Significant Other/Spouse and Car Maintenance?

Do any of you have issues with your significant other/spouse not liking when you keep the car maintained? I am particular on car maintainence for longevity and safety but I'm not a stickler about it.

 

My friends and family are usually really impressed to see how clean the inside of my truck is. Then they freak out when I tell them to take their trash with them, or when I tell them they can't smoke in my truck. Like come on man, you can't have it both ways.

 

Maintained is no problem.

My dear first wife (deceased) had a mechanic brother, father, then me for 35 years. And my dad was a mechanic too. So she was used to all of it, and was exuberant about roller coasters, thus mountain roads like The Tail of the Dragon, top down, in the race car. While she didn't care to learn to turn wrenches, she would help when requested (brake bleeder, etc) and also would help with cleaning.

Wife #2 is getting used to my vehicle quirks, but won't ever like aggressive (but safe) driving. Clearly she'll never complain about basic maintenance. She wants everything to work (reliable). She will also gladly assist when requested. The occasional eyebrow might be raised for over zealous cleaning or some mods though.

 

If the words "my truck" come out of my mouth in pretty much any form my wife just rolls her eyes.

I try to explain things to her but she just responds usually with "I have no clue what you are talking about, do whatever you have to".

 

Th ol' lady has no problem with maintenance and doesn't care what I do to our vehicles. Her cr-v looks like 3 or 4 hamsters got loose and have been living in your sock drawer for a month.

She stays out of my truck, can't drive standard trans. We almost got divorced the one time I tried to teach her.

 

Way back, I was trading in the family truckster. The appraiser came out and said he'd never seen an underbody as clean as mine. He was more surprised after I told him I had driven the vehicle all over Europe. I was stationed in Spain before that. But during this dealer event I was in Maryland. Throughout the winters there, days when it warmed up I put a sprinkler under the truck to wash the salt off the frame. Guess it kept it too pretty for a family truckster. I always believe in using something for what it's designed for, but maintain it. My parents taught me " if you can't take care of it, you don't deserve it!"

 

My wifes idea of vehicle maintenance is to tell me something is wrong shortly after her engine explodes.

 

My girls attitude towards vehicles is one of many reasons I love her so much!! Were both super anal about cleanliness and maintenance. I'm anal, she may be worse..
All three of our rides look like they rolled off the showroom floor. I appreciate her for that. As for custom stuff? she's into that too.

 

My GF loves me working on her car. Now that we live together we share expenses. She pays more rent than I do because she has a live in mechanic (she thinks). The PO of her car was what I'd call a "wanna be" and I'm still fixing his mistakes. Not that I'm the midas man but as an example, the PO installed an 02 sensor. I can see they got it cross threaded and instead of backing out and trying again, he cranked on it thus stripping out the socket. Stuff like that. I tell her what her car needs and she just nods and pays for the part. When she ever starts to moan about all the money we spend at the parts store I remind her we don't have any car payments or high insurance. That quiets her up.

 

My girlfriend is less worried about maintenance and more the time.

There's the truck which comes along with wheeling, modding and fixing/maintaining. Then there's the race car and all the work that car requires, racing itself which are typically full days / weekends. Finally my restoration/engine swap project on my 87 325i. When I'm not working on my own projects I'm usually helping my friends out with theirs.

Can't say I blame her much.

 

My husband will gripe or make faces because I always say the money I spend on detailing crap will be for both our vehicles, but then usually once I'm done with one or both of my trucks I'm either A) too tired to do his or B) too drunk.
So really he gets very little benefit and I put way more time into mine than his.

I'm working on changing my ways though.

 

My wife is probibly more in tune with what maintenance needs to be done to her car then half the forum. I'm the maintainer and shes usually on me about the car needing work because its 100miles over the tire rotation, or the oil change is almost due, tires are a few pounds low.... Which is great, she actually looks at her car as something that needs to be maintained because its cheaper to do that then fix it when it breaks.

As for me modding, we are both extreme tight wads so she tends to freak out when the bills come in for parts and what not, but likes wheeling and kind of "gets it". She thinks my Tacoma is a pile of crap due to the body damage and me always F'ing with it.

 

My wife gets jealous when i spend time with my truck and not her

 

I traded my now ex-wife in on a Dog at least the Dog does not complain .

Is happy to see my every day.

 

Does she care? Shiiiiiit how do you think I picked up a smoking hot blonde? Being able to fix stuff (and save $$$) is a panty dropper, every time.

Just make sure you wash your damn hands and don't use the good hand towels to dry them!

 

My wife knows what I do on the truck and her car are to ensure that they last a life time. I'm not too anal about keeping it perfectly clean (hints why I bed lined the outside), but if there's something mechanically needed it gets done. Plus my boys come out with me and someday, something is bound to stick that I show them.

 

My wife thinks washing her car is maintenance and almost everything taxes 15 minutes to do.

 

I have a shirt that says
I love my wife, but I worship my car.
Talk about eye rolling!

 

... and my wife's idea of vehicle maintenance is to tell me that something is wrong when all the little red and yellow lights go out.