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What Is Elio Stock Trading For Today?

Ty

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And the person who has


It isn't the cost of the test. It's when someone that has very little money fails the test. They have some beater car with a very small issue that doesn't make a difference. Like a check engine light for a knock sensor. Then they take their $500 beater to the shop and spend $500. It's a burden for these people and they just hope they pass.
Yeah. It can be expensive to be ignorant. I don't have much sympathy for people who chose to not learn about their cars.
 

TheAsterisk!

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They buy a junker because they are broke.
Or, not necessarily broke, but unlikely to get a loan. I'm both wary of and (and as result of not taking out any loans or lines of credit earlier, also) unlikely to get finance approval, at least absent disproportionate downpayments and/or silly interest rates.
Then depending on the state they have to pass emissions. The beater car has some minor issue like a bad o2 sensor or minor vacuum leak. That broke person takes a car to a shop and pays $500 just to pass emissions.
No emissions testing in my locality, but I've had to replace a catalytic converter for about $750, and I've previously elected to keep on driving two smaller, lighter cars with failed power steering before, due to the prospective cost of replacing a rack and pinion- more than the car had cost me. For the later one, my old Civic, after my mechanic confirmed what I feared- that it wasn't so self-contained a failure as the power steering pump- I took my utility knife to the drive belt for the pump in front of the shop's manager and two mechanics, pulled it off the pulleys, shrugged, and asked them if they could throw out the belt for me. Pretty good reaction- wish I'd taken some pictures. Got another year and a half out of that dependable little monstrosity, four and a half years all together out of an $1100 car. A cheap car is really the only choice when you live within a few blocks of work and the grocery store, and given my lack of a credit history a nicer used car really just isn't worth the cost, even though it would be far easier to live with.
What a racket.
Meh. Yes and no. I don't think I've ever had a shop replace, say, a MAP sensor, or an O2 sensor, spark plugs, anything real simple like that. Anyone that does that with a personal vehicle had better be a very busy, well-paid person to justify that cost. Lacking a garage, though, and therefor lacking a lift or even a real good place to jack up the car and get underneath it, anything that can't be reached from the outside and needs much more than basic hand tools usually requires at least a quick visit to confirm and weigh the pros and cons.

Some of it is onerous regulation, some is outright labor/price gouging, some of it is vehicle owner/operator stupidity (just had a talk with my brother after he failed to get his oil changed more than three months and many miles past due), and some of it is engineering that fails to account for long-term serviceability in favor of commoditized manufacturing. Plenty of material all around for an incensed rant or two, but rarely just one sort or another.
 
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Coss

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What do these last couple of posts have to do with the Elio Stock?

Let's get back on topic, or at least find where a conversation like actually belongs (like non-Elio general discussion)
 
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