You must log in or register to comment.
Me in two weeks time from now
Bill in dollars and you’re going Far far away? Lol not without your car
People have been known to cross the Florida Straight on makeshift rafts, I hear Cuba is very nice this time of year.
The actual solution is to reduce dependence on cars.
Well, the actual solution is to abolish Capitalism…
That’s a lot more difficult than investing in alternatives to cars.
Well it’s get easier the more guillotines are set up in the town squares…
Americans giving you big mad downvotes. Fuck cars.
Only 4 downvotes so far. Better than I thought it’d go.
That’s not how that works. The shop has to provide you with an estimated bill that you have to approve before they’ll even start working on it.
Yep, inspect is normally £20-£40, they give you the cost of repair and it stays at that cost. If they discover yet another problem, they don’t force you to undergo the repair.
It is permitted for non-certified (MOT) cars to go to and from a mechanic so you can space out repairs over a month or more if needed.
Source: my friend bought a decades old Volvo so he tends to have LOTS of trouble keeping it in a reasonable state on his general wages.
Depends on the laws in your state
It’s also not uncommon for them to tell you that your car needs all this work because mechanics generally get paid on flatrate, so they’re always trying to get more work. A lot of mechanics double dip on labor hours. Replace a brake caliper and get a brake flush. Well, they already had to bleed the brakes when they did the caliper and they’re not going to bother bleeding all four, they’ll just put clean fluid in the reservoir and you’ll never know.
If you have $4k in repairs due, this would be your response at the estimated bill given that car is gone now.
How is it gone? You can still decline repairs and have it back, whatever it’s current state may be.
To an extent. If its not able to be safely driven, they are supposed to require you to have it properly transported (towed or on a flatbed depending on condition).
Actually got to see the cops called over that once.
Location-dependent. Not all localities allow shops to hold a vehicle hostage.
Thats fair, its definitely a YMMV.
“Estimate”
Also, learn to repair your own car or at least do basic maintenance if you absolutely have to rely on a car. It can save you a lot of money and much of it is surprisingly easy (sometimes this depends on what car you have though). Oil changes on my car cost $70-80 in a shop but if I did it myself it was closer to $40 and the whole thing maybe took 30 minutes.
(Please don’t do this. Pour the old oil into the empty container and return it to the store for responsible disposal, or municipal hazardous waste facility, or whatever scheme exists in your location)Ahh, 1963. Classic PopSci…
This is why I only drive 90s and 2000s Asian cars. Cheap to own, cheap to repair, parts are abundant and easy to work on without needing specialized equipment.
Plus if you enjoy driving like me, you have a huge selection of fun, reliable JDM sports cars to choose from, all under $10K.
Same, I have an old 5 speed Subaru right now and I love it.
This hits to close to home. Just got a quote to fix my wife’s car $3500. Likes it a 2008 Hyundai accent can buy another car for that. Crazy expensive fix we don’t have.
What broke?
The car did silly
Yes my wife’s car.
What part of the car?
The front fell off you see
The front fell off?
Transmission due to code P0734: Gear 4 incorrect ratio.
Hm. Worth a shot? Here’s the $20 part they recommend. Guy even wrote up a pretty decent tutorial, assuming you know your way around a jack and a wrench.
The moment every car owner dreads.
laughs in DIY
eh, you can save money that way, but there are still repairs that the expense is majority parts.
“why do I have all these parts left over?”
Unfortunately new cars are more difficult to repair than older cars. Community mechanic shops and education need to be more common.
absolutely, I am still shocked that even VW needs special funnels just to do an oil change.
I just switched to owning a german for the first time and have to buy a lot of new tools
Community mechanic shops and education need to be more common.
Nah, what you need is fewer cars and to not depend on them to stay alive.
Cars will never and should never go away completely, even if they become nothing more than a niche hobbyist thing.
In any case, we very much need and want and should have community mechanic shops and education. A friendly repair cafe is always a good idea.
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. Those mechanic shops can transition to working on trains, bikes, EVs, etc. We can do both.
IMO, I can’t see how making progress on car maintainability would be easier than on car dependency.
One depends on local politics, the other on national (or maybe even national to a foreign nation) politics or somehow convincing a global oligopolist to lose a bit of money to help your cause.
But if you want to work on it, good luck and all the power to you. Don’t stop just because another problem exists.
Oh, I’m not trying to say either are going to be easy, but they both have their individual benefits and there’s some overlap. Having more community-based knowledge of internal combustion engines could still help people switch to motorcycles as a start.
You also never know when someone will make a connection that’s never been thought of before, and completely change how we think about transportation, and the more knowledge in more people’s hands, the better.
Just trying to say it’s a “Yes, and” situation.
Correct answer. Getting there is difficult overall for some societies that are built on that dependency. Every individual can try to do what they can, and some do manage to make it work. Most cannot, and there lies the problem. And before I get bombarded with a list of things, note that I said some people and places can make them work for their situation…but until a majority can make them work, they’re as good as any other solution that shifts the fix onto the public and consumer rather than tackling actual change to our civilization.
Not really that hard if you’ve touched a car in the past 25 years.
I touched it, but got sent away. It said it was a 2006. How was I supposed to know it was a 2008?
right to repair needs to come faster, my fucking malibu needs to have the front bumper be partially removed in order to change the headlight. Yea let’s risk cracking the bumper to change a headlight. Really nice.
Yeah every car I’ve owned has had its quirks. Longer standard warranty across all manufacturers, government subsidized would be a nice start.
How would you like to pay?
… I don’t 🙃
How would you like to pay?
I’d like to use all that spare money I have in my bank account, but instead, I guess I’ll use my credit card because my livelihood requires that I have a working car. I’m sure I can pay it off in the next few years before I need another crippling repair or other expense.
Average Genius Bar experience
