On oil

I hate getting my oil changed (or rather, my car's oil). Here's an expert taking care of something which is very important to me, but which I know nothing about. And everyhing costs a lot of money. I don't know what a dirty air filter looks like. How do you know when to change it. The guy comes up to my window and says, "your air filter is a little dirty, do you want to change it?" and he holds it up next to a clean one for me to inspect. On what basis do I make that decision. Or when the other guy comes up and says, "your engine needs to be flushed every 15,000 miles and it's looking pretty dirty. It's only 49 dollars to flush it." Then what do I say. If I follow all of their reccomendations I walk out paying 300 dollars for an oil change. Dealing with a new car is even worse. My old car, which I got new, was always up to date on everything. I kept track of it all and when the guy came up and said your moojoo fluid needs to be changed every 31725 miles I could respond, no I just had it done last time.

It's like the dentist. For the last 8 years or so, every time I've gone in to the dentist, they've told me to get my wisdom teeth pulled. But that's what they tell everyone. It's a standard procedure now. Btu do you really need to pony up the cash for it? I may end up sorry that I didn't get it done. Just like I might end up sorry that I didn't have them change the transmission fluid today.

When an expert is trying to sell you something, how do you know that you need it? Especially when they reccommend the same thing to every person they encounter. I watched the guy at the oil change place. He reccommended the same thing to every customer. He didn't even bother looking at the engine before telling them. But we all trust that guy. He's taking care of our car. All four people who followed me bought into what he said.

I hate getting my oil changed.