by Bob Walsh
About 50 years ago I bought my first brand-new car. It was a Toyota Corona. It cost me right about $2,000 out the door.
Today
I just paid for some semi-routine mechanical maintenance on my 05 Dodge
Dakota, which has 150K on the clock. The idler pulley, water pump and
alternator all decided to get wonky at the same time, as well as the
thermostat housing decided to start leaking. Obviously I changed the
serpentine belt and the hoses at the same time as it would be stupid not
to.
The bill was not quite
$2,500. Almost $1,000 of that was for parts. Had I known that all
that crap was bad (I knew the idler pulley was going out, I could hear
it) I might have taken it someplace other than the dealer. Once I got
it there it did not make sense to me to have the dealer reassemble it so
I could take it elsewhere. Even so. Damn.
Of
course if I get another 15 years and 150K out of it, it will be
equitable. By then you won't be able to buy gas or diesel powered
vehicles in CA anyway.
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