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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2024

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  • A replacement PCV valve for my car.

    Car was around 100,000 miles, figured it was a good time to do a big refresh & replace a bunch of stuff. Spark plugs, belts & hoses, fuel & air filters, fluids, etc etc… While I was at the parts store, guy suggested I also replace the PCV valve. But, it turned out the only one he had in stock was the store brand. $4, sure whatever. Got it home, took the factory one off the car, and sure enough it was gummed up kinda bad. But went to put the new one on, and it just about collapsed in my hands. It was so flimsy, kinda like a drinking straw. Ended up cleaning the factory one & putting it back on, threw the new one away.






  • ptc075@lemmy.ziptoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    22 days ago

    (America). As a die-hard lover of manual transmissions, I can say that unless you specifically want a manual, the odds of you ever needing to drive one are near zero. Oddly, the big exception would be if your partner drives a manual transmission car, which is true here. Will there ever be a time when your car is in the shop and you need to borrow his car?







  • Model Railroading.

    It’s not the worst, but it requires all the key ingredients - you need to own a home large enough to have a ‘spare’ room, which means you’ve got disposable income. And displaying the trains is almost as much fun as running them, so you end building shelves and shelves, which then sprawl out to the rest of the house. Only to realize you’re missing the ‘key’ one from that set, got to go find that, obviously.

    And then of course you can’t throw away the boxes, because that would lower the resale value, so you need to rent a second storage unit. Not that you would ever sell them of course. But your kids will be sitting on a goldmine!

    And that’s just the collection portion. It’s a crafty hobby, from making scenery & waterfalls & little trees all the way to the special paints to make the engines look aged. That will need a room as well.

    And now that we’ve got the train shelves in the kitchen, you know, I could put a food themed railroad on the table there. Yes I already have the desert themed one in the train room and the prairie themed one in the living room and the snow theme layout in the hallway, but I don’t have a silly one. No of course the Halloween theme one doesn’t count.





  • Not a direct answer, but if you ever get a chance - go walk around a self-serve junkyard. This is where cars go when they finally just aren’t worth fixing anymore. It is eye opening. There are cars that you will still consider ‘new’ that have already given up the ghost (mainly Dodge/Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia, & Nissan). And you can’t help but think - WTF are these cars doing here, aren’t these still for sale at the dealership?

    Conversely, there are also cars there so old you hardly recognize them (usually Honda, Toyota, and full size pickups from Ford/GM).





  • Funny, I’ve asked this exact question multiple times, and the answer I always get is that you just get fucked. You pay full price for the first vehicle, and then 90% of full price for every extra one.

    Maybe it’s Georgia? I carry the minimum for the state (Liability + Collision), but then bump the Liability because I now live in a high cost of living area. So if I’m in a wreck, I get nothing, but the other guy gets a nice check for his car and his medical bills are covered.

    My car insurance would be WAY cheaper for me to just drive one of my shitboxes 100% of the time than it is to split my mileage across four vehicles. But I make it up by being pretty handy. When one of them breaks, I have multiple other cars to drive while I wait for parts in the mail. So I’d still say I come out slightly ahead as far as costs go, but most of my ‘savings’ go straight to the insurance company.