Quote:
Originally Posted by crystalworks
I'm sure I will have a nice amount of maintenance to do in the next 12 months.  |
Um. Yeah.
Neither me or the shop owner really expected what (his own) parts counter pushed out for pricing on the parts. I paid it quietly- like I have held myself always to do- for reasons that are my own and yet likely shared by many of us here.
But I paid the bill and we took a walk this time. In 20 years, he's never invited me to take a walk. We took a walk bc I knew ab some of the part prices. He knows I spend hours clicking and reading and pricing and fantasizing, so he knew it wasn't a reactive price shop. I knew in my head that the AGA pipe was ab $600, so when I saw another $100 on top of that, I got curious. Put that kind of mark up on eccentric shafts and levers, and I'm a heartbeat away from +$1000 over readily-available pricing on just a small portion of the parts total. I want my buddy to make money, sure. But I don't want to be rented out by the hour.
He's said he'll make it right and I believe he will try. But you know, he doesn't really have to. With seals, intermediate levers, damn spark plug tubes(?) (never even HEARD of those), every hose, pulley, and belt, and the AGA pipe, I pretty much have a new top end. Damn thing runs like a scalded dog. (That's southern for "really, really fast")
Believe me, I paid for it. But I also got tires, a wheel and spare tire that'll clear calipers- and that I'll probably never use. So I really did do some of this to myself.
And, can you put $ on peace of mind? Well yes. I could've bought a beige Camry in pretty good shape. Hell, I could've probably bought damn near any E53 on the market today.
Yeah. I just went and looked. I'm not gonna look at the listings any more.
But seriously. None of those E53's have that clean ass motor with synthetic oil changes at silly intervals. None of them have a smack dab new transmission in them. And none of them- I mean NONE of them have carried me and my girls to and from National Parks on both coasts and across at least one border.
I'm ready for the next 100k. If I wasn't with the spend on the transmission work, I'm scared pissless of getting smacked and totalled now. Payout would leave me a couple grand in the hole.
12-07-2017, 09:31 PM
Threaded Mode
