Yesterday I took my sons ailing CRV into the dealer and discovered it needed nearly 2 grand of repairs. Yes, you read that right -2 grand. I knew it was bad when they hadn’t called by 4PM, so I called them. The Mrs and I had already discussed how much we would be willing to put into a car with 134,000 miles it. “Oh Mr RayinPenn we were just about to call you... “ Bottom line lots of suspension stuff and front brakes. I could have found a less expensive mechanic or just sold the car as is but, the old gal is a great cold weather dorm parking lot queen. Starts easily and is clean, has new tires, battery, now new front and rear brakes and all that other new front end stuff. Our dream goal is the car last to his graduation - he’s a junior. Probably 8,000-12,000 miles over the next 20 months. I hear CRVs have been known to do 200,000 miles.
Reality: two thousand dollars can and has been a bad day at the dentist. Still it is a shock to this old guys system. It’s not that we don’t see some big numbers in our lives. This semester Cool Hand’s ‘all in’ college cost will be roughly $25,000 and believe me I know that is quite a bargain but, still it 37 times what I paid. My first semester at college cost $230, almost a tenth of this repair. Books were always under $100. Now its easily $100 a book. Funny but that $230 was big money nearly 50 years ago.
Reality: two thousand dollars can and has been a bad day at the dentist. Still it is a shock to this old guys system. It’s not that we don’t see some big numbers in our lives. This semester Cool Hand’s ‘all in’ college cost will be roughly $25,000 and believe me I know that is quite a bargain but, still it 37 times what I paid. My first semester at college cost $230, almost a tenth of this repair. Books were always under $100. Now its easily $100 a book. Funny but that $230 was big money nearly 50 years ago.