@jtsanders. Yes, Mrs. Triedaq never appreciated the finer things in life and finally convinced me to sell the Oldsmobile that I had for 33 years. I had that car before we were married. Mrs. Triedaq drove that car to every county in our state while doing research for her degree. Yet, she still had no attachment to the car.
On the other hand, my son from my first marriage loved the car. He was four when I bought the Oldsmobile–it was my first new car. I hadn’t had the car two weeks when my son was shaking a bottle of root beer that had a cork in it and the cork blew out spraying root beer all over the car. I made him help me clean it up. I told him that we had to take care of the car because some day he would be taking his girlfriends out in that car. In fact, he did take that car on his first date. When he got home, he reminded me of what I told him when he was four. “You weren’t just kidding back then were you dad”, he said. I did let my son take the car to college when the college he attended was 50 miles away. However, the next year he took an internship 350 miles away and I put him in a newer car. He was heartbroken. “That Oldsmobile and I understand each other”, he protested.
Well…we don’t know where “Familyguy” lives, so I suppose that it might be possible to buy a house in his neck of the woods for less than the cost of a new car. Of course, few people would choose to live in an area that is so badly depressed (in an economic sense), but I guess that his claim MIGHT be accurate.
The area where I live is not depressed and some of you would be stunned or even think I was lying if I told you what I paid for my house.
My wife and I lived down the street from the place and always loved it. Five large lots with 40 or so trees, two story, wrap around porch, etc, etc.
The guy who lived there lost his job at the AFB during some cuts and moved to NM. He filed bankruptcy and the place sat empty for a few years. No one knew who was involved in holding the mortgage. By accident I found out it was coming up for auction and was not being advertised. A bank in Jackson, MS was the one ending up holding the note. They wanted to unload it so on auction day I was on the courthouse steps and met a lawyer who had handled things for me before.
He said he was the one representing the bank and was going to be bidding against me. So after 6 or 7 minutes of back and forth I ended up with the winning bid of 12901.01 and a handshake. Got the final bid for an extra penny…
And that is how my wife and I ended up with the home we had lusted after for years. We’ve been here for 27 years and the current appraisal is many times over what we paid.
During the last appraisal in 2016 the county assessor saw me outside and backed up to chat a bit. He said he was in love with the home and thought it was the most beautiful home in town. Not too shabby for a used trailer house price…
Of course she appreciates the finer things. She likes her 4Runner, and she has a Thang for you. You better not let her read that last post…
I picked a well equipped midsize sedan. What about a new Nissan Versa S for $13,000? How many rooms in a small house could you buy for that anywhere?
The 3.6 liter V6 is a GM product
Somebody mentioned timing chains, I believe. This engine has 3 chains
I believe the 3.5 is not a GM product . . . might be a Honda?
I think you’re lucky. A lot of times they hold out for the amount of the mortgage against it. Must have just decided to take their lumps.
I was told in the early days, there was a land tycoon in Sioux Falls that would go to Sheriff sales to pick up property cheap. When he had competition he would raise his hand to ask the Sheriff if all he got was a quit claim deed and scared everyone else off. He was a lawyer and of course that’s the only kind of deed you get. I suppose he still slept ok at night counting his money. Dead now for all the good it did him. Oh sorry for getting off track. I drove there.
I guess that somebody could buy an old, used house trailer for that price, although neither of us would probably want to live in it.
Good Point JT, what Missileman thought was incompetence in the mechanic, he could have been very competent in what his Boss may have wanted. LOL LOL
I wish you would post this mechanic on the Mechanics File, so other people can avoid him.
I don’t consider the guy a mechanic…I consider him to be a crook. He decided what needed to be replaced by simply looking at the scanner readout. He never even opened the hood. I have a large family in this area and have alerted them to this place. It has not been opened for very long and it already has numerous complaints about it’s shady business practices. I doubt that it will open for very much longer. My friends have also been alerted and one of them told me about their shady business practices. I, for one, didn’t even know that they were open for business until my wife had mechanical issues in that part of town.
I know in my state there is a link from the Secretary of State Department of Motor Vehicles website. (They license the mechanics and repair facilities.)
That link connects folks to a complaint form. I’d get people who’ve been victims of shady business practices involving vehicles to file one. It could trigger an investigation.
CSA
If you have state inspections for registration or annually and this guy does them, you can get the state police involved. The Maryland state police monitor the shops that do safety inspections when a vehicle changes hands. They show up at a shop in street clothes with a car for inspection. They know exactly what is wrong with it. If the shop tries to force them to buy something they don’t need to get the inspection OKed, they bust them. Shops that play that game often lose their license to perform the safety inspections.
“I remember once when I was in the road and my 1947 Pontiac quit running. I figured out that the condenser had shorted out. I took the condenser off the generator that suppresses radio noise and rigged it up outside the distributor, scraped the points with my pocket knife, set the gap with a thin dime and was on my way. That type of emergency repair isn’t possible in a modern car.”
I had a similar incident in 1968. My neighbor buddy and I carpooled to high school. It was his turn and his 1955 Chevrolet Nomad was a crank-no start. It was a misty morning and I suspected condensation in the distributer cap. I removed the cap and it was dry but the rotor tip had excessive carbon deposits. I gave it a scrape on the sidewalk and we were on our way. I helped him with a proper tune-up that weekend replacing spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, and condenser. two years later the Nomad was still running great when he sold it.
It’s called serendipity (unexpected luck). We purchased 2 homes well within our price range. The first one sold in 1994 in 2 days for $25,000 above expectation. The second one sold in 2009 in 2 days for twice the purchase price. It can happen with real estate and motor vehicles.
What does it mean when the check engine light comes on?
Don’t Just Turn It Off; Fix the Problem. When your car’s “Check Engine” light comes on, it’s usually accompanied by a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. The light could mean a costly problem, like a bad catalytic converter, or it could be something 
minor, like a loose gas cap:anguished: