Cars

Cars -- you can't live without them, right?

I have two cars, both are paid for. One is 10 years old and the other is 6 years old. The good news is that they are both paid for. It is nice not to have car payments.

but...

You have car repairs instead.

I took the 10 year old car to the dealer today. It needed an oil change and the "check engine" light had come on. Driving to the dealer I noticed that the temperature gauge took about 5 miles (on the freeway) to register any temperature. They checked over everything and determined that there was a problem with a temperature sensor and control.

$300+ to repair plus $90 to diagnose the problem in the first place.

They also recommended another $1500 of repairs. Nothing that will prevent the car from running, but things that will need to be repaired sometime soon. Oh goody! They also did not have one of the parts that they needed, so I have a rental (at their expense) until tomorrow.

I spent about $500 last month on the other car.

So, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is time to buy at least one new car. I mean, do I pay $500 a month on repairs, or $500 a month on car payments? Great choice.

Now if we could do something about health care...