Double Bass Bass damage - ugh

[Ed S]

A couple of months ago I passed my neighbor, doing something on the floor of the back seat of his GMC SUV. I asked what he was doing, and in between curses he said, "Trying to change the battery!" The darn thing was crammed into a hole only slightly larger than the battery itself. The battery had no handle or anything, so he was trying to pull it out using only his fingertips - as that is all that would fit in the hole.

I've heard in the past that some parts of Europe require that certain home appliances be repairable, rather than disposable. Modern cars are extremely complex. But it seems odd/unfortunate that someone who cares to would have so much difficulty performing such straightforward maintenance.

Hell, I bought a new car last fall, and the damned thing requires oil changes EVERY 6 MONTHS!?! ***? I put a whopping 1700 miles on the damned thing...

 

[turf3]

He's smart to get it fixed. Then he can forget it happened instead of looking at a patch repair every day.

At trade in time any dealer is going to deduct the cost of replacing the taillight from their offer.

I managed a used car operation and was responsible for getting all the reconditioning done for some years.

It's really crazy the amount of labor that's involved in some "simple" repairs on late model cars. Add the fact that you have to buy a whole lamp assembly versus being able to just buy a lens.

That's how it's easy to get to 900 bucks.

That's also why my newest vehicle is 16 years old...

Well, everyone has their own philosophy of vehicle ownership. Mine doesn't involve trading-in a 6 year old car (which OP indicates is a 2018 Volvo, and wants to keep for 1 1/2 more years, so a 6 year old vehicle). Mine involves keeping them till either the body rots away or the piston rings wear out or all the plastic parts of the interior disintegrate. So the ages of my different vehicles at time of getting rid of them (leaving aside old beaters I drove in high school):

17 yrs & 180,000 mi
14 yrs & 150,000
20 yrs & 220,000
18 yrs & 100,000 (that one's kind of an anomaly, we sold it because it had become surplus to requirements and we were living in two states simultaneously and Covid and a whole bunch of stuff; in normal times we'd still have it.)
and now we've got 3 vehicles, ranging from 2009 to 2017 and probably won't sell a one of them for at least another 5-10 years.

If I get a minor appearance damage on one of my cars, I generally ignore it, knowing that it's going to accumulate a few thousand more of them. Functional stuff I fix in whatever's the best way at the time, whether it be OEM parts or something off the shelf at O'Reilly or something from the junkyard - it all depends.

I think that if most people who are on the perpetual automobile rotation program would really tot-up just how much they're spending to keep themselves in a brand new car every 4 or 5 years versus buying 'em new or nearly new, paying cash, and keeping them till the wheels fall off, they'd be appalled. But to each his own.

 

[turf3]

A couple of months ago I passed my neighbor, doing something on the floor of the back seat of his GMC SUV. I asked what he was doing, and in between curses he said, "Trying to change the battery!" The darn thing was crammed into a hole only slightly larger than the battery itself. The battery had no handle or anything, so he was trying to pull it out using only his fingertips - as that is all that would fit in the hole.

I've heard in the past that some parts of Europe require that certain home appliances be repairable, rather than disposable. Modern cars are extremely complex. But it seems odd/unfortunate that someone who cares to would have so much difficulty performing such straightforward maintenance.

Hell, I bought a new car last fall, and the damned thing requires oil changes EVERY 6 MONTHS!?! ***? I put a whopping 1700 miles on the damned thing...

I hope the neighbor thought to run a nylon strap all round the new battery when installing it, so he's got something to grab on to next time. I've had a couple cars with batteries down in a hole like that. It sucks.

 

[Papageno]

It sounds crazy, but a (minor) damage to the bass might have been less expensive to fix than this rearlight bruise...

 

[g-dude]

A couple of months ago I passed my neighbor, doing something on the floor of the back seat of his GMC SUV. I asked what he was doing, and in between curses he said, "Trying to change the battery!" The darn thing was crammed into a hole only slightly larger than the battery itself. The battery had no handle or anything, so he was trying to pull it out using only his fingertips - as that is all that would fit in the hole.

I've heard in the past that some parts of Europe require that certain home appliances be repairable, rather than disposable. Modern cars are extremely complex. But it seems odd/unfortunate that someone who cares to would have so much difficulty performing such straightforward maintenance.

Hell, I bought a new car last fall, and the damned thing requires oil changes EVERY 6 MONTHS!?! ***? I put a whopping 1700 miles on the damned thing...

On certain VW/Audi/Porsche products, the battery is some special custom deal that costs like $750.