I Should Be a Millionaire By Now
My hand-me-down '96 Dodge Dakota (from Dad) which has 290,000 miles on it now, had a "GEN" light come on today. I left the lights on for an hour yesterday, drained the battery, and got it jump started. Probably these two events are not co-incidental. But I drove it home with the light on (15 miles) and the voltmeter was still to the right of the middle mark as always and the serpentine belt is fine. I'll look into it more tomorrow.
But the point I am trying to make is this: driving the Dakota for the last 15 years without a car payment, and reasonable insurance, and doing the majority of repairs and maintenance myself--what happened to the thousands of dollars I convinced myself I was saving? I see other people with new cars, finance charges and monthly payments, mandatory full coverage insurance, paying up the butt for repairs and maintenance, and then turn it all in for another new car every five years. I'm broke and they aren't, must be doing something wrong here.
My hand-me-down '96 Dodge Dakota (from Dad) which has 290,000 miles on it now, had a "GEN" light come on today. I left the lights on for an hour yesterday, drained the battery, and got it jump started. Probably these two events are not co-incidental. But I drove it home with the light on (15 miles) and the voltmeter was still to the right of the middle mark as always and the serpentine belt is fine. I'll look into it more tomorrow.
But the point I am trying to make is this: driving the Dakota for the last 15 years without a car payment, and reasonable insurance, and doing the majority of repairs and maintenance myself--what happened to the thousands of dollars I convinced myself I was saving? I see other people with new cars, finance charges and monthly payments, mandatory full coverage insurance, paying up the butt for repairs and maintenance, and then turn it all in for another new car every five years. I'm broke and they aren't, must be doing something wrong here.