Car upkeep, what's neccessary and what's fluff?

[justin]

I don't do hardly ANY work on our honda's (2000 civic and 2000 accord). Everything more complicated than replacing wiper blades goes to our local honda specialist auto shop (not the dealer). My family has been going there for a decade at least.

Just got the 45k checkup done on my civic - $150 which included oil change, a few other changes and a ton of inspections. The front brakes and rotors were also replaced for $180 I believe. Both of our cars have been running like champs for 6 years now just doing the scheduled maintenances every 15k miles and oil changes every 3-5k miles, per the honda specialists recommendations. Oh yeah, I did have to get the wifey a new set of tires around 60k.

I figure spending around $100/yr for routine checkups plus whatever we spend on extra oil changes isn't too bad to have a pro (who only works on hondas and toyotas) working on it instead of me. Occasionally I'll get the urge to try to learn how to fix stuff with the cars or do the maintenance myself, then I remember how lazy I am and how easy it is for me to make $100. And I'll probably screw it up anyway and end up paying 2x in repair costs to remedy my mistake.

 

[SteveR]

Like my old boss used to say...

"I made a deal with my auto mechanic.... I don't fix cars and he agrees to not manfacture drugs."

Works for me.
I used to do a lot of auto work but stopped several years ago. I did not have the time, energy or $$ to keep up with the technology to diagnose and fix them. The days are long gone when you could tune a car by placing a glass of water on the fender and turn the carb. screws until the ripples stopped and the tach. stabilized.

I buy good well built cars that I know won't take a ton of tinkering to keep them going. For me that has been Toyota, Honda and Acura. I have one of each currently and the my annual repairs for all three run under $400 (not counting tires). The newest one is a 2003.

I know as they age they will need more TLC. I am OK with that. I have not had a car payment in 8 years so I figure I am coming out ahead of the game.

 

[d]

The newest one is a 2003 ... I have not had a car payment in 8 years

neat trick!  the '03 was free?

 

[73ss454]

While my DD was going to grad school down in Fla. a few years ago I sent her to the local garage to get an oil change and filter. When the job was done DD called me from her cell phone and said the car was bucking on the way home and she was affraid to drive it. I had the car towed to the local Mitsu dealer since it was a Mitsu Spyder. They found that the mechanic my daughter used had emptied the trany fluid and filled the engine with 5 more quarts of oil. So she had 10 quarts of oil in the engine and no trany fluid.

Needless to say I wasn't too happy with the original mechanic.

 

[SteveR]

neat trick!  the '03 was free?

No, I pay cash for cars therefore no car payments. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Telly]

I do everything myself.  Have for decades.  Each time I've let somebody do something, I've regretted it. 

Someday, I'll be to old and feeble to do it.  Just shoot me then.  But they'll probably miss the first time, and I'll have to show them which sight to use.  Just like Mr Pither did in his Bicycling Trip of North Cornwall.

 

[Helen]

I buy good well built cars that I know won't take a ton of tinkering to keep them going.  For me that has been Toyota, Honda and Acura. 

Yea, me too. I just had the clutch go out on my 2003 Honda CRV at 56k miles. It cost me $1,000. I was bummed. I hope I don't have a lemon. My Civic had 170k on it with the same clutch, then I was rear ended and it was totalled.

Oh well, at least I wasn't out in the dingles on a hiking expedition when the clutch went out.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My Civic had 170k on it with the same clutch, then I was rear ended and it was totalled.

Guess you should have changed the clutch then, huh?

 

[Nords]

Guess you should have changed the clutch then, huh?

Oh, you can do better than that-- for example, were any other parts of the car damaged?

 

[dumpster56]

I went 235,000 volvo 240 1992 model and never replaced the clutch!

I did however drop the entire exhust system on the interstate on my way home from work at 235,000!

Sold it for 1,000 and moved on!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh, you can do better than that-- for example, were any other parts of the car damaged?

I was kinda going for the "not changing the clutch as the cause of the accident" route, but it didnt come across.

Speaking of car upkeep, my local toyota dealer did the routine for me a few weeks ago. Since our rav4 had never seen the inside of a mechanics shop, just my own upkeep, and it was getting past 5 years old, I figured I'd waste my money on a "30k service", knowing I wasnt really going to get most of the 'inspections' and 'checks' listed.

When I called, the service writer said it was all done...but that they had checked and found the cabin air filter "completely clogged". Would I like a new one for $40? He could get it done by the time I got there.

The only problems with this were a) I vacuumed the filter out regularly and had just done so and it looked fine; b) cabin air filters cost about $15 and take all of 30 seconds to replace, and c) I knew 'a' and 'b'.

So I said 'no thanks'.

When I got it home, just for kicks I pulled the cabin air filter. Brand new. They must have told the tech to replace it, and they'd "sell it to me". More trouble and cost than it was worth to go back in and get the new one out, find my old one, and put it in.

 

[Helen]

Guess you should have changed the clutch then, huh?

And I thought you were going to nail me on the being rear ended remark.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Way too easy. Besides, I hit my limit for rear end jokes for the month of june already.

I figured since it appears that I lack class, I'd go for the class-ic improbable cause-and-effect jokes rather than the class-less bum joke.