Jammer -
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jammer
Good points.
And it reminds me of something. I was actually raised as a kid with the advise from my father, who worked for Chevy, that a NEW car/truck was always much cheaper to drive than a used car which likely needed repairs and had often left dad stranded in far away town in his younger years. I guess that is where I got some of my buying habits from. I can recall my own father telling me about all sorts of tricks some criminal type mechanics did to him- Gosh he had one story of a guy just trying to cheat him on a couple pints of oil- The mechanic held his thumb in the dipstick as he measured the oil and my dad caught him red handed pulling the dipstick out with his thumb on it (engine still hot too). I realize most mechanics are good honest folks, it's the bad apples I am speaking of. As you say a good honest mechanic can be a lot of help in keeping a used car on the road at rates a person can pay and still have money for food.
...
|
And I would also say this was better advice in the past because cars didn't last as long (my claim, anyway). Today cars are safer, better built and therefore can last much longer if treated right. The negative corollary is that they are a lot more complicated. This means that they are much more expensive to repair after an accident or when that one oh-so-precious part fails on you.
I'm sorry to hear about your accident. The same thing happened to my friend's wife's Saturn (an S-Series like mine). Nobody hurt, thank goodness. Brake issues are one of my big worries in an old car like mine.
CarloSW2