- The moment of truth.
Can Max press the play button without messing it up?
Oh my gosh.
(clapping)
You get a raise.
That's it.
It's easy like that.
When it comes to lists, I love them, and here's why.
A, they can surprise people by thinking
you're gonna do a countdown,
and B, they make it really easy to talk about things
like rookie mistakes because you just list them off
and people like lists.
I like lists.
You like lists.
Numbers are lists.
We like lists.
It's a good thing to do.
They help making information easier.
But when it comes down to owning euro cars,
there are gonna be a few mistakes
that people can make when it comes
down to stuff like that
because spoiler alert,
euro cars aren't that easy to always own.
Euro cars and mistakes go together
like Flaming Hot Cheetos and Angry Orchards.
And as long as I have black hair
and a styling reminiscent of a young Brendon Urie,
you bet your (beep) I'm gonna be talking about
rookie mistakes when owning a euro car.
I'm Alex, @alex.fi on the socials,
and today we're gonna be talking about rookie mistakes.
Pitter patter, let's get at'er.
By the way, if you guys are looking at this sweet shirt,
yes, we partnered with BBS.
Not entirely sure how or why.
We took Jesse out, we gave him some food,
we got free wheels out of it,
and we're going to be making a donation to The United Way,
so if you want to enter to win a free set
of two Performance Line BBS wheels,
pick up one of these tees.
It's got a sweet BMW on the back.
Good ole land shark over there,
but it's an absolute bangin' of a shirt.
The description will be below to grab the link
and do the thing.
If you're looking for
Aftermark wheels, tires, and suspension,
you can just head over to fitmentindustries.com
where we've got it all, baby.
Wheels, tires, suspension, bing, bang, boom.
We're done.
Let's get into the video.
(suspenseful music)
(clears throat)
(broadcast beep)
Rookie mistakes with euro cars are pretty common,
but the biggest and the most important one
would be avoiding the good ole classic search.
Now you go to YouTube or Google
and you type in year, make, model,
and then you end it with the kicker, problems.
Euro cars have a little of a higher tendency to have issues,
especially as you climb the ladder
of the performance models with the cars,
or you get a budget one.
You can have cheap, reliable, fast,
but you can only pick two.
Regardless on which cars you buy,
it's important to know what peculiar issues
each model may present,
like head studs, electrical gremlins,
transmission issues, and more.
You're gonna be better off buying a car where
these issues are noted in the ad
versus a car that claims it's never had the issues at all.
And that's kinda the funky thing about it.
Rookie mistakes when owning a euro car,
you might be saying,
"Alex, I'm buying a euro car."
And you know what? You're right.
But guess what?
You probably owned one and never even looked into
doing what I just said,
and you're gonna wanna go back and do that
because you may be shocked to find out some of the issues
that are coming your way relatively shortly.
But with any car you're gonna wanna do this search with.
But with Europeans driving a premium in the States,
usually this is why it's a little bit more important.
That goes into owning it as well.
Generally speaking, people love older euro cars.
Old BMWs.
Old 911s.
Old Audis.
Old Ferraris.
We don't have any of those there.
And even your exotics.
I see ya.
Old euro cars aren't the worst thing in the world to own
from an initial pricing stand point of view,
but problem comes from the fact that
because they become more affordable,
it doesn't mean that the repairs
have just dumped down in price.
Headset replacements of a 911-er can be
upwards towards 10,000k, son.
Air cool the car.
It's practically a bug.
Another rookie mistake with euro cars is
not really understanding just their overall quirks.
I get it.
A Mazda Miata can run on no oil for about 42,000 miles
and be okay with it.
Because guess what?
It's a Miata.
It is the definition of a car that will love you
when you don't love it back.
An LS can bring the world down with some 87 octane
and just a little wee bit of nitrous oxide.
We get that.
But if you think for half a second
that your 135 isn't gonna act up
because you missed a walnut blasting by 200 miles,
you're gonna regret it.
Some euro cars are like that, but some euro cars aren't.
The fact of the matter is that they are just naturally
a little bit more quirky,
and you have to be good with handling
those sort of problems by yourself.
Being a mechanic is not necessarily a way to fix
all your problems,
but it's gonna help you by keeping the costs down.
And here's the problem as well.
It's not that the euro cars are inherently expensive to own.
The catch comes from when dealerships and shops,
will treat each euro car like a premium.
Because why?
Don't fall for the hype.
Most oil changes are gonna be the same
regardless on if you have a Cavalier or a euro car.
Just different oil.
Most normal maintenance items aren't insanely different
than their domestic counterpart.
If you end up going to a place,
and they start charging you more,
they're probably just trying to make a bit more off of you
because you got a fancy car
with fancy headlights and a fancy interior
that has the massaging seats.
You can probably just do most of it yourself.
Euro cars have a higher pay-to-play level
than their domestic counterparts as well.
It's just how it is.
The higher priced the car is,
the cost raises with it substantially.
Almost all of that money will not come back to you
and is just part of owning the car.
In fact, when you go and own a euro car,
and you head out to the forums,
some of the biggest things that they talk about
is just annual maintenance cost,
and they just talk about the most ridiculous stuff
that costs money.
Picking up a euro car and thinking you won't lose money
is a pretty rookie mistake
besides some of your highest tiered cars.
People end up buying euro cars because they look good.
They feel nice.
The leather is good on the lower back,
and they're pretty good quality.
But non-rare euro cars depreciate hard.
Hard.
Capital H-A-R and a D.
And it's important to know that when you own one,
especially a new one.
Euro cars are a little bit weird,
but another rookie mistake when owning one
is just completely modifying it
past the point of drivability.
You have to remember that
because they're just a little bit fancier,
especially the newer ones,
they don't have much of a variance
in terms of being able to handle
the issues you throw at them.
Just be nice to them.
Take time with them.
Learn about them.
Maybe take them out to dinner.
Go to a nice baseball game.
Maybe take them out to a movie or something.
Here's another rookie mistake when owning a euro car.
Now this is something that is
kind of a talking point all the time.
You talk about real parts and genuine pieces for cars.
Now if there is a genre of cars
that care about this the most,
probably gonna be your euro guys.
Rookie mistake when owning a euro car is
making sure the parts that you're buying
are as close to authentic as you can possibly get.
We're not saying that you gotta go out
and get the ole 4K BBS wheels.
We're not saying you gotta upsize your old RS wheels
or go get some SSRs,
even though we want you to
because those are dope wheels.
But a lot of times when you go into completely fake stuff,
you have a tendency to just overall catch hell.
And a lot of times when people do it,
they don't even know,
because their euro cars are probably some of the more
entry level, affordable BMWs or Audis or things like that,
where they just got it because their mom
finally let them buy,
as long as the car was four-door
and could be driven all year round,
so then they just pick up the cheapest thing
they possibly can,
and it turns out to be a fake BBS or HRE or SSR
or something like that.
Always do your research
when you're buying parts for this car,
because not even just for the sake
of having your maintenance parts being genuine,
or at least OB+,
a lot of times those after-market communities
will catch on if you're not buying the stuff
you should be putting on your car.
It's a big deal.
Ask us how we know.
We know.
So what are some rookie mistakes you've had
if you've owned a euro car.
Let us know in the comment section below,
and of course, if you're looking for
wheels, tires, or suspension, you know where to go.
Fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex.
Hope you guys enjoyed BBS.
Wheel giveaway.
Just letting you know again,
description link below.
Front, super cool, BBS.
Back is a land shark.
What more do you want?
It would really hurt if one of these fell,
or if all of them did.
We'll see ya later.
Peace.