# Declining mechanical aptitude **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [September 24, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949 "2008-09-24T13:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![orangevega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@orangevega](https://community.cartalk.com/u/orangevega)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/41 "2008-09-28T21:47:06Z")
VDCdriver, Here’s the entry [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alot](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alot) I thought it odd that I was able to find it as well. The entry is for alot, but the definition refers to a lot or just lot. ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/48514_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/42 "2008-09-28T22:05:11Z")
Please read that Merriam Webster entry MUCH more carefully this time. You will see that they are referring to the word “lot”, and later they make reference to the two words, “a lot”. There is no such word as alot unless you are referring to a village in India, and that word is capitalized. ---
**Author:** ![orangevega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@orangevega](https://community.cartalk.com/u/orangevega)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/43 "2008-09-28T22:29:45Z")
I agree that there is no such word unless you are referring to the village in India. The online dictionary entry is still “alot” even though it refers to “lot” and “a lot”…just like I stated in my previous post. At any rate, I agree with you that there is no such word as “alot” unless you’re thinking of India. I just thought it was interesting that I found the entry in the online dictionary. I assume they are catering to the people that think “a lot” is one word. What happened to the good old days when you had to know how to spell a word to find it in the dictionary?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![orangevega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@orangevega](https://community.cartalk.com/u/orangevega)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/44 "2008-09-28T22:31:54Z")
Point well taken!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/48514_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/45 "2008-09-28T22:33:37Z")
Everything is being “dumbed down”. I fear that soon, the inmates will be running the asylum, vis-a-vis the educational system. Wait–perhaps they are already in charge. ---
**Author:** ![oldschool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e19adc/32.png) [@oldschool](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldschool)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/46 "2008-09-28T22:58:58Z")
They are sending screen shots of the homework questions asking for answers. Homework is due tonight at 11.59. They can figure out how to do a screen shot but can’t graph in point-slope form I am not going to answer,that would be cheating,correct? ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/48514_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/47 "2008-09-28T23:42:23Z")
You are correct! ---
**Author:** ![Francizek](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/francizek/32/303_2.png) [@Francizek](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Francizek)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/48 "2008-09-29T13:16:13Z")
You’re my kind of guy, CCC. I wish there were more of you out there. Stay with it. ---
**Author:** ![gloria13w](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gloria13w](https://community.cartalk.com/u/gloria13w)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/49 "2008-09-29T17:19:31Z")
I agree. I don’t think we have economic wealth as much as we have easily available credit to buy new or pay someone else to fix whether we can afford it or not. My parents would save up to purchase a new vehicle, and until they had enough, my dad would repair the one we had or buy another second hand. ---
**Author:** ![ken\_green](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/ken_green/32/816_2.png) [@ken\_green](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ken_green)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/50 "2008-09-29T17:30:57Z")
“No child left behind” ??? EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND !!! All of the above observations are a daily gripe for me too. Zipping kids through school just to get “numbers” and ratios up for state accreditation is proving to be “stupidity by law”. ---
**Author:** ![Beadsandbeads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Beadsandbeads](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Beadsandbeads)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/51 "2008-09-30T00:04:58Z")
That is a good reason to toss that dictionary in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![MikeInNH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@MikeInNH](https://community.cartalk.com/u/MikeInNH)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/52 "2008-09-30T13:13:42Z")
True story… When in high-school…I was riding shotgun in my friends 65 Firebird. There were a total of 3 cars that pulled into this parking lot…all decked-out Firebirds or Camaro’s. The first car speeds down the lot…slams on the brakes and turns the wheel and skids sideways to a stop…Second car does the same thing. and stops right next to him (I was really impressed). Looked like something out of a movie. So now it’s my friends turn…Does the same thing…HOWEVER…he mis-judged and slammed into car #2 and car #2 slammed into car #1. ---
**Author:** ![ken\_green](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/ken_green/32/816_2.png) [@ken\_green](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ken_green)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/53 "2008-09-30T21:16:36Z")
Articles in two different papers just last night ( Gallup NM Independent 09/29/08 [gallupindependent.com](http://gallupindependent.com)) an AP story by Matt Mygatt “Changing times thin ranks of Native firefighters” reinforces the points driven by our posts here. The BIA southwest Native tribes’ type 2 fire crews ( forest/wild fires ) have dwindled from 100 to 55. I see this attitude carrying over to all aspects of industry not just the automotive segment. kids aren’t learning the BASICS to the detrimental point that they also DON’T CARE ! ---
**Author:** ![irlandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@irlandes](https://community.cartalk.com/u/irlandes)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/54 "2008-10-01T02:31:46Z")
Are you saying to get a college degree before going to trade school??? Sorry, Andrew, forty thousand debt for diversity training and women’s studies makes no sense. Your view assumes trade school graduates are illiterate, which is untrue. ---
**Author:** ![irlandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@irlandes](https://community.cartalk.com/u/irlandes)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/55 "2008-10-01T02:43:07Z")
It’s not all gone. Last week, my wife, daughter, and her twenty-six month old son went to an outlet mall in Mercedes, Texas. After a half hour, he said it was a woman’s mall, and he was bored sick. Well, actually, what he said was, “Go home!” and pointed at the parking lot, but I understood what he meant. So, I took him to the little fenced in place with little trucks and cows and elephants for kids to sit on, and if you plug in fifty cents, it rocks up and down for a minute or so. A girl a year or two older came up, and her mom gave her the quarters. That girl sat there, with a big smile on her face while her little pickup bounced up and down. After she left, I got curious how he would react, so I gave him the two quarters. He clumsily put them into the slot. The minute it started to move, he frantically climbed off the pickup and started running. I was surprised, because he usually isn’t afraid like that. But, when he got to the front of the pickup, he stopped, threw himself on the floor, and peered up underneath to see how it worked. His dad, who is an engineer really laughed when I told him about it. ---
**Author:** ![irlandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@irlandes](https://community.cartalk.com/u/irlandes)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/56 "2008-10-01T04:24:49Z")
His mommy probably didn’t let him have one. ---
**Author:** ![irlandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@irlandes](https://community.cartalk.com/u/irlandes)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 4:33am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/57 "2008-10-01T04:33:25Z")
I was born and raised and lived most of my life until retirement in the Midwest. Even back in the Fifties, we called it donuts. ---
**Author:** ![Im\_an\_idiot](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/im_an_idiot/32/778_2.png) [@Im\_an\_idiot](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Im_an_idiot)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 1:08pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/58 "2008-10-02T13:08:09Z")
I feel it is mainly because in the pre-1970s or so cars didn?t have any computerized components. You could actually touch the carburetor and get greasy. Presently, there are so many computerized pieces in a car it leaves us with the feeling of, “OK…so what do I do now?” ---
**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/59 "2008-10-02T17:45:53Z")
However, I think manufacturers are encouraging consumers to throw thing away and get a new replacement. I think Consumer Reports may also be encouraging consumers to throw things away. I’ve seen issues where they give charts as to when one should definitely repair an appliance, when it is questionable for one to repair an appliance and when one should replace the appliance. My household appliances have definitely gone beyond the point where Consumer Reports think I should replace rather than repair and yet the repairs have been a lot less than the cost of replacement. I know that new appliances are more energy efficient, but it also consumes energy to make a new appliance. Often the cause of failure of an appliance is amazingly simple. I’ve found that a multi-tester (voltmeter, ohm meter) has paid its cost many times over when I’ve had to diagnose a electrical problem in an appliance. Fifty dollars worth of screw drivers, nut drivers, socket wrenches, etc. has been a very good investment. ---
**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949/60 "2008-10-02T18:52:03Z")
You made me laugh, Orangevega. I’ll bet more of them know that than know that water freezes at zero C and boils at 100C! And I’ll bet not one out of fifty could figure out how to do the conversion without being given the formula…and only ten of those could work the formula! Probably one in 1,000 knows what “absolute zero” means. [Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949.md?page=2) [Next page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/declining-mechanical-aptitude/19949.md?page=4)