{"id":1259,"date":"2010-12-12T13:54:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T18:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2010-12-12T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-12T18:54:22","slug":"taking-care-of-my-transportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/12\/12\/taking-care-of-my-transportation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 Taking Care of My Transportation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Low-Rider Cadillac - San Francisco by adamjackson1984, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/adamjackson\/4539982862\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2701\/4539982862_56787fa38d_z.jpg?resize=640%2C484&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Low-Rider Cadillac - San Francisco\" width=\"640\" height=\"484\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On September 3rd, the day I arrived in New Hampshire, I met a guy via a newspaper ad (Craigslist isn&#8217;t really used here) and test drove his &#8217;95 Nissan Maxima. I hadn&#8217;t owned a car since May 2008 upon moving to San Francisco and that was a &#8217;92 Toyota Camry. Both cars are similar in handling, interior space and \u00a0maintenance needs. Also, they&#8217;re both white. Not sure why I couldn&#8217;t leave my comfort zone but both cars have been good to me. In fact, my &#8217;92 Camry is going to go to my sister who turns 15 in July. It still runs great after the engine has been rebuilt before I moved to SF.<\/p>\n<p>On the day I moved to NH, I spent $350 on a full brake replacement after giving the guy $1,000 for the vehicle. $200 in registration\u00a0and transfer fees later and I had a car with 163K miles for a grand total of $1,550 which is just about what i&#8217;d spend for a tricked out MacBook Air.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve put 5 thousand miles on it since September and it&#8217;s been a terrific vehicle. The CD player doesn&#8217;t work, the AC doesn&#8217;t get cold (not that I need that in New Hampshire for in the dead of winter) and the undercarriage is rusted pretty bad. If I get a year out of this car, I&#8217;ll be pretty stoked.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, I spent $432 on the best snow tires money can buy so I&#8217;m safe when driving when it hits -20 degrees and the road is covered in ice and snow. Tomorrow, I have a laundry list of repairs being done to it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Emergency brake won&#8217;t pull. Getting that fixed<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a squeeky \/ loose belt<\/li>\n<li>New spark plugs and cables<\/li>\n<li>Fuel pump pressure is messed up which causes issues with starting it up occasionally<\/li>\n<li>Needs a new battery w\/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.enginewarmer.com\/2009\/10\/battery-lanket-heaters\/\">blanket <\/a>due to cold weather<\/li>\n<li>Needs a new windshield wiper fluid cable<\/li>\n<li>Needs new left side CV joint<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In total, I&#8217;ll probably spend between $800-$1200 tomorrow on repairs. I don&#8217;t foresee many more since the car performs very well and runs just great. These are just minor things that will cause problems later like that annoying squeeky wheel and CV joint &#8220;click click click&#8221; when I&#8217;m turning corners. The fuel line means it sometimes take s a few tries to crank it up after I just turned it off.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I&#8217;ve put in some engine treatment, dumped and replaced the oil, put in oil a new air filter, replaced coolant and taken care of a few rusty spots on the body of the car. I also cleaned it in and out and checked some of the cables for wear &amp; tear or leaks. I give it a fuel treatment additive every 1500 miles and will spray the undercarriage off after driving on the New Hampshire salty roads to prevent additional rust.<\/p>\n<p>My point is, this car needs a yearly investment of around $1,500 to $2,000 to keep it running before fuel and insurance. That includes regular\u00a0maintenance\u00a0like oil changes and tires. This is about average for any car really but I&#8217;m not paying car payments.<\/p>\n<p>Upon first moving to New Hampshire, I was sure that I&#8217;d be buying a new car. I had dreams of an all-wheel drive with an iPhone hookup and bluetooth hands free calling. I wanted heated seats and electronic dials.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, I bought a car that&#8217;s 15 years old with a broken CD player and non-existent brakes.<\/p>\n<p>There is a lesson here as with everything in life. You don&#8217;t need the latest thing. You don&#8217;t need the most expensive thing. We don&#8217;t have to pay twice as much for something that&#8217;s slightly better. Nice to haves are great and one day, I&#8217;ll spend $35K on a car that I keep for 10 years but, right now, with traveling on my mind and maybe a cross-country move (or transatlantic move) happening in the next couple of years, I don&#8217;t think an investment like a new car is what I\u00a0should\u00a0be spending money on.<\/p>\n<p>When you buy something, don&#8217;t use it until it stops working anymore. Own it as if your life depends on it. Maintain your computer&#8217;s hard drives, calibrate your LCD TV, sharpen your knife set and make sure the flashlight and first aid kit you\u00a0keep\u00a0are fully functional. No matter what the price, cost or investment you put into something, it&#8217;s yours and you have to take care of it.<\/p>\n<p>My car is one of the oldest cars on the road here in New Hampshire. It&#8217;s 15 years old but it runs great. I can hit 105mph in it, pass people with ease and it brakes in record time even on icy roads (yes, I&#8217;ve tested it). All it takes is a similar investment as if you were running a new car but with cheaper insurance and far cheaper parts.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to go downstairs and clean the leather seats and armor all my dashboard. It&#8217;s my car and I treat just as if it was a Mercedes or Porsche. Love what you own and take care of it. What we have is an extension of ourselves. We have to treat it as if it was a part of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On September 3rd, the day I arrived in New Hampshire, I met a guy via a newspaper ad&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ideas","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-kj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4855,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/cars-saying-goodbye-to-my-golf-r\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":0},"title":"Cars: Saying Goodbye to my Golf R","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve always enjoyed the finer things. There weren\u2019t many 16 year olds buying Himalayan Sea Salt or asking baristas at Starbucks to steam their latte at 125F as opposed to the higher 130 temp. That was me though. I\u2019ve always been a little picky and enjoyed nicer things. I didn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Car&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Car","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-car\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2013 Volkwagen Golf R (w\/ Comfort & Nav Package)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8260\/8649433987_e1afa169e5_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8260\/8649433987_e1afa169e5_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8260\/8649433987_e1afa169e5_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2009\/06\/11\/my-thoughts-on-lincolns-mks-sedan\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 My Thoughts on Lincoln&#8217;s MKS Sedan [A REVIEW]","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to talk about cars for a moment. First of all, the finest car I ever was lucky enough to sit in the passenger seat of was a 2004 BMW 5 Series and it was impressive but sport doesn't appeal to me as much as luxury does. I come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Thoughts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7621,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/11\/14\/linked-forbes-30-under-30-and-self-made\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":2},"title":"Linked: Forbes&#8217; 30 under 30 and &#8216;Self-Made&#8217;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"@Hels on Twitter: My take is: all 30 Under 30 lists should include disclosure of parental assets Aditi Juneja (one of the 30 in a rebuttal): Of course, the truth is that none of us are entirely self-made. Most of us receive government support, for one thing. When asked, 71\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5974,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/08\/05\/my-car-my-old-2013-volkswagen-golf-r\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":3},"title":"My Car: My Old 2013 Volkswagen Golf R","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been in touch with the guy who bought my car used at Noyes Volkswagen. The amount of modifications is extensive. He\u2019s gone Stage II, upgraded the clutch (twice), new intake manifold, high pressure fuel pump and a full exhaust system re-work not to mention all of the lighting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Car&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Car","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-car\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Google Voice Picture-Mail","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7456\/27420747455_be6202dbee_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7456\/27420747455_be6202dbee_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7456\/27420747455_be6202dbee_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5135,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/10\/09\/a-lot-of-car-posts-coming-next-week-golf-r\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":4},"title":"A lot of car posts coming next week &#8211; Golf R","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The last 5 days have been incredibly busy. The posts after this one will each have a focus on a single mod. My GF's Father loves working on cars but mostly anything made before 1990 because he's not a fan of computer-controlled vehicles. He's a talented guy. 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There\u2019s modern dating, computers being dumbed down, the fact that everyone I know doesn\u2019t know how to change their motor oil and finally there\u2019s this idea that the car\u2019s days\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}