Does anyone ever just sit back, and say? "I am sure glad I can work on my own crap"

Because I am.  Everytime I get a car, that invariably requires work. I am thankful for the ability to fix it. 90 percent of all the things that need doing, I can do alone. Those that I can not that require assistance, I can ask and get it.  

What is the point of this whole post?  I am the SM at a local dealership where I routinely provide estimates for repairs that boggle the mind.  People on average just pay it.  I am not at that point where I can drive a 90K truck and bring it in out of warranty and have to drop large sums on repairs. 

Again, whats the point here?

Just to take a moment, look at yourselves and appreciate what you can do. Most people dont have the skills we have, and I had to take a moment on the way back to work today, and just be thankful.  

Every time you pick up a new project, or need to repair what you have, or build what you want. Just be thankful you are able to and can.  Appreciate yourself people. Throw yourselves into it.

Sometimes its the only thing you have to stop you from making a decision you can't come back from. 

Yes....I'm terrible at trusting anyone else to even touch my stuff

Yup. I spent 10 years as an apprentice and licensed auto tech (licensing is required to work in the trade in Canada) before I took a cushy desk job. I still do all the work that I can accomplish without specialized equipment, and I hate that I can't do it all, because I don't trust anyone else to do it.

I especially appreciated that after the local dealership recommended a transmission replacement to my wife. Fixed it myself in an afternoon with a series of three drain and fills, adding a tube of Lubegard Shudder Fix on the last one. The recommendations for the fluid and the additive came from my questions on this forum.

There aren't enough hours in the day to do all the work I need to do on cars, the house and so on, after I get off work. Yes. I know how to do it. No. I don't have time to do it. When my job goes past 40 hours a week I am paying stupid money for somebody else to do an oil change.

I love being able to work on my own cars and appreciate the internet has enabled me to probably take on more than I ever thought possible.  However, recently, I've had to wrench on the fleet every weekend just to keep them running.  While I'm glad I've been able to do it and not have to pay a shop to replace all the things, it gets tiring and stressful.  Hoping for the future where I can have a "just drive it car" and I can wrench on something fun that I want to wrench on as opposed to gotta get this done now.

-Rob

Constantly.

I made the mistake of letting the dealership do the first service on my motorcycle. On my ride home the transmission drain plug fell out and oiled down my back tire and brakes.

First and last time I trust anyone but me to service something I trust my life to.

It's like letting someone else pack your parachute.

When a friend was quoted $2000 for a job I completed in two hours with $150 in parts, I realized just how fortunate I am that my hobbies are what they are. 

In reply to ShawnG :

I always used to feel that way, except lately in my 70's my body started letting me down.  I still love the feeling of working on my own stuff but it's become more selective. I can't crawl under the dash and reach up to get a hold of something any more.  Bending over the fender and stretching to grasp something is no longer possible. 
  Things on the bench or handily in reach is still very satisfying.  It's just flexibility is gone. 

I can do a lot but I don't have the time. I do have the money to get someone else to though. My projects I work on myself but daily drivers tend to get taken somewhere. I was about to do my brakes a few weeks ago and had to go do something else that day and never got around to it. Now, I'm going to take it to a shop. 

Basically, I'm glad I know how but I'm also glad I can afford to get someone to do it when I can't. 

I resonate with Rob Lewis on this. 
 

I both appreciate it because I trust almost no one else, but I also hate it because I get tired and stressed of having little support. I mean you all are great, but it's ultimately just me doing the work. I get tired and annoyed. 

Even small jobs result in tremendous savings. Just being able to do a brake job and an oil change can save you a ton of money. 

Neighbor across the street was teaching his daughter how to change her own oil this weekend. She also drives stick shift! I admire the idea, but she's young enough this will likely be the first and last ICE car she ever owns.

I'm fortunate in that I also possess the skill to suss out competent repair shops so when I can't or won't do the work I can still trust that it was done right.

From all the people i have worked with over the years, I wouldn't let someone else check my tire pressure.

I don't particularly care for other people working on my stuff.  And I've found that for plenty of things, by the time I coordinate with someone competent for availabililty, get the car to them, etc. it would have been faster and easier to just find time to do the job myself.  So I try to only farm out things I either can't reasonably do or that are time consuming and I need them done sooner than I could get it done. 

Not just cars.  Instead of calling out someone to recommend that I replace my whole AC and furnace, I opened up the control box, found a failure in a solder joint, put a drop of solder in there, and had it fixed.  Total time from noticing a problem to fixed: 30 minutes.  Cost:  $0.

I've known people that call plumbers and pay actual money to have them unclog drains.  Not the complicated, roots-in-the-pipes kind of unclogging.  The basic kind where it's just a hairball that you can pull out with one of those barbed strips.

That kind of attitude can breed hubris, though.  That's how I wound up with this Mercedes.  "Pffft, I can fix whatever goes wrong with that thing!"  Ahh, to be young and stupid again.

My wife got a Mini Cooper Countryman a few months ago, and wants Apple Carplay installed in it.  I figured I would get it for her for Christmas, so went to the local car audio place and had them quote the job.  Over $2k!  For that kind of scratch, I can damn sure figure out how to install it myself.  I've bought entire cars that cost less.

Yes, but...

It's annoying sometimes. I don't like being forced to repair a thing, especially under duress. I don't like the thanklessness of those around me who I help, esp wife. It not normal to be married to a guy who can pull the torque converter in a minivan in the driveway and fix it for $200 rather than $5000. I get annoyed that I should be faster and more efficient, or when I get something wrong, too.

My mental facilities were gone once for a month. I have never been that terrified in my life. A few months prior, I lost my physical facilities for a week, and that was dramatically easier to handle being long term. I am grateful that neither was.

Hard to say as I have never had so much extra money laying around that I pay someone to do something for me and don't feel it for a long time. I'd really like to compare the two someday.

clutchsmoke said:

I'm fortunate in that I also possess the skill to suss out competent repair shops so when I can't or won't do the work I can still trust that it was done right.

It seems one of my special powers I possess is the skill to suss out incompetent repair shops so when I don't want to do the work the entire event mushrooms into a fiasco.

Right up to the point that I run into a problem not covered in the manual, the internet forums, or YouTube. Or when that 20 minute job is rounding hour 8.

I now happily, sometimes begrudgingly, pay a man. But he's a friend, and he's competent, and has a lift, so most jobs are much easier there than here anyway. He also minimizes my labor costs and sells me parts at his discount. 

Regarding interior and exterior house painting.  

I've painted for cash.  I've painted for family and friends for free.  I've painted my two houses many times; some rooms 3-4x but after an extensive kitchen remodel I'm encouraging my wife to call that fireman she knows that paints for side-work.  

I went to the local computer shop to get a new video card installed. They said it would be six months before they could get to it. Four stores that did computer repairs went away when Fry's shut down all their stores. Many Mom and Pop computer stores went broke because of Covid. This is in the part of Dallas that they used to call the Telecom Corridor where Texas Instruments has several semiconductor plants. NOT out in the sticks. They invented the semiconductor here.

Looks like I am back to working on my own computers again.

dculberson said:

When a friend was quoted $2000 for a job I completed in two hours with $150 in parts, I realized just how fortunate I am that my hobbies are what they are. 

This. I have a whole gaggle of "kids", 18-25 in the neighborhood that borrow my lift, tools and help. BMW quoted one of them 1200 bucks to fix a plastic bracket that holds the emergency brake lines up off the driveshaft. 150$ for a billet upgraded part and 50 minutes we were done. 

The amount of money I've saved just from doing my own welding is in the thousands.  Everything else, I can't even imagine.  But my desire to crawl under a car is growing less as I age.