My neighbor wastes more $$$ (rant)

[dwcopple]

My neighbor likes his powersports toys. He has a TRX700XX and a LTZ400 and a brand new Polaris 800cc side by side. He gets new plugs for them each year and changes the oil far too freqently but whatever. Problem is, he only buys parts from the dealers. Honda quad gets a plug from the Honda dealer, Suzuki-Suzuki dealer, etc. The other day he says that they only had a 8 series plug in stock and the OEM plug is a 7 will it be okay? I asked him why he doesn't just get the plugs at Advance Auto or something and save some money and he just stared blankly at me. He buys his lawn mower filters and plugs from the JD dealer too. I told him they are ripping him off on filters because they can be had for 1/3rd of the price at a auto parts store. He thinks those filters are inferior or something I guess. He is no dummy and has a Master's degree, but when it comes to this it just irks me.

Oh, he said Honda didn't have the oil filter for his 700 so he ordered them online for $7 each with $7 shipping

He buys the GN4 oil there by the gallon to the tune of $54 for 2. The he complains about MI proposal to raise ORV sticker pricing...

 

[123Saab]

If he can afford it and it makes him happy, who cares....

 

[bepperb]

Sometimes at a dealer you pay two dollars extra for the part and get two dollars in free advice too. And it doesn't hurt to be a face they remember if you're buying so many toys.

That being said, I get more free advice than I can handle on the web and my opinion on mechanics is that if you know one your car/atv/??? should be on craigslist and out of your life.

 

[simple_gifts]

I wouldn't fret about his purchases. The "comfort level" for many is just an (arbitrary) decision that is based on "feels good" rather than "is necessary," and there is value in that.

I wonder if everyone's purchases could hold up to such scrutiny? Filter changes @ 3K or 4K are a waste too, but many BITOG'rs do it as "cheap insurance" which might be code for "I'd rather just change it than worry about it"

Any modern filter should last 6-8K

 

[toneydoc]

Yea we all waste money. I have a Jeep, Sebring, and a Harley and can only 1 at a time. Waste of insurance. But what fun the Harley can be. And gets great gas mileage but never makes up insurance cost. And my brothers love my Jeep when they come to town. No rental car for them. And why would I want to work if I could not have some fun. Otherwise I would not work. Lucky I do not want to be on government dole outs.

So who really cares? You, not me. I am glad he is stimulating the economy myself. And I bet there are others like me.

My youngest daughter goes to Auburn Univ. There are less wxpensive schools and more expensive. But she LOVES it there and is doing well. Way cheaper for me in the long run. Only 14 months to graduation. WAAAARRRRR EEEAAAGGGLLLEEE.

 

[UNC151]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Filter changes @ 3K or 4K are a waste too, but many BITOG'rs do it as "cheap insurance" which might be code for "I'd rather just change it than worry about it". Any modern filter should last 6-8K

Not bashing on your post, but I would not run any filter on my Kawasaki BF750i for 3-4K much less 6-8K (if your post was to be applied to ATVs--autos are a different matter and I totally agree with you there). ATVs are not subjected to the same operating conditions that autos are and frequent oil changes are not only "cheap insurance" they are necessary. My BF chews 10W-40 into a 20W fairly quickly and at about $5.00 an OC, it is just not worth jeopardizing the engine for such a small amount of money.

With that said, I am also not running OEM filters or oil, else I would be looking at $15 OCs and thus the OPs chide against the neighbor has some merit, but to each his own...

 

[757guy]

You need to worry more about something that really matters. Why waste your time on such a trivial matter?

Just be happy with what you have...

 

[JHZR2]

Are you financially concerned or just jealous?

A fool and their money may soon depart, but we all do it, don't we? If he buys this way for peace of mind, well, so what? People buy cars with excess power for peace of mind when merging on the highway. Is that any different? They pay for it at the pump each time.

We all "waste" money. Cable tv? Total waste. Air conditioning? Typically a waste too. Ranting on bitog? Some would say its a waste because you could be working, exercising, sleeping or with your family.

If he can afford it, it's comforting to him and it does no harm, all is well. And some (many) times, dealer parts are higher quality...

 

[SteveSRT8]

I sure hope I don't sound too much like someone we all know well on here, but why worry about the neighbors? Who cares what they do.

You get to make your own choices, so worry about the only thing you can control... you!

 

[callbay]

I know people like the OP is talking about. They waste a lot of money on doing things more often than needed. On the other hand, I know more guys that beat the snot out of their toys, don't maintain them, and then trade often so they don't suffer the results of their misuse. I just feel sorry for they guys that get their trade ins.

 

[AlienBug]

I just find it amusing that someone can be a member of a website where people obsess over when to change from summer to winter air in their tires, complain when a lube tech doesn't use a torque wrench on their oil drain plug, stash 300 quarts of oil for a car they no longer own and parse whether a 2 ppm difference in boron makes an oil better or worse than another oil with 1 ppm more phosphorous. Yet somehow, the neighbor who buys parts at the dealer is weird.

 

[Eddie]

Got to respect the guy for maintaining his equipment. I'd be jealous too.

 

[OtisBlkR1]

to each there own, vent your neighbors story here. It bothers you, so to get it off your chest you post. Im ok with that. Vent away my friend.. On the flip side, i agree with some of the others. Its not your money or problems, dont let it get you to worked up.

 

[Big_Kat]

Originally Posted By: AlienBug
I just find it amusing that someone can be a member of a website where people obsess over when to change from summer to winter air in their tires, complain when a lube tech doesn't use a torque wrench on their oil drain plug, stash 300 quarts of oil for a car they no longer own and parse whether a 2 ppm difference in boron makes an oil better or worse than another oil with 1 ppm more phosphorous. Yet somehow, the neighbor who buys parts at the dealer is weird.


Extremely weird...

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: AlienBug
I just find it amusing that someone can be a member of a website where people obsess over when to change from summer to winter air in their tires, complain when a lube tech doesn't use a torque wrench on their oil drain plug, stash 300 quarts of oil for a car they no longer own and parse whether a 2 ppm difference in boron makes an oil better or worse than another oil with 1 ppm more phosphorous. Yet somehow, the neighbor who buys parts at the dealer is weird.


I was with you right up until the end there. I totally thought you were going to go another direction, since it's BITOGERS who not only pour over every detail and fret over the small things, but who also hunt down the best deals possible; some who pay very little for quality oil (RE: GET, Valvoline, QS MIR's)

Instead of ranting, try to talk to him about it. If you don't know enough to be able to convince him, then you don't have a very good argument for him to change his ways. Peace of mind is great and all, and in some cases paying more is justified, but when it comes to oil and filters, there are many viable alternatives.

 

[dwcopple]

I figured I'd get responses like this. You mostly missed my point. He thinks the OEM stuff is the ONLY stuff to run. I tried to explain how an NGK plug is an NGK plug whether or not it comes with a set of Honda wings on the box. Same goes for oil filters. EMGO, Honda, Purolator, they are all fine. Why waste the time and money ordering online when you can get one elsewhere that is EXACTLY the same. He can afford it I'm sure, he has a ton of other toys too (tools, tricked the heck out '90 stang 'vert, F150, 5th wheel, hunting equipment galore, etc.) but he is just overpaying for alot of stuff due to ignorance and unwilling to learn why. That is all.

 

[dwcopple]

I'll give one more "for instance" just to make it clearer.

He gets the new Raptor, orders oversized tires, fender flares, wheel spacers etc. The installation instructions for the fender flares shows a set of slip joint pliers for removing the push-pin fasteners on the stock flares. He comes over and shows me and asks what is a multi-purpose pliers part number (whatever)? I reply "those are just pliers." He shrugs and says "yeah but they have a part number, do I need to go to Polaris tomorrow and buy some?" At that point I just walk over with a flat head screw driver and pop one of the pins out for him...

 

[fxrider]

Who cares??

 

[JC1]

It's called keeping up with the Jones'. Did he work for Enron???? Sorry I couldn't help but take a jab at that!!!

Just be glad he's the one of the People that don't have a clue. He probably spends half his time driving all over town picking up stuff when the local auto parts store would be the best bet!

Maybe this article for the Toronto Star will explain it

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/...ncompetent?bn=1

Why incompetent people are too incompetent to know they’re incompetent


This will explain a lot.

It turns out that incompetent people are too incompetent to recognize their own incompetence.
Luckily, we don’t just have to take the incompetent people’s word for it – there’s years of rigorous study to back this up.

For more than a decade, David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, has found in his research that it’s “intrinsically difficult to get a sense of what we don’t know.”

Dunning, working with Justin Kruger, a former colleague at Cornell now at New York University, told Life’s Little Mysteries, that in their studies, they give people a short test, tally their scores, then ask the subjects how they think they did.

People who didn’t do well on the test are only slightly less confident about their ability than those who performed well.

And everyone thinks they did better than average – even people who did very poorly on the test.

“People at the bottom still think they’re outperforming other people,” Dunning said.

It doesn’t matter what the test is about – logical reasoning, how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, grammar, the funniness of jokes.

Even when Dunning and his colleagues offer a $100 reward to those who can rate themselves accurately, study participants just can’t do it.

This inherent inability to accurately gauge our own level of knowledge may be an underlying cause of many of society’s ills, including climate change denialism, Dunning said.

“Many people don’t have training in science, and so they may very well misunderstand the science. But because they don’t have the knowledge to evaluate it, they don’t realize how off their evaluations might be,” he said.

Stay tuned. There’s more to come. Dunning’s related interest: “how people bolster their sense of self-worth by carefully tailoring the judgments they make of others,” he writes on the Cornell faculty website.

“That is, people tend to make judgments of others that reflect favorably back on themselves, doing so even when the self is not under explicit scrutiny.”

 

[Trav]

Quote:
Problem is, he only buys parts from the dealers. Honda quad gets a plug from the Honda dealer, Suzuki-Suzuki dealer, etc

I don't see anything wrong with that, it might not be a bad policy. I find so many aftermarket parts that have gone down in quality i even find myself going to the dealer a lot more than i ever did before.

The parts he is buying have guaranteed OEM quality and fit, sometimes peace of mind is worth a lot more than the few bucks saved.