Blogocentric Formulations

Car repairs beat car payments any day

Had to take the wife's car in because it was having a hard time starting. Seemed to be some kind of clogged filter, fuel injection obstruction, something-rather. $150 to fix, and the starter is in pretty bad shape, which will be another $300 when the next paycheck comes in.

Whenever these sporadic maintenance needs pop up, we start thinking, "Ugh, maybe it's time for a new car." I mean, one of them is a '95 sedan with 177,000 miles on it, and the other is a '96 SUV with 276,000 miles on it. So these things are bound to happen (more and more often it seems).

Of course, since we own both of our cars outright, we eventually realize that a couple hundred bucks here and there beats a couple hundred bucks every month for a car payment. So dear neighbor with the six-figure, 2009 Mercedes SUV, you keep on giving us those patronizing smiles when we roll up next to your precious ride in the garage ... at the end of the day, we don't pay any money for the privilege of driving our cars, and our annual maintenance costs still don't come close to hitting one of your monthly payments.

And that makes me smile.