Car Compications

It was about 30 years ago when I first encountered the hell of modern cars. I wanted a new car (Honda, I think), but when I went looking there were no options as there had been prior to that time. All was mandatory. If you wanted a car you had to have all the accessories – the electric windows, the electric mirrors, the electric locks, etc. I didn’t want all the electric whatevers because the more complication, the more that could go wrong and the more the cost of fixing what I didn’t need or want in the first place. Rolling up and down the windows by hand was fine with me. Today my concerns were realized. A few weeks ago I had accidentally switched on the rear window wiper when I had my bike rack on, and the wiper stuck against the rack, bisecting the rear window. I tried to correct the stuck wiper, but the blade wouldn’t budge. Today I took the car in for routine maintenance and had them look at the blade, maybe at least return it to the horizontal position. The diagnosis was that it would take a new motor, and that that would cost $200 for the part and $100 for the labor -- $300 for something I didn’t want or need in the first place. Of course, I’m not going to repair the needless appendage. I’d be more likely to disable all the unnecessary electronic do-dads in the car. Give me my 1959 Saab.

Check Engine Light

I just spent $70.20 to have my car’s gas cap tightened. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but not much. Last week, as I was driving down the highway using cruise control, the cruise control suddenly shut off and the “Check Engine” light came on and the “Cruise Control” light began flashing. I didn’t panic. This had happened to me last summer, and I read in the manual that it might be the gas cap, and sure enough, when I got gas the next day the lights went out and all was fine. So this time, I pulled over, unscrewed the gas cap, and then screwed it back on tightly. But the lights were still on. So a bit further down the road, I pulled in to fill up with gas, though I had half a tank. But after filling up and securing the cap again, the lights remained on. I figured it must be, or at least might be, something other than the gas cap, and more important (the “Check Engine” light is pretty ominous). When I got home, I called Evan, my mechanic of 30 years, he said to bring it in, I did, waited while one of his guys worked on it for maybe 15 minutes (including driving it into and out of the garage), and then was told it was indeed the gas cap, they had fixed it, and that the bill was $70.20 (one hour labor, no parts, it being merely a re-tightening of the cap). And should it happen again, they would have to replace the gas cap, though that would only be $16.34 – for the cap; the labor would be another $70.20.

I recall the first car I bought with power windows, a 1985 Honda Civic. It also had cruise control, power-operated side-view mirrors, rear-window defroster, and I don’t know what else. I hesitated. It’s always struck me that the more technologically advanced a car (or just about anything else) becomes, the more that can go wrong with it, probably by a factor of 10 for each “advance,” and that the cost for repair also goes up by about the same 10 times. That’s the way progress works. And progress sucks.