Is it any wonder people lease/PCP?

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

Reading these comments I am wondering if I am wrong? When I was growing up if I didn't fix my bicycle, motorbike, car myself I went without as I couldn't afford to get someone else to fix it for me.  This mentality has followed me though life. Perhaps if I had made a few more £ this attitude would have changed??

I did fix my own bikes when i was growing up, then my own cars. 

But as i've got older i've lost interest in doing it.  Cant be bothered lying about under a car on some cold garage floor to save a few pounds.

I still like to polish them and keep them clean though.  All three are very well maintained - just not by me!

We've a good local indy nearby who looks after our cars so they get booked in whenever needed.

dipsomaniac

You're obviously too old now mg😀 to work on your or anyone else's car and have a understandable pass but no excuse for some of the young members of this forum🙂

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

You're obviously too old now mg😀 and have a understandable pass but no excuse for some of the young members of this forum

lol.  Yeah you're not wrong there.

Feeling every day of my 53 years.  lol.

"Back in the day" it was Austin Minis i drove, so had to be well used to working at them.

dipsomaniac

I'm only 2 yrs older but would still rather DIY

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

I'm only 2 yrs older but would still rather DIY

Oddly i enjoy valeting them and keeping them clean.  Just not working at them.

I'd happily spend a morning doing that, but not a morning servicing one of them.

fred246

There is no need to clean a car. I never bother. I have a busy life and often not enough precious quality time with family. The last thing I want is to spend evenings or weekends cleaning my car.

BOWFER

dipsomaniac said:

Reading these comments I am wondering if I am wrong? When I was growing you had to help yourself i if I didn't fix my bicycle, motorbike, car I went without as I couldn't afford to get someone else to fix it for me.  This mentality has followed me though life. Perhaps if I had made a few more £ this attitude might/would have changed??

I still do a fair but of mechanical work, but only on my vehicles that i don't rely on.
That way, if a problem like a seized bolt (or whatever) pops up, I'm not left stuck for transport.

BOWFER

fred246 said:

There is no need to clean a car. I never bother. I have a busy life and often not enough precious quality time with family. The last thing I want is to spend evenings or weekends cleaning my car.

To me, a car is just an extension of 'you'
I ran a fleet of company cars for decades, when company cars were still a 'thing'.
One thing I observed was that people who were slovenly with their cars were 'generally' slovenly.

Herzlos

fred246 said:

BOWFER said:

Grumpy_chap said:

We are, sadly, in a world where too many people are driven by the image of a new car every few years as a "must" have.

Little annoys me more than having to visit a garage with a car - at any time.
Even a once a year service is a pain to me.

I would say that I had a far easier time just sorting my own car out when I wanted than colleagues who took their car to a garage for everything. It used to amaze me the amount of organisation they had to do to drop their car at the garage. Someone had to take their children to school. Someone else had to meet them at 7am at the garage. Then it wouldn't be ready and they would have another day without a car.

They still spent less time than you did, and it's easier to drop kids off in a courtesy car than have a car in bits all morning.
That said, garages could certainly make it easier, and if you're doing something trivial you may be able to do it in a more schedule friendly way.

Personally, I drop kids off at school, then drop car at garage, walk home, pick it up later and then get kids. It's not that difficult most of the time. All car maintenance jobs I do take 4x longer than predicted, but the garage is always 10 minutes away

fred246 said:

I think it's totally different. People like myself and Michael Schumacher want to know how the vehicle works and what is happening whilst driving. We want to have that technical knowledge that helps us get the most from the vehicle. Man and machine working together in harmony. If something isn't right we know before it fails. I wouldn't like to be so helpless like most drivers are now.

Most drivers don't care; it's a utility like the fridge. Does it work? Job done.
I've got a pretty decent mechanical understanding (enough to know to leave it to the experts), but do I have time to learn how everything in my house works enough to fix it? Or do I just leave it to the experts and spend the time with my kids?

Do you think Schumacher does his own maintenance work?

dipsomaniac said:

Reading these comments I am wondering if I am wrong? When I was growing you had to help yourself i if I didn't fix my bicycle, motorbike, car I went without as I couldn't afford to get someone else to fix it for me.  This mentality has followed me though life. Perhaps if I had made a few more £ this attitude might/would have changed??

I'm all for being able to repair and maintain your own stuff, up to a point. Bicycles aren't vastly different now from 50 years ago, but cars have long left the point where average Joe can fix stuff with a socket set. At some point it's not worth the time/effort to repair something when you can pay an expert to do a better job and spend the time doing something else.

motorguy

fred246 said:

There is no need to clean a car. I never bother. I have a busy life and often not enough precious quality time with family. The last thing I want is to spend evenings or weekends cleaning my car.

Maybe if you werent so busy maintaining your own car you'd have more precious quality time with your family?