I have a $800 car repair bill out of nowhere

[Jeff T]

Wife has a 2022 Subaru Crosstrek. Wonderful car, except all the bells and whistles drive me nuts. Now what the @#$% are you beeping about now? You can some features off, but you have to do it every time because they default on.

Ha, had a good giggle at this, as it sparked a memory of a few years back.

(warning! boring tale ahead):

Couldn't find a motorcourt motel in Butte, Montana while on a wandering vacation. Wasn't gonna spend $300 to snooze overnight in the new hotel blocks. Normally I'd take off for someplace way down the road, but I wanted to visit the Big Pit of the mine that partially swallowed this city of 40,000, the next morning.
Ten miles to the east, I-90 went over a pass. The maps made it look like a good place to camp out. Went up there, and many people had decided the same as I. The whole area was densely packed with cars, tents, campers.
Woke up at 3am, really had to pee. Opened the car door, and DING DING DING DING DING... I probably woke up dozens of people, so I couldn't pee by a tree on the sly as I'd planned. All because I didn't plan ahead and get a gatorade bottle or such. Although if the car builder had an option to silence the noise it'd been great too.

 

[Mary Terry]

I'm not mechanically inclined and I never read car manuals. When I first got my current car, a Mercedes S500, a little icon of a yellow coffee cup occasionally appeared on the screen in front of me. I had no idea what it meant and decided I'd have to trick the car into thinking that I had stopped driving and drunk a cup of coffee. So, I'd stop the car, open the door, then proceed with driving, and the coffee cup would disappear. Hubby howled with laughter at my ignorance and explained that the cup appeared when the car sensed that I was drifting out of my lane, or was inattentive, or if the road surface was uneven. All I have to do is to hit the "okay" button to make the cup disappear.

There are all kinds of buttons, icons, sensors and other stuff in the car, the purpose of which I have no idea. The car is smarter and more sophisticated than I am. I prefer to drive my antique 1999 Toyota Tacoma truck because it is so simple and straightforward.

 

[Progster]

I'm not mechanically inclined and I never read car manuals. When I first got my current car, a Mercedes S500, a little icon of a yellow coffee cup occasionally appeared on the screen in front of me. I had no idea what it meant and decided I'd have to trick the car into thinking that I had stopped driving and drunk a cup of coffee. So, I'd stop the car, open the door, then proceed with driving, and the coffee cup would disappear. Hubby howled with laughter at my ignorance and explained that the cup appeared when the car sensed that I was drifting out of my lane, or was inattentive, or if the road surface was uneven. All I have to do is to hit the "okay" button to make the cup disappear.

There are all kinds of buttons, icons, sensors and other stuff in the car, the purpose of which I have no idea. The car is smarter and more sophisticated than I am. I prefer to drive my antique 1999 Toyota Tacoma truck because it is so simple and straightforward.

It might be more effective if you could actually smell the coffee, rather than just see it

 

[Judge]

There are all kinds of buttons, icons, sensors and other stuff in the car, the purpose of which I have no idea. The car is smarter and more sophisticated than I am. I prefer to drive my antique 1999 Toyota Tacoma truck because it is so simple and straightforward.

LOL..I know the feeling!

I'm not complaining, but the truth is that with my 2018 Mazda I too have so many dashboard icons that light up when I turn the ignition. Too many! Of course as the engine starts, they all begin to turn off, except for a temperature light. And the one reminding me to walk the dog and empty my bladder. Gotta love high tech.

But all humor aside, I adore this car's ability to sense cross traffic behind me, long before I can either see or hear it. Especially sense my carport faces such oncoming traffic every time I back my car out. It has saved me a number of times given it's superior to this old man's ability to see or hear what is behind him.

Though like everyone else, I suppose we all cringe at the possibility of such technology malfunctioning, and what the cost to repair it might be. In that respect, simple was good.

 

[oregano]

Off topic: @Jeff T: The Butte copper mine was originally owned by Gilded Age mining/railroad baron W. A. Clark, who also founded the city of Las Vegas in 1905. After he died the mine was sold and went from an underground operation to that big toxic lake that instantly cooks alive any bird unlucky enough to land on it.

His youngest child (by his second wife) was Huguette Clark. Her biography, Empty Mansions, should be a required read for autistics and those seeking some insight into us. She was most likely autistic and spent most of her life cocooned in a New York apartment that took up an entire floor of a building. She had very few face to face interactions for decades. She wasn't a hikikomori in the usual sense; she wasn't ashamed of herself or anything like that, she just didn't like to be around people.

She painted the ever changing skyline from a window, she took photos of herself using Polaroid cameras. She would buy very expensive toys for the children of people connected to the few people she had interpersonal relations with, and requested only photos of the kids playing with their new toys in return. After her death (at age 104!!!!) workers found hundreds of faded photos of children with the toys.