The cost of maintenance if you pay someone else is astronomical and no one does their own work anymore.
One of the problems with no one doing their own work anymore is that car maintenance is a skill that your father knew, and was taught to him by his father, but he didn't teach it to you.
I get that youtube etc. exists, but it's kind of hard to blame people born after 1990 for this considering that the education system spends more time on the holobunga than it does teaching kids practical skills that they would need to survive.
For example, I'm a car guy, but I have very limited mechanic knowledge. Most of what I know about cars consists of one semester of shop class in high school and some youtube videos on how engines work.
I might have a general idea of how a car works, but I can't accurately diagnose problems that my car has, and even if I could, I don't have the tools to do anything beyond something requiring a socket wrench. If something needs repairing inside my engine, I have to go to my mechanic, and while he's a great guy, he's also almost $200 an hour.
Up until last week I owned two cars, one of them a 90s Miata, and the other a German luxury sedan. The Miata is simple enough that even I can do some repairs on it with the assistance of youtube, but the sedan I basically wouldn't even bother touching. There was basically no room in the engine bay to reach your hand in, and basically every repair beyond an oil change required you to take the whole front of the car off to do anything. It was a nice car when it ran, but i do not miss paying to fix it. I just wish the deer that totaled it had done so about two weeks earlier before I had to pay $900 to replace the starter motor.
One huge problem with a lot of them is the latter. It's so common now to have to take half the car apart to do almost anything. I've done a lot of work on modern cars myself and the reality is in a lot of cases you better have a backup car. For an amateur willing to try you're going to be working on the car a week for something that might have taken an amateur half a day on an older car.
The electronics aren't necessarily an undoing like many think. Maybe it's foreign to someone older, but to someone who grew up on this stuff using a dongle and an app to help diagnose isn't the bad part. What then happens is the manufacturers put security in the way to make sure only their approved devices can even do that.
Yeah, there will end up a right to repair movement on cars if not already. Electronics being VIN-locked behind security, parts availability falling off a cliff, it's all there now.
A starter motor replacement takes an hour. The part is 150 bucks. But the mechanic wants to make a living too, and also has ever increasing overheads and subscriptions and etc etc etc. Its not even them being "greedy" necessarily. This is why its very important for you to fix your own car. Dont know how? Grab a Haynes or Chilton manual and go on YouTube and spend the money on tools. If it costs you 600 dollars to have the mechanic do it, or 600 dollars in parts and tools and 3 hours of your time, do it yourself. You are left with a working car and an empty wallet if you pay the mechanic. You are left with a working car, an empty wallet, an expanded skill, more knowledge and experience, and a bag full of tools if you do it yourself.
a little trick that still works sometimes: go to an autoparts store and ask if they know anybody who can do repairs relatively cheap. they'll probably charge you a bit more for a royal pain in the ass newer vehicle, but there's usually some farmer or whatever with a side hustle who'll hook you up if you can't do the job yourself.
how i got the engine replaced in my 98 mazda b3000.
One of the problems with no one doing their own work anymore is that car maintenance is a skill that your father knew, and was taught to him by his father, but he didn't teach it to you.
I get that youtube etc. exists, but it's kind of hard to blame people born after 1990 for this considering that the education system spends more time on the holobunga than it does teaching kids practical skills that they would need to survive.
For example, I'm a car guy, but I have very limited mechanic knowledge. Most of what I know about cars consists of one semester of shop class in high school and some youtube videos on how engines work.
I might have a general idea of how a car works, but I can't accurately diagnose problems that my car has, and even if I could, I don't have the tools to do anything beyond something requiring a socket wrench. If something needs repairing inside my engine, I have to go to my mechanic, and while he's a great guy, he's also almost $200 an hour.
Up until last week I owned two cars, one of them a 90s Miata, and the other a German luxury sedan. The Miata is simple enough that even I can do some repairs on it with the assistance of youtube, but the sedan I basically wouldn't even bother touching. There was basically no room in the engine bay to reach your hand in, and basically every repair beyond an oil change required you to take the whole front of the car off to do anything. It was a nice car when it ran, but i do not miss paying to fix it. I just wish the deer that totaled it had done so about two weeks earlier before I had to pay $900 to replace the starter motor.
One huge problem with a lot of them is the latter. It's so common now to have to take half the car apart to do almost anything. I've done a lot of work on modern cars myself and the reality is in a lot of cases you better have a backup car. For an amateur willing to try you're going to be working on the car a week for something that might have taken an amateur half a day on an older car.
The electronics aren't necessarily an undoing like many think. Maybe it's foreign to someone older, but to someone who grew up on this stuff using a dongle and an app to help diagnose isn't the bad part. What then happens is the manufacturers put security in the way to make sure only their approved devices can even do that.
Which is the core reason people complain about electronics. I don't really care how simple something is if it's locked down
Yeah, there will end up a right to repair movement on cars if not already. Electronics being VIN-locked behind security, parts availability falling off a cliff, it's all there now.
Movements don't really matter, at most there will be some ineffectual law passed to placate the masses but without any actual effect.
"Man, I hate this car."
Deer: "I got you, fam."
A starter motor replacement takes an hour. The part is 150 bucks. But the mechanic wants to make a living too, and also has ever increasing overheads and subscriptions and etc etc etc. Its not even them being "greedy" necessarily. This is why its very important for you to fix your own car. Dont know how? Grab a Haynes or Chilton manual and go on YouTube and spend the money on tools. If it costs you 600 dollars to have the mechanic do it, or 600 dollars in parts and tools and 3 hours of your time, do it yourself. You are left with a working car and an empty wallet if you pay the mechanic. You are left with a working car, an empty wallet, an expanded skill, more knowledge and experience, and a bag full of tools if you do it yourself.
a little trick that still works sometimes: go to an autoparts store and ask if they know anybody who can do repairs relatively cheap. they'll probably charge you a bit more for a royal pain in the ass newer vehicle, but there's usually some farmer or whatever with a side hustle who'll hook you up if you can't do the job yourself.
how i got the engine replaced in my 98 mazda b3000.