The people I have helped are not asking for help, but you hear a guy is in training for a new job, sleeping is his car, cold nights and car on fumes, trying to stay warm and make it to the job, I feel good about it. No questions on how he got there. Still have a great hammer from a guy I lent $25 to early 8o’s, he really wanted to give me collateral, his name was etched into the fiberglass handle. Life goes on!
Did you not post that you were looking a lake property that had an entry price of 300000.00 ? That does not sound like Scottish frugal mentality.
I did not say we were broke, just live that way. We want a nice place to move to, and it is within the budget.
While I am financially comfortable now there was a time when things were going well and I seemed to have the tiger by the tail, so to speak. But then the health insurance that I placed so much confidence in trashed me twice, totaling well into 6 figures and then while in college my son got sick and the major medical policy I had on him quickly turned out to have limits at every turn and didn’t cover even 1/3 of the total. So all the seemingly wise and responsible efforts and a lifetime of hard work and postponed gratifications didn’t pay off as well as I planned. Maybe I’m lucky to never have been homeless and living in my car. But I met a great many people who had seemed to work as hard and lived as responsibly as me yet they were left totally bankrupt due to medical expenses above and beyond what supposedly good insurance was supposed to pay.
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Not car related, but it took about 5 years to pay off c section for pregnant wife, they let me bring in aspirin instead of charging $10 each. They gave us a staple remover to take the staples out from the c section,pre existing condition the insurance said as it was a new insurance policy. I am still trying to find the $6.30 receipt for muscle relaxers from the rear ended car accident to turn in to the insurance company. @VOLVO_V70
You should be thankful you are so privileged. 
Yet it is sad to have to go to the mission for coffee after all you have done. Thank you for your service.
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Um, I think he could probably buy Mexico if he could just pry it away from Mrs.
Our Asst. High School Principal was a real bruiser. When he retired, he sold his wife’s car because he didn’t think she needed it anymore. Hee hee. Then he died and she took his car.
Still I think we should be careful to not make conclusions about people finding themselves in the position to live in their car. I suspect there are many circumstances that folks choose the one that fits their particular need for self preservation at the time. The other thing to remember when talking about beds available is that somewhere around back in the 80’s, there was a big push to eliminate state residential facilities. These do gooders pushed for group homes instead whether the best option or not and at higher cost and fewer beds available. Now we complain about the lack of facilities. What goes around comes around I guess and a lot of those that destroyed the old system are now dead.
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@bing. Thank you for the compliment. My family didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, so we did a lot of things for ourselves. This turned out to be s real advantage in doing maintenance and some repairs on my car. I did repairs on the houses Mrs. Triedaq and I owned and lived in. There is a sense of power in doing things for one’ s self.
I loved my job teaching and working with students. Mrs. Triedaq and I have enough to buy almost anything we could want, but we don’t have big wants.
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It occurs to me that just before my wife’s first major surgery we had been considering a larger and newer home and she found one that was 4 times the average home price in the area. She was sure we could afford it but I was against getting caught in a heavy mortgage so we passed that mansion by, luckily. If we had bought that home and then faced the medical bills I would be a greeter at WalMart living with one of my kids these days. And BTW, an old customer well past 70 works at WalMart these days and lives with her daughter. I’m curious what might have happened but won’t ask.
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I have never forgotten the slogan my 7th grade agriculture teacher had on a placard in the front of his classroom. It read:
“Those Who Look Ahead Seldom Fall Behind”
If I were a young person in the automobile service field today, what would I do to prepare for the future? Is the future more battery powered cars? Is the future servicing self driving cars?
I think a decent plan would to be as knowledgeable about classic vehicle restoration as possible . The collector vehicle market is still strong. The restoration shops in my area actually have waiting lists .
@bing. I never felt that “I had it made”. Maybe that is a good thing. Something new always came up that I thought I should know about.
@VOLVO_V70. Classic car restoration always excited me. I bought a 1948 Dodge back in 1977 with the idea of restoring the car. I had it running very well. However, when I found how much I would have to spend in bodywork, I sold the car for more than I paid for it. The Dodge, with its suicide doors, and fluid coupling (fluid drive) was more a special interest car than a classic.
I enjoy looking at cars from the mid 1930s through the 1950s. I appreciate what Jay Leno does in restoring and driving cars of this period.
The lament of car mechanics I know, got to have a frickin computer to fix anything. * hear their pain!*
Well gee, gotta have a dang computer to get on Car Talk, too.
Something doesn’t add up here . . .
First you say you’re “living in poverty”
Then you say you and the Mrs. have enough to buy almost anything you could want
I don’t know what kind of mechanics you personally know . . . I’m not talking about us on the website
But I don’t know anybody who’s currently in the business who actually complains about such things. It’s been that way for some time now, and it’s not going to change
If you’re going to complain about that, might as well complain the sky is blue . . .
How much longer will internal combustion engines be the dominant power source for automobiles @bing? While wheel bearings, CV axles, brakes and suspension will remain to keep a big part of the auto service trade in business the heart of the jallopies will fade into oblivion. I wonder if I won’t soon find the practical, simple vehicle that I have hoped to find but it won’t have an engine.
Long ago I saw a Vega that had been cut down to a mini El Camino and from time to time that seems like just what I need. If someone built that platform and powered it with an electric motor capable of urban and suburban and rural roads but not able to reach freeway speeds and sell it at the right price I would be interested in looking at it.
From what I hear, simply being homeless for an extended time can actually CAUSE mental illness. Apparently the worry of being beaten up, robbed or killed, not knowing where to sleep, constantly having to move and so forth really wreak havoc on a person’t mental health. I have no reason to doubt it
As for voluntarily living out of a vehicle, I recall a story on npr a few years back about a young college student who lived out of an older econoline van the entire time he was at the university. He got “permission” to park in the furthest corner of the most remote parking lot on campus. He did graduate, though
They already have. The are called golf carts. You can get winter covers for them and snow tires and everything. Some even have radios.
As far as how long the ICE will survive, looking back at history, it seems the electric dynamo came before the non-steam ICE anyway. Not like the wheel is being reinvented as some would like to pretend. Many propulsion alternatives for various applications. Myself, I am unimpressed with 0-60 acceleration but more interested in being able to propel myself all day long without stopping.
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I’ve never lived in my car. But I could imagine how such a thing could happen to almost anyone. A bit of bad luck is all it takes. There’s a big controversy in the nearby city of Mt View (home of Google) about people living in campers and RVs they park along the street. I think most of those folk are employed in high tech but find the cost of conventional housing somewhere between un-appealing and un-affordable. I generally don’t give down-and-out folks cash for reasons mentioned above. I do however sometimes buy something that I think they would benefit from and give it to them.