Matt 00:01
Hey, welcome all of our listeners here. We are at Metro Nissan Redlands. I’m going to be the host for today. It’s Matt with Youth in Creative, and I got my guy here with me, man. Matt also. So we became buds because we shared our name in common. Matt Vincent, how are you, bro?
Matt 00:19
I’m doing well, I’m doing well. Thanks.
Matt 00:21
Good to see you, man. So I appreciate you being here. Obviously, I know it’s pretty busy around this time. A lot of people getting some service done because of holiday season. So just real quick, I just wanted to go over, what are some of the important things that people need to be checking out on their vehicle before they head out and visit family for the holidays, and things like that?
Matt 00:41
One of of the most common things that I see is, we check the battery. You don’t want to get stuck, if you stop at the gas station or whatever, traveling. And when it starts to get cold, the battery tends to die down.
Matt 00:57
Oh jeez, I didn’t even realize that. Okay, so is that something that will come in maybe something like a basic checkup, like a multi-point–?
Matt 01:06
Yeah, we check every battery that comes through here to make sure everybody’s good to go when they try to start up their car.
Matt 01:14
Right on. What’s the, I guess, typical or average battery life?
Matt 01:19
Average battery life, in my experience, is about a year and a half to two years. Like I said, we can’t really tell the age of a battery, so we check every single one that comes through here.
Matt 01:30
Yeah. You know what, I had a real quick question now that we’re on this subject. I noticed, like maybe within a couple years, I had to get a different battery twice already. Now is that because I have daytime running lights that keep running, or what is it?
Matt 01:45
It’s possible. It depends on the car. Newer cars now have anywhere between 15 to 22 computers that are always running, even when the car is off. So it’s pulling little bit more load on the battery. But it doesn’t mean it’s not safe. It’s just a byproduct of the technologies in cars now.
Matt 02:07
Yeah. Oh man, okay. Well, I mean, my car is a little old, so– we got to get in tune with the new technology stuff going on. What are some other things that we got to check out, man?
Matt 02:19
So wiper blades are pretty important right now. It’s starting to get cold, rain’s coming. So that’s pretty important. Even though we don’t use it for ten months out of the year, it’s pretty important to stay on top of that.
Matt 02:33
That’s probably why our windshield wipers would go out in the first place, because we just don’t use them enough?
Matt 02:38
Yep.
Matt 02:40
Crazy. Crazy. Okay, so there’s that. And another thing that someone mentioned to me before. Again, I don’t really know too much about cars, man. I just know what I got to get to point A to point B. But does tire pressure change when it’s getting colder?
Matt 02:55
Absolutely. For every 10 degrees it gets cold, you’ll lose at least one pound of pressure.
Matt 03:00
Oh, okay. So then it might be natural then for some of our tire pressure lights to come on.
Matt 03:06
Absolutely. That can come on on altitude too. So you’ll lose tire pressure the higher you go, and you’ll actually happen to gain tire pressure the lower you go.
Matt 03:19
Oh, so it’ll expand with the heat?
Matt 03:21
Yeah, it’ll expand, contract. And it’s funny, because people don’t really know that it’s happening until tire pressure lights start coming around.
Matt 03:32
Yeah, for sure. For sure. That’s funny because on the way up here, I was telling our video team that was rolling with me. I was like, “Dude, our tire pressure light’s just come on.” And I started to panic, because I’m like, “Man, are we about to get stuck? Do we got a flat? Do we got a– yeah, I don’t even know if I got a spare tire in the back.” So listeners out there, don’t be like me. Make sure you’ve got a spare tire, especially if you’ve got people on board with you, man. All right, man, so what else do we got? We’ve got the tire pressure, we’ve got the battery, we’ve got the windshield wipers. Anything else?
Matt 04:04
The health of the tire itself. You don’t want to be traveling on the road with your family and then your tires pops because you’re low on tread depth or what have you. Or you had a nail in there that you didn’t know. So that’s pretty important. Checking your anti-freeze, your coolant, that’s real important. Keeping the engine cool. And know it or not, that also helps with your transmission fluid too. So all that comes into play.
Matt 04:36
So somebody also mentioned this, man. Let me know if this is an actual thing. They’ve talked about overheating. Is there like, maybe being– I don’t know what it would be called, I guess not under-heating? But is there a thing where you could have– it’s the opposite effect of overheating?
Matt 04:56
That’s a thing, but in California, I have never seen that.
Matt 05:00
Okay, so that’s for people that are traveling in Colorado or [crosstalk].
Matt 05:02
Yeah, I haven’t seen that in California.
Matt 05:06
Man, just– yeah all right. Yeah, I was like, “Man, I’ve never heard of that either, but–”
Matt 05:08
In the snow states, they have block heaters. That way it’s easier for cars to start up, then keeps the block warm with the engine. So it’s, like I said, in California, I haven’t seen that at all.
Matt 05:26
So, listeners out there, I just want to point out, if you don’t know much about cars or how your engine working or any part of your vehicle for that fact, do what I do. Make friends, find people that work at a dealership that have the same name as you. Maybe get them to be your buddy, man, and give you all the pointers that you need to learn, because I didn’t know none of this stuff. So you’re educating me right now, man. I appreciate you for this, man.
Matt 05:48
You’re welcome.
Matt 05:50
Just real quick, so how long have you been here?
Matt 05:53
I’ve been at this dealership just for a few weeks, but I’ve been with the Metro Group for about three years.
Matt 06:00
Oh okay. Did you transfer or something?
Matt 06:04
Yeah.
Matt 06:05
Right on. So what store were you coming from?
Matt 06:09
Well, I came from the San Bernadino store, before it was Larry H. Miller. I came from there.
Matt 06:18
Interesting. All right. You got any big plans for the holiday, man?
Matt 06:22
You know what, holidays for me is usually at home. Family visit me. So I don’t mind that at all. I don’t have to put wear and tear on my car.
Matt 06:34
There you go. Yeah, I’m like that too, man. I prefer actually not to be on the road if I can. During holidays and stuff, you just never know. People are always in a rush and just accidents and things like that that I try to avoid. Black Friday comes up. I know Black Friday’s a big deal for dealerships here. So you guys probably get– I know sales will obviously get busy around that time, but how is the service area?
Matt 06:57
The service department, it’s a hit or miss every year. Sometimes we’ll get a big rush, sometimes it’s just mostly people stay home with their families. So it’s hit or miss. I’ve been in the business for about fifteen years now. It’s always different every year.
Matt 07:14
Okay. I do want to invite anyone that is out there getting ready to travel, again, for holiday purposes or whatnot, that you do get your car checked out. And hopefully you’re getting your car checked out not just by the neighbor that you have that’s a mechanic and that can put some things onto your car when you need them, but someone that’s more like a doctor to your vehicle. Get it in to the actual dealer, man. I think that’s one of the benefits that’s not really talked about a lot. People normally get scared of prices, things like that. But I think it’s important. I mean, what do you think? Is it?
Matt 07:54
Believe it or not, dealerships are actually really competitive to the aftermarket. We actually have a special going on for oil changes for 3 for $49.88, where Jiffy Lube will charge you 80 bucks a piece. The misconception is that dealerships are highly priced, but we’re actually competitive, if not lower than most aftermarket shops like Jiffy Lube, or Goodyear, or anything like that.
Matt 08:28
And then you have that aspect where you guys are specially trained on your vehicles. So, I mean, I’m sure–
Matt 08:32
Absolutely.
Matt 08:34
Yeah, that’s got to stand for something. Perfect, so yeah. Again, I just invite everybody to do that. If you do want to take advantage of just how easy things have become for you, you can always make an appointment online. So you can just go to the Metro Nissan Redlands website and just hit find, where you’ll set your schedule there, and hopefully you’ll just be able to drive right in. Typical wait time really won’t be too long, as long as you have that stuff scheduled ahead of time. Is there anything else I’m missing, Matt? Anything that we should include?
Matt 09:07
Like he said, we are specialized, we do use factory parts. We try to keep every car at the top of its performance, and fuel economy’s really important now, so we try to keep the fuel economy at its maximal.
Matt 09:22
Cool. I know you said that you’re going to stay home for holidays, man. Are you doing the cooking?
Matt 09:28
No, I won’t be cooking.
Matt 09:31
Perfect. All right, well then hey, that means I’m open to it, I’ll come, man.
Matt 09:34
All right, sounds good.
Matt 09:36
All right, guys. That’s it for this episode of the Metro Nissan Redlands podcast. We enjoy you. We thank you for spending some time with us. We’re going to cut it a little bit short than normal today, just because we do have holiday season here, man, and we’re just going to take pictures and say hello to everybody around. Everybody stay safe, and we’ll see you next month, during our next episode. Happy holidays, everybody.