Is Brand Loyalty Costing You?

I received my first taste of brand loyalty when I got into motorcycles years ago. My friend and I bought a couple of old road bikes and on the weekends we’d stop by the local bar in our little college town to admire the beautiful motorcycles that would line up in front. We’d come to drool over the high-end bikes, but of course we’d park our junkers around the corner since we didn’t feel worthy to line up with the big boys.

One Saturday afternoon I watched as three bikers came out of the bar and began to check out the motorcycles too. They looked like the Harley Davidson catalog had thrown up on them. If Harley made it, they were wearing it. Suddenly a bright yellow bike caught their attention at the end of the row and they all quickly walked over to get a closer look. But as they approached they noticed it wasn’t a Harley and quickly scoffed at it. “It’s just a Honda and I wouldn’t be caught dead on one of those bikes,” expressed the biker who was all decked out in Harley chaps and a matching Harley leather vest.

Nick Heiskell isn’t a pirate, but he does have a Black Pearl of his own. The original plan was to find a white truck and name it Pearl, but just over a year ago, after 2 miles into the test drive of a black 2007 RAM 2500, that all changed. He told himself not to fall in love with it, but the Craigslist find was too good to pass up, even if it was out of Nick’s price range. Nick kept Pearl but added Black to the name to match the paint job.

“The first time driving it home after I bought it,” said Nick, “I just remember driving home with all the windows down with the biggest smile on my face the whole way. And since then it’s just gotten better with all the people I’ve met through the truck and how this truck has helped me become the person I am today.”

It started in a parking lot. The closed down grocery store served as the hangout spot for cool cars and trucks and 7-year-old Jill Latham. Sitting in the backseat of her brother’s ‘96 Nissan Altima as he performed donuts in the parking lot sparked her love for power and automotive.

By age 14 Jill was popping wheelies on her brother’s motorcycle. At 17 she bought her first truck, a ‘94 Nissan, and at 18 you could find Jill cruising the streets of upstate New York on a street bike of her own. It took another decade until Jill finally owned a diesel, but the 2017 Chevy Colorado 2.8L Duramax was well worth the wait.

Jill grew up the baby of the family with four older brothers. As many younger siblings do, she went along with whatever her brothers did, which was usually getting dirty, catching frogs, fishing, camping and building bicycles out of spare parts.

I live a clean and orderly life, so having a portable and cordless vacuum is a must for both my garage and my truck. The vacuum of choice for me is the WORX Nitro 20V 2.1 Gal. Wet/Dry Vacuum because it provides a quick and convenient way to clean floor mats, consoles and truck beds and doesn’t take up a lot of space. Simply put, it’s surprisingly small and compact, yet performs like a full-size giant shop vac. Plus it’s also handy for other quick pick-ups around the shop or in my home and it especially comes in handy when cleaning up wet spills on floors and other surfaces.

The driving force behind the Nitro 20V is a maintenance-free, high-efficiency brushless motor that, according to the manufacturer, runs 50 percent longer and provides 25 percent more power than a comparable brushed motor. This high-tech, brushless motor is equipped with an intelligent Power Share PRO battery, which features cell-cooling technology to improve tool performance and extend runtime.

This build comes from Nampa, Idaho, where Claudia Chavez and her 2019 RAM 3500 live. With just 9,000 miles of road time, it has 26×16 KG1 Vector wheels with floating caps and Venom R/T tires.