Beef Between ScottyKilmer and ChrisFix? Who Is The Top YouTuber in 2018 for Car Repair?

Table of Contents

What was the beef between Scotty Kilmer and ChrisFix:

Scotty Kilmer made a video in response to a ChrisFix video where he detailed how to polish and clearcoat headlights. Scotty Kilmer decided it would be a good idea to say Chrisfix was wrong, and then call him out on other unrelated things. It was a pretty big blunder on Scotty Kilmer’s side because it just didn’t come off as authentic. It wasn’t a respectful video in response to something he disagreed with Chrisfix on. Instead, it just came off as tacky and disrespectful. He took a lot of flack for it and even apologized later. More on what the actual beef was later in the article, I first wanted to figure out who was the top YouTuber in 2018 for car repair.

How many of these top 10 cool automotive tools do you own?

Top Youtuber in 2018 for Car Repair is ChrisFix:

ChrisFix has both the most number of subscribers and channel views. He beats second place Scotty Kilmer in both metrics, and he has only published roughly half as many videos as Scotty Kilmer. He is the top YouTuber in 2018 for car repair, and clearly is dominating everyone else in terms of views/subscribers per video released. In second place we have Scotty Kilmer, and in third place we have EricTheCarGuy.

Break down of subscribers, page views, and the number of videos for each:

ChrisFix (Roughly 3,900,000 Subscribers)
- More than 2x the subscribers of ScottyKilmer (Second Biggest YouTuber in Car Repair Niche)
- Only 1/2 the number of videos as of August 2018 (306 for ChrisFix versus 751 for ScottyKilmer)
- The first video posted to his channel around 7-8 years ago (2011)
- 540,973,622 views as of August 2018 (Basically ScottyKilmer’s views plus ErictheCarGuy’s Combined)

2. Scotty Kilmer (Roughly 1,300,000 Subscribers)

1/2 as many subscribers as Chrisfix and 2x as many videos (751 and counting)
The first video posted to his channel around 10-11 years ago (2008) (3 Years Before ChrisFix got started)
340,434,183 views as of August 2018 (almost a hundred million more than ErictheCarGuy)

A Strong Third Place Goes To ErictheCarGuy:

3. Ericthecarguy (Roughly 1,150,000 Subscribers)

Closely tied to Scotty Kilmer for subscribers, but has started publishing videos at a slower rate (ScottyKilmer has started blasting his channel with new videos almost daily).
885 videos and counting as of late 2018
228,779,613 views as of August 2018
The first video posted in 2009 (9 years ago– around when ScottyKilmer started)

Check Out This Graph On Google Trends Comparing The Top 3:

We see that ScottyKilmer has started to make a strong showing, and even comes up ahead of ChrisFix on google trends.

However, ChrisFix is just so far ahead in terms of views and number of subscribers I think it will take Scotty Kilmer a long (if not impossible) for him to ever become the #1 channel on YouTube for car repair advice/topics.

His videos also tend to be less DIY with the steps easily laid out for beginners, and more just condensed shortened opinion pieces.

Here is a snapshot of Scotty Kilmer’s most recent video postings:

Compare that to ChrisFix’s Videos and we can see a clear difference in style of content:

Now, What Was The Beef Between Scotty Kilmer and ChrisFix?:

ScottyKilmer didn’t like ChrisFix’s video on how to restore headlights. Scotty Kilmer decided to make a video where he called out ChrisFix specifically and spoke about his lack of experience.

Scotty Kilmer says that he has twice the experience working on cars as does ChrisFix and that ChrisFix has a degree in “marine biology.” Both of these were seen as digs against Chrisfix that were unwarranted and confusing.

So what that Chrisfix has a degree in marine biology? What does that have to do with polishing headlights?

He goes on to say that while Chris must know more about fish, he clearly knows less about cars.

Here is the video so you can watch ScottyKilmer explain it himself:

Basically, it boils down to this, Scotty doesn’t think you should ever use clear coat on plastic headlights.

Seem like a super minor issue? It was, and it is.

Who knows if this was a publicity stunt for ScottyKilmer to try and get some more views or not.

Regardless ScottyKilmer is not without his own reputation of telling people to do things on their cars that isn’t safe (or at least highly debatable online).

Take for example this video where he used a product (brake compression fittings) that literally on the box says “do not use for automotive applications.”

Scotty Kilmer Brake Line Repair Debacle Video:

The problem with this kind of video, that I personally have, is that without reading the comments you would never realize that this practice is unsafe. The comments say it all, and people were quick to point out that the fittings would not even pass many state inspections (due to being super unsafe and illegal).

Here is a little collection of my favorites comments on that video:

Not only that but ScottyKilmer can be seen in his videos getting under cars without the use of jackstands. That is an unsafe practice, especially for beginners that may not be jacking their car up properly in the first place.

Here is a snapshot of him in a video casually underneath a car (pretty high up) that if it fell off the jack would definitely do some damage. This actually came from the same video where he encourages the use of brake compression fittings that are illegal to use on cars in many states. Just watch the video if you don’t believe me.

Did ChrisFix Respond to Scotty Kilmer?

As far as I can tell he hasn’t responded to ScottyKilmer directly. Just some beef between the two groups of die-hard fans of both channels. There have also been numerous threads of discussion about the topic on both ScottyKilmer’s forum and ChrisFix’s Channel. It has also even poured over to EricTheCarGuy’s Forum with threads such as this–

Scotty Kilmer– Mechanic or Shrill?

What does Eric The Car Guy Think of Scotty Kilmer:

I wondered that myself, and so I researched and found this direct quote from Eric on his forum. It sums up pretty well what his feelings are towards anyone making content on youtube:

“I wouldn’t get too down on Scotty as it takes a lot of work to produce videos like his especially if you are actually trying to repair something in addition to making the video, I think it would be safe to say that if you shoot video and do a repair it will take at least 3x as long. That said given the amount of time to produce that kind of content you need to make a living somehow and sponsorship really is the best way because the viewer doesn’t have to pay for the video, the sponsor does. In fact, as time goes on I hope to do more sponsored work but hopefully not at the expense of the content. I’ll do my best to stay ‘honest’ but we have to make a living somehow and for me, I want to keep making my videos and sponsorship is one good way to accomplish this.” by EricTheCarGuy on his forum.

How Do I Think YouTube Is Shaping The Car Repair World:

I think it is a little bit unfortunate the kind of click baiting that is taking place on YouTube. It seems as though people that just produce high-quality content that actually teaches the skills correctly get lost in the chatter of “Top 5 this and that.”

Just look at all of the videos Scotty Kilmer has recently uploaded on YouTube and you see a general trend of less Do It Yourself videos and more opinion pieces designed to get clicks.

Why does that bother me?

It seems as though everything these days is only about getting clicks. People are writing content, marketing products, and being sponsored left and right. It starts changing people and what they recommend. Instead of recommending the cheaper product that will work well, they promote the more expensive brand. Why? Because they make more money from it.

So, please take everything you read online with a grain of salt. All the “best…” fill in the blank tool post are usually written with one thing in mind– selling you a tool that the person writing the article probably isn’t even familiar with.

What do I want to offer?

Just solid buying advice and real world lessons I have learned from working on cars/airplanes/motorcycles. I want to secure interviews with top level people in their trade so that if they don’t have a voice on YouTube they can still be heard.

I want people who take honest reviews and the sharing of quality knowledge to be essential to human growth to be heard and appreciated. It saddens me that people that put out extremely helpful content can barely scrape by off YouTube views and advertising, while others who focus on clickbait excel.

Who is the best youtube car repair person?

Nobody! I don’t care about the number of views, subscribers, or your religion. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you make videos that help people, and admit it when you may not be an expert in the subject. Or when you’re wrong just acknowledge the fact and try to figure out the right way forward.

Still, at the end of the day, I have respect for every person who puts themselves out there on YouTube. It is so much easier to be an internet troll just waiting for any of these people to make a mistake, rather than actually putting yourself out there.

My lonely YouTube Channel has little more than 400 subscribers. Did I start it to become famous? No.

Did I start it to help people who may be stuck in the same spot I was and need help? Absolutely.

Do I wish I was able to make a little bit of money off of it? Sure.

So please keep the car repair videos high quality and the clickbait to a minimum. If you’re sponsored by a product, please make that very clear in your videos!

Let us face it people watching youtube videos about how to fix their 1998 Honda Accord aren’t the richest group. Please let’s not misguide them by selling them products that don’t actually work. That is my hope for the future, and that YouTube stays a great educational resource.

Click here to read about how you can make your own penetrating oil at home for fractions on the penny of store bought brands.

Funny thing about ChrisFix’s Channel:

In the beginning, many of his videos had like 60-130k views. They were about Corvette’s, how to do oil changes, and random stuff like that.

Then he did a video on underwater fishing lures. And guess how many views it got?

It wasn’t even that great of a video at all. But, that is how YouTube is, sometimes you have no idea and a video just takes off. Especially back in those days, before YouTube was entirely full of content.