Expectations of Cars in General

[shane_3800]

My brother just hit a roo recently and I was having an argument with my dad about how people should not expect their car to always be there for them. This is in the case of mechanical failure, a crash or even getting it stuck.

I feel too many people rely on their car constantly being there for them and I think this is a bad attitude to have.

My reasoning is that the car or vehicle rather it's self is material and has a limited opertating life span.
Am I right?

 

[Immortality]

Why not. If a car is reasonably well maintained then there is no reason to expect it to fail drastically.

A flat battery because you left the lights on or running out of gas is user error and you can't logically plan for a genuine accident like hitting a roo.

 

[_R_J_K_]

Don't really understand your question in the context of hitting a roo, or even generally really, not enough context in your post. Did you have this argument because it was old or something?

Sure a car is material (I don't really understand this bit either), but if I do certain things to it in a certain way (maintenance) I expect it to do certain things. Also depends on application and environment.

 

[shane_3800]

I work for a company that works with panel beaters that about 40% of our work the other 60% is private mechanical work.
I see it all the time people complaining because they have no car, but it's not our fault but we seem to be on the receiving end.
To me it seems 90% of people have no plan B and when the primary vehicle is rendered useless for 4 weeks it's a horrendous situation.

 

[losh1971]

Presumably the majority of the private would be turned around the same or next day? Having an accident and being too tight to pay for hire car to be included in the policy to me is the problem of the car owner. I believe where you work there are buses? Don't see why it's your problem is people can't work out how to get to work, when most of us have options. Heck I didn't own a car for over three years, because I was pov trying to build a house and was knocked back for a mortgage several times, just a few years ago.
I lived where there is no buses within well over an hour. I still had to get to work everyday, 1.5hrs away..... I sucked it up and worked it out and got a lift....... Tell them to suck it up and work it out. If they think outside the box they might even realise they can get away without owning a car and save a shitload of money, like I did.....

 

[shane_3800]

Presumably the majority of the private would be turned around the same or next day? Having an accident and being too tight to pay for hire car to be included in the policy to me is the problem of the car owner. I believe where you work there are buses? Don't see why it's your problem is people can't work out how to get to work, when most of us have options. Heck I didn't own a car for over three years, because I was pov trying to build a house and was knocked back for a mortgage several times, just a few years ago.
I lived where there is no buses within well over an hour. I still had to get to work everyday, 1.5hrs away..... I sucked it up and worked it out and got a lift....... Tell them to suck it up and work it out. If they think outside the box they might even realise they can get away without owning a car and save a shitload of money, like I did.....

So the insurance company will only lend a hire car for 4 weeks. We expect the repair to take 8 weeks which is about right. My dad is lending my brother a ute but still the expectation should not be that the world will look after you.
Regaurds public transport, it's useless when you work on building houses as new houses don't have bus service yet.

 

[figjam]

If you don't have the option of a hire car, there are plenty of cars out there for a couple of hundred bucks, with a bit of rego. Buy one and use that for the period yours is off the road.
Been there, done that. One of the risks of being a car owner, probability of, it is going to get bent, or break something..

 

[tml678]

Has a limited opertating life span.

Yep...and plowing into a big f_ck off ‘roo tends to shorten it significantly..

I don’t get the question either..

 

[Ginger Beer]

A wise man once said...."**** happens".

Even the best kept, well maintained things will fail.

The problem is when people drop their showbags when these failures happen.

Or, when people don't have a "**** just happened" budget.

Nothing lasts forever, everything can be replaced.

 

[Immortality]

What is the point of owning a car with the intended purpose of the daily commute if it's not reliable and able to fore fill that role?

And it's a fairly **** insurance company if they only lend a vehicle for 4 weeks max? When I had my car in the body shop I was offered a loan vehicle for the duration of the repair however long it was going to be.