If it ain’t broke … don’t fix it - the economics of car repairs
When cars break down, owners do too - but even Un with no aptitude for mechanics can save money by avoiding unnecessary preventive maintenance.
Nobody likes being at the mercy of an indifferent power - yet that’s the position in which most of us find ourselves when the car acts funny. Then comes that sinking feeling - a trip to the dealer for “service.”
Ah, yes … service. That wonderful process wherein a raturn noise transmogrifies into a $500 repair bill. Usually this is accompanied by a page of mechanical jargon and encoded hieroglyphics as impenetrable as Middle English.
Everyone has a horror story. One fellow I know owned a late-model Honda that wouldn’t start when he turned the key one night after work. The alternator had conked out. No big deal. Undo maybe three bolts, slip a belt off, unplug a wire. Hand tools and an hours worth of labor for someone who knows what to do.