Second Wind

In all of my mother’s 79 years of life, she never changed a tire or pumped gas into a car. My parents had clearly defined roles in their marriage. Mom cooked and cleaned (even while working full-time), disciplined the kids, planned social events, kept the financial records, and made/bought and laundered everyone’s clothes. Dad took out the trash, mowed the yard, did handyman repairs around the house, killed any varmints, and did all things pertaining to the family vehicles.

I am 65 years old, and I have also never changed a tire (I believe I could in a pinch), but I have pumped plenty of gas over the past half century. I’ve also let my car license and inspection sticker expire, driven a car that I had to jiggle the battery cable to start it, and had to walk when my car wouldn’t start or when I locked my keys inside. On the other hand, I have replaced my windshield wipers, filled the windshield wiper fluid, and checked the tire pressure and aired them up myself. Since living on my own, I’ve learned a few things, but often the hard way.

The best advice when it comes to car maintenance is to find a trustworthy business(es) to do your oil changes, fix flats, get the car inspected, and do repairs. I’ve been taken advantage of twice that I know of. The first happened in San Antonio where I took my son’s pickup to get the tires rotated and aligned (on my husband’s orders) at a well-known brake franchise. Instead of doing what I asked, the mechanic told me the pickup brakes were on the verge of failing, and that I wouldn’t be able to drive the 85 miles home without the risk of crashing. This was the days before cell phones, and I could not get ahold of my husband, so I told them to go ahead and fix it. Eight hundred dollars later, I drove home in the dark crying, and the pickup still pulled to the right because they didn’t rotate and align the tires like I’d asked in the first place. My husband called the company the next day and chewed them out royally for taking advantage of me, and we didn’t pay that bill. The company dropped it, too, because they knew what they’d done was wrong.

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The second time I’m convinced I was taken advantage of was in 2019 at the dealership where I bought my last vehicle. I had paid for multiple oil changes up front to save money, and on the last oil change, a mechanic told me my back brake pads needed to be replaced because they had worn beyond the dangerous level, so I told him to replace them. The front brake pads had been squeaking and sounding like they were in worse shape, so I was surprised he didn’t mention those. That last oil change more than ate up any discount I’d gotten and cost me several hundred dollars more.