Neanderpundit

If you remember mooneyes, if you ever went to sleep with a JC Whitney catalog under your pillow, open to the page with the full moon hubcaps, you need to buy or rent or anyhow just watch this movie.

Jay Leno. Big Daddy Ed Roth. John Goodman. Matt Groening. Ann Margaret. Go. Go now.

Several people have commented that I would have been better served to trash the honda and find another car, and that may be altogether right, but those people don’t know a lot about auto repair, and here’s why:

Car shows up. Has a bad head gasket. Head gasket kit costs $70. No big deal. Pull head.

Determine head is warped and needs more than a new gasket. Take head to machine shop for redecking, get valves ground, includes gasket kit. $300.

Clean block, check seals, determine water pump seal is about to fail, and water pump is so difficult to remove that it’s best to do so when the head is off. Replace water pump, $45. Determine alternator is seized, buy new alternator. THe purpose is to have a sound running vehicle when I’m finished, so why not? $149 alternator. New timing belt and tensioner, $45. In for a penny, in for a pound. Left halfshaft CV boot is verfuckled, try to replace it with disastrous results, buy new halfshaft. $58. While there, discover motor mount and suspension bushing have failed. $38 motor mount, $18 suspension bushing. Engine got so hot it melted off the plastic timing belt cover. Junkyard, $32. Four or five feet of melted vacuum hose, $12. Bad distributor cap and wires, $62.

Having dumped this kind of cash into the vehicle, it’s utter stupidity to not go the last mile and repair/replace the trans. But it would have been nice to know this ahead of time, so as to save the agrivation. And what would I have gotten for $600-800 bucks? an old wreck of a car I also know nothing about. Which could take a crap on me at any turn. And leave me right where I am now. So in the end, I’ll be further ahead, but not by miles. Maybe by a little bit.

So, folks, when you’re buying a used car, it makes a LOT OF SENSE to take it to someone who knows their way around a vehicle, and to have them inspect it, for signs of the small and expensive things in need of iminent replacement, lest you end up like Og.