I know there are a lot of important issues. COVID-19. Climate change. Anything having to do with Prez 45 and/or any of his cohorts. The collapse of our and the international economy. Systemic racism and an out of control police department. Pointless wars. Destruction of our national parks . I can’t even list them. I get dizzy and physically ill.
But here’s an easy one for you, if you happen to live in Massachusetts:
VOTE YES ON ONE!
What, you ask, is ONE? It’s the big car dealers effort to make it impossible for you to get your car serviced wherever you want to get it serviced because they want all the money for themselves. Not only would this cost you a lot more money for repairs, but the dealers are not equipped to handle that many cars for servicing.
The thing is:
THERE IS NO PERSONAL DATA ENCODED IN YOUR CAR’S KEYS OR COMPUTER. Not to mention that when you put our car in for servicing, you are already giving the mechanic your keys, registration, and YOUR CAR. If you are that concerned about what your mechanic is going to do with your car and all that personal information — which you just handed to him — why are you giving him your vehicle, your phone number, and your registration? They don’t need to go searching for your data. You have already given him all of it. No one is going to work on your car without this information, not even an oil change or or an inspection. None of this information is encoded anywhere in your car. Not in its computer, circuitry, keys, or anywhere else. But it is on your registration and anything missing is on your driver’s license — which you also have to hand over.
Every time you need work done on your car, you are giving away all the information anyone who wants to rip you off could possibly need. There is no information in your car which would enable someone to take control of your car — or cause you to crash. Or attract sexual molesters to your home. No one needs to go searching for it in your keys (it’s not IN your keys) or in your engine’s computer (it’s not in there, either). If you have a bad feeling about the guy working on your car, go somewhere else to get work done on it.
That’s the joy of saying “YES” to ONE. You can go wherever you want.
VOTE YES ON ONE!
Your car’s functional data (engine, parts, etc.) isn’t a secret now nor has it ever been. Anything locked in your cars circuitry has to do with the functioning of your car’s engine and its parts. As far as the rest of it goes, you’ve already your mechanic your phone number, address, registration, AND keys, so what are you worrying about? And why? If you vote no on ONE, what you are doing is putting about 20.000 mechanics out of work, closing all the private garages in Massachusetts. Now your dealer can really rip you off. Again. At a time like this with so much unemployment, is this the best time to take a whole profession and eliminate it so the big dealers can be the ONLY ones who can work on your car? What if you live in the country? What if you bought your car in another state? What if you traveled a long distance to get your car at the best price — and now you’re stuck trying to find some dealer willing to work on your vehicle?
If they pass this law, you will be forced to line up at a dealer to get any work done on your car. As it stands right now, if you have work to be done under warranty, it can be months before you get them to find a date. Ever tried to get a recall notice dealt with? They never have the part and if it’s important, you can be driving around for months waiting for them to get around to you. No matter what work you get done at the dealer, it always costs more than it ought. If you want “standard” work (oil changes, tire rotation, tune ups, etc.) done on your car, your dealer will charge you at least twice as much as a local mechanic would charge AND take a lot longer to boot.
How much do you trust your dealer? Or your dealer’s worker’s mechanics? Do you believe they are less likely to rip you off than the guy you’ve been going to for years? Why would you think that?
VOTE YES ON ONE!
Yes means “Yes, I want the freedom to take my car to anyone I want. I don’t want to be trapped by my dealer.”
We may not have a lot of power in this world, but at least we can still choose where we get our cars fixed. Freedom has to start somewhere.
Share this:
Categories: #gallery, #Photography, Cars and Trucks, Customer Service, Money
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
A good example of saving money is something I experienced recently. I wasn’t paying attention while backing out of my carport and got a little close to one of the supports, which then clipped my passenger sideview mirror. OK, that’s not the first time I’ve trashed a mirror. In the old days you went to a parts store and bought a new mirror for $15-$25. These days the mirror is a separate entity containing sophisticated motors for remote adjustments, and in my case, an extra directional light cluster. I went to the dealer thinking that was best place to get a proper replacement. The parts guy gave me an estimate of just north of $1200-$1500 parts, paint and labor.., for a freakin’ mirror?
Now, I have a favorite body guy that has a grungy little shop that you’d not imagine a clean paint job could be made.. but his work is impeccable, some of the best I’ve seen. I passed by and decided to stop per chance he could do the job. He looked at the problem, figured out the parts count and did the job for $400.., he did a beautiful job, and I’m a lot more careful backing out of the carport these days too
LikeLike
Quite apart from the trouble and expense it is a TERRIBLE time to be putting small mechanical shops out of business.
I don’t think it could ever happen here. As far as I am aware you can get your car serviced wherever you like.
LikeLike
KIA had me slated for periodic checks. But each CHECK cost me about 300 dollars. That was way over 1000 bucks a year. I am not a rich guy and I knew my car was OK and didn’t need these checks most of time so I stopped going in. They said this then nullified my Warranty. I said “Fine” – just stop ripping me off please. I take of things myself now and all is well.
LikeLike
We passed a law here 10 years ago to dodge that bullet, so here we are again. If you get the routine work done, it doesn’t matter where and you save the receipts, they can NOT cancel your warranty. But if they change the law, it’s back to the old way — and now, a lot of parts have to come from the dealer, so they can lock private shops out of business by refusing to sell them parts. Nice people, dealers.
LikeLike