Ericthecarguy thinks the difference between failure and success is just one more try when it comes to fixing cars

Ericthecarguy is a YouTuber who thinks the difference between failure and success is just one more try when it comes to fixing cars.

As a veteran YouTuber, that line isn’t just catchy; it is the way he approaches every stubborn car problem.

Nearly 17 years into his channel, he is still chasing that ‘Eureka’ moment on camera so his viewers can chase it in their own driveways.

“Sometimes, the difference between failure and success is just one more try,” he told Supercar Blondie in a recent interview.

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Ericthecarguy says it’s time to keep trying

Eric Cook, aka EricTheCarGuy, did not come into YouTube as a polished car-based content creator.

He was a mechanic who had been fired twice and had a side hustle as a videographer, so he simply merged those two worlds together for his YouTube channel.

“I had video production experience, I was an auto mechanic for many years, I just took those two things and put them together, and here we are, almost 17 years later,” he said with a rye smile.

When he started in 2009, most repair videos were badly lit with muffled audio, so clipping on a simple mic was enough to make his content stand out.

His viewers are not chasing the latest Cybertruck or six-figure cars, however.

“I have the people that need to get to work tomorrow, and their car isn’t starting,” he explained.

That shapes everything about how he films – he cuts out the fluff, keeps every frame useful, and aims his step-by-step guides at people juggling real life, tight budgets, and old daily drivers.

Be safe, have fun, stay dirty

For the former mechanic turned YouTuber, the high of the job is not just a perfectly running engine, it is the moment something finally works.

“That to me is the joy of fixing things,” he said.

His famous sign-off, ‘Be safe, have fun, stay dirty,’ is really about sticking with a problem long enough to beat it.

“What I mean when I say ‘stay dirty’ is stick with it until you get to that moment of Eureka,” he added.

Crucially, he does not edit out his own mistakes.

“I make a mistake, and I leave it in the video, like, look, I did it, now you don’t have to,” he said, although he joked in the interview that people might still do it, too, but he tried his best to warn them.

Over time, his loyal fans have gone from watching his videos in high school to running their own shops, and Eric loves that trajectory.

“That’s the core of everything I do, right there,” he said.

“I’m a confidence builder.”

And for Eric, putting the person back into DIY is exactly why every fix, every failure, and every extra try is a success.

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