Nah. Those are all things that should be done either by:
AAA (or CAA)
spouse (i.e. me)
your mechanic.
The old school ‘now how to do stuff in case you break down’ was a good idea in the 70’s. But with balla actuarial income, and AAA available, all of that stuff should be outsourced to a mechanic or AAA if you don’t have someone who does it for you.
And in some cases I’ll replace a headlight, but in other cases, no way. My spouse’s volvo, you need an FSA in Volvo to do that.
Some of the things on the list (wipers, fluids, etc) I handle for our four cars (well, three, plus my daughter’s car whenever she comes over). They don’t touch it.
The oil/rad filling - what in hell are you driving? Most people should never have to touch that. I do occassionally on my vehicle, but only because it’s north of 300k on it so it burns a wee bit of oil - and I don’t even really have to do that.
Cost to have your mechanic change the wiperblades = cost of buying the wiperblades yourself and sitting outside inthe rain whining as you’re fidgeting with trying to get the old ones off and then figuring out what connections your car uses. I do them myself sometimes when I don’t have a mechanic appt booked, but otherwise, it’s something that gets done ‘next time it’s in the shop’. You don’t save anything noticeable by doing this yourself.
I never even consider going to a place like that. I guess some of them must be fine, but I just book an appt at the mechanic. (I’m fortunate, small town and a local guy that’s a mechanic. so it’s fairly convenient. And I don’t get an upsell).
I think DTNF has it down. Buy a reliable car, learn how to do some basic stuff, find a mechanic you can trust. Don’t spend dozens or hundreds of hours trying to save a few hundred bucks.
Of course they can all be done by a mechanic. But they are easy enough to be able to do them yourself. I save time not going all the way to the mechanic, and I get some me time with my car.
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No, that is NOT weird!
#11 requires that you buy a OBD2 bluetooth thingy (which isn’t a big deal, as they can be had for under $10 on ebay). But an alternative is that any of the major auto parts stores will read the codes for you for free. Google (if not the guy at the auto parts store) will tell you what the codes mean, of course.
A lot of cars suddenly have an overheating issue or low oil issue. Buy some oil and put it in, or get the hose and fill the radiator (obvious “don’t open the radiator cap if hot” is obvious – I’m not here to teach) until you have time for a mechanic.
My car is leaking oil, but pretty high up (not at the oil pan). So, it needs oil between changes. Likewise, someone who has an older car might need to put in a quart, and know where it goes. Doesn’t involve crawling under the car so that’s why it’s on the list. You don’t wanna do it? Then don’t. I’ll think less of you, but that’s ok.
Well i agree for someone like you or me. But for someone who.doesnt know this stuff, not sure theyre valuable skills that need to be learned. Cars are way more.reliable than they used to be, and again most of us here earn enough to to be worried about screwing around with wiper blades.
Unless youre like my brother in law who’s got nothing newer than 2006, and always has at least one parts car per vehicle. ‘only 200 bucks and its got new brakes’ so when he needs new brakes, he pulls them off the parts vehicle lol.
Cars Owned by people posting here?
I.used.to.havecars like that, but its been many years. Late model cars dont tend to have these issues.
I mentioned my car has 300k on it, but no one else in my family drives.anything like that. If its on the edge of needing that kind of maintenance, its time for a new car. Which is likely the case for folks here.
Just you and me.driving wrecks here, and im only doing it because i like my car and a new one is like 80k.
2 minutes. They’re pretty easy, unless the car was built so you have to take it to the dealership to change wiper blades, in which case that is a reason not to buy it. (And I’ve seen some screwy wiper blade setups.)
Not talking brakes or some other extremely critical part of a car, in which the car won’t work right unless done properly. Friggin wipers.
Oil consumption is more common than you may think. I’ve never had any modern cars that required adding oil between changes, but it does happen, even with Hondas and Toyotas. My Mazda was close to needing oil between changes when I sold it because of (I’m pretty sure) oil getting past the turbo bearings.
It’s one of the things Car & Driver tracks for their long term fleet and it’s not uncommon for them to add oil. To be fair, they are beating on their cars more than most, but it’s a lot of good data points.
I don’t know, I’d say if you have a modern car it’s a >2% chance you should be adding oil, but <10%. That feels right.
Excuse me, but it’s not a “wreck.” If I have to make a trip up north to challenge thee to a duel, I WILL! SLAP!
Still drives well. But, I don’t need a new car. I’d drive it as much as the current car, which is, oh, 2000 miles a year?, so it would be a $400+ per month giant paperweight on the driveway. So if my current car is not averaging $400 in repairs, I’m doing the correct actuarial (cheap) thing.
I’m with @vjvj and have to counter to @SpaceLobster . The auto part store guys will do a lot of the simple work for you. I buy the wipers, they put on the wipers for free. My battery is being weird, they test the battery for free. I have some check engine code, they read the code and give their best (not always expert-level) opinion, sometimes it means a simple fix, sometimes means go to the mechanic.
Everyone should know how to change a tire or add air to it and add fluids (oil, wiper fluid, coolant) as those can potentially be safety issues if you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere or during a storm or whatever. Note that this also requires knowing how to pop the hood of the car. Not just releasing it, but actually opening it.
The rest I see as NBD to hire out of you don’t feel like learning / getting dirty. I used to change my own wiper blades but the ones on my new(ish) car are a major PITA. If I break them I’m out the cost of the wipers. If the guy at the auto parts store breaks them then the auto parts store is out the money. Last time I went in they had like 30-something listed as being in stock, but the cashier confirmed that they were all broken in the back because they are just very easy to break. I’m NOT messing with them.
Heh, I recall being on a road trip with my ex-MIL in her old Mustang. It was low on oil as it did burn a bit and she was very upset with her husband for not adding more oil before we’d left… apparently it had been on his honey-do list and he hadn’t gotten to it. No biggie, I said, we’ll just buy some. She was shocked that I, a woman, felt comfortable doing this.
So we stopped. I asked the guy what he recommended for a 19XX Mustang (I think it was maybe 1980 or so?) and bought what he recommended. We opened the hood and I reached for the cap clearly labeled “engine oil” and started to unscrew…
WAIT!!! my then-MIL shouted. Twig… that’s for engine oil!!!
(She literally went back in the store and asked the guy if engine oil was the same as dipstick oil, and if that’s what you put in your car when the oil pressure light comes on because she did NOT believe me, nor was she willing to entrust her beloved Mustang to me when she was so certain of my error. Even when I showed her the dipstick!)
