Serious question. I only have the one car. I know there are people with more money than sense that have more cars than they can actually drive at a time, and that there are couples who may or may not be able to drive their SO to the mechanic. But how can they _assumef that I can even afford a cab, well Uber these days, when I’m about to have them hundreds of dollars getting my busted-ass, POS car fixed?

  • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    You CAN leave. If you have one car and that’s your mode of transportation then you realistically have only a few options to supplement your handicap of being car less:

    • ride share
    • gig economy (doordash/grubhub/etc and Instacart/gopuff, etc)
    • work from home
    • public transportation
    • rental car
    • loaner car if at a dealer and they have any available
    • take sick days until your vehicle is repaired

    What would you do? The repairs depend on what is wrong and sometimes those symptoms can be a menagerie of things that require troubleshooting what the actual root cause is. That takes time. Not to mention they may not even be able to check your car today at all. They have other customers with similar or worse issues all wanting their vehicle fixed ASAP as well and might also be a one car household.

    Do you have insurance? See if they will cover a rental for you while your car is in the shop. Otherwise, find one of those other options above and figure things out.

    Yes, a car is expensive and when it goes down then you are forced to find other ways to ensure you can make it.

    • Praxinoscope@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I’ve also thrown my bike in the trunk and then biked home. Easy option for those able to bike and live close enough. Also, lots of cities now have bike share stations all around.