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It’s been going on for years. My car gets older. My parents and friends get worried. My car looks like a piece of shit.
What most of them don’t understand is that they’re used to bling blang. Used to “I’ll just bring it into the shop”. Used to piece of mind because they can’t even change a flat. Don’t know where any dipstick is. Don’t know what a reservoir is. You’ve never even sprayed PB Bl*ster on a bolt or nut. You’ve never given your shit an oil change. You’ve never even laid eyes on your fricking brake pads, or wait…your wheels! You drive your vehicle without any worries. No restriction because your budget includes car repair. You’re not rich or wealthy. You’re living, but not when your shit needs servicing. You’ll shell out money anywhere convenient for piece of mind that your ride is good.
Then there’s the DIYers. Calm. Composed. Pissed-off. The Problem-solving type who are the best and worst, yet incredulous and self-centered under obstacles that won’t drive us down. No feat is too small. No challenge is too big. And after hours or minutes or days. We figure it out and congratulate ourselves. But barely no one’s there’s to see or listen, because we’re a select breed.
So everybody who’s close to me. Stop telling me I need a new car. Because my car if not outlasted yours, will have a bigger soul than yours ever had.
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I’m all for keeping old cars on the road as long as they are still safe to drive. But there comes a time when parts are no longer available or the rust has gotten so bad that it is time to say goodbye. Even then I would still rather buy a new to me used car. I save money on insurance on licensing and most of the time I don’t care if it gets damaged by the elements.
LOL My father has a Lexus RS-460. That car falls into the “I ain’t gonna touch it, that’s what the dealer is for”. My mother has a 97 Corolla. That’s the one my father plays mechanic on. He had it up at my house just last week, I swapped out all four struts. He says “let me ask you something” and pops the hood. Points at something and says “what’s this?”. I said that’s where you check the tranny fluid level, and where you add fluid if needed.
He says “Oh, Ok, well where do you put the motor oil in?”. I pointed at the big cap on the valve cover with the oil can symbol on it. He says “ooh oh”.
He checked the oil, saw it was low, and added a quart of engine oil to the tranny fluid. He even said “I had a hell of a time getting the oil to go in that tiny hole”. Guess he just assumed he topped the engine oil off and didn’t bother to check again.
So there are cars that are still on the road only by the wonder of miracles. But they’re still on the road!
It’s almost always cheaper to repair than to replace. I think Dave Ramsey said that. (Good to listen to him, lot’s of great financial advise)
With that being said, there does come a point where a vehicle becomes so worn out all you are doing is beating a dead horse. The vehicle starts giving you so many problems and the constant repair becomes the amount of a car payment. If your car troubles are causing other’s troubles, I see where they are coming from.
All too often people will get the repair bill and say “I could buy another one for that”. Yes, but that other one will not have the new parts, and at least if you replace the engine/trans on this, that part will be new. The more used,, the more wear, the more bills. The newer the more of a payment they have. A brand new car is possibly one of the worse investments you can make. Instead of having a $500 car payment every month, if you were to invest that in something like a Roth IRA you would be a millionaire by the time you retire. However, it’s nice having a new car. I had to take a loaded ’16 Altima home a couple weeks ago and I’ll tell you I was seriously thinking of it, until I remembered what a car payment was like and that time I couldn’t make that payment and how that felt. Nope, sticking to my old truck.
As far as people who don’t even know how to check their oil. I think they should be able to do that but then again, they are smart enough to stay out from under the hood. I don’t know why it’s apart of the man-code to know how to work on cars. This isn’t the 1950’s.
[quote=”Jasonw1178″ post=173290]
As far as people who don’t even know how to check their oil. I think they should be able to do that but then again, they are smart enough to stay out from under the hood. I don’t know why it’s apart of the man-code to know how to work on cars. This isn’t the 1950’s.[/quote]I sure wish they all would. The road would be a safer place. I’m out in the sticks and see a lot of cars with major body parts literally held on by duct tape. If they can’t afford a $100 fender you can bet they can’t afford a $120 brake job.
But then again if everyone could work on their own cars CORRECTLY it would make mechanics obsolete. I still do a lot of “I’ll fix what you fixed” work.
My 11 year old Diesel truck (Ram 3500) with hail damage and some dents, ect. was acting up on a 1200 mile trip and my wife said I should buy a new truck.
I told her it was already paid for, and most likely the problem was a bad fuel injector at worst (from the OBD2 code thrown – low injector voltage.)
When it acted up again a few hundred miles later, and I had a few miles to think about the OBD code of low injector voltage, I recalled that the EDGE Juice performance module pluged between the trucks computer and Injector harness. I pulled over, and unplugged the aftermarket performance module and pluged the stock harness back into the injectors, while also noticing the tube from the intake to the boost gauge was cracked. Did a quick fix of that boost leak by placing a small piece of electrical tape over the tube fitting and screwing it back into the compression fitting.
No more problems since then and that was over 10,000 miles ago.[quote=”Johnny Stang” post=173306][quote=”Jasonw1178″ post=173290]
As far as people who don’t even know how to check their oil. I think they should be able to do that but then again, they are smart enough to stay out from under the hood. I don’t know why it’s apart of the man-code to know how to work on cars. This isn’t the 1950’s.[/quote]I sure wish they all would. The road would be a safer place. I’m out in the sticks and see a lot of cars with major body parts literally held on by duct tape. If they can’t afford a $100 fender you can bet they can’t afford a $120 brake job.
But then again if everyone could work on their own cars CORRECTLY it would make mechanics obsolete. I still do a lot of “I’ll fix what you fixed” work.[/quote]
Let me elaborate. Instead of knowing how to maintain their vehicle, the focus should be on being able to properly inspect the vehicle. When I was testing for my CDL, a pre-trip inspection is a big part of the test, and for any company you get hired from, they usually will want to see you do it. They want you to show them what you are looking at, the name, and what exactly you are checking for. I think something like that would be a good idea for getting any level of Driver’s license.
I agree. When your vehicle has seen its demise, it’s probably better off to let it go and start a fresh. Or, if your vehicle’s driver can no longer use their signals while changing lanes or turning, then maybe they should just stop driving all together.
I’m just happy driving my 91 Cavalier. I paid $250 for it. Insurance is $80/month, gas is $80-$100 a month, 72K miles. The only thing that was wrong with it was that it had old tires, no radio speakers, and a water leak. I replaced the tires and fixed most of the water leak in a week, and it has been good to me ever since.
I enjoy working on the car, and I enjoy how easy it is to fix everything on it. Much better than taking it to the crooked mechanics that plague my town.
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