Used Car Care Tips

Recently I had to begin once again the melancholy task of looking for a used car, or more accurately a vehicle that has seen happier times. 

I went out to test-drive old "beaters" with bent fenders, aged junkers with jinxed transmission - cars that, on an aesthetic scale of one to ten, merit minus two. Why is it that most used cars that have seen better days are green? And the particular shade of green that makes one think of the color of weeds on a compost pile?

But there is also a positive side to shopping for a used auto. When else do you get to use terms like "torque," "compression," and "overhaul," even if you're not sure what they mean? When else can you just walk up and kick the tires of a stranger's car without getting reported for vandalism?

These things can make used car shopping fun, even for those of us who are not mechanically minded. For some reason it seems that people who are the least mechanically inclined drive the bombs that require the most fixing. 

A friend of mine in Des Moines, for example, drove a car that shook like a vibrating chair when it hit 55. It also made a horrible constant noise. So she told her father, imitating the sound for him.

"What should I do when my car sounds like this?" she asked.

"Turn the radio up louder, " he replied.

So you see, the radio is an essential piece of equipment in any used car, and especially in a "mature" model. I've always taken care to see I've got a sound system that works.

Anyway, as I was going out to shop for another used car, I started reflecting on some of the scrap-iron piles I've driven.
Somewhere in everyone's past there seems to be a large old Chevy coupe built like a tank. I drove such a car in South Dakota as a student. There it passed for a decent family car, and in South Dakota it seemed to work just fine, as if in its natural element. But it seemed every time I crossed the state line on my way home to Iowa, something would go wrong.