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Paying Up On A Joke

June 29, 2020

Just a note to my friends and family. I will help you work on your car or truck for free if you buy the parts.

If you buy a PT Cruiser I will block you on Facebook and disown you.

It was a joke on Facebook. It wasn’t even about fixing cars. It was really about how terrible PT Cruisers are to work on. In fact, the comments filled up with people equally as frustrated with PT Cruisers.

We got a daughter a PT Cruiser. – LOL – I understand.

Thumbs up

You have obviously never tried to put a car stereo in a 1984 SAAB 900…

But, then I got a Voicemail,

Rodney, this is Micha. Were you serious about helping your friends with car repairs? I need a mirror put on my Scout-mobile.

Was I serious? Was I really willing to help friends and family work on their cars for free?

I wasn’t always a car guy. For a long time I was the guy who paid his mechanic enough to put his kids through college. . .a lot of kids.

But, a few years ago a friend gave me an old 1996 Lexus. It wasn’t running and needed a lot of work. Like “rebuild the engine” work. And “swap out multiple body panels” work.

He knew how to do it. I didn’t. But, he was willing to teach me. We spent hours and hours rebuilding it. And then. Eventually we got it to run. And then, he handed me the keys and walked back across the street.

His philosophy has always been, “If you buy the parts, I’ll help you work on your car.” He’s a very spiritual man. He believes that if he allows people to reward him on earth, he will have fewer rewards from God. It works for him. He’ll help anyone who asks.

That was my mentor. How could I betray that?

Sure, Micha. I’d be happy to help. Bring your car over on Saturday at 10:00 and we’ll work on it. Shouldn’t take too long.

So, Saturday morning I was out in my driveway pulling an old broken mirror off of Micha’s car and putting on the one she bought from eBay.

So, yes, I’ll help you work on your car or truck for free if you’ll buy the parts.

Just don’t ask me to help you work on a PT Cruiser.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved

From → car repairs

2 Comments
  1. Kit permalink

    Nice to know I’m not the only one with that opinion about the PT Cruiser. I told my wife when she chose to buy it that I refused to work on it. On a “completely unrelated note”, replacing an alternator should not involve removing hubs and driveshafts.

    I have a similar philosophy about helping with car repairs. Although I have to be up front about my limitations. I may be willing to take on chance on screwing up my own vehicle, but if I’m helping someone else they need to know the risks

    • That’s another reason to do it for free. Hard to be sued for damages if you aren’t getting paid.

      I’m convinced that the people design cars never, EVER work on repairing them.

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