Trusted garages are around and they are great. We have a spectacular one in Charlotte, NC that works on Hondas only unfortunately.

Otherwise, I've seen it both ways.

I was getting my car serviced by a small shop and was told I had a headlight out. So, I told him to go ahead and change it out. He could not figure out how to pull off the rubber seal on the back of the assembly. So, he just cut it off. I found out later when I saw moisture getting into my headlight. I've never seen boneheaded stuff like this from my dealer.

I own 3 Toyotas now. Dealer service has been spectacular. Plus the cars are so darn reliable, that they don't need much in the way of repairs. A friend was complaining about how expensive it was to change the oil on her Prius. A small shop was changing her oil every 5K. The dealer only changes it every 10K. So, just that alone would save her money. (Plus, the small shop was charging way too much).

I ended up buying my tires at the dealer as well. When they have their buy 3 get 1 sales the prices are reasonable. Now, it is not unusual for me to pick up the car and there is no charge for service. In those cases, the only real labor involved was rotating the tires and they rotate them for free if you bought them at the dealership.

You do have to watch them though. On a Honda minivan I recently had, the AC broke. They were going to have me replace a $500 computer and I figured out that the problem was a $29 part.

It is clear that people who don't understand car maintenance are at a huge disadvantage.

I used to sell Vector Research gear for Custom Hi-Fi in San Antonio, TX. This was in the early 80s. I had a VR-7000 and later I bought the VRX-9000 and a VCX-800. (Earlier I was thinking 5000 and 7000 but I looked them up and it was 7000 and 9000). The 9000 and the VCX-800 were both very impressive.

I could kick myself for getting rid of the VRX-9000. The cassette deck was replaced with a Teac C3-RX which was one of their their high end Teac line decks (the C4 was the other).

The C3-RX looked like the Tascam commercial decks. It was the best cassette deck I ever owned. I'd go into high end stereo shops and they'd have something like a Nakamichi Dragon. I'd throw in one of my tapes I recorded on the Teac and inevitably the first question out of their mouth was what was that recorded on? It had DBX too. But since it was not widely adopted it didn't get used much. Also DBX was brutal when there was a dropout in the tape.

I still have the C3-RX but sadly it no longer works. So, I'm using a Denon 3 head in its place.

Best wishes,

Richard

I'm going to have my gut busting laugh surgically removed and sell it on E-Bay. I'm really going to miss John Stewart. John Oliver did do a great job though. I hope someone can take the helm and keep it going. But, Stewart is a hard act to follow.

Best wishes John Stewart!

• Harmon Kardon 730 - Probably made when I was in high school (1979)
• 2 - Polk Audio Monitor 5b speakers (Early 1980s)
• Dual CS-2235Q Turntable (early 80's I think)
• Denon 3 Head Cassette Deck

Linked to my computer so I can listen to digitized media.

I got tired of replacing modern receivers that broke after two or three years of use (1 Yamaha, 1 Pioneer, 1 Denon). So, I picked up an old Harmon Kardon receiver on E-Bay. The Harmon Kardon sounds much better than the newer ones ever did.

I heard that they couldn't use oxygen free copper because it made the engine stall.

Wilson, NC built its network because there was no high speed internet available to local businesses. The existing provider refused to work with Wilson to move them to something faster. So, they built their own.

So, Wilson, NC now has fiber to the home. And, it is cheaper than the crappy service they had before.

You can't refuse to provide service to a community and then whine when they decide to serve themselves.

The legislature later passed ridiculous restrictions on community broadband. Wilson is grandfathered for the most part.