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ECONOMY
When You Can’t Afford Safety Related Car Repairs, What Do You Do?
I know that I’m very, very lucky
I was at my car dealer today getting an 18,000 mile checkup. Actually it wasn’t even that: the car is 20 months into its lease and has less than 16,000 miles on the clock. But it was time to take it in.
I used to think that dealership service was too expensive but in more recent years I’ve found my dealership to be around the same price as everyone else. They are usually quicker and I can always get a free loaner when they can’t be, so that’s where I go, in or out of warranty.
When I arrived at 7:30 in the morning there was only one person ahead of me, a man in his mid to late fifties in business attire. I assumed he was heading to a job or sales calls after his service. We had a brief conversation at the fancy multi-choice coffee machine which wasn’t quite awake yet. It made impressive noises when we tried to get our drinks but couldn’t fulfill its promise, so we went back to our seats.
I busied myself with email, he sat across the room looking through some papers. Time passed and then one of the service folks came out to talk to him.
His car needed work. She told him that his tire tread was thin and that he’d need all new tires. His brake…
