Why You Should Personally Repair Your Crappy Car
My favorite article in this series is, “The Money You Can Earn By Fixing Your Own Car.” Start there if you prefer.
This article is the second in a series on car ownership. The first will convince you, “Why You Should Own the Crappiest Car You Can Get Away With.”
Most people are faced with an inescapable dilemma when it comes to vehicle ownership: overpay at a dealership now, for (the idea of) a reliable vehicle, or overpay at a mechanic later when the clunker you tried to scrape by with bites the dust. So-called “reputable” dealerships often cut corners on diagnostics hoping you’ll run out your warranty, and even an honest mechanic with the best of intentions cannot flawlessly divine the future. Car troubles are a fact of life, and the better you equip yourself to deal with disaster, the better of you’ll be.
Learning to repair (or at least diagnose) your vehicle is an incredibly valuable skill for building your Holistic Sovereignty, financial outlook, and having more opportunity in general.
Holistic Sovereignty requires work, and a faith in the intangible value of self-sufficiency.
I’m not saying that you should always do your own repairs, especially if you already have a high-paying job. What I am saying is that by choosing to do this when you are young, you build yourself up as an individual instead of frittering your time away (oh, and you’ll save real money). If you aren’t a young person — so many parents (especially dads) wish they could spend more quality-time with their children. If you are that parent, you have a real opportunity here. Instead of a lonely errand to the local Jiffy-lube, take a Saturday afternoon with your child and teach them something! Kids love to be useful, and the experiences you’ll share with them cannot be valued.
Personally, I’m already sold — but you may need more persuading,. I want to tackle some common objections to this advice, and talk about some of the intangible benefits you stand to gain.
Objection 1: I can’t afford to deal with an unreliable vehicle!
You may want to read my first article on this topic, “Why You Should Own the Crappiest Car You Can Get Away With.”
Objection 2: Fixing cars isn’t realistic for women (due to general inferiority.)
Just kidding. Women absolutely can and should be knowledgeable vehicle owners. The real obstacle is body-strength differences. Leverage helps, but is not always possible. The miracle of pneumatic tools can take muscle out of the equation, but those tools are unfortunately expensive. Male upper-body-strength lets even a small guy like me crank on rusty bolts that many women simply could not loosen without the aid of air-tools and blowtorches. That is not to say that “girls shouldn’t try.”
There are plenty of fixes that don’t require strained muscles or testosterone-fueled cursing. I just want to point out that major repairs may have a higher barrier-to-entry for women. This gets back to tailoring the principle to your situation. Even if it isn’t realistic for you to be replacing suspension parts, you can still get a lot of mileage out of knowing how your car works. Batteries, headlights, air filters, tire changes… All things that you can deal with on your own (or should be able to, for safeties sake.)
Objection 3: I don’t have any interest in mechanical work, and I’m better off spending time on things that match my talents.
This is probably the most valid counterpoint. If you really believe that, and you have an alternative use of your time that provides more value, I say more power to you. This article is mostly (not exclusively) aimed at younger people, about whom I’m making a fairly safe assumption: You have a lot of time on your hands that isn’t necessarily being spent productively (i.e.: Video games, TV, social media, staring blankly at a ceiling, etc.)
Most of the time I’ve spent working on my vehicles was carved out of what would have otherwise been “down-time.” I know about myself that if I don’t have productive goals, I end up wasting my time, like every other member of humanity.
One of the neat things about life is that you are very rarely at the “maximum output” of your productivity. If you adopt responsibility for a new goal, and prioritize it over leisure activities, your time will often magically expand itself to make room for that new goal. I promise I’m not preaching here, it’s a lesson that everyone (myself included) must re-learn constantly. If you are a teenager now, I promise that every year you will look back and ask, “What on earth was I doing with all that extra time?” Life appears get continually more burdensome and complex until you retire, die, or both. Start practicing “making time” now and you’ll be ahead of the game.
A similar, and very common objection is “If you aren’t making enough to pay for specialists to solve your problems, then you should be focused on specializing your career so that you can afford it.” I have mixed feelings on that claim. If you are a doctor, lawyer, or some other highly-educated professional, then maybe the idea has merit. I think for most people, who have no desire (or opportunity) to pursue those life-paths, generalized skill-sets are always a plus. You may find that as you pursue generalized skillsets, you will discover more specialized opportunities as a result of your increased competence (i.e.: job opportunities.)
What you’ll gain, aside from savings
You will stand out as competent in your workplace (and life in general)
You do not have to work as a mechanic to put these skills to use. Nearly every industry or occupation on earth utilizes equipment that operates on similar principles. Aside from pure white-collar jobs, wherever you end up working, something essential will eventually break, and being the guy who has internalized “righty-tighty, lefty-loosy” will make you stand out as useful. Even the ability to communicate with a customer service technician is a big deal for troubleshooting.
If you can hear a phrase like, “Ok sir, could you listen to the machine and tell me, is the rattling coming from the bearing on the cooling fan, or inside the compressor itself?” And respond confidently, “No, the rattling is definitely coming from the compressor, and we hit the fan bearing with some lithium grease to make sure.” You can expedite problem solving and become irreplaceable as a result. These are fairly basic skills, but you can only attain confidence through practice.
Things break all the time, in home-life and work. In those moments, one of two things will happen: you can stare blankly at the offending appliance, wondering if that bit should be doing something, or if that wire was always disconnected, and if that thing being covered in grease is normal. Or, if you have invested some time in DIY repairs, you can stare blankly for half the time that you would have otherwise. Someday you might even know what’s wrong before resorting to google. Those moments are golden. Cherish them.
You will feel good about yourself.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, most of this article is sales pitch for self-sufficiency, as is nearly everything I write on the topic of Holistic Sovereignty. The feeling of being able to solve a serious problem on your own is unlike any other, and I believe that our hyper-specialized society deprives many people of that satisfaction. In our world of abstractions, information, and digital labor, I think there are real mental health benefits to grappling with something completely objective and physical.
Others will feel good about you.
Another bit of semi-masculine advice: It doesn’t hurt your romantic appeal to be able to fix a car. For some reason it’s become fashionable among young males to pine over their personal traumas, dress androgynously, and generally exude emotional and physical softness. Perhaps it works? Alternatively, you can go for the tried-and-true All-American-fix-it-man. It’s a classic for a reason.
Women: I have no idea if fixing your car will help you get a date (although it certainly won’t hurt.) Please, report back.
Aside from the world of dating, as you gather experience you will undoubtedly find yourself in the position to help other people with their problems. Even something as simply as swapping a battery of a headlight bulb can win you a friend for life, and it just feels good to help people out.
You won’t be stuck without a mechanic.
This has been essential for me. The truth is, decent mechanics are in short supply. In fact, mechanics in general are in short supply. In many places in America you simply will not get an appointment less than two weeks after a breakdown, major or minor. Car trouble is never convenient, but you can often get yourself back on the road faster by sacrificing a weekend to turning wrenches. Fun? No. But satisfying, and sometimes essential.
“Alright,” you say, “I’m sold. What now?”
“How to Fix Your Crappy Car”
(Or skip to the next in the series, “The Money You Can Earn by Fixing Your Own Car”)
Have thoughts of your own? Join the conversation and leave a comment!
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