If I gave them specific instructions, and it was written down, then I would be getting them to change the oil to what I wanted to buy.

I had a Prius that X quarts and a half, or something like that. If nothing else the Prius will get worse gas milage if it’s overfilled. I had to explain and watch every change to make sure the level was checked, and the mechanic didn’t just dump all the quarts in.

You spelt “is” as “looks like” in this phrase - “they got lower grades after refusing to play along with what looks like a protection racket.” A common enough mistake by BBB A+ rated spell checkers.

84mpg and not a motorcycle - in theory great for one person commutes.

Hmmm. None of them are roll-ons. Never cottoned on to rubbing a large hunk of wax-like substance on me.

Hmmm. None of them are roll-ons. Never cottoned on to rubbing a large hunk of wax-like substance on me.

Well, he’s not exactly a kid, and he did buy a used vehicle. But he’s not up to rebuilding a transmission, or replacing a camshaft on something that needs to be a daily driver. I’d say that understanding how to manage risk, and how to manage the impact on his budget by making an informed choice *are* good life skills.

What he needed to understand was that 2 mpg difference has a 20% hit on his budget if you are looking at low teens in mpg, but if you are looking at low 30s mpg it’s only 10%. He could then realistically work out his budget, and the impact to his budget in different scenarios. It was his call if a 20% different…

Interest at 2.5% is not a lot. Take a $10,000 purchase over 4 years and you pay out a total of $10,518.74. Roll in $1,500 for a 4 year 3rd party warranty package and you are still paying only $12,096.55. Less than $600 over the 4 years. Even if you get stuck with 4.5% - still a total cost of $12,587.52

Not my money, not my vehicle, not my choice. He’s an adult who can do what he wants - but he did ask my opinion on how to go about achieving what he needed to do. He needed a truck. You can’t do with a Corolla what you can do with a truck - so that’s the constraint he was working with and wanted to manage getting what…

The advice would be the same if he was buying a Corolla - he just happened to need a truck. Why would you be less careful buying a $10K Corolla than a $10K truck?

Take the car to the mechanic.

Less than $0 - the dealer has a profit imperative to actively hide or ‘not find’ issues with the car - so you don’t get told about wonky thing wrong, so you don’t negotiate against that.

Good point. They had insurance on the other car so that cost basically rolled over - and insurance in NC is relatively cheap. He also needed to be aware of the sales tax that he would have to pay when he registered the car. But those didn’t come into the dealing with the dealer part of the transaction.

The ‘my side’:’your side’ protocol fixes that. No left/right, no driver passenger. My side/your side. If you are sitting in the car and get ‘my side’ wrong I would suggest that you shouldn’t be navigating :-)

Part of finding a good dealer can mean finding a reasonable extended warrantee plan. Shady dealer? Probably means shady, overpriced plan. I figure the cost of the plan as part of the cost of the vehicle, and if I don’t have a plan I am taking that financial risk on my shoulders. Other ice thing about rolling it into…

My step-son-in-law was just in the market to buy a truck, and once the vehicle was bought would have no money for a breakage event. The three things I drilled into him were:

Whatever you won’t mind too much when some moron pukes all over it in the carpark because they haven't got past high school binge drinking.

I’m left-handed so have the left-right mix-up well established. One of my best friends worked out the my-side/your-side protocol when she was giving directions. Worded great.

I like 2 monitors. Happy having one bigger than the other though. When Apple changed the way it does virtual desktops in Yosemite (maybe Mavericks) I thought I wouldn’t like it but it’s turned out great. I can have multiple virtual desktops on one of my monitors, and only a single desktop on the other. What I do is…

I just amused myself reading all the comments, and it amazes me the number of people arguing that the lawyer telling them of applicable federal statutes that indicate an action is a felony can't be right because they ticked a box on a state form in a DMV and da lightning didn't strike, not even once! Thanks for the…