that is like what is

00:22:58.634 --> 00:23:01.574
that that's like that's more of the corporate side like that's

00:23:01.574 --> 00:23:05.514
like i'm more relating that to like the product they come out with all right

00:23:05.514 --> 00:23:08.694
it's not they haven't built anything we as enthusiasts really want last time

00:23:08.694 --> 00:23:12.734
you could argue maybe the seven and a half yeah seven and a half you know gti

00:23:12.734 --> 00:23:17.074
golf r things like that like you could maybe argue that was not too bad i i

00:23:17.074 --> 00:23:18.834
think the mark 8 isn't a very good looking car.

00:23:19.834 --> 00:23:23.414
The you know the problems we've seen with them already aren't so great i mean,

00:23:24.230 --> 00:23:27.990
You think about the ID buzz, right? They pushed and pushed and pushed this,

00:23:27.990 --> 00:23:30.710
this silly ID buzz, the new version.

00:23:30.870 --> 00:23:34.110
The reason like, let's say the new beetle was so successful is because yeah,

00:23:34.150 --> 00:23:35.610
I know your air-cooled guys aren't going to like this.

00:23:35.870 --> 00:23:40.610
It could do everything that the old beetle could do arguably better.

00:23:40.930 --> 00:23:44.850
If you want to go fast, it came in a one 18. If you want to get fuel economy, it came in a TDI.

00:23:45.210 --> 00:23:47.330
You know, if you just need, if your daughter thought it was cute,

00:23:47.610 --> 00:23:49.370
a two liter is a fine option for them.

00:23:49.850 --> 00:23:53.810
So now you're like, you know, all these years later, you're trying to do this with the original bus.

00:23:54.230 --> 00:23:57.790
And the best you can come out with is an electric car well you can't follow

00:23:57.790 --> 00:23:58.930
the grateful dead around.

00:23:59.915 --> 00:24:04.115
In an electric car i'm sorry it's not there yet and

00:24:04.115 --> 00:24:06.795
at the price point i mean who's buying this i mean like the

00:24:06.795 --> 00:24:09.655
old the old buses were at a price point of course taking

00:24:09.655 --> 00:24:14.415
inflation into account that the old hippies could afford it right we're starting

00:24:14.415 --> 00:24:18.535
at like what eighty thousand dollars canadian for an id buzz that doesn't have

00:24:18.535 --> 00:24:22.655
a heater pump and in canada you're you're gonna want that heater pump you know

00:24:22.655 --> 00:24:28.655
the price is already going up you know what i mean so that's a yeah that's an ad on. Not good.

00:24:28.875 --> 00:24:32.755
You had mentioned something else about how the pay structure,

00:24:33.015 --> 00:24:36.875
because you're on, you know, the side of it that, you know, kind of behind the scenes.

00:24:37.635 --> 00:24:41.955
What was it about the pay structure that would pit everybody against each other?

00:24:42.095 --> 00:24:45.255
So the most obvious would be easy, like easy to understand. It'd be the commission-based

00:24:45.255 --> 00:24:49.035
sales staff. You only have a certain number of people walking through the door, making calls.

00:24:49.175 --> 00:24:51.995
They have like a priority thing that loops for like

00:24:51.995 --> 00:24:54.915
who's the next who's the next salesperson up things like that

00:24:54.915 --> 00:24:57.995
service advisors are bonused on either

00:24:57.995 --> 00:25:01.075
like hours sold per ro or dollars

00:25:01.075 --> 00:25:03.855
sold per ro is kind of the newer way so you

00:25:03.855 --> 00:25:06.775
have to sit next to and get along with the person next to you that wants the

00:25:06.775 --> 00:25:10.455
good high paying appointments just like you do if there's a 60k and an oil change

00:25:10.455 --> 00:25:14.115
coming in at the same time you want to be the advisor that checks in the 60k

00:25:14.115 --> 00:25:18.055
things can get tense when one when one advisor thinks that they're getting one

00:25:18.055 --> 00:25:21.255
or the other or a customer that regularly leaves bad reviews for no reason,

00:25:21.935 --> 00:25:24.115
versus the one that goes out of their way to,

00:25:24.762 --> 00:25:28.702
you know, to make sure that they get a good survey, which can affect their paycheck.

00:25:28.862 --> 00:25:32.422
As a service manager, I was bonused on the entire department's performance,

00:25:32.862 --> 00:25:37.482
but I also had, you know, KPI, key performance indicator targets that need to be hit.

00:25:37.602 --> 00:25:40.742
And it's really hard to go to your staff and say, hey, can you go out of your

00:25:40.742 --> 00:25:45.722
way to do this so that I can look good in front of my boss, even though you

00:25:45.722 --> 00:25:47.102
are not getting paid for that?

00:25:47.902 --> 00:25:51.982
You know, upper management loves to tell, like people above me love to tell staff,

00:25:52.182 --> 00:25:55.302
oh, that's what the base salary of your your pay is for but if you work at a

00:25:55.302 --> 00:25:59.582
dealership don't ever let them tell you that your salary was negotiated with

00:25:59.582 --> 00:26:02.842
the set number of responsibility if you were adding to those responsibilities

00:26:02.842 --> 00:26:05.862
without adding pay you were taking advantage of your employees

00:26:06.302 --> 00:26:09.802
and you you get that pushback it's there they might not say it right to the

00:26:09.802 --> 00:26:13.762
general manager but like someone you can talk to me like i've made sure my staff

00:26:13.762 --> 00:26:16.602
always knows i just be real with me and talk to me and stuff like that so i

00:26:16.602 --> 00:26:20.622
got a lot of those conversations right flat rate technicians are the same thing, right?

00:26:20.702 --> 00:26:23.702
And you've got a little change in a 60K coming in, that flat rate tech wants

00:26:23.702 --> 00:26:25.662
the 60K because he's going to make more money on it.

00:26:26.002 --> 00:26:29.262
So if you've got everyone in your dealership competing for who's coming in the

00:26:29.262 --> 00:26:32.962
door and you're wondering why you don't have that family atmosphere,

00:26:33.282 --> 00:26:35.382
I mean, your paycheck relies on it.

00:26:35.882 --> 00:26:40.002
You know, base salaries, that's an unlivable wage. You need that bonus money

00:26:40.002 --> 00:26:42.742
to justify getting out of bed in the morning.

00:26:43.002 --> 00:26:46.642
You know, that happened in the trades too.

00:26:47.102 --> 00:26:54.342
Plumbing, electrical HVAC mainly, you know, top three, because what really it's

00:26:54.342 --> 00:26:57.002
happened in really anything home services, right?

00:26:57.202 --> 00:27:01.662
Where performance, performance pay is really naturally what it's called.

00:27:02.082 --> 00:27:06.482
The better you perform, the more money you make. Well, the flip side to that

00:27:06.482 --> 00:27:11.042
is the better you can sell and communicate, the more money you can make.

00:27:11.182 --> 00:27:16.202
Well, the flip side to that is the guys that are very good mechanics might not

00:27:16.202 --> 00:27:17.602
be the best communicators.

00:27:17.882 --> 00:27:21.142
So they can fix it better than anybody in the room and they're never going to

00:27:21.142 --> 00:27:22.562
get any callbacks or anything.

00:27:23.330 --> 00:27:26.630
But they can't sell it. They can't sell themselves. They're not confident.

00:27:27.050 --> 00:27:34.890
And I bet that that also happens on your side of it where the customer is coming to them in automotive.

00:27:35.190 --> 00:27:38.070
But for what you're saying, I've seen

00:27:38.070 --> 00:27:40.950
that actually happen inside of companies in the trades

00:27:40.950 --> 00:27:43.870
where some guys that might not be

00:27:43.870 --> 00:27:46.890
the best technicians are making way more money

00:27:46.890 --> 00:27:49.750
than the guys that are certify certifiably with

00:27:49.750 --> 00:27:53.030
the best results and the best data they're the best mechanics

00:27:53.030 --> 00:27:56.990
the best technicians the guys that you want to send them out to your family's

00:27:56.990 --> 00:28:02.310
house you know when stuff's going awry but those guys don't make the money yep

00:28:02.310 --> 00:28:05.670
absolutely 100 there's there's being a good technician there's being a good

00:28:05.670 --> 00:28:10.650
flat rate technician they have a lot of overlap but i mean if you kind of know

00:28:10.650 --> 00:28:12.990
how to play you're going to make more money than the guy next to you.

00:28:13.930 --> 00:28:16.310
VW technicians have their own Facebook group.

00:28:16.710 --> 00:28:20.910
I'm a part of it, and I'm sure kind of outing them is going to get me kicked off of it, but...

00:28:21.494 --> 00:28:27.134
Here's how bad it got. So Volkswagen, first of all, they love to change the

00:28:27.134 --> 00:28:29.894
repair procedure without telling anyone.

00:28:30.074 --> 00:28:35.294
They expect you to read through it every single time to make sure that there's no changes.

00:28:35.434 --> 00:28:39.254
Which, I mean, for a CP job, a customer paid job, that's one thing.

00:28:39.394 --> 00:28:42.074
For a warranty job, you're already getting paid less.

00:28:42.314 --> 00:28:45.574
And you expect them to read through this whole repair procedure and make sure

00:28:45.574 --> 00:28:47.474
they didn't add a part or add something like that.

00:28:47.774 --> 00:28:50.794
They talk about that a lot on their little Facebook group.

00:28:51.494 --> 00:28:55.894
And they used to have a field technician on there who technically works for corporate.

00:28:56.374 --> 00:29:00.434
And he saw that the technicians found a faster way to do something.

00:29:00.894 --> 00:29:04.314
So you think that would be all well and good. But what they did was,

00:29:04.454 --> 00:29:07.734
once they got wind of that, they determined, okay, that's a legitimate repair.

00:29:07.874 --> 00:29:10.794
It's a legitimate way to do that. They dropped the warranty rate even further.

00:29:11.454 --> 00:29:17.274
If you think about this, if a job pays three hours, warranty pays two hours, you found a faster way.

00:29:17.394 --> 00:29:20.794
Now warranty is only paying an hour and a half. that whole time you're

00:29:20.794 --> 00:29:23.774
expecting your customers to pay that full three hour

00:29:23.774 --> 00:29:29.534
well that's not really fair to anybody is it no doesn't sound it no it was what

00:29:29.534 --> 00:29:32.334
i think i mentioned this at some point here but like i think the state of arizona

00:29:32.334 --> 00:29:37.014
they they they wanted to ban that that practice having a different warranty

00:29:37.014 --> 00:29:40.954
rate than a customer pay rate and wilkswagen ended up trying to sue them.

00:29:42.034 --> 00:29:45.194
Wow you can do you can google that it's pretty it's pretty they were thrown

00:29:45.194 --> 00:29:48.934
out almost immediately but it kind of, it just shows kind of the mentality of

00:29:48.934 --> 00:29:51.734
like, you know, dealership, corporate, you know, mid-management,

00:29:51.974 --> 00:29:55.894
corporate, and then the good old overlords that kind of oversee all of this. Not great.

00:29:56.094 --> 00:29:58.914
It's a hard environment to make money in. At some point in your career,

00:29:59.414 --> 00:30:07.034
had sat down, shaken hands with, or met with Pierre Boutin, which is VW of Canada's CEO.

00:30:07.694 --> 00:30:12.214
Walk me through that experience. Like, bring me up to speed.

00:30:12.394 --> 00:30:16.754
Where were you at in your life? How did that happen and what was that experience like?

00:30:17.632 --> 00:30:22.712
Sure. So when I met him at this conference, essentially they were unveiling

00:30:22.712 --> 00:30:24.292
the ID buzz to the sales staff.

00:30:24.452 --> 00:30:27.152
They had a few little workshops for the service people and things like that.

00:30:27.732 --> 00:30:31.252
They kept, I mean, they kept talking and all these emails you get about how

00:30:31.252 --> 00:30:33.892
poorly the company is doing financially and things like that.

00:30:34.512 --> 00:30:37.912
And they put us up in this super fancy hotel room in Toronto.

00:30:38.252 --> 00:30:41.332
We had Rick Mercer, if you know who that is, perform for us.

00:30:41.472 --> 00:30:44.632
That was pretty cool. But the actual one-on-one interaction I had with him was

00:30:44.632 --> 00:30:47.792
very quick. He kind of snuck up on me while we were eating.

00:30:48.432 --> 00:30:51.052
Hello, nice to meet you. You know, good to have you here. Shook hands.

00:30:51.192 --> 00:30:52.372
He seemed like a very nice man.

00:30:52.552 --> 00:30:58.292
What stuck with me more was the speech he gave to the whole company kind of later on.

00:30:58.912 --> 00:31:01.432
And I'll talk more about that in kind of the next part here.

00:31:01.672 --> 00:31:05.312
But he also came to the dealership. He came to our dealership once.

00:31:05.812 --> 00:31:08.912
I'm not sure why. We were in the process of building a new dealership kind of

00:31:08.912 --> 00:31:10.812
directly behind our current dealership.

00:31:10.912 --> 00:31:12.852
That was kind of a mess. I had to be a manager through that.

00:31:12.852 --> 00:31:16.132
And he was kind of there to, I guess, to oversee the last little part and kind

00:31:16.132 --> 00:31:17.512
of get a little bit of feedback back and forth.

00:31:17.592 --> 00:31:21.572
He seemed like a very nice man, very smart man, but he was talking all about

00:31:21.572 --> 00:31:26.072
how Volkswagen is going to like take over and, you know, the, the EV game.

00:31:26.312 --> 00:31:31.012
And I mean, certainly, I mean, that hasn't ever come close to happening.

00:31:31.272 --> 00:31:34.592
They've showed all these charts, but how are they going to overtake Tesla and it's coming.

00:31:35.372 --> 00:31:38.792
The ID4 and the ID buzz, it's not going to happen. It's not going to work that way.

00:31:39.052 --> 00:31:42.652
Yeah. Lower the price point. And there's some possibility there for sure.

00:31:42.852 --> 00:31:45.152
But, you know, I just don't think...

00:31:46.098 --> 00:31:51.398
I'm okay with ID Buzz. Am I a giant fan of it?

00:31:51.778 --> 00:31:56.298
Not a giant fan. And I think the price point would be probably the only reason.

00:31:56.458 --> 00:32:01.918
Is it cool to have that type of technology in a new age looking bus?

00:32:02.078 --> 00:32:04.118
Yeah, it's cool. It's cool.

00:32:04.678 --> 00:32:10.198
And there's a lot of opinions that circulate around it. But here's the sad truth.

00:32:10.238 --> 00:32:12.098
And this is the whole reason why I brought this up.

00:32:12.498 --> 00:32:15.538
It just didn't do as well as they thought it was going to do.

00:32:16.198 --> 00:32:20.538
And that's just it, right? Some cars come out and that happens,

00:32:20.878 --> 00:32:22.858
you know, might happen with the electric Mustang.

00:32:23.098 --> 00:32:26.518
It might happen with, you know, the electric Camaro.

00:32:26.718 --> 00:32:31.418
I don't even know if they have one, but I'm just saying some car names.

00:32:31.798 --> 00:32:37.478
But it truly just did not match their expectations.

00:32:38.198 --> 00:32:42.458
And we all, you know, I don't know, any fans, you know, we thought it was going

00:32:42.458 --> 00:32:45.798
to. You working for them. And by the way, how long did you work for Volkswagen?

00:32:46.827 --> 00:32:50.967
Two years. A few years? Two years as a service manager, yeah.

00:32:51.287 --> 00:32:54.107
Okay. As a service, I mean, you saw a lot come through.

00:32:54.807 --> 00:33:01.587
We did. How long were you at your dad's shop into then your own shop?

00:33:01.907 --> 00:33:04.787
Like, just real quick before we jump into this next segment,

00:33:04.947 --> 00:33:07.407
just kind of paint the picture of your career up to now.

00:33:07.947 --> 00:33:11.367
Sure. So, like I mentioned, I started out as like a teenager kind of sweeping

00:33:11.367 --> 00:33:12.507
the floor at my dad's shop.

00:33:12.667 --> 00:33:15.727
Right. i ended up i was running the place when

00:33:15.727 --> 00:33:20.087
i was let's say 24 to

00:33:20.087 --> 00:33:26.327
27 ish or so i ran when my father passed away me going to the dealership that

00:33:26.327 --> 00:33:30.347
was like that was my turning to the dark side moment okay yeah we were all we

00:33:30.347 --> 00:33:33.387
were always the alternative and things like i worked there for a couple years

00:33:33.387 --> 00:33:37.227
yeah kind of after my dad passed away i helped start another,

00:33:38.067 --> 00:33:42.087
local vw shop for a little while they were mostly into like dismantling they

00:33:42.087 --> 00:33:46.147
buy it you know buy a whole Volkswagen dismantle it, sell the parts, things like that.

00:33:46.187 --> 00:33:48.727
They were looking to get into service, got them up and running.

00:33:49.600 --> 00:33:52.960
And service managed for two years, and now after, you know, when that didn't

00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:56.660
pan out the way we thought it would, now with my guy who was my apprentice while

00:33:56.660 --> 00:33:59.560
I was running my father's shop, now me and him started another shop,

00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:02.320
kind of right down the street from where my dad's shop was.

00:34:02.500 --> 00:34:04.560
Okay. So it's kind of come full circle there.

00:34:04.800 --> 00:34:11.420
And you're doing mainly Volkswagen stuff, or is this just a mechanical shop, you do everything?

00:34:11.960 --> 00:34:15.800
I try to, like, any kind of VW Audi stuff that comes in, that typically goes

00:34:15.800 --> 00:34:19.960
to me, but we're technically a complete Euro shop. Okay, so Europe.

00:34:20.040 --> 00:34:22.380
We do some odd Japanese and American stuff.

00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:25.820
We specialize in, for sure, European stuff. Back to VW.

00:34:26.180 --> 00:34:32.500
VW calls itself this quirky, this cult-like brand. And I know your feelings on this.

00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:38.580
I know you feel they've lost touch with that. It's this quirky, cult-style brand.

00:34:38.740 --> 00:34:43.580
But tell me why. I feel like Volkswagen, quirky used to mean,

00:34:43.580 --> 00:34:46.400
you know, just kind of a car that was a little bit different.

00:34:47.100 --> 00:34:50.680
And you but you always got good value for what

00:34:50.680 --> 00:34:53.580
you were paying like for the amount of money you paid for the car you can

00:34:53.580 --> 00:34:56.540
feel confident in it you you know you got good value for the

00:34:56.540 --> 00:35:00.700
the amount of money you paid and i mean that has gone completely out the window

00:35:00.700 --> 00:35:04.560
i mean it's not even close to what it used to be like i you know i'll you know

00:35:04.560 --> 00:35:07.280
people make fun of me for saying you know mark fours were probably the greatest

00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:12.540
generation like let's say financially that volkswagen's ever had i mean the

00:35:12.540 --> 00:35:13.880
Beetle sales were through the roof.

00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:19.120
You could tell people to go buy a Golf or a Jetta and feel confident at any

00:35:19.120 --> 00:35:22.180
point in Mark IVs really kind of phased their life cycle.

00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:26.200
I mean, I certainly started seeing up here in Canada with salt on the roads

00:35:26.200 --> 00:35:28.260
to get rid of snow and things like that.

00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:32.460
I saw my first bit of like rust bubbles and things like that on Mark Vs before

00:35:32.460 --> 00:35:34.080
I ever saw them on Mark IVs.

00:35:34.560 --> 00:35:37.880
And you had a lot of options. Right now, it's like every single model,

00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:42.140
it comes in one engine and that's it. I know diesel is going to probably never

00:35:42.140 --> 00:35:44.700
be a thing back here in North America, but like a lot of people have said,

00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:48.020
why wasn't there a diesel Tiguan? Those would have sold like hotcakes.

00:35:48.709 --> 00:35:56.169
Why didn't they make a fricking gas engine bus? That would have sold like hotcakes. Sure.

00:35:56.669 --> 00:36:00.229
Absolutely. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they will.

00:36:00.669 --> 00:36:03.309
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

00:36:03.829 --> 00:36:06.989
Uh, all right. It seems like any of these IDs are, they're going to stick to,

00:36:07.029 --> 00:36:11.169
to electric and they're, they're still from what I, the latest kind of news

00:36:11.169 --> 00:36:14.689
I've got is like, they're sticking to it. They're absolutely happy with this.

00:36:14.829 --> 00:36:17.449
They're thrilled with themselves, but it's, it's not panning out,

00:36:17.549 --> 00:36:19.909
man. And everyone sees that. So we're going to get touching now.

00:36:20.129 --> 00:36:26.369
We're going to talk about some good stuff here because Dieselgate,

00:36:26.529 --> 00:36:31.549
to those that know, is probably one of the biggest scandals in automotive history ever in the world.

00:36:31.749 --> 00:36:35.229
You've got a decent perspective on this because, well, you were on the inside.

00:36:35.489 --> 00:36:41.469
Oh man, this could get deep, but tell me, how did this play out from the ground

00:36:41.469 --> 00:36:45.189
level, from a mechanic or a technician level?

00:36:45.689 --> 00:36:49.629
Because from what I understand, you can probably tell me more,

00:36:49.749 --> 00:36:51.389
but from what I understand a diesel gate.

00:36:52.382 --> 00:36:58.182
They found a way to manipulate the computer system when the cars are being tested

00:36:58.182 --> 00:36:59.342
through emissions, correct?

00:37:00.262 --> 00:37:03.442
So what? Yeah, the car knew it was being tested. Exactly. So they would change

00:37:03.442 --> 00:37:09.902
the emissions to a more controlled or regulated number, but it wasn't true.

00:37:10.162 --> 00:37:13.342
Apparently the emissions were a lot worse. The carbon, just the whatever,

00:37:13.502 --> 00:37:16.062
all the pollutants were a lot worse.

00:37:16.242 --> 00:37:18.762
And then, well, they were obviously caught for that. What was that?

00:37:19.782 --> 00:37:24.162
2015? When was that? 2015 is when, when it was announced was 2015.

00:37:24.502 --> 00:37:27.062
Yep. Okay. You know what it's like, if you do see TDIs around,

00:37:27.322 --> 00:37:31.442
there was like what some car, some 2014s got the newer engine and,

00:37:31.442 --> 00:37:35.422
uh, all 2015s that you see had like fully that next kind of generation.

00:37:35.422 --> 00:37:37.482
I'm not sure exactly what month the cutoff was.

00:37:37.622 --> 00:37:42.482
And then that's it. So the 2014, 2015, that they're kind of like an oddball TDI.

00:37:42.682 --> 00:37:45.022
They're kind of their own little animal. And then like, that was it.

00:37:45.602 --> 00:37:51.302
So that's all I know of diesel gate. So, again, I want to know from your perspective

00:37:51.302 --> 00:37:55.422
as a technician, a Volkswagen technician, how this played out on the ground.

00:37:55.842 --> 00:38:01.642
But I also want your perspective on what Dieselgate was to you. Absolutely.

00:38:01.942 --> 00:38:07.022
So when Dieselgate kind of hit, I was still working for my father's shop.

00:38:07.022 --> 00:38:09.982
So I was a trusted local small VW garage down the street.

00:38:09.982 --> 00:38:13.262
I got all kinds of stories coming from the dealer of just like people lined

00:38:13.262 --> 00:38:16.922
up outside the door, you know, ready to just tear a strip off that poor service

00:38:16.922 --> 00:38:19.262
advisor or whatever, that salesperson that told him the car,

00:38:19.342 --> 00:38:22.122
like they didn't design the car. They didn't do this. Right.

00:38:22.837 --> 00:38:27.297
A lot of people came to me asking for advice, right? That you had the option of taking the buyout.

00:38:27.417 --> 00:38:31.617
And Volkswagen was very generous with like, okay, we'll buy the car back. No problem.

00:38:32.157 --> 00:38:34.837
And they were very generous with the offers that they were giving.

00:38:35.037 --> 00:38:38.657
Or you could get the fix done and continue driving.

00:38:38.817 --> 00:38:42.257
You take the I'm sorry money. One of my best friends bought a 2012 Jetta.

00:38:42.337 --> 00:38:43.497
He went through this whole thing.

00:38:43.797 --> 00:38:48.797
He took the I'm sorry money and then he deleted the car. So you got the fix done and deleted.

00:38:48.797 --> 00:38:54.077
I mean, I was going to say, isn't, especially on the programming side,

00:38:54.317 --> 00:38:59.257
didn't a lot of folks for performance wipe out those standards,

00:38:59.497 --> 00:39:00.937
those emission standards anyway?

00:39:01.857 --> 00:39:05.757
Oh, 100%. You got rid of the DPF, Noxcat, Soxcat, all that out,

00:39:05.897 --> 00:39:07.277
straight pipe, change the software.

00:39:07.917 --> 00:39:11.657
Yeah. And you have a better running car. They got better fuel economy than when

00:39:11.657 --> 00:39:12.737
it ever came out of the factory.

00:39:13.057 --> 00:39:15.917
But everyone, everyone who got the fix done immediately complained the car is

00:39:15.917 --> 00:39:20.217
not the same. It doesn't have the power and it doesn't have the fuel economy that it did. Wow, man.

00:39:21.057 --> 00:39:24.057
Kind of the running joke I always had was like, by the time you kind of got

00:39:24.057 --> 00:39:26.917
all these cars fixed and you take into account all the cars you took back,

00:39:27.057 --> 00:39:30.257
which if you look into it are apparently still parked in the Mojave desert somewhere.

00:39:30.937 --> 00:39:34.417
All those people had to go get new cars. Those had to be all built.

00:39:35.217 --> 00:39:37.037
You know, and delivered on big diesel trucks.

00:39:37.297 --> 00:39:40.137
You know, all the, everything goes into building a car, to plant,

00:39:40.337 --> 00:39:41.537
building all of those parts.

00:39:42.117 --> 00:39:44.957
But I, everything that had to do with the fix, coming up with the fix,

00:39:45.477 --> 00:39:48.037
installing the fixed, paying the technicians, but by the time you're done,

00:39:48.117 --> 00:39:52.057
the carbon footprint of diesel gate was probably more than just letting this car run. Right.

00:39:52.457 --> 00:39:57.717
And again, they already changed to the 2015 TDI so that the life cycle of the,

00:39:57.817 --> 00:40:01.037
of this engine is already over. The folks might already moved on to the next thing.

00:40:01.477 --> 00:40:04.997
Right. The biggest thing I always ask that no one's given me an answer for is

00:40:04.997 --> 00:40:06.917
the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency.

00:40:07.097 --> 00:40:11.217
It's their job to stop cars like this from getting into the country.

00:40:11.935 --> 00:40:14.335
Where were they at? Because it wasn't them that even found it.

00:40:14.435 --> 00:40:17.435
It was like these independent, you know, college researchers that were looking

00:40:17.435 --> 00:40:19.015
into why this engine is so great.

00:40:19.335 --> 00:40:22.095
I never hear about anybody at the EPA getting fired over this.

00:40:22.755 --> 00:40:27.435
Right. They came here in 2009, in the late Mark Fives, up to,

00:40:27.435 --> 00:40:32.635
what, up to 20, well, I'd say 2014 for the CJAA, you know, common rail engine.

00:40:33.415 --> 00:40:37.955
So that's five, what, five years? And nobody caught it. It was here this whole time.

00:40:38.175 --> 00:40:41.055
So our tax dollars go to the EPA. Clearly they're not

00:40:41.055 --> 00:40:44.975
doing their job very well Wow Nobody really looks

00:40:44.975 --> 00:40:48.495
into that or says anything about it You know they probably Like

00:40:48.495 --> 00:40:51.415
a chain of command They probably get their information and

00:40:51.415 --> 00:40:56.355
their data From these certain departments And engineering at Volkswagen And

00:40:56.355 --> 00:41:01.195
that data gets sent over And maybe they thought they could trust that data I

00:41:01.195 --> 00:41:04.455
suppose I was under the impression they had to actually Physically test the

00:41:04.455 --> 00:41:09.575
cars But I can't confirm that for sure Right well as somebody that.

00:41:10.495 --> 00:41:13.535
Understands if they would have tested it, they probably would have found it.

00:41:13.835 --> 00:41:17.775
I mean, it's probably pretty easy to see. Pretty big scandal though.

00:41:17.775 --> 00:41:22.095
And I know it really kind of messed up the brand for the new age,

00:41:22.095 --> 00:41:28.855
you know, kind of resurgence of, you know, the Beetle came out in the late nineties

00:41:28.855 --> 00:41:32.035
and, you know, had this successful turn into the turn of the millennium.

00:41:32.175 --> 00:41:37.455
And it almost kind of felt like for a little while that they might've been making a comeback,

00:41:37.455 --> 00:41:40.335
you know and then diesel gate happens and you

00:41:40.335 --> 00:41:43.595
know they kind of get kicked down again do you think volkswagen's

00:41:43.595 --> 00:41:47.435
ever truly recovered maybe the trust

00:41:47.435 --> 00:41:54.995
that they that they lost from this scandal i mean i think it's been long enough

00:41:54.995 --> 00:42:00.235
that like it certainly it has been long enough that some of the advisors i worked

00:42:00.235 --> 00:42:03.695
with and stuff they had no idea what diesel gate was they hear about it every

00:42:03.695 --> 00:42:06.815
now and then so i mean there's people working in the brand that have kind of,

00:42:07.455 --> 00:42:11.175
moved past it and the only time it really ever really came up was you know when

00:42:11.175 --> 00:42:15.095
there was a car that was still covered under the extended warranty i mean uh.

00:42:16.031 --> 00:42:18.611
When do we have an extra four-year 80,000? If you got the fix done,

00:42:18.751 --> 00:42:20.611
you got an extra four-year 80,000.

00:42:21.451 --> 00:42:24.191
I mean, that's generous. That is generous.

00:42:24.491 --> 00:42:28.151
Volkswagen did their time, man. You can say what you will about it.

00:42:28.271 --> 00:42:31.051
Multi-billion-dollar companies do what multi-billion-dollar companies do.

00:42:31.171 --> 00:42:34.911
Toyota recently got caught cheating on emissions and even on crash test standards,

00:42:35.011 --> 00:42:36.471
but that doesn't make the mainstream media.

00:42:36.951 --> 00:42:43.571
If you're going to put your tinfoil hat on, I'd say they were trying to push us towards EVs.

00:42:43.571 --> 00:42:46.431
Right and diesel was kind

00:42:46.431 --> 00:42:49.571
of that third option that was there if you look around that time period

00:42:49.571 --> 00:42:52.531
i mean smart cars used to come in diesel chevy cruz used

00:42:52.531 --> 00:42:55.731
to come in diesel and they all weren't really advertised and quietly

00:42:55.731 --> 00:43:00.451
disappeared not to mention that after dieselgate happened you know the other

00:43:00.451 --> 00:43:05.151
other manufacturers like bmw mercedes quietly pulled their diesels out of the

00:43:05.151 --> 00:43:09.511
north american market now you think like any other any other you know business

00:43:09.511 --> 00:43:13.011
sense if you have your main competitor pulls out of a market,

00:43:13.011 --> 00:43:15.491
you'd think there'd be a gap that you want to explore.

00:43:16.051 --> 00:43:19.251
Not everyone kind of all falling back at the same time.

00:43:20.011 --> 00:43:24.511
Right? And then there was the EV push immediately after.

00:43:25.358 --> 00:43:29.558
I mean, you can call it a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, but it sure seems like

00:43:29.558 --> 00:43:31.958
they all want us driving these electric cars.

00:43:32.178 --> 00:43:36.638
And it seems like the electric just isn't, it isn't quite there yet. No.

00:43:37.358 --> 00:43:40.438
The market said no. Yeah. And I don't know.

00:43:40.558 --> 00:43:44.878
I don't know the why behind that. You know, there is, there is obviously way

00:43:44.878 --> 00:43:47.638
more of them today on the road than ever before.

00:43:47.638 --> 00:43:50.638
And it's happening with

00:43:50.638 --> 00:43:53.718
all of our devices and the

00:43:53.718 --> 00:43:57.138
freaking earbuds that go in our ear it's like everywhere you

00:43:57.138 --> 00:44:01.378
look it's small battery operated type

00:44:01.378 --> 00:44:07.978
life that we're living i just don't know in my heart and soul as somebody who

00:44:07.978 --> 00:44:15.358
especially is an air-cooled guy i don't know if it'll ever be as cool to have

00:44:15.358 --> 00:44:19.658
an electric vehicle that doesn't hum like an air-cooled Volkswagen, man.

00:44:19.838 --> 00:44:26.158
I just don't, you know, call it, maybe I'm old, I'm older, and,

00:44:26.158 --> 00:44:30.258
you know, I kind of like, I don't know, a gas engine.

00:44:31.098 --> 00:44:35.098
I'm not against electric technology, just like you said.

00:44:35.338 --> 00:44:39.958
I just don't think we're there yet. I think, you know, maybe in the future a little bit more.

00:44:40.918 --> 00:44:43.658
Who knows the infrastructure is not there we don't have we don't we have no way

00:44:43.658 --> 00:44:46.598
of generating all this power and getting to the cities if everyone switched to

00:44:46.598 --> 00:44:50.038
electric tomorrow it's it's it's just not there right that's

00:44:50.038 --> 00:44:53.558
what they talk about a lot in the u.s too about how a lot of our grids the biggest

00:44:53.558 --> 00:45:00.578
grids in the country are already 1950s technology so they it's not even like

00:45:00.578 --> 00:45:07.118
you know the grids aren't even enough to support the demand if like you said if we did that if we,

00:45:07.778 --> 00:45:10.378
society gave in and said all right we're gonna

00:45:10.378 --> 00:45:16.198
do the electric car thing and we all made the change we our whole our whole

00:45:16.198 --> 00:45:22.138
cities would shut down and the grids would would would have issues so yeah craziness

00:45:22.138 --> 00:45:26.698
not quite there the only other thing i'll say about dieselgate and have you

00:45:26.698 --> 00:45:28.758
ever watched did you watch the dirty money documentary.

00:45:30.597 --> 00:45:35.717
I don't recall. No, that's fair. I'm being tough.

00:45:36.597 --> 00:45:39.737
It was a while ago. It was years ago. I was pretty mad when I watched that.

00:45:40.157 --> 00:45:45.897
But the one thing I can't defend is when they tried to justify this diesel gate

00:45:45.897 --> 00:45:48.877
business by hooking their tailpipes up to it. You see that?

00:45:48.957 --> 00:45:52.717
The monkeys are in the little chamber. They actually did this.

00:45:52.997 --> 00:45:55.197
Volkswagen funded it. It happened in the States somewhere.

00:45:56.257 --> 00:46:01.457
But you have to wonder, where's the wind there? Let's say best case scenario,

00:46:01.757 --> 00:46:04.897
these TDI emissions are found to cure cancer in these monkeys.

00:46:05.357 --> 00:46:09.897
How is a company that has ties to Hitler going to go public with the fact that

00:46:09.897 --> 00:46:14.317
they made this great discovery by gassing and doing experiments on what they

00:46:14.317 --> 00:46:16.057
consider to be less than human?

00:46:16.257 --> 00:46:22.937
Like that's a lot about how disconnected they are with their fan base and their customer base.

00:46:23.077 --> 00:46:26.837
Let's talk about that disconnect. What do you think, I guess,

00:46:26.957 --> 00:46:30.777
what is the disconnect that you see between corporate,

00:46:31.097 --> 00:46:36.657
which you did right as a, as a, as a manager between the dealerships and then

00:46:36.657 --> 00:46:40.357
the small shops and then the enthusiasts?

00:46:41.137 --> 00:46:45.697
Yeah. Because it's almost like they're all separate, you know, teams. They are. Yeah.

00:46:45.997 --> 00:46:48.377
They are. It's very rare. Like when somebody, you know, if somebody is like,

00:46:48.457 --> 00:46:50.957
oh, I used to be a dealer tech. Well, okay. I got a bunch of questions for you

00:46:50.957 --> 00:46:52.877
when you're coming from a small shop or something like that.

00:46:53.526 --> 00:46:57.126
It's, it's just, it's become so compartmentalized. It seems like a lot of the

00:46:57.126 --> 00:47:00.326
technicians who have, you know, been in a dealership for long enough,

00:47:00.426 --> 00:47:01.686
they want to stay at a dealership.

00:47:01.946 --> 00:47:03.986
They don't want to go out on their own. They don't want to, you know,

00:47:04.206 --> 00:47:07.606
go to a small shop and things like that. They've kind of gotten used to that.

00:47:08.146 --> 00:47:12.086
As far as Volkswagen corporate, I mean, they've, you see it in their product.

00:47:12.246 --> 00:47:15.506
They've completely lost touch with their own fan base and they don't seem to

00:47:15.506 --> 00:47:19.086
have any interest in kind of, you know, rejuvenating that or rekindling that.

00:47:19.186 --> 00:47:21.646
And it starts with them, man. We've been screaming out for years.

00:47:22.126 --> 00:47:25.246
You know as a top of our lungs and they just they don't

00:47:25.246 --> 00:47:28.326
they don't seem to care they don't seem to listen they'd rather

00:47:28.326 --> 00:47:31.866
kind of run their business kind of the you know the bit

00:47:31.866 --> 00:47:35.326
like i always say this the business major way the the spreadsheet warriors you

00:47:35.326 --> 00:47:40.246
know like oh on paper this makes sense in the real world nobody wants this so

00:47:40.246 --> 00:47:43.946
it's not even close you know we're not there anymore this quirky car brand with

00:47:43.946 --> 00:47:47.946
a cold following well quirky isn't supposed to mean you know you need a head

00:47:47.946 --> 00:47:51.206
gasket in 50,000 kilometers you know and.

00:47:52.158 --> 00:47:56.418
And, you know, the cult following is supposed to be an enthusiast and you don't

00:47:56.418 --> 00:47:58.838
do anything for those enthusiasts. So how can you even call yourself that?

00:47:59.258 --> 00:48:04.218
So let's touch on that, that, that, that word. Cause I include myself in that,

00:48:04.318 --> 00:48:05.358
you know, I'm an enthusiast.

00:48:05.518 --> 00:48:12.618
What keeps enthusiasts so loyal to the brand despite all the missteps?

00:48:12.958 --> 00:48:16.638
I would say hope maybe one, maybe one day, you know, you can,

00:48:16.798 --> 00:48:21.658
I don't see what would be so wrong or so bad with maybe like hiring a few,

00:48:21.658 --> 00:48:25.478
whatever title you want to give them, enthusiast representatives or something

00:48:25.478 --> 00:48:27.458
like that. People who have their finger on the pulse.

00:48:28.358 --> 00:48:30.778
People who are interacting with the community and things like that.

00:48:30.878 --> 00:48:33.878
Just have that information brought to corporate. Take it into account.

00:48:34.318 --> 00:48:39.118
Think about it. Maybe you'll get some sales about it. I would also say the older

00:48:39.118 --> 00:48:40.358
stuff is still pretty good.

00:48:41.538 --> 00:48:44.538
Who can say an old air-cooled Beetle isn't a good-looking car?

00:48:45.558 --> 00:48:50.298
Who can say a good Lagoon Blue GLI Mark IV isn't a good-looking car? It is.

00:48:50.458 --> 00:48:55.018
It is. It's part of automotive history. They're beautiful, in fact.

00:48:55.894 --> 00:48:58.574
Absolutely 100 you know and i think the

00:48:58.574 --> 00:49:01.234
older stuff sure keeps us going i mean again avf when you go

00:49:01.234 --> 00:49:04.114
there i mean the stuff that keeps me coming back is

00:49:04.114 --> 00:49:07.334
right quite frankly the mark twos i mean those those guys absolutely kill

00:49:07.334 --> 00:49:10.574
it every year i see something i haven't really seen before and so

00:49:10.574 --> 00:49:13.854
you really feel that the loyalty

00:49:13.854 --> 00:49:16.714
is mainly built on

00:49:16.714 --> 00:49:19.634
the back of the enthusiasts that you know

00:49:19.634 --> 00:49:22.654
are are true diehards regardless of

00:49:22.654 --> 00:49:25.394
what you know none of these guys really give a

00:49:25.394 --> 00:49:28.694
shit about the technology side of volkswagen in

00:49:28.694 --> 00:49:31.614
today's world because they drive cars that are 50 60

00:49:31.614 --> 00:49:35.134
years old yeah i think

00:49:35.134 --> 00:49:38.854
the thing for sure corporate needs to understand this is that the enthusiasts

00:49:38.854 --> 00:49:43.134
whether you like it or not they have influence over their market i mean if somebody

00:49:43.134 --> 00:49:46.234
you know buys a tiguan or whatever and they're looking for a place to go get

00:49:46.234 --> 00:49:49.394
it serviced who do you think they're going to ask well probably the guy with

00:49:49.394 --> 00:49:52.914
four non-running volkswagens in their driveway in their social circle or on

00:49:52.914 --> 00:49:53.774
their block or whatever.

00:49:54.314 --> 00:49:57.374
Whether you know, if you go online and you see what people are saying on,

00:49:57.494 --> 00:50:01.014
you know, whatever VW form you want to subscribe to, whether you like it or

00:50:01.014 --> 00:50:03.614
not, they have influence over the customers.

00:50:03.774 --> 00:50:06.214
They are trying to get it. You can ignore the enthusiasts if you want,

00:50:06.294 --> 00:50:11.234
but the enthusiasts still have a very heavy influence over the people who definitely

00:50:11.234 --> 00:50:14.154
are your market and the people you are trying to get into your dealership to

00:50:14.154 --> 00:50:16.234
get your 60 K service or whatever done.

00:50:16.694 --> 00:50:19.514
And there's just, there's just no, they're not

00:50:19.514 --> 00:50:22.214
making the connection there they're taught business a very

00:50:22.214 --> 00:50:25.394
certain way i mean i actually i used to sit in on a lot of business classes

00:50:25.394 --> 00:50:28.994
and you know i all i know all about the downward sloping demand curve i know

00:50:28.994 --> 00:50:31.814
all about the power of the spreadsheets and one thing they tell these graduates

00:50:31.814 --> 00:50:35.414
is don't let anybody tell you different if you can sell women's clothing you

00:50:35.414 --> 00:50:38.974
can sell deep sea drilling equipment every industry is the same uh you know

00:50:38.974 --> 00:50:41.314
don't basically don't don't listen to anybody.

00:50:42.193 --> 00:50:44.273
You know, if you can sell one thing, you can sell anything, but,

00:50:44.473 --> 00:50:47.173
and then you're finding people who, who are getting hired by corporate,

00:50:47.293 --> 00:50:50.433
but they come from whatever steel, they come from, like I said,

00:50:50.513 --> 00:50:52.653
deep sea drilling equipment or something like that, you know,

00:50:52.713 --> 00:50:54.413
and they, they're the people who are running the show.

00:50:54.533 --> 00:50:57.753
Now there's nobody there who has actual, you know, on the ground,

00:50:57.953 --> 00:50:59.573
from the ground up, worked at a dealership.

00:50:59.653 --> 00:51:02.373
Most of the people you, you contacted dealership. If you look at their,

00:51:02.493 --> 00:51:05.453
you know, their link, even their LinkedIn, they never worked in a dealership

00:51:05.453 --> 00:51:08.233
before they came from a, you know, a business background from,

00:51:08.473 --> 00:51:09.893
you know, some were completely different.

00:51:09.893 --> 00:51:12.813
And you know how could they ever understand us i think

00:51:12.813 --> 00:51:15.773
what happens is over time a company

00:51:15.773 --> 00:51:18.993
that's that size they they have enough

00:51:18.993 --> 00:51:26.873
money to to try to throw it at their problems and i think i think in a company

00:51:26.873 --> 00:51:33.073
that's this size when they start maybe failing or not you know having the same

00:51:33.073 --> 00:51:36.253
cult-like following they once did,

00:51:36.613 --> 00:51:41.833
I think they start to invest in the reasons why, and they start to hire experts,

00:51:42.153 --> 00:51:47.313
experts in, you know, this type of research, experts in crash research,

00:51:47.793 --> 00:51:51.373
experts in, you know, market research, experts in demographical research,

00:51:51.533 --> 00:51:55.693
experts in, and then they start to lean on the back of experts.

00:51:56.516 --> 00:52:00.736
And then start to look for that same thing in the people that they hire.

00:52:00.936 --> 00:52:05.856
Oh, well, if we want to hire somebody for sales, we don't want to hire somebody

00:52:05.856 --> 00:52:10.416
for sales that's been a Volkswagen mechanic or technician their whole life that

00:52:10.416 --> 00:52:12.016
could sell freaking anything.

00:52:12.296 --> 00:52:16.996
We're going to go for the young 21-year-old stud that's a fast talker and might

00:52:16.996 --> 00:52:22.236
be marginally morally sound, right? Right.

00:52:23.496 --> 00:52:26.676
It sucks, man. It sucks. But that's what they say.

00:52:27.896 --> 00:52:34.196
Corporate America is it's that it's that back and forth of, you know,

00:52:34.276 --> 00:52:40.076
this 22 year old who's never turned wrenches in the shop is not going to be my boss, but they are.

00:52:40.576 --> 00:52:43.596
It's not a problem that's isolated to Volkswagen for sure. But right.

00:52:44.056 --> 00:52:47.636
Volkswagen sure is like, well, certainly the brand I've seen the most of.

00:52:47.756 --> 00:52:49.876
And, you know, they're become a victim of this problem, too.

00:52:50.336 --> 00:52:54.236
Well, they have enough money to try to solve their problems.

00:52:55.236 --> 00:52:58.456
And unfortunately, I think it takes a little bit of a deeper dive.

00:52:58.636 --> 00:53:02.196
So let me ask your opinion, man, because your perspective is unique.

00:53:02.856 --> 00:53:04.416
Where is Volkswagen headed?

00:53:05.736 --> 00:53:08.996
I see them as a transition, like at a transition point right now.

00:53:09.096 --> 00:53:12.576
They pushed the ID4 and they pushed the ID Buzz and they've got disappointing results.

00:53:12.816 --> 00:53:16.936
They put it in a Super Bowl ad. But actually, if you want to talk afterwards,

00:53:16.936 --> 00:53:20.536
I got some stories I can't tell on here that I'd be happy to share with you.

00:53:20.656 --> 00:53:22.776
But it's honestly going to just be too embarrassing for the brand.

00:53:22.976 --> 00:53:27.736
But anyway, they bought into this EV craze.

00:53:28.156 --> 00:53:31.556
And they did what a lot of other companies kind of try to do sometimes.

00:53:31.556 --> 00:53:37.576
They try to tell their market what they want rather than listening to what their market actually wants.

00:53:37.876 --> 00:53:42.056
Now, you can keep beating that dead horse or you can cut your losses and get

00:53:42.056 --> 00:53:43.636
back to what used to make Volkswagen great.

00:53:44.651 --> 00:53:47.751
I mentioned like, for instance, the new Beetle when it came out.

00:53:48.111 --> 00:53:51.311
Absolute commercial success. Lots of different reasons to buy one.

00:53:51.831 --> 00:53:54.651
You know, it's a lot of people kind of, you know, a lot of like they say young

00:53:54.651 --> 00:53:55.811
girls kind of grew up with them.

00:53:55.951 --> 00:53:59.031
And, you know, maybe as they got older, they kind of grew up and got out of

00:53:59.031 --> 00:54:00.751
them and things like that.

00:54:00.871 --> 00:54:05.951
But if you're going to do a throwback, it should be an improvement over the

00:54:05.951 --> 00:54:07.951
old one, not a step backwards.

00:54:08.711 --> 00:54:11.871
I mean, you can call this, you know, they call a buzz a camper all you want.

00:54:11.871 --> 00:54:15.971
But like, you know, what do they only have, like 250, 300 kilometers of range?

00:54:16.151 --> 00:54:18.471
I mean, you're not, you're not traveling across the country with that,

00:54:18.651 --> 00:54:22.071
you know, would you feel comfortable taking your kids out to the middle of nowhere

00:54:22.071 --> 00:54:26.111
in this thing, knowing that it could die and you might need a diesel generator

00:54:26.111 --> 00:54:28.711
to come? Right, right, right.

00:54:29.371 --> 00:54:33.371
No, no, no. Yeah. So that's interesting too, right?

00:54:33.491 --> 00:54:38.531
Because from the air cooled side, as an old air cooled enthusiast,

00:54:39.151 --> 00:54:43.751
you know, all of us, including you know, I expect problems.

00:54:44.231 --> 00:54:48.391
You know, my car is going to break down, you know, and that's something that

00:54:48.391 --> 00:54:55.171
I sign up for knowing that that's, you know, I drive around a 62 Beetle.

00:54:56.231 --> 00:54:59.411
So it's, it's going to fail. It's going to have problems. It's older.

00:54:59.611 --> 00:55:03.051
Right. So I kind of, and it's interesting because I welcome that.

00:55:03.711 --> 00:55:06.771
Meaning when I say I welcome that, let me dive in.

00:55:06.771 --> 00:55:09.911
I'm not gonna get pissed off at the car and

00:55:09.911 --> 00:55:13.731
say screw you you let me down right because

00:55:13.731 --> 00:55:16.651
fast forward 25 30 years 40

00:55:16.651 --> 00:55:22.491
years with technology through the 80s and 90s and then into the 2000s bringing

00:55:22.491 --> 00:55:26.071
all the way up to where we're at now when a car breaks down on you now you're

00:55:26.071 --> 00:55:30.511
like dude fuck this car I'm gonna trade it in I'm right that's like the that's

00:55:30.511 --> 00:55:34.191
the vibe right yeah it's interesting because,

00:55:35.180 --> 00:55:42.440
I feel like Volkswagen enthusiasts even have thicker skin for this type of environment

00:55:42.440 --> 00:55:46.340
where the car company is going to continue to let them down,

00:55:46.520 --> 00:55:48.720
whatever that looks like. I don't know, man.

00:55:49.080 --> 00:55:51.740
You got to do something, man. Yeah, okay.

00:55:52.540 --> 00:55:57.640
If the CEO of Volkswagen is saying the roof is on fire, like they did a few

00:55:57.640 --> 00:56:00.700
years ago, it needs to be a different strategy.

00:56:01.340 --> 00:56:05.820
Do you think they're ever going to get back to building cars that just have

00:56:05.820 --> 00:56:07.020
heart and soul and that's it?

00:56:08.340 --> 00:56:13.260
They certainly could. I mean, they tried their heart out at building cars the corporate way.

00:56:13.340 --> 00:56:16.540
What makes sense on paper, you know, small, medium, and large SUV,

00:56:16.840 --> 00:56:20.200
scale of one to five surveys. It has not worked out.

00:56:20.920 --> 00:56:25.620
It was Thomas Schaefer who said in, let's see, Thomas Schaefer,

00:56:25.760 --> 00:56:29.560
the roof is on fire statement in 2023 and a declining stock price since 2021.

00:56:30.140 --> 00:56:34.540
It's not working. Right? I mean, the cars they're building, even if the issues

00:56:34.540 --> 00:56:38.860
were covered under warranty, is showing their customers that the old VW quality isn't there anymore.

00:56:39.280 --> 00:56:42.020
People are seeing that and is driving them away from the brand.

00:56:42.180 --> 00:56:46.800
I would bet my heart and soul that a lot of people who are, you know,

00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:50.880
say driving a 2023-ish Tiguan or a Taos or something like that,

00:56:51.120 --> 00:56:53.760
probably aren't going to consider a Volkswagen as their next car.

00:56:54.140 --> 00:56:57.540
They've lost faith in the brand. And honestly, I can't blame them.

00:56:58.407 --> 00:57:01.327
Can you imagine putting a head gasket on a car with 50,000 kilometers on it?

00:57:01.767 --> 00:57:04.907
That's crazy. I mean, Volkswagen didn't even really have head gaskets in the

00:57:04.907 --> 00:57:08.147
air-cooled days, and they seemed to have it all figured out by the Mark IV era,

00:57:08.207 --> 00:57:10.427
and now we're taking a step back from that.

00:57:11.407 --> 00:57:15.987
Valve seal problems, things like that. This is something you see on Japanese cars or American stuff.

00:57:16.147 --> 00:57:19.987
Yeah, I was going to say, that's the issue with some of the,

00:57:19.987 --> 00:57:24.467
I guess, repairs or the demands that technology creates, right?

00:57:24.467 --> 00:57:27.687
You make all these improvements, over improvements, keep improving,

00:57:27.847 --> 00:57:30.947
keep improving, got to make it better, got to make it, you know,

00:57:31.087 --> 00:57:33.167
more efficient, more, more, more, more.

00:57:33.587 --> 00:57:37.867
This is what happens when you keep doing that. And I'm okay with innovation.

00:57:37.887 --> 00:57:40.067
I'm okay with technology. I am.

00:57:40.587 --> 00:57:47.067
But I guess if you're, if you don't stop long enough to kind of wallow around

00:57:47.067 --> 00:57:51.607
in the success around you and you keep manipulating and constantly changing,

00:57:51.627 --> 00:57:53.447
then there's really never a ground floor.

00:57:54.287 --> 00:57:57.727
And I think my opinion is that's what Volkswagen needs again.

00:57:57.907 --> 00:58:01.667
They need to ground themselves. They need that ground floor again,

00:58:01.667 --> 00:58:07.527
and then work on the base of something that is successful that's working again.

00:58:07.707 --> 00:58:13.507
We're trying to change stuff every what feels like every every email every week, right? Yeah.

00:58:14.440 --> 00:58:18.420
Absolutely. 100%. I mean, uh, I think, I think it's maybe also a lot of like,

00:58:18.540 --> 00:58:22.220
you know, a lot of these people who are designing cars and making decisions

00:58:22.220 --> 00:58:23.600
like that, they seem to bounce around a lot.

00:58:23.680 --> 00:58:27.820
Like, like I mentioned, Pierre Boutin is no longer the CEO of VW Canada.

00:58:28.360 --> 00:58:32.600
I think he's, uh, they shipped them off to VW Ireland. We have another one now.

00:58:32.840 --> 00:58:34.720
I don't, I'm not sure that even the name of the current one,

00:58:34.860 --> 00:58:38.420
like these guys seem to bounce around so much that you can't even like go down

00:58:38.420 --> 00:58:41.480
a direction long enough before staff kind of changes.

00:58:41.480 --> 00:58:45.420
And okay, this person's got this side And we never get to a solid conclusion

00:58:45.420 --> 00:58:50.360
of anything This is the best we can kind of mash up that we can do here And

00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:53.700
that's kind of what I'm talking about on the tech now For sure Yeah,

00:58:53.920 --> 00:58:57.900
it's from the top all the way down,

00:58:58.360 --> 00:59:02.080
So what if you were in charge?

00:59:03.160 --> 00:59:07.000
Absolutely What would you change tomorrow if you were in charge?

00:59:07.080 --> 00:59:08.340
What's the first thing you'd change?

00:59:09.237 --> 00:59:12.097
It starts with the product. You can market, you can advertise,

00:59:12.097 --> 00:59:13.277
you can do whatever you want.

00:59:13.577 --> 00:59:16.797
It starts with the product. The first thing I would do is bring back the golf

00:59:16.797 --> 00:59:20.457
to North America. I mean, now that's insane that you can't just buy a baseline golf.

00:59:21.017 --> 00:59:23.897
And if you want to do a throwback like the Buzz, do the golf.

00:59:24.357 --> 00:59:28.717
There was an AI generated image that somebody made of a retro looking Mark II

00:59:28.717 --> 00:59:31.497
version of the Mark VIII. I'm sure you've probably seen that, right?

00:59:31.857 --> 00:59:34.957
I thought that was great. Yeah, I just, I've seen a couple.

00:59:35.457 --> 00:59:38.737
I've seen one that was a Carmen Ghia too. And I'm like, yeah,

00:59:38.977 --> 00:59:44.017
it was a really cool AI version.

00:59:44.217 --> 00:59:48.177
They even showed the interior with technology. You know, I'm like, get out of here.

00:59:48.437 --> 00:59:53.077
You know, I like when, when that kind of technology hits, that's kind of fun

00:59:53.077 --> 00:59:55.177
to see that and dream that up, you know?

00:59:56.277 --> 00:59:59.177
Absolutely. I think something like that would do very well as a golf,

00:59:59.437 --> 01:00:02.717
right? It's still a practical car underneath, right? It's not trying to do anything different.

01:00:03.357 --> 01:00:06.577
It's just trying to be a car that maybe has a retro vibe to it.

01:00:06.577 --> 01:00:09.857
If you could do a little bit more aggressive look for the GTI and Golf R,

01:00:10.157 --> 01:00:14.377
maybe a simple, naturally aspirated option just for the baseline Golf.

01:00:14.937 --> 01:00:19.397
But this is important. A belt-driven 2-liter T with a manual option,

01:00:19.437 --> 01:00:22.857
the GTI and R, maybe quad rounds on the R or something like that.

01:00:23.337 --> 01:00:26.557
You know, VW does not have a great track record with, let's say,

01:00:26.657 --> 01:00:29.237
four-cylinder chains. They seem to have it all figured out in the VR.

01:00:29.437 --> 01:00:32.757
I mean, I got no problem doing chains on a car with 300,000 kilometers on it.

01:00:32.877 --> 01:00:34.357
Right. And it gives you lots of warning.

01:00:34.517 --> 01:00:37.497
It kind of rattles or whatever. It's not going to blow up on you like the,

01:00:37.497 --> 01:00:39.817
you know, like the, what the gen one TSI's did.

01:00:40.337 --> 01:00:43.257
But I'd much rather have a belt service than, you know, and have to deal with,

01:00:43.357 --> 01:00:45.197
oh no, will my car have no compression today?

01:00:45.657 --> 01:00:47.837
It's not like some of them, some of them used to fail on shutdown.

01:00:48.017 --> 01:00:50.157
Like that was, you know, you got to where you're going, shut it down.

01:00:50.297 --> 01:00:53.137
Everything's fine. You come back, you got nothing. I mean, that was,

01:00:53.217 --> 01:00:54.477
that was a pretty wild time.

01:00:55.328 --> 01:00:58.148
But it would also, a belt-driven engine would also bring business,

01:00:58.148 --> 01:01:01.008
people that, like, bring business back to the dealership.

01:01:01.168 --> 01:01:03.268
And I don't think people would have too big of a problem with that.

01:01:03.368 --> 01:01:05.668
No one seemed to have an issue getting their timing belt done.

01:01:05.728 --> 01:01:06.948
It was the first thing people told you.

01:01:07.168 --> 01:01:10.528
Oh, I bought my 180 or whatever. Find out when the timing belt was done.

01:01:10.708 --> 01:01:12.728
Get it done. Not everyone can do them.

01:01:13.168 --> 01:01:15.468
I mean, that would bring business back to the dealership. And,

01:01:15.568 --> 01:01:19.208
you know, Volkswagen has proven you can, you know, they can build a belt-driven

01:01:19.208 --> 01:01:22.028
engine that doesn't seem to have, you know, all kinds of crazy problems with

01:01:22.028 --> 01:01:25.008
it. or at the very least gives you a heads up when something's going to be a

01:01:25.008 --> 01:01:27.328
problem or service intervals or anything.

01:01:27.848 --> 01:01:31.288
I think that would be a great thing for the brand. I think definitely put eyes

01:01:31.288 --> 01:01:35.768
on the brand, definitely put eyes that maybe have moved away from the brand back on the brand.

01:01:36.048 --> 01:01:39.988
And definitely people would buy it just for the look of it. And then you'd have

01:01:39.988 --> 01:01:42.888
to come back to get it serviced. I think that's a win all around.

01:01:43.608 --> 01:01:48.368
So you mentioned in the past that you've got some wild stories from your time

01:01:48.368 --> 01:01:54.028
in the shops and in the dealerships, what can you share with me that maybe never

01:01:54.028 --> 01:01:56.508
fails to blow people's minds?

01:01:57.336 --> 01:02:02.256
I got a few. We had we had one guy come in once in the old days and my dad was still around.

01:02:02.816 --> 01:02:07.856
And in the middle of the day, he expected us to kind of drop everything and look at his car.

01:02:07.996 --> 01:02:11.076
We told him if he left the car, we could take a look at it in a bit.

01:02:11.156 --> 01:02:15.156
But that was not good enough. He kind of, you know, he didn't like that. He kind of hung around.

01:02:15.396 --> 01:02:18.856
He's kind of bothering us. And when one of our guys went out to his car just

01:02:18.856 --> 01:02:20.536
to grab something, this guy followed him.

01:02:21.256 --> 01:02:25.376
And on his way back with whatever he was grabbing, this guy stepped in front of this guy.

01:02:25.376 --> 01:02:29.716
They started screaming at each other and our guy leaned back and spat in this man's face.

01:02:30.876 --> 01:02:34.016
Now now how could you have a worse customer experience than

01:02:34.016 --> 01:02:36.696
that right they just yell at each other for a minute

01:02:36.696 --> 01:02:41.276
finally this guy gets in his car you know does a burnout and leaves not a single

01:02:41.276 --> 01:02:46.896
bad google review no smashed windows never saw that dude again what come and

01:02:46.896 --> 01:02:51.256
gone yeah that was the end of that i mean that that would not fly today obviously

01:02:51.256 --> 01:02:56.196
yeah one time when i Early on when I started kind of running the family business,

01:02:56.556 --> 01:03:00.676
a guy with a newer at the time, Audi Q7, came in to talk to me about working on his car.

01:03:01.116 --> 01:03:05.596
And as I'm assuring him, yep, absolutely no problem. We can handle whatever you need.

01:03:05.816 --> 01:03:10.736
Over my shoulder, without me noticing, my apprentice had just set a car on fire

01:03:10.736 --> 01:03:13.556
while he was trying to set up some seized coilovers.

01:03:13.636 --> 01:03:17.716
Like he's trying to heat up these old jobs or Graceland or whatever they were.

01:03:17.856 --> 01:03:21.676
But the car was on fire enough that he needed a fire extinguisher. and

01:03:21.676 --> 01:03:24.696
you're like everything is under control sir

01:03:24.696 --> 01:03:27.456
don't you worry we're gonna do this and that in

01:03:27.456 --> 01:03:34.176
the background there's this big fire yeah 100 um i had a i had a lady once try

01:03:34.176 --> 01:03:39.456
so i diagnosed her car i caught her on the repair fixed the car and she comes

01:03:39.456 --> 01:03:42.636
in to pay and i guess her and her husband they're kind of hippies or whatever

01:03:42.636 --> 01:03:45.976
and they got these like holistic socks so she's trying to trade me socks this.

01:03:46.992 --> 01:03:50.012
For a repair like come on socks like

01:03:50.012 --> 01:03:52.752
you agreed to the price here like what are you trying to push these socks on me

01:03:52.752 --> 01:03:55.692
i had a crazy homeless lady singing in my office

01:03:55.692 --> 01:03:58.472
once she asked if after a while she asked if she could

01:03:58.472 --> 01:04:01.332
work for me and i said no but my competition down the

01:04:01.332 --> 01:04:05.272
street is hiring and i watched her like she started yeah the

01:04:05.272 --> 01:04:08.532
singer entertainment for the customers or something right right

01:04:08.532 --> 01:04:11.452
one saturday after work a

01:04:11.452 --> 01:04:14.332
guy walked into the office in in coveralls and asked

01:04:14.332 --> 01:04:17.772
if we knew we could find the volcom stone of tampena and

01:04:17.772 --> 01:04:20.592
we're all like we had no we had no idea what you're talking about so of course

01:04:20.592 --> 01:04:26.832
he also asked me oh well are you guys hiring oh no we're not hiring yes dude

01:04:26.832 --> 01:04:30.552
goes out he's like okay no problem calmly goes outside you know it's all snow

01:04:30.552 --> 01:04:34.992
around he rips off these coil these overalls throws them in the snow bank and

01:04:34.992 --> 01:04:36.932
just full sprints up the street.

01:04:37.954 --> 01:04:42.534
And that was the last time we saw that dude. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah.

01:04:42.754 --> 01:04:44.374
Okay. Those are some wild stories.

01:04:44.874 --> 01:04:50.754
I got, I got maybe one. Okay. I got one more. I got to be careful how I word this one. Okay.

01:04:51.154 --> 01:04:55.954
So we had, so there was maybe, there was two main parts companies that we used

01:04:55.954 --> 01:04:59.514
to buy off, like aftermarket or third party or whatever you want to call it.

01:05:00.054 --> 01:05:03.154
And they, they used to send out their parts reps. You know, they kind of,

01:05:03.234 --> 01:05:07.274
they'd give you, they'd give you a hard time for buying from the other guy and things like that.

01:05:07.274 --> 01:05:12.334
Oh you should have bought off us this and that well this probably the most respectable

01:05:12.334 --> 01:05:16.774
company their their parts rep started kind of coming around and saying some

01:05:16.774 --> 01:05:21.074
some odd stuff and things like that i mean i messed with him he i asked about

01:05:21.074 --> 01:05:23.554
two liter turbo like tsi timing chain tools,

01:05:24.274 --> 01:05:27.874
and told him i found a better deal off a cool truck which really shouldn't happen,

01:05:28.494 --> 01:05:32.234
and he said no no no mine's ast ast is a good tool brand if you don't know i

01:05:32.234 --> 01:05:35.214
guarantee the one you bought it's not and when it showed up sure enough it wasn't

01:05:35.214 --> 01:05:41.474
i still use them today they They were fine tools, but I printed out an AST sticker and I put it on it.

01:05:41.654 --> 01:05:44.774
So when he came, I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. It says AST right there.

01:05:44.994 --> 01:05:48.054
This guy gets on the phone and he's screaming at somebody.

01:05:49.054 --> 01:05:51.974
How did he find this for this cheap? That's less than what we get it for.

01:05:52.634 --> 01:05:56.414
Anyway, this guy kind of went crazy. He, while still being employed for the

01:05:56.414 --> 01:05:59.374
company and to his credit, this was right before COVID.

01:05:59.754 --> 01:06:02.914
He said a pandemic was coming. I got it. I got to give him credit for that.

01:06:03.514 --> 01:06:07.394
And he called, he called the pandemic was coming. he said it's gonna be the

01:06:07.394 --> 01:06:11.254
end of the world and blah blah blah blah and you have to eat his special jam.

01:06:12.235 --> 01:06:15.975
If you don't eat a special jam, you're not going to make it into the new world

01:06:15.975 --> 01:06:18.995
or something like that. Was it like gummy berry juice or something?

01:06:19.595 --> 01:06:22.415
I never thought. He never offered it to me.

01:06:22.555 --> 01:06:26.475
He must have thought I was, you know, not somebody he wanted in his new world

01:06:26.475 --> 01:06:27.635
or whatever was going on.

01:06:27.915 --> 01:06:30.855
Yeah. You made it outside of the circle, Greg.

01:06:31.195 --> 01:06:35.475
That's what I, he went to the competition. He went to the people he told me not to buy parts off of.

01:06:35.515 --> 01:06:37.815
And he's like, yo, man, you're, you and your family, you have to drink my,

01:06:37.895 --> 01:06:39.335
or you have to eat my special jam here.

01:06:40.035 --> 01:06:43.195
What? Crap, dude. he was all right

01:06:43.195 --> 01:06:46.155
i know i know that's true i

01:06:46.155 --> 01:06:48.835
phoned i phoned the parts company and i told him like you

01:06:48.835 --> 01:06:51.695
know your parts reps running around telling everyone eat like special jam

01:06:51.695 --> 01:06:54.535
here and i got the nicest guy in the world he used

01:06:54.535 --> 01:06:57.295
to be a parts guy one of the vw dealers nearby he's the

01:06:57.295 --> 01:07:00.075
most non-confrontational person ever i

01:07:00.075 --> 01:07:02.835
was hoping to get someone a little bit more fired up and i was like look he's

01:07:02.835 --> 01:07:06.295
going around telling everyone he's a special jam to save their lives but

01:07:06.295 --> 01:07:09.115
he never came to me he went to your competition because he clearly wants

01:07:09.115 --> 01:07:11.875
your competition around but he never came to me do do i not get

01:07:11.875 --> 01:07:14.695
to be a part of your new world do you know all my business and this

01:07:14.695 --> 01:07:17.875
i'm just being a jerk you know and this poor oh yeah

01:07:17.875 --> 01:07:20.775
we we know he's saying that we he's technically

01:07:20.775 --> 01:07:23.895
my boss so i i can't really do anything about it

01:07:23.895 --> 01:07:29.895
so i'm really sorry man this dude what in the hell i i want to know what was

01:07:29.895 --> 01:07:34.355
in that jelly i don't know i want nothing to do with the special jam we made

01:07:34.355 --> 01:07:42.595
it through covid yeah i wonder if i wonder what was in it you know And he predicted the pandemic.

01:07:42.595 --> 01:07:45.075
He said a world-ending pandemic was coming.

01:07:45.175 --> 01:07:48.215
I got to give him that. He was right that a pandemic was coming.

01:07:49.190 --> 01:07:51.950
There's a little bit more to that story, but I don't think I want to share that

01:07:51.950 --> 01:07:53.890
publicly. You never saw him again?

01:07:54.710 --> 01:07:57.430
He was the rep for like a few more weeks. He kept coming around.

01:07:57.530 --> 01:07:59.630
He kept talking a little bit crazier and a little bit crazier.

01:07:59.930 --> 01:08:01.530
Did he get COVID by chance?

01:08:02.250 --> 01:08:06.530
What's that? Did he get COVID? I don't know. I don't know if he made it.

01:08:06.930 --> 01:08:10.170
I won't say anymore. I'm not sure. Okay. All right.

01:08:10.690 --> 01:08:16.430
All right. Let's fast forward a little bit. If you were to write a book Or a

01:08:16.430 --> 01:08:22.210
TV series On all the experience that you have On Volkswagen What would the title be?

01:08:22.810 --> 01:08:28.090
Service line one I kind of promised somebody that would be the title And I kind

01:08:28.090 --> 01:08:31.490
of like it A few people I pitched it to thought it was pretty good I need a

01:08:31.490 --> 01:08:36.950
little bit of help I tried kind of writing all these stories down And it's just story,

01:08:36.950 --> 01:08:41.370
story, story, story I need some help to make it a show Make it a I got some

01:08:41.370 --> 01:08:47.270
rapid fire questions Alright These are questions that demand Somewhat of a fast

01:08:47.270 --> 01:08:52.430
answer And like I say all the time If a story comes out of it Cool But if it

01:08:52.430 --> 01:08:56.150
doesn't Also cool It's all good Right Okay Ready.

01:08:57.697 --> 01:09:03.817
All right. First rapid fire question. Air cooled or water cooled? If you had to choose one.

01:09:04.397 --> 01:09:07.057
Water cooled, but with a healthy respect for the air cooled stuff.

01:09:07.677 --> 01:09:09.837
Okay. Okay. All good. All good.

01:09:10.797 --> 01:09:16.117
Favorite VW model of all time. I got to go with the Corrado, man. My first car.

01:09:16.797 --> 01:09:20.977
Wow. I don't think they've made anything quite as good looking as the Corrado to me.

01:09:21.177 --> 01:09:25.477
A little bit of ahead of its time, like a pop-up spoiler. I mean, that's. I remember it.

01:09:26.557 --> 01:09:32.117
It was fantastic i'm smiling maybe not with a g60 anymore i don't know how about

01:09:32.117 --> 01:09:38.557
least favorite car well least favorite model that vw model that you ever worked on,

01:09:39.077 --> 01:09:43.097
hands down euro vans euro van i don't understand them i don't get them,

01:09:44.617 --> 01:09:48.157
they're just kind of their own animal they came in those weird five cylinders

01:09:48.157 --> 01:09:51.057
they came in that diesel that was a little bit different if i remember right,

01:09:52.116 --> 01:09:54.536
They were an odd one to work on for sure. You had to know what you were doing.

01:09:54.656 --> 01:09:58.096
And I didn't work on enough of them to really be an expert on them.

01:09:58.516 --> 01:10:00.056
All right. How about this one?

01:10:01.776 --> 01:10:07.276
Most underrated, not overrated, underrated VW engine. Too slow.

01:10:08.096 --> 01:10:11.456
Hands down too slow. Everyone says you can't make power out of them, this and that.

01:10:11.576 --> 01:10:15.536
But, like, man, you got a solid, good running car that's going to get you from

01:10:15.536 --> 01:10:18.616
A to B. And if anything goes wrong with it, you can easily repair it.

01:10:19.296 --> 01:10:23.876
How about opposite end of that spectrum? most overhyped most

01:10:23.876 --> 01:10:26.656
over w8 w8 hands down

01:10:26.656 --> 01:10:29.296
w8 w8 why do the

01:10:29.296 --> 01:10:32.316
kids talk about it like oh that's a passat w8 oh my goodness and

01:10:32.316 --> 01:10:35.076
you get into them they're not fast they're not

01:10:35.076 --> 01:10:37.836
reliable they're horrible to work on if you want a

01:10:37.836 --> 01:10:40.676
v8 in a vw product i mean i almost

01:10:40.676 --> 01:10:43.676
hate to say this too but the 4.2 is a far better engine that

01:10:43.676 --> 01:10:46.496
comes in an audi in my opinion i did

01:10:46.496 --> 01:10:49.236
change on one not too long ago i mean it's it's a hell

01:10:49.236 --> 01:10:52.236
of a job but you know i'll take that over a w8 any

01:10:52.236 --> 01:10:55.656
day my wife has an a5 we love

01:10:55.656 --> 01:10:58.516
we love the audi it's i think it just holds you

01:10:58.516 --> 01:11:01.576
it's a two liter no dude oh

01:11:01.576 --> 01:11:04.416
it's turbo yeah yeah that'd be sick an eight

01:11:04.416 --> 01:11:07.036
and that little little thing well the

01:11:07.036 --> 01:11:09.836
s for the s4s the early s4s came in them and that's that

01:11:09.836 --> 01:11:12.856
was that b8 that's a that's a beautiful sounding

01:11:12.856 --> 01:11:16.816
car as it leaves you they're quick

01:11:16.816 --> 01:11:22.996
too we we like it we like it she loves it i like a old like my smoked meats

01:11:22.996 --> 01:11:30.196
low and slow that's how i like to roll all right how about this one dream road

01:11:30.196 --> 01:11:35.996
trip any car any vw any year where are you going and what car are you taking.

01:11:36.866 --> 01:11:39.506
Oof i have to this be an odd one to

01:11:39.506 --> 01:11:42.286
say but i'll say the realta if you know what that is the the big

01:11:42.286 --> 01:11:45.106
camper thing they made with the vr6 in it i think

01:11:45.106 --> 01:11:48.286
that's perfect you got everything you need with you you don't need to stay in hotels you

01:11:48.286 --> 01:11:51.786
know it's got everything you need it's okay to work on they weren't too bad

01:11:51.786 --> 01:11:55.686
it's got everything you need where to go you know i'll come down to where you

01:11:55.686 --> 01:11:59.946
are man hey man i'll come down i'll come down to florida yeah come to the beach

01:11:59.946 --> 01:12:03.806
we'll we'll have you come to the beach and we got i love going to the states

01:12:03.806 --> 01:12:05.486
man i might put you to work.

01:12:05.666 --> 01:12:07.806
The States is so nice. We're supposed to be the polite Canadians.

01:12:07.946 --> 01:12:10.766
Whenever I go to the States, everyone is way nicer than they are up here.

01:12:11.446 --> 01:12:15.786
I get on a plane or do a road trip. Everyone's nicer by the time I get off the

01:12:15.786 --> 01:12:17.266
plane or, you know, get to where I'm going.

01:12:17.726 --> 01:12:21.046
Especially if you come here. Why? Because, well, we're like,

01:12:21.186 --> 01:12:25.066
kind of like a hospitality kind of capital, you know, Tampa, St.

01:12:25.166 --> 01:12:29.686
Pete, Clearwater, this kind of West coast of Florida, Central Florida, a little segment.

01:12:30.346 --> 01:12:34.066
Clearwater is probably, you know, the top rated beaches in the world.

01:12:34.706 --> 01:12:38.946
St. Pete Beach is among probably in the top five beaches in the world.

01:12:39.266 --> 01:12:43.466
In the world. And then the tourism here is off the chain.

01:12:43.646 --> 01:12:47.426
So it's kind of like this melting pot of people.

01:12:47.646 --> 01:12:51.006
So what you're saying is very accurate. They're very nice.

01:12:51.286 --> 01:12:54.486
They're very nice here. They're very accommodating. They're very,

01:12:54.646 --> 01:12:58.906
because it's almost like, what can I think compared to? It would be like for

01:12:58.906 --> 01:13:00.506
tourism purposes, it would be

01:13:00.506 --> 01:13:04.946
like a Dubai where, you know, the tourism actually drives the community.

01:13:05.166 --> 01:13:09.046
So when you're a tourist and you're at these tourist attractions,

01:13:09.506 --> 01:13:11.326
everybody's nice. Everybody's.

01:13:11.866 --> 01:13:15.826
Yeah, that's good service. That's what we do down here. I grew up like that.

01:13:16.566 --> 01:13:19.766
For sure. That's Southern hospitality. I mean, everyone here in Ontario seems

01:13:19.766 --> 01:13:23.246
like they're kind of everyone's very adversarial. I don't know. I don't know.

01:13:24.308 --> 01:13:28.388
It's the cold. I don't know. I can't figure it out, but everyone's super nice.

01:13:28.468 --> 01:13:32.108
I go to Georgia every year for AVF and everyone's super nice down there.

01:13:32.248 --> 01:13:33.688
Everyone's like, Oh, you're from Canada.

01:13:33.868 --> 01:13:36.508
Really from Canada. They got a million questions for you.

01:13:37.508 --> 01:13:39.268
Tell me about your healthcare.

01:13:40.788 --> 01:13:43.108
Well, that's the first thing that comes. How do you like, how do you like your

01:13:43.108 --> 01:13:46.428
free healthcare for it's first of all, it's not free and you pay for it in your taxes.

01:13:46.668 --> 01:13:51.728
And if you need it, it's not there. And I got that's, that's not like ours.

01:13:52.308 --> 01:13:53.828
Yeah. Sounds like ours then.

01:13:54.988 --> 01:14:00.808
On that note, what's harder to fix? A bad design or bad management?

01:14:01.508 --> 01:14:05.768
Management. Management sets the mentality for everyone else.

01:14:06.928 --> 01:14:11.428
One manager is not great. He affects everyone who is under that umbrella.

01:14:12.528 --> 01:14:17.028
Designs change all the time. We see designs change all the time, for better or for worse.

01:14:18.408 --> 01:14:22.168
Let's say this looming thing that we keep talking about Volkswagen that seems

01:14:22.168 --> 01:14:26.028
to have them like, you know, in a just perpetual downturn is,

01:14:26.208 --> 01:14:27.548
you know, it's a management problem.

01:14:27.768 --> 01:14:30.468
Management needs to acknowledge that. First of all, he's acknowledged that there's

01:14:30.468 --> 01:14:32.788
an issue and come up with a plan to fix it.

01:14:33.328 --> 01:14:39.288
And they don't seem to do that. Do you guys in the market, Ontario market there,

01:14:39.448 --> 01:14:41.068
do you guys have VW shows?

01:14:41.688 --> 01:14:48.188
Like for a little person, do you go to any of them? I do not go to any Canadian shows anymore. Okay.

01:14:49.108 --> 01:14:53.708
Literally AVF is the only show I even like consider going to okay it's just

01:14:53.708 --> 01:14:58.688
it's not my vibe it's not my scene anymore they're like I don't know they get

01:14:58.688 --> 01:15:01.748
they get a little rowdier here which is which is fine if that's what you want

01:15:01.748 --> 01:15:04.568
but it seems like it's the same cars everybody feels like they already know

01:15:04.568 --> 01:15:08.108
everything I don't know it's just I don't have a good time there anymore,

01:15:09.031 --> 01:15:12.431
I don't want to mention any chosen specifically because I'll get some backlash

01:15:12.431 --> 01:15:15.911
for it, but it's not what it used to be. I used to have a blast.

01:15:16.271 --> 01:15:19.451
There's one, there's like the longest running kind of air-cooled show around here.

01:15:19.971 --> 01:15:25.171
There was the jitterbug in Niagara Falls and the bug out, which isn't too far from me.

01:15:25.731 --> 01:15:29.631
I haven't been in a long time, but I've heard numbers are kind of dwindling,

01:15:30.391 --> 01:15:32.691
unfortunately. Yeah, it's too bad, man.

01:15:33.631 --> 01:15:36.091
They're disappearing. They used to be a lot more common. You used to see them

01:15:36.091 --> 01:15:39.971
on the streets a lot. But now it's like, oh, man, you see a bus going by. What is this guy doing?

01:15:40.531 --> 01:15:45.151
Right, right, right. Yeah, that kind of adds to, I don't know,

01:15:45.291 --> 01:15:47.331
to me, it's like it makes it cooler.

01:15:47.551 --> 01:15:52.491
It makes me want more, right? But your perspective is accurate.

01:15:52.611 --> 01:15:56.991
As these cars are getting older and the people that own them are getting older

01:15:56.991 --> 01:16:02.111
and even dying off, there's less attraction toward these older cars.

01:16:02.111 --> 01:16:06.551
So what's happening and you see it all the time now is you'll see a car that

01:16:06.551 --> 01:16:09.391
was maybe frame off or stored 25 years ago.

01:16:09.531 --> 01:16:11.811
That's sad for the last 15 years.

01:16:12.131 --> 01:16:15.771
And it's, you know, all its spots and whatever it's, you know,

01:16:15.851 --> 01:16:20.351
a lot of the shits come back and, you know, rust and it hasn't run and it's locked up.

01:16:20.431 --> 01:16:23.171
And so, you know, you can find them and get good pricing on them.

01:16:23.611 --> 01:16:27.711
Anyway, man, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole yet again.

01:16:28.071 --> 01:16:35.431
Tell me this. Tell me this. Give me some advice for young technicians that are

01:16:35.431 --> 01:16:41.411
entering the automotive industry that don't have any bad habits yet,

01:16:41.851 --> 01:16:47.991
that haven't seen the corruption, that haven't seen dieselgate,

01:16:48.151 --> 01:16:52.371
that haven't had to deal with the customers slash the problems.

01:16:52.651 --> 01:16:56.631
What's advice that you have for them? Yeah.

01:16:57.095 --> 01:17:02.715
Besides don't do this for a living. What if they want to? What if they want to?

01:17:03.275 --> 01:17:08.135
They're like you. They love working with their hands. You know, they, yeah.

01:17:08.835 --> 01:17:12.695
I got a kid who actually works with me now. This is kind of the big advice that

01:17:12.695 --> 01:17:18.395
I try to instill in him is do not let those tool truck people plunge you into

01:17:18.395 --> 01:17:19.555
debt earlier in your career.

01:17:20.675 --> 01:17:24.455
Buy some cheaper tools. You guys have Harbor Freight. We have Princess Auto.

01:17:24.935 --> 01:17:28.175
Stock up on that too. You have one of everything as you break them.

01:17:28.435 --> 01:17:31.135
If you notice there's something you're breaking a fair bit, because they all

01:17:31.135 --> 01:17:33.775
have lifetime warranty anyway. Right. You keep breaking something.

01:17:34.395 --> 01:17:37.015
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They're going to hook you up too, man. They're great.

01:17:37.075 --> 01:17:39.275
And I agree with you. Yeah. No, that's good advice.

01:17:40.035 --> 01:17:42.695
As you start, once you notice what you're using and what you're breaking,

01:17:43.035 --> 01:17:46.195
then you can buy the expensive stuff. Let those tool truck guys get you.

01:17:46.595 --> 01:17:52.055
Rewind the clock to the late 90s, finish in high school. I don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

01:17:52.415 --> 01:17:55.635
I go and take a class for marine mechanics.

01:17:56.055 --> 01:18:00.575
At the Clearwater P-TECH campus here, and I start working on boats.

01:18:00.995 --> 01:18:08.215
A week or so on my new job as a marine rigger, I had completed 350 hours through

01:18:08.215 --> 01:18:11.855
this course. I got certified. I got a job and I started working.

01:18:12.155 --> 01:18:15.735
I'm three weeks in the field and here comes the snap-on truck.

01:18:18.535 --> 01:18:24.495
Oh, dude. So now, you know, I'm six months in the snap on trucks getting like

01:18:24.495 --> 01:18:27.235
240 bucks a week out of my check.

01:18:27.375 --> 01:18:32.015
I'm only making 800 bucks a week minus taxes or, you know, whatever back then.

01:18:33.199 --> 01:18:37.239
Slave driving 20 hours overtime a week, et cetera. And this dude's getting,

01:18:37.239 --> 01:18:40.959
you know, a quarter of my check, maybe a little more.

01:18:41.459 --> 01:18:47.619
So when you said that, I just kind of smiled inside. I'm like, those damn tool trucks.

01:18:47.859 --> 01:18:50.579
They, good advice though. That's what they're trained to do.

01:18:50.699 --> 01:18:53.159
I mean, anytime you want to ask about something, oh, I can't tell you,

01:18:53.219 --> 01:18:56.519
we have to come on the truck, get you on the truck. You start looking at things.

01:18:56.599 --> 01:18:57.739
That's what they're trained to do.

01:18:58.019 --> 01:19:01.219
They tell these young guys all the time, like, oh man, if you're going to be

01:19:01.219 --> 01:19:04.239
a professional, If you're going to be taken seriously and you have to buy my

01:19:04.239 --> 01:19:10.159
snap on toolbox or you have to buy my actual, you get, you get a lot of mostly from the snap on guys.

01:19:10.239 --> 01:19:14.279
I don't, I don't, I don't want to rag on them too much, but those are the big ones.

01:19:14.659 --> 01:19:18.119
Yeah. Yeah. I always tend to be the snap on guy telling you how your career

01:19:18.119 --> 01:19:20.739
is going to go with, you know, this is, this is the stepping point.

01:19:20.859 --> 01:19:22.719
That's going to launch your career into the stratosphere.

01:19:23.459 --> 01:19:26.799
If you, uh, you know, pay me 50 bucks a week for the rest of your life.

01:19:27.819 --> 01:19:34.099
Yeah. I remember those days as a struggling technician, hoping for the best,

01:19:34.239 --> 01:19:41.759
and I'm spending buku bucks on basic hand tools, basic hand tools.

01:19:42.479 --> 01:19:46.639
Yeah, but anyway, listen, man, this has been awesome. I appreciate you sharing

01:19:46.639 --> 01:19:51.959
your decades of experience and insider perspective with us.

01:19:52.679 --> 01:19:55.839
If anybody wants to get in touch with you or

01:19:55.839 --> 01:19:59.519
anything like that i can put your information in

01:19:59.519 --> 01:20:02.399
the notes of the podcast but yeah any

01:20:02.399 --> 01:20:05.699
enthusiasts if anybody wants to touch base do you have any shout outs or anything

01:20:05.699 --> 01:20:10.279
that you want to give to anybody this would be a right time one shout out andy

01:20:10.279 --> 01:20:15.519
and val that i met in at abf they're from puerto rico i'm from canada we meet

01:20:15.519 --> 01:20:19.579
in the middle of the states every year cool they're great people we look forward to seeing them.

01:20:21.019 --> 01:20:21.979
Other than that,

01:20:22.832 --> 01:20:27.812
What if anybody wants to get in touch with you? Are you on social media? Are you on Instagram?

01:20:28.232 --> 01:20:32.552
Or are you just like, hey, nah, I'm good. I'll stay behind the scenes.

01:20:33.312 --> 01:20:36.792
No, no. Wolfgang Stein on Instagram. Always happy to meet new people.

01:20:36.952 --> 01:20:40.452
It's not a problem. Say it again. Wolfgang Stein with a three.

01:20:41.692 --> 01:20:44.592
Wolfgang Stein with a three. Spell it. Yep.

01:20:45.332 --> 01:20:52.052
W-O-L-F-G-A-N-G-S-T-3-I-N. Okay. Got it.

01:20:52.552 --> 01:20:56.832
Cool, man. And that's a wrap for this episode of Dub Life Diaries.

01:20:57.172 --> 01:21:00.872
Thanks for riding along with us and diving into these incredible stories of

01:21:00.872 --> 01:21:02.912
the people in the dub that drive their dreams.

01:21:03.192 --> 01:21:07.752
If you loved today's episode, don't forget to subscribe or hit that follow button

01:21:07.752 --> 01:21:09.072
so you never miss an adventure.

01:21:09.332 --> 01:21:14.032
Do you have a story to tell or know somebody else who's living the dub life? Awesome.

01:21:14.312 --> 01:21:18.192
Reach out to us. You can find us on all socials at Dub Life Diaries.

01:21:18.332 --> 01:21:21.112
Or shoot me an email. I'm not hard to find.

01:21:21.912 --> 01:21:26.912
Dovelifediaries at gmail.com. Until next time, keep the engines humming and

01:21:26.912 --> 01:21:31.632
the wheels turning and always follow the road that inspires you. This is Joe Person.

01:21:31.832 --> 01:21:34.792
I'm signing off. I'll catch you on the next ride.