James Laughlin, Editor
I like tinkering with cars in my spare time. Don't ask me why. I always get nasty from head to toe and usually scream in rage at some point. I also give blood on every project, usually with a busted knuckle. It can be hard, frustrating work, but it leaves me with a sense of fulfillment that keeps me coming back.
I've only owned four cars in the last 25+ years and tend to drive them into the ground. A couple of months ago I sold my '87 Chevy Blazer and bought a new VW with a turbocharged 4 cylinder. It's a great car, but when I look under the hood there's nothing I recognize. I even had to hunt to find the battery. It was hidden under a plastic shield for some reason.
I sold the Blazer to a couple that wanted a four-wheel-drive vehicle they could take hunting and bash around on their farm. It didn't matter to them that the cigarette lighter didn't work or that the air conditioner blew warm air. They found and pointed out those flaws, but I think it was more to drive down the price than any real concern about the truck's performance. I'm proud to say the Blazer ran great, looked good and was well maintained. It was a bargain and they knew it.
The Blazer wasn't always in such great shape. There was a period when I let things slide a bit. There was a squeak that I lived with for months and took five minutes to fix. There was a leaky seal around the window that I ignored until rust started to pop out around the bottom of the door. The seal took about 10 minutes to install and cost $20. But I ended up having the rust spot repaired and the truck repainted so it's difficult to calculate what that seal really cost me.
At one point, while I was fixing a bad switch that powered the electric window on the driver's side, it struck me that that a lot of cars end up in the junk yard not because of a catastrophic failure like a blown engine or crash, but because of an accumulation of problems like squeaks, rattles and broken window switches. So many things go wrong that it's no longer economic to fix the vehicle.
I discovered early on if you keep on top of all those nagging little (and not so little) problems, you can keep a car running forever. It takes work and some flexibility. Sometimes you get your hands dirty, and sometimes you have to fork over the cash when you least expect it. But maintaining an older car costs far less than buying a new one.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I bought my new car. It's a blast to drive and a lot nicer than my Blazer. But when I think in terms of the economics of the transaction, I cringe. I could have driven the Blazer for another 15 years and not spent half the price of my VW. But forget economics. Sometimes a guy just needs a new set of wheels.
So how does all this relate to the water industry, you might ask? Good question.
