JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for January 26, 2025

They just don’t need much in the way of maintenance anyway. No oil changes, no reciprocating bits too wear out, no gear boxes, no clutches…etc.

My Explorer recently needed new brakes. Hubby has been changing them for years without issue. Well….not anymore. They’ve got it now that something on the computer has to be turned off before you even start. If you don’t, it throws then entire system out. And yes, we found that out the hard way :-(

I’m so grateful my mechanic has a “clutch guy”..

Nothing like having a mechanic in the family.

Still a cheapskate?

We saw a late ’40s Chevy pickup yesterday, cherry red with glitter “Chevrolet” across the back. From the sound of the engine and the size of the tires, I think it was only stock on the surface.

This comic rings true. This also mirrors other professions slowly being phasing out like need for true artists and their talents. A.I. now can create paintings, plush toys, etc. However it will never obtain one thing, the imperfect yet unique human touch…..

Nice try, buddy. You’re a penny-pinchin’ cheapskate.

Time was I could work on my own car. Change points, plugs & condenser. Rebuild the carburetor. Replace distributor cap & rotor. Change the oil, pack the bearings, lube the chassis. Did all that stuff.

Considered changing the oil on my current car. There’s an aerodynamic shield of some sort in the way. Can’t get the car high enough here at home to address it. Can’t even see the filter. Looked under the hood. Saw some parts that might be engine related but couldn’t tell for sure. Think I saw the battery. Don’t have a bazillion bux to obtain the electronics to sort out what the computer is thinking. So I had to give up.

Nah, you’re a cheap-skate

What happened to Marcus’s football team were they elimated?

Good luck even fixing a car these days anyway. My dad lamented that he can’t change the oil in his new car because actually REACHING the drain plug is a nightmare in and of itself.

your still cheap, no matter how you spin it

They will NEVER drive themselves to any extent that we would call “self-driving”. The ones on the road today are programmed with specific routes they are allowed to operate on, because they are too dangerous to let loose on the streets without such a safeguard.

If you think cars pre-programmed to operate on specific routes is a good step in the right direction, can I interest you in some old-fashioned buses and trains which do the same thing MUCH more efficiently?

(rhetorical question. Nobody who celebrates self-driving cars cares about mass transit in any way, shape, or form whatsoever)

So if they repair themselves, will they also pay the invoice?

Y’all can have your new cars, I plan on repairing my old ones as long as I can. My newest car is a 2004 Mustang with over 289K miles on it. I will drive it until it dies. I will then probably make my 1970 Challenger my daily driver. At least I can fix it myself.

Nah. I doubt we’ll ever have cars that fix themselves. They should get better at letting us know when something needs to be fixed, though.

There’ll always be an India,

Where people use their hands,

Which still persists though cyberspace

Takes over other lands,

There’ll always be an India,

Of petrol, CNG,

And axle grease and red dirt roads

From mountains to the sea,

There’ll always be an India,

Where work with hands takes pride,

And honest work for honest pay,

No need to have a side,

There’ll always be an India,

Where manual workers strive,

The worst that life can give to us,

We fix it and we thrive,

There’ll always be an India,

To take and touch and see,

If hand skills mean as much to you

As hand skills mean to me…

I hear some come without dipsticks to check the engine oil once a while. Mine was almost 2 quarts low due to seeing oil pressure dropping when rolling to a stop from what oil is left moving away from the pick up tube in the engine.