True. I don’t have a garage but I do have a carport in my driveway.
As far as stability goes, nothing is less stable than reliance on a stealership. That I can tell you professionally - I investigated their misdeeds for over 15 years…
Is anyone every called out to investigate their good deeds?? What about all the times customers were done right and took care by the dealerships?? Did you ever have to investigate those good deeds?? Everybody HATES Firestone as an example but you will NEVER hear about how they took care of the BAD rack-n-pinion install situation with the Trailblazer guy that was screwed over by the said installer but his local Firestone got AZ to warranty a damaged by the mechanic R-N-P that the warranty was clearly VOID on and refunded hos money to help him out and FS went with a different supplier even and that FS went above and beyond to get the customer taking care of…
Someone can do good 9 out of 10 times but all you will ever hear or talk about is that 1 bad thing, but 90% good is a pretty decent rating…
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You are right That is the biggest reason I don’t watch or listen to the news.
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People on Car Talk champion the independent mechanic and look down on the technician that works for well-known companies. The grease monkey that butchered the rack and pinion job was working without a lift because he can’t get a job at a decent company.
How do you know what’s going on in the world if you don’t pay attention to the news? There are good news stories sometimes, and even those that aren’t allow us to make informed decisions on events that affect us. As an example, Baltimore City had two mayors in recent history that were forced out of office for malfeasance. One even went to federal prison for her wrongdoing. Without the news, we never should have known about that. If you want good news every day, try the NBC national news in the evening. The last story every day is good news. I imagine that other TV news outlets have similar features. I don’t like bad news, but it is important to see it so that I understand the world better, from my town to places around the world. This is especially important when it is time to vote.
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That was my first thought, also.
Beyond being kept aware of local happenings, I think that people will have a hard time keeping-up with catastrophic weather events if they refuse to watch/listen to TV/radio news broadcasts.
If one of those catastrophic weather events is going to hit one’s immediate area, the decision to not follow the news could be–literally–life threatening.
Often news will tell the good along with the bad—he was a model citizen (the good) until he killed three people (the bad).
The primary problem is with the viewers, so many viewers can not understand what is fact and what is opinion, commentary, or spin.
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I blame the networks for much of this. Most cable news station time is spent with folks sitting around a table complaining/criticizing. Kind of like how the various ‘information’ channels, like Discovery or History, are nothing but BS shows about aliens and mysterious buried treasure. Even the Smithsonian channel has turned into the Air Disasters channel…
None of this impacts my life directly if at all. Even if it does, there’s nothing I can do about it except be hyper aware about things and annoy people around me by spreading the word. It’s useless. There is less and less agency for individuals in society. Better to stay in your lane and focus on improving the things in your life that can be improved. Help others if you can. No need to follow the news. Anything that’s mildly interesting is usually propaganda or just the side of the story that helps pad the news medias pockets.
I was thinking the other day how bizarre the concept of the news and the mainstream media is. It’s an entire industry that depends on making you feel like you have agency that you actually don’t have. They also do so in manipulative ways that essentially lead you to parrot their talking points with the idea that you have some kind of seat at the table. In reality, you don’t and you never will.
It’s a waste of time. It’s a broken institution. It literally does no good to know what is happening in the world anymore. All those protesters against mandatory vaccination didn’t matter. The only protests that matter are the ones that the powerful plan, support and instigate. So if EVEN YOUR PROTESTS are ineffective, then what the hell does it matter if you know what’s going on or coming down the pike? It doesn’t.
Most viewers consume news media like it’s somehow useful or going to make any kind of difference. The days of individuals and groups organically “raising awareness” are gone.
Information and AI age is here. Better to tune out and make peace with how little we can change as well as how much is misleading or just false.
I’ve been treated well at most Firestones. Extremely convenient and no hassle. I’ve got their lifetime alignment already and lifetime brake is next.
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I expect most of the frequent posters here are aware of this, b/c they’ve had the same problem and had to figure out a work-around at some point in their past. Younger me had no place to work on my car except in the street for years. I used the dealership or Sears auto repair in most repair cases. For routine maintenance I’d sometimes use family member’s driveways.
Probably the vocal minority that don’t.
what’s that . . . ?! 
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Long, long time ago. Sears and Wards provided more mechanical service. About the time King Kong was carrying Fay Wray up the Empire State Building.
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