I was thinking the same thing. He obviously was able to bike to school. Why not pocket the cash you save? Money is powerful at that age He could of started investing early, although I guess he maybe didn’t
I went though the same thing. I saved for years to buy a 89 Toyota pickup at age 15 and then it basically sat there for the next 2 years as I only worked in the summer and couldn’t afford car insurance or gas the other 9 months I wasn’t earning.
I know grown adults in their 30s who still can't afford their own cars and use their credit card and loans to pay for it. When you are poor, your car is your most expensive child, even when you have to live in it
@SplitScreamOFFICIAL I paid cash for a brand new Lexus LS 15 years ago. Paid with a yearly bonus. Best decision ever. Most reliable car I've ever owned.
Ed.i specialize in taking care of exotic cars. i can save you money on maintaining your fleet! sick of shops crazy markups..Tell Hoovie he needs me and you get special pricing haha!
Many years ago billionaire, Warren Buffett was asked about how he had become so wealthy, and his response was basically by making good decisions. The interviewer followed up, asking about how he had made good decisions and his reply was by making lots of bad ones before that. Great job, Wizard.
Yeah, that explains him just ditching the cars and of course he doesn't want to pay someone else to look at it/fix it. I can do a lot of my own stuff now, but I completely get the frustration when you are younger and the car just eats all your money only to fail later on. Hated cars until like 3.5 years ago at 35 when I got into niche older Toyotas and taught myself to do stuff. Even still I go to the mechanic a lot because there are jobs that just are not worth the time and frustration/unknown.
Honestly, that story about getting rid of a car when you were 15 really resonated with me on a personal lever and I feel like it could easily be used as an analogy for alot of other things in life. There are alot of people out there who could be financially well off if they just stop letting their vices and poor spending habits take control over them and force them to live paycheck to paycheck.
Wizard is one of the few people that are smart with their money and dumb with their money at the same time. Smart with his money in that he understood the true daily cost of a car to his budget but dumb with his money to be dumping cars that could have been fixed to spend more money on buying another car. At the time, that Rabbit didn't make it to the junkyard. They replaced the fuel pump and sold it for a very tasty profit.
Summer of 2008 the gas prices broke me. I had to sell my first car a 65' Oldsmobile Cutlass. As gas hit $4.00 a gallon I was making $9 an hour. I remember diesel pickups even Dodges with Cummins were going so cheap as the auctions and dealer lots were flooded with used trucks.
My brother bought a V8 Nissan Titan (he was only like 19) then gas prices doubled and he had to sell it... $100 and sometimes it wouldn't even fill the tank. Not good at that age!
lol, i bought a 500$ car at 19 and repaired it for 8 years by now. How people are different. Takes some time to fix it every other year, but i like the contrast to my desk job and i learn something new every time. I get it though. Mine is easy to fix, 4 cyl, 90s car, no turbo, no vtec no computer no nothing, all mechanical, even the steering is just geared, not powered. xD But i like it, for the reason he sold his car when he was working and felt like all his earnings went into his car. Nearly no money goes into my car. It's not a cool car, but it works every time. It's cheap reliable transportation, exactly what i'm looking for and i love it.
I gave up on my 94 GMC sierra after hitting a pothole and destroyed a radiator hose. It already had no power steering and a brake leak so I decided to let it go. I fucking miss that truck now lol😂
Yes in 1981, a 1965 ford mustang, I was drunk and I went up a curb and destroyed the DS suspension. so I walked away and sold it for $200 to a friend’s brother. 😢
I’m on the same page with you Car Wizard. As an apprentice I bought a 1966 Morris Mini Deluxe. It was a POS, but I owned a car. I bought a workshop manual and taught myself how to fix cars. It was my first car and I still own it nearly 40 years later. Never give up. The first new car I ever bought was a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder. What a great car. We took it camping and on the beach. The front seats were so comfortable. I also miss that car. Eventually the transmission was sketchy, so traded it for a Toyota Prado. I liked the Pathfinder more. I never noticed your impatience in your videos on cars. Must have been the military taking its toll. Glad you are out of it and self dependent. Thanks for your knowledge.
We used to go ATC (yes, three wheelers) with friends. One had a 250r that was unreliable at best. He was so angry with it that he wanted to leave it in the desert. Another friend bought it for $25 and took it home. It was exchanged between different people over a couple of years, but I don't think it ever ran right.
Two times I had to get rid of a car, both could have lasted longer with ongoing repairs. What I realized is how utterly emotionally attached I become to my cars. I think the more you work on your car and bring it back to life, the more you bond with it -- I'm speaking as a person with limited income, not someone who can buy what he wants and have others make all the repairs. Anyhow, when it came time to leave the car and walk away, it felt like the car looked to me to save it and to not abandon it. I am old now and realize it's just a car and just life, but to this day I feel guilty. So strange.
At 15 I bought a Beautiful 63 Sunbeam Alpine. Lifters started clacking, Dad said “just tighten the lifters down until in quiets down” 2 weeks later engine gave up. Crank bearings were flat from my adjustment. Put all removed parts in the car called junkyard…..
At 15, my brother bought a Hillman. He used to sing "Wasted Days and waisted Nights" and "Rust in the Wind" while he worked on it. He never did get it to run. We towed it to the scrap yard and left it outside the gate.
Wizard!! Always glad to see you on to start the day. I've only given up on 1 car, a volvo v50 t5 that had water in the interior and electrical gremlins.
You keep going back saying you don't know why you did it. The reason is is cuz you didn't learn your lesson the first three or four times that it happened.
I do not know anything about this guy except for this story and since he is on Vinwiki and has the handle Wizard I assume he has grown up and learned a lot. I was tearing out and fixing engines and transmissions before I turned 13. By the time I was 17 I owned 15 cars and trucks. Graduated high school. Got married and joined The Marine Corp. That was more than 40 years ago and I'm still not a Wizard. F .me.
$4.25/hr as a kid is a kings ransom! When I was that age I worked 6 days a week, from about 05:30 in the morning until 23:30-23:45 at night, did have breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner and between about 21:00 to 22:45 I was free. I got about $13/day. I worked at a racehorse stables, had to get up to feed the 40+ horses at stupid o clock, then only after I could go for a coffee and a sandwich, then start cleaning the boxes - 'rooms' of the horses one by one, stop to feed them again at 09:45 I think it was, then back to $hit shoveling until 12:00 go for lunch, then back, feed again, shoveling until 16:45 - feed again, then either break or shovel more until hungry, then eat, feed, have some free time, feed then go to bed. My "day off" wasn't a day off in the true sense, but it did mean that I could sleep a bit longer and work a lot less. I did have to make special arrangements if I wanted to leave and go somewhere. I lived in a house 50m from the stables. Don't remember exactly since it was a bit over 30yrs ago. A small room was included, but in a house shared with all the other staff there, 6 - 7 people. Worked there for 3 months to buy my first "half decent"(SLR) camera, which turned out o be a dud, it never once worked 😂it had some defect in the film advance mechanism so it took zero pictures, I do not remember what I did with the camera once that dawned on me - but it was gonerz. I never got a single picture out of it, but since I didn't know that it didn't work it did teach me camera handling, composition etc to some degree since I did get practice with it, just never got to see the result. Film itself wasn't that expensive but to have it developed was like 1,25$ per print roughly, so I nursed the same film roll the whole summer, but then it kept going instead of stopping when I advanced the film, procrastinated a few weeks before I opened it up only to find it had never advanced the film at all, just ripped it. I now have multiple cameras and so on, but that disaster made me postpone photography for about 10yrs until I could rent a digital one I could verify worked. The job was in the 1990's, 93 or 94.
this is how i felt recently, my 2016 ford escape 1.6L was constantly leaking oil i just put 4k into it, even after getting it back from turbo replacement and and a valve cover gasket it was still leaking and not wanting to deal with a ford service department ever again, i kinda just dusted my hands, wiped off as much oil as i can, cleaned the inside, gave it a hug and then took it to the local toyota dealer and now im in a 2025 corolla le. i’ll miss that car
Literally no more than a week ago my late father's '79 mercedes w123 230 starting acting up on me. It would run very rough and either to rich or lean and was extremely hard to start and eventually straight up refused to start so matter how many times I went to crank it. I asked around and people kept telling me replace the coil but I've tested the coil it was perfectly fine no issues there and I was at my wits end with it and left it to collect my thoughts until someone said to check the points and lo and behold the points weren't even opening and even got to confirm that the coil was perfectly fine when I started opening the points manually, hooked a spark plug to the coil wire, and was now finally emitting nice blue sparks. Just by coincidence I had a brand new point that me and my dad bought mine years ago, put it in and gapped it as good as I can with feeler guages, and not even two turns of the starter that car fired with such authority and sang like she never did before it never ran this smooth ever since it started dailying it two years ago and I gotta say this was one of if not the proudest repairs I've ever done to that car. Usually that car keeps inventing new issues on me because it was sitting for so long that parts start to give out because they were just old so I just kept it running by simply fixing what's just enough to keep it on the road and just roll with it. I'm pretty sure if I had the wizard's mindset I would have just abandoned it or gave it away or something but I'm the type of guy who just too stubborn to let a problem get in my way it has nothing to do with patience mind you I'm just the type who fixes something where everyone else just calls it quits not to mention the sheer sense of pride and triumph of being the only one who can fix it with a little hint of course.
12:45 When I was a teenager I made the same choice to not drive after saving up and spending 4k on an 89 Toyota pickup when I was 15, I just basically let it sit there for the next 2 years and I rode my bicycle to work because the insurance and gas was so much an my parents didn’t help with it at all. It was the late 90’s.
@ I actually enjoyed riding my bike a lot so I rode my bike to work and took the school bus to school. I was a bike racer and needed the training miles anyway. I knew the cash flow issues would resolve in time, and they did when minimum wage raised from 4.25 to 7.50. I was very patient.
I've felt that rear bushing death wabble wizzard. My friend had been down the same route. A crow bar underneath revealed the 1" of play. I milled out the old and pressed a fresh pair. Boom! Stable vehicle
I had an 80s Dodge product that would randomly die going down the road. I eventually realized it was doing it under the bigger electric transmission power lines or the low hanging ones. Eventually my dad helped me diagnose it as a failing pickup coil in the distributor. I hated that thing so much.
Let my old lady and mother talk me out of buying a built camero for 800 bucks. Didn't turnover. Think it was an 86. Wanna say it was the distributor or plug wires. That was around a decade ago, and i still haven't forgiven myself or them. Could've sold the parts and made profit.
I had a nearly new Chrysler Cordoba that just quit anytime it liked, I hated that car, I ended up trading it for a GM product of lesser value, because it was dependable. Years later I saw my now older Cordoba with several dents and some girl driving it everyday to work. I laughed to myself and thought somebody must've figured it out, LOL. Never have had any luck with Chryslers, to this day!
I fucked up the linkage in my base model 01 subaru and (for some reason) thought it was the transmission I grenaded, despite the fact it could get to first but wouldn't stay in first so that's why i thought I grenaded it. I was living with a few old guys cuz we all rented a room in the sams house, and one of them told me his daughter had the exact same issue with her 03 outback and turned out to be an easy fix. I found that out the day after selling it, and the guy was even there helping me get it on the trailer for the junk yard but ig I just never said anything until the next day... still miss that car. R.I.P Doubtful Delilah, ur memory lives on 🙏
0:45 let me save everyone time. He gets rid of nearly every car on this list while he was about a mile from home because had very little patience and didn’t know much about cars at the time
I sure can relate Car Wizard. Yep i got rid of some i regret and had life get in the way of others, by life i mean really bad decisions that had things been different i would've kept the cars longer but to hell with all of it. I had a hard time learning lifes lessons. But look at me now. Iv got the best car i ever had. I love it so much. I just spent like 1200 bucks on a stereo right after buying new tires 500 miles ago. We only live once i keep telling myself. My finances will recover soon enough. Its just life in the big city.
bout a year back, i found a (not running) Kawasaki Klr 450 for $500. "just needs a gas tank and a new Carb" i thought: "hey thats a really good deal, i can rebuild a carb. Or just buy an amazon one if need be!" so i rent a trailer, grab 5 Bengi's out of my safe, and off i go. look at the bike the best i could, and buy it. I realize the tank is crusty, but still intact. so i do the old Vinegar + a chain trick to clean it out. works perfect. Now its time to tackle the carb. Get it apart and dont see anything catastrophic. Put it back together. Try to start it. It wont catch AT ALL. no burble or bark. no signs of life. throw ether down the carb. still nothing. Check spark. it sparks. Decide to do a compression test. --> None. Zilch. Nada. Smoke test it: Exhaust smokes like my dad did after a stressful day. toasted vailves. Decide "its just valves, i can do that" As im tearing this bike apart, watching the pile of parts keep growing, and seeing that this stupid single cylinder motor is built like a jigsaw puzzle, all the wind leaves my sails. realize i dont have room for this crud. dont have the time to work on it. just start fuming when i even see it in the garage. I wanted it gone. and in my anger, i just see it as a pile of junk. "no one would want this, so i cant sell it." think ill have to pay a junk service to take it. thankfully my wife convinced me to adleast post it for sale as it was. within 3 days someone came and took it off my hands for $300. In retrospect: the motor was super simple. but i could just never get the time to really focus on it for more then an hour a day. and my anger at it for not being the simple fix i was expecting clouded my judgement. plus i just didnt have the garage space/organization to keep track of all the parts the way i should. still think selling it when i did was the right choice just for the sake of my blood pressure. but yeah. impatience can be a b*tch. Also: never spend more money then you can afford to lose.
My first car was not "that bad" but after i got rid of it, i felt i could've rode the bus for one more year and been just fine. My parents were just looking out, i or they wouldn't realize how much would be spent on that thing in 3-4 years i would have it
When I went to college, my '93 Ford Tempo needed new ball joints. My father brought it yo the mechanic and found out how much it would cost, and called for a ride home and just left it there. I found out a month later!😮
My mom has a 1978 z28 with a sunroof factory ordered. No it's not a t-top no it's not a moonroof. it's a sunken in sunroof. The car has been sitting in the garage for about 7 years now my mom parked it when I turned 15. She didn't want me to drive it.
I had to give up a car I really regret not being able to keep it, it was a 20th anniversay Trans Am, worth 85 thousand now in good condition. Typical story I really couldn't afford it and had to give it back and still owed on it for a year after. Should have bought Honda Civic instead , probably could have afforded it.
I did the same with most of the cars I’ve owned and most were smart to get rid of. Only a few were stupid. My first own car was a well kept 1979 Oldsmobile cutlass coupe. Sold for half what I paid to get a shitty BMW to try and impress girls. I ended up wasting so much money on it and would have been able to afford a second car if I had kept the first one. Dios mío
I got my xj jeep because it would random stall and not start for a while. Even beat out fuel filter. Finally I got jiggling wires. Found a short in injectors from an alarm or remote start wired into a manual jeep xj.
For a master mechanic's previous car ownership history that certainly wasn't what I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed it & related to it. When it comes to working on my cars (all classics) I honestly despise it, something that looks fun at first ends up not wanting to come off and it's hours later & my back hurts from hunching over & my knuckles are bleeding 😅
I had a 91 Grand Prix se it was a great car an automatic and I would drive 4 hours straight sitting on the governor all the time that thing never skipped a beat had to change alternator once that’s it.
2001 Infiniti QX4 and the rear shakes like crazy for a couple of seconds randomly. Friend let me drive it and I asked why he did not tell me about this death trap.
So many coulda would shoulda car, trucks, and bikes have come and gone. Be them; sold, wrecked, traded, or abandoned. Through highs and lows, and I never wanted them to go.
84 Honda Interceptor 1100, 81 Yamaha Seca 750, 69 Kawasaki A1SS 250, 88 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe 5-spd, 81 Mazda RX7, 94 Chev Silverado Z71, 87 Jetta GLi, just a few regrets to mention I guess. And now I contemplate DELETING my Facebook Marketplace ad for my 99 Chev Tahoe 2-door, yeah should take that down.
Thats what happens with cars they take the majority of your money i got the biggest car im aloud to drive for my money and i work on my car in areas that are not too much trouble for me as i dont have much tools.
I have had 2 cars that I threw away one was an old Lincoln with su***de doors it had some phantom electric issues so I had a complete harness made it would die wherever it wanted one dayit died at a traffic light took the title out of the glove box signed it put it on the dash and walked away never know who got it the other car i poured a gallon of gas and lit it
ok ok ok.... A GrandPrix with a clutch??? probably just misremembering.. Im not aware of any early 90's grandprix that came manual.... Not saying it couldnt have been a Frankenstein style swap. Ive seen a supercharged 3.8 from the newer ones in a mid 90's Cavalier... barely fit.. well actually.. it honestly didnt.. poking out the hood and almost scraping the pavement.
Getting rid of a car you didn't need at the time because it was draining you financially was absolutely the right call to make!
It wasn't the dumbest idea to get rid of the car as a teen if you can barely afford it because you spend almost the entire budget on it.
Well the only time you can spend your whole budget like that is when you're a teen and your parents will feed clothe and house you.
I was thinking the same thing. He obviously was able to bike to school.
Why not pocket the cash you save? Money is powerful at that age
He could of started investing early, although I guess he maybe didn’t
I went though the same thing. I saved for years to buy a 89 Toyota pickup at age 15 and then it basically sat there for the next 2 years as I only worked in the summer and couldn’t afford car insurance or gas the other 9 months I wasn’t earning.
I know grown adults in their 30s who still can't afford their own cars and use their credit card and loans to pay for it. When you are poor, your car is your most expensive child, even when you have to live in it
@SplitScreamOFFICIAL I paid cash for a brand new Lexus LS 15 years ago. Paid with a yearly bonus. Best decision ever. Most reliable car I've ever owned.
Just as long as he doesn't give up on Tyler's Bugatti...we need more cheap service options!
Just can’t leave it overnight.
Insurance company entered the chat.
Ed.i specialize in taking care of exotic cars. i can save you money on maintaining your fleet! sick of shops crazy markups..Tell Hoovie he needs me and you get special pricing haha!
Cheap and Bugatti will never be in the same sentence other than dreaming lol 😂
Have Wizard make you up some wheel spacer adapters.
Note to self, hang around this guys garage and wait for a good deal.
Many years ago billionaire, Warren Buffett was asked about how he had become so wealthy, and his response was basically by making good decisions. The interviewer followed up, asking about how he had made good decisions and his reply was by making lots of bad ones before that. Great job, Wizard.
If you believe that, you are still drinking the kool-aid. Have a good day
@ Read more-comment on RUclips less.
Yep. Warren even told us how he got rich : compounding. Stacking assets, a few dollars at a time till it adds up to control of that asset.
Dave is a reformed (mostly I think) rageaholic. Dude had some serious anger \ rage issues.
5:45 he said it! RAAAAGE! 😂😂😂
Yeah, that explains him just ditching the cars and of course he doesn't want to pay someone else to look at it/fix it.
I can do a lot of my own stuff now, but I completely get the frustration when you are younger and the car just eats all your money only to fail later on. Hated cars until like 3.5 years ago at 35 when I got into niche older Toyotas and taught myself to do stuff. Even still I go to the mechanic a lot because there are jobs that just are not worth the time and frustration/unknown.
Honestly, that story about getting rid of a car when you were 15 really resonated with me on a personal lever and I feel like it could easily be used as an analogy for alot of other things in life. There are alot of people out there who could be financially well off if they just stop letting their vices and poor spending habits take control over them and force them to live paycheck to paycheck.
He’s always like a mile away from his house before he’s like I’m done haha
When Car Wizard has said many times he has no sentimental attachment to vehicles. He really means he has no sentimental attachment to vehicles.
Wizard is one of the few people that are smart with their money and dumb with their money at the same time. Smart with his money in that he understood the true daily cost of a car to his budget but dumb with his money to be dumping cars that could have been fixed to spend more money on buying another car. At the time, that Rabbit didn't make it to the junkyard. They replaced the fuel pump and sold it for a very tasty profit.
the fuseboxes under the windshield got rained on and made big problems too
Summer of 2008 the gas prices broke me. I had to sell my first car a 65' Oldsmobile Cutlass. As gas hit $4.00 a gallon I was making $9 an hour.
I remember diesel pickups even Dodges with Cummins were going so cheap as the auctions and dealer lots were flooded with used trucks.
My brother bought a V8 Nissan Titan (he was only like 19) then gas prices doubled and he had to sell it... $100 and sometimes it wouldn't even fill the tank. Not good at that age!
man, i never get rid of a car. Any car I don't have still was stolen or written off. wizard throws them away like used tissues.
lol, i bought a 500$ car at 19 and repaired it for 8 years by now.
How people are different.
Takes some time to fix it every other year, but i like the contrast to my desk job and i learn something new every time. I get it though. Mine is easy to fix, 4 cyl, 90s car, no turbo, no vtec no computer no nothing, all mechanical, even the steering is just geared, not powered. xD
But i like it, for the reason he sold his car when he was working and felt like all his earnings went into his car. Nearly no money goes into my car. It's not a cool car, but it works every time. It's cheap reliable transportation, exactly what i'm looking for and i love it.
It seems like every young marine/soldier has a camaro or mustang.
Those enlistment bonuses
Have you ever given up on a car?
I gave up on my 94 GMC sierra after hitting a pothole and destroyed a radiator hose. It already had no power steering and a brake leak so I decided to let it go. I fucking miss that truck now lol😂
Yes. A 1997 Toyota Camry. A pile of crap.
2007 alfa romeo 159 2.2jts piece of crap
1984 VOLVO next person got it running with tapping on the gas filter. He was an insurance adjuster and only would buy Volvos.
Yes in 1981, a 1965 ford mustang, I was drunk and I went up a curb and destroyed the DS suspension. so I walked away and sold it for $200 to a friend’s brother. 😢
I’m on the same page with you Car Wizard. As an apprentice I bought a 1966 Morris Mini Deluxe. It was a POS, but I owned a car. I bought a workshop manual and taught myself how to fix cars. It was my first car and I still own it nearly 40 years later. Never give up. The first new car I ever bought was a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder. What a great car. We took it camping and on the beach. The front seats were so comfortable. I also miss that car. Eventually the transmission was sketchy, so traded it for a Toyota Prado. I liked the Pathfinder more. I never noticed your impatience in your videos on cars. Must have been the military taking its toll. Glad you are out of it and self dependent. Thanks for your knowledge.
David has to handle Tyler, I'm really convinced that Wizard is top 10 when it comes to patience.
Recently.
He used to be a rageaholic.
The Wizard also has a side job as The Buddha.
Zen patience
We used to go ATC (yes, three wheelers) with friends. One had a 250r that was unreliable at best. He was so angry with it that he wanted to leave it in the desert. Another friend bought it for $25 and took it home. It was exchanged between different people over a couple of years, but I don't think it ever ran right.
Oh man this is hilarious! I have a hard time believing Wizard had such little patience! I imagine Mrs Wizard helped with that.
VinWiki X Car Wizard is the collab I didn’t know that I wanted, but absolutely love.
Same!
Two times I had to get rid of a car, both could have lasted longer with ongoing repairs. What I realized is how utterly emotionally attached I become to my cars. I think the more you work on your car and bring it back to life, the more you bond with it -- I'm speaking as a person with limited income, not someone who can buy what he wants and have others make all the repairs. Anyhow, when it came time to leave the car and walk away, it felt like the car looked to me to save it and to not abandon it. I am old now and realize it's just a car and just life, but to this day I feel guilty. So strange.
At 15 I bought a Beautiful 63 Sunbeam Alpine. Lifters started clacking, Dad said “just tighten the lifters down until in quiets down” 2 weeks later engine gave up. Crank bearings were flat from my adjustment. Put all removed parts in the car called junkyard…..
At 15, my brother bought a Hillman. He used to sing "Wasted Days and waisted Nights" and "Rust in the Wind" while he worked on it. He never did get it to run. We towed it to the scrap yard and left it outside the gate.
Wizard!! Always glad to see you on to start the day. I've only given up on 1 car, a volvo v50 t5 that had water in the interior and electrical gremlins.
You keep going back saying you don't know why you did it. The reason is is cuz you didn't learn your lesson the first three or four times that it happened.
Impulsiveness in youth causes many problems. Both in making unwise purchases and unwise sellings!
I'm surprised Wizard doesn't wear an Omega watch over the Rolex.
I’m wearing an Omega Seamaster now…the Rolex is in the drawer.
What a geological oddity.. he always lives a couple of miles from where his car breaks down. 😅
geographical*
I do not know anything about this guy except for this story and since he is on Vinwiki and has the handle Wizard I assume he has grown up and learned a lot.
I was tearing out and fixing engines and transmissions before I turned 13.
By the time I was 17 I owned 15 cars and trucks. Graduated high school. Got married and joined The Marine Corp. That was more than 40 years ago and I'm still not a Wizard. F .me.
$4.25/hr as a kid is a kings ransom! When I was that age I worked 6 days a week, from about 05:30 in the morning until 23:30-23:45 at night, did have breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner and between about 21:00 to 22:45 I was free. I got about $13/day. I worked at a racehorse stables, had to get up to feed the 40+ horses at stupid o clock, then only after I could go for a coffee and a sandwich, then start cleaning the boxes - 'rooms' of the horses one by one, stop to feed them again at 09:45 I think it was, then back to $hit shoveling until 12:00 go for lunch, then back, feed again, shoveling until 16:45 - feed again, then either break or shovel more until hungry, then eat, feed, have some free time, feed then go to bed. My "day off" wasn't a day off in the true sense, but it did mean that I could sleep a bit longer and work a lot less. I did have to make special arrangements if I wanted to leave and go somewhere. I lived in a house 50m from the stables. Don't remember exactly since it was a bit over 30yrs ago. A small room was included, but in a house shared with all the other staff there, 6 - 7 people.
Worked there for 3 months to buy my first "half decent"(SLR) camera, which turned out o be a dud, it never once worked 😂it had some defect in the film advance mechanism so it took zero pictures, I do not remember what I did with the camera once that dawned on me - but it was gonerz. I never got a single picture out of it, but since I didn't know that it didn't work it did teach me camera handling, composition etc to some degree since I did get practice with it, just never got to see the result. Film itself wasn't that expensive but to have it developed was like 1,25$ per print roughly, so I nursed the same film roll the whole summer, but then it kept going instead of stopping when I advanced the film, procrastinated a few weeks before I opened it up only to find it had never advanced the film at all, just ripped it. I now have multiple cameras and so on, but that disaster made me postpone photography for about 10yrs until I could rent a digital one I could verify worked.
The job was in the 1990's, 93 or 94.
this is how i felt recently, my 2016 ford escape 1.6L was constantly leaking oil i just put 4k into it, even after getting it back from turbo replacement and and a valve cover gasket it was still leaking and not wanting to deal with a ford service department ever again, i kinda just dusted my hands, wiped off as much oil as i can, cleaned the inside, gave it a hug and then took it to the local toyota dealer and now im in a 2025 corolla le. i’ll miss that car
Literally no more than a week ago my late father's '79 mercedes w123 230 starting acting up on me. It would run very rough and either to rich or lean and was extremely hard to start and eventually straight up refused to start so matter how many times I went to crank it. I asked around and people kept telling me replace the coil but I've tested the coil it was perfectly fine no issues there and I was at my wits end with it and left it to collect my thoughts until someone said to check the points and lo and behold the points weren't even opening and even got to confirm that the coil was perfectly fine when I started opening the points manually, hooked a spark plug to the coil wire, and was now finally emitting nice blue sparks. Just by coincidence I had a brand new point that me and my dad bought mine years ago, put it in and gapped it as good as I can with feeler guages, and not even two turns of the starter that car fired with such authority and sang like she never did before it never ran this smooth ever since it started dailying it two years ago and I gotta say this was one of if not the proudest repairs I've ever done to that car.
Usually that car keeps inventing new issues on me because it was sitting for so long that parts start to give out because they were just old so I just kept it running by simply fixing what's just enough to keep it on the road and just roll with it. I'm pretty sure if I had the wizard's mindset I would have just abandoned it or gave it away or something but I'm the type of guy who just too stubborn to let a problem get in my way it has nothing to do with patience mind you I'm just the type who fixes something where everyone else just calls it quits not to mention the sheer sense of pride and triumph of being the only one who can fix it with a little hint of course.
The wizard, without the iconic beard, is just not the wizard😂
12:45 When I was a teenager I made the same choice to not drive after saving up and spending 4k on an 89 Toyota pickup when I was 15, I just basically let it sit there for the next 2 years and I rode my bicycle to work because the insurance and gas was so much an my parents didn’t help with it at all. It was the late 90’s.
Why didn't you just sell it and get a moped or something more fuel efficient?
@ I actually enjoyed riding my bike a lot so I rode my bike to work and took the school bus to school. I was a bike racer and needed the training miles anyway. I knew the cash flow issues would resolve in time, and they did when minimum wage raised from 4.25 to 7.50. I was very patient.
dam david, you had a short temper - - I know you are mechanically inclined, me too, thats why i would fix my stuff well enough to recover my equity
I've felt that rear bushing death wabble wizzard. My friend had been down the same route. A crow bar underneath revealed the 1" of play. I milled out the old and pressed a fresh pair. Boom! Stable vehicle
Coming from someone who just sold a car they didn't need for profit, you made the right choice. There's more to life than car payments!
Moral of the story; Find yourself a good Ms. or Mr. Wizard.
This guy pulled the jackpot
I had an 80s Dodge product that would randomly die going down the road. I eventually realized it was doing it under the bigger electric transmission power lines or the low hanging ones. Eventually my dad helped me diagnose it as a failing pickup coil in the distributor. I hated that thing so much.
Let my old lady and mother talk me out of buying a built camero for 800 bucks. Didn't turnover. Think it was an 86. Wanna say it was the distributor or plug wires.
That was around a decade ago, and i still haven't forgiven myself or them. Could've sold the parts and made profit.
I had a nearly new Chrysler Cordoba that just quit anytime it liked, I hated that car, I ended up trading it for a GM product of lesser value, because it was dependable. Years later I saw my now older Cordoba with several dents and some girl driving it everyday to work. I laughed to myself and thought somebody must've figured it out, LOL. Never have had any luck with Chryslers, to this day!
At first, I thought the clovers on the shirt was the symbol for the fan speed button lol. Wizard rocks!
I fucked up the linkage in my base model 01 subaru and (for some reason) thought it was the transmission I grenaded, despite the fact it could get to first but wouldn't stay in first so that's why i thought I grenaded it. I was living with a few old guys cuz we all rented a room in the sams house, and one of them told me his daughter had the exact same issue with her 03 outback and turned out to be an easy fix. I found that out the day after selling it, and the guy was even there helping me get it on the trailer for the junk yard but ig I just never said anything until the next day... still miss that car. R.I.P Doubtful Delilah, ur memory lives on 🙏
I like mechanics like The Wizard. Slow and steady wins the race everytime. We could learn a lot from this guy.
Losing money on cars is cheaper than psychological treatment.
0:45 let me save everyone time. He gets rid of nearly every car on this list while he was about a mile from home because had very little patience and didn’t know much about cars at the time
I sure can relate Car Wizard. Yep i got rid of some i regret and had life get in the way of others, by life i mean really bad decisions that had things been different i would've kept the cars longer but to hell with all of it. I had a hard time learning lifes lessons. But look at me now. Iv got the best car i ever had. I love it so much. I just spent like 1200 bucks on a stereo right after buying new tires 500 miles ago. We only live once i keep telling myself. My finances will recover soon enough. Its just life in the big city.
Never have laughed out loud while my heart was breaking, until I heard your 84' Rabbit story. Hilarious but unacceptable.
bout a year back, i found a (not running) Kawasaki Klr 450 for $500. "just needs a gas tank and a new Carb"
i thought: "hey thats a really good deal, i can rebuild a carb. Or just buy an amazon one if need be!"
so i rent a trailer, grab 5 Bengi's out of my safe, and off i go. look at the bike the best i could, and buy it.
I realize the tank is crusty, but still intact. so i do the old Vinegar + a chain trick to clean it out. works perfect.
Now its time to tackle the carb. Get it apart and dont see anything catastrophic. Put it back together.
Try to start it. It wont catch AT ALL. no burble or bark. no signs of life.
throw ether down the carb. still nothing.
Check spark. it sparks.
Decide to do a compression test. --> None. Zilch. Nada.
Smoke test it: Exhaust smokes like my dad did after a stressful day.
toasted vailves.
Decide "its just valves, i can do that"
As im tearing this bike apart, watching the pile of parts keep growing, and seeing that this stupid single cylinder motor is built like a jigsaw puzzle, all the wind leaves my sails. realize i dont have room for this crud. dont have the time to work on it. just start fuming when i even see it in the garage.
I wanted it gone. and in my anger, i just see it as a pile of junk. "no one would want this, so i cant sell it." think ill have to pay a junk service to take it.
thankfully my wife convinced me to adleast post it for sale as it was.
within 3 days someone came and took it off my hands for $300.
In retrospect: the motor was super simple. but i could just never get the time to really focus on it for more then an hour a day. and my anger at it for not being the simple fix i was expecting clouded my judgement. plus i just didnt have the garage space/organization to keep track of all the parts the way i should.
still think selling it when i did was the right choice just for the sake of my blood pressure. but yeah. impatience can be a b*tch.
Also: never spend more money then you can afford to lose.
Picture of baby wizard in his uniform was hilarious
Dave really has a love/hate relationship with cars. I feel your pain. Keep up the great content.
My first car was not "that bad" but after i got rid of it, i felt i could've rode the bus for one more year and been just fine. My parents were just looking out, i or they wouldn't realize how much would be spent on that thing in 3-4 years i would have it
When I went to college, my '93 Ford Tempo needed new ball joints. My father brought it yo the mechanic and found out how much it would cost, and called for a ride home and just left it there. I found out a month later!😮
No insurance?! The Wizard is a rebel!
My mom has a 1978 z28 with a sunroof factory ordered. No it's not a t-top no it's not a moonroof. it's a sunken in sunroof. The car has been sitting in the garage for about 7 years now my mom parked it when I turned 15. She didn't want me to drive it.
I had to give up a car I really regret not being able to keep it, it was a 20th anniversay Trans Am, worth 85 thousand now in good condition. Typical story I really couldn't afford it and had to give it back and still owed on it for a year after. Should have bought Honda Civic instead , probably could have afforded it.
That’s comical wizard. Easy big guy 😂.
I did the same with most of the cars I’ve owned and most were smart to get rid of. Only a few were stupid. My first own car was a well kept 1979 Oldsmobile cutlass coupe. Sold for half what I paid to get a shitty BMW to try and impress girls. I ended up wasting so much money on it and would have been able to afford a second car if I had kept the first one. Dios mío
0:25 in Germany his name would be DIRK.
don't know why but that's a fact
I knew this guy was a total dork. I would NEVER let him touch one of my cars.
Omg, love the temper and impatience, hilarious!
my first car was a 1988 chyrsler fifth avenue it was a good car while it ran.
My Mom had a powder blue VW Rabbit EXACTLY like that when I was young.
You need to interview the car wizards insurance agent😂😂😂.
I had an ‘01 Pathfinder LE. Got rid of it when the engine started knocking. Don’t miss its gas bill though.
Ultimately pretty trivial things to regret. Completely understandable to me 🤷♂️
I got my xj jeep because it would random stall and not start for a while. Even beat out fuel filter. Finally I got jiggling wires. Found a short in injectors from an alarm or remote start wired into a manual jeep xj.
This guy became a millionaire off 1 guy 😂
For a master mechanic's previous car ownership history that certainly wasn't what I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed it & related to it. When it comes to working on my cars (all classics) I honestly despise it, something that looks fun at first ends up not wanting to come off and it's hours later & my back hurts from hunching over & my knuckles are bleeding 😅
Well car wizard..imma give my 20yr old some grace..I don't even turn wrenches & wouldn't give up cars that easy
“7 tips on how to leave bad relationships” should be the title.
Interesting... Turns out The Wizard hates cars 😂😂😂
I had a 91 Grand Prix se it was a great car an automatic and I would drive 4 hours straight sitting on the governor all the time that thing never skipped a beat had to change alternator once that’s it.
Epic tales of the path that the great man walked before he became the legend that we know as _The Wizard_
I’m 54 now and I look back and wish I would have went into the military. It would have taught me so much so much sooner. And self discipline.
Not necessarily
Young wizard is a mobster
Man I thought I was bad, compared to you I am Job. LOL
Never miss the chance to bring up your service to the govt... also always show the pic. This will instantly add credibility.
Hope these tips help.
Dude. PLYMOUTH Duster. Dodge DART. Too much eggnog?
2001 Infiniti QX4 and the rear shakes like crazy for a couple of seconds randomly. Friend let me drive it and I asked why he did not tell me about this death trap.
And here I thought I was the only one who did this
Not the car history background I would have expected from the Wizaard. I had a few clapped out cars in HS to 20yro. Mostly rode motorcycle
It sounds like the military was the answer for Wizard or Mrs Wizard.......
I highly doubt that I believe you were born with wrenches in your hands
I had my first car for 10 years. Love your content but we are different souls
The best thing you did was ride a bike for 3 years! Don’t let cars run your life.!
Wizard lol
How ironic- you got rid of a car cause driving was taking all your money - and then theres Hoovie......
This vidio should be compulsory for every young person patients is SO important in life not just cars but every day living i.e respect.
So many coulda would shoulda car, trucks, and bikes have come and gone. Be them; sold, wrecked, traded, or abandoned. Through highs and lows, and I never wanted them to go.
84 Honda Interceptor 1100, 81 Yamaha Seca 750, 69 Kawasaki A1SS 250, 88 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe 5-spd, 81 Mazda RX7, 94 Chev Silverado Z71, 87 Jetta GLi, just a few regrets to mention I guess. And now I contemplate DELETING my Facebook Marketplace ad for my 99 Chev Tahoe 2-door, yeah should take that down.
Young wizard sounds insufferable
There seems to be a pattern
Too impatient, if he only treats cars like this its fine.
Thats what happens with cars they take the majority of your money i got the biggest car im aloud to drive for my money and i work on my car in areas that are not too much trouble for me as i dont have much tools.
That young pic is great
I'm sure I won't be the first person to say this, but I could do without the cuts to photos and videos of cars that have nothing to do with the story.
Just throws money away over and over because of anger issues. Wow.
I have had 2 cars that I threw away one was an old Lincoln with su***de doors it had some phantom electric issues so I had a complete harness made it would die wherever it wanted one dayit died at a traffic light took the title out of the glove box signed it put it on the dash and walked away never know who got it the other car i poured a gallon of gas and lit it
1987 ford escort where a dislposable car anyway
Didn't really give up the first 6 times...
ok ok ok.... A GrandPrix with a clutch??? probably just misremembering.. Im not aware of any early 90's grandprix that came manual.... Not saying it couldnt have been a Frankenstein style swap. Ive seen a supercharged 3.8 from the newer ones in a mid 90's Cavalier... barely fit.. well actually.. it honestly didnt.. poking out the hood and almost scraping the pavement.
I think the base model 4cyl would have had a 5spd w/clutch