As for alternative programs, check into how widely they are accepted nationwide before opting to save $40 on something that may not work where you happen to need it. AAA is nationwide, as far as I know.

They always ask whether you have a safe place to wait. Once I was stranded in a dicey area and they moved me to the head of the line. That beautiful big truck with a driver that looked like a lineman was at my location in less than 10 minutes.

Of course they get slammed sometimes. Lots of cars need charging on cold mornings. In those cases I doubt you could better service from any other towing company.

Add the maps (I’ve used), lockout services (I’ve used), and discounts on travel and entertainment (I’ve used), and I don’t know why anyone would think they were saving money by not paying the dues.

Also, why do you need more children? Of course that’s a personal choice you have every right to, but they’re expensive, a strain on the world’s dwindling resources, and the more children you have the larger the vehicle you will need. And SUVs and mini vans are notorious gas guzzlers, road hogs, and environment killers. Maybe you need to rethink expanding your family?

Just slide a 3 foot length of steel pipe over the end of your lug wrench if you have one and you’ll be able to loosen ANY lug bolt by hand. Just be careful and mindful not to be off balance when you do it and make sure that if the pipe slips off the wrench your hands are not going to slam into something hard with 100 lbs of force. Ouch!

If the lug nuts were tightened to that point, I would be upset at the service station that did it. They are totally overtightened if it she or her husband was unable to loosen them by hand. Over time that overstretches the studs (bolts) that the nuts go on, weakening them, and can damage the wheels as well.

I would complain to whoever did it and say that I expect the wheels to be tightened to specifications by hand, not by whatever setting the technician happened to have set on his high-torque air powered impact wrench, which is probably what happened.

The lug nuts on most passenger vehicles should only be tightened to around 100 foot-lbs at the maximum (the equivalent of pressing with 100 lbs of force at the end of a one-foot wrench, or 50 lbs of force at the end of a 2-foot wrench. On my car, a Honda Accord, I have to do it to 80 ft-lbs.

The owners manual in your glove compartment will tell you the desired amount of torque for the lug nuts on your vehicle.

for future service on your car/truck, If you’re having work done on the car, I would mention to the service manager that you’ve had problems with them being way overtightened in the past and you are sure they wouldn’t do this, but you just wanted to be sure expect that they are tightened only to the proper amount (by hand, with a hand torque wrench if they don’t have a power one that is set for it). You can even give the figure. That will get their attention and make it much more likely that the nuts aren’t stretched on the 350 foot lbs or something absurd. If they know you are looking they are less likely to let it slide.

You don’t need a mini-van or SUV unless you add a fourth (not third) child. Most cars easily fit three children across the rear seat, including two car seats. You may end up with this type of vehicle as you research the various options available to you, but I would bear in mind that having a third child doesn’t mean you *need* one.

As the second child starts school and more than one of your children has a friend home to play after school, then more seats may be useful, but again not essential. Of course this is not a problem at all if you can walk to school and is also a few years off for your family.

We have RAC (AAA equivalent) membership and pay almost £200 ($400!) for annual family membership. So at $30-70/year, yes it is most definitely worth it! :) Personally I would opt for the full blown option if you choose to have it at all – ie spouse/roadside/home/towed to your choice of destination etc.

We use the discounts sometimes, too, but the roadside assistance has definitely been worth the money; and will be even more so once we start transporting children.

If you had been a few days later, you could have hung out at the Rutabaga Festival.

Love your blog, by the way.

Maybe, maybe not.
One thing that is easy to forget is that just is that, when we are talking about major repairs, the expenses won’t keep continuing on a monthly basis. So, if you’re doing transmission, engine, and suspension work over 12 months, when you look at the cost it looks high, maybe higher than the new car payment. However, those repairs will be paid for in cash and will last another 5 years, while the car payments will continue on for an additional 4 years. When you look at it that way, the repairs look a lot cheaper.

Of course, at some time we make the decision to buy something different. But it’s worthwhile to look carefully at the psychology and finances of what we are doing. It’s possible to make false assumptions about future “high bills” based upon what we’ve recently spent.

Far and away the best car was the ’89 Sentra. I paid $8,300 for it, cash, out the door, sold it for $500 13 years later. It had the original hoses, alternator, starter, fuel pump and water pump. It had a small rear main seal leak the last year or two.

It failed to start only once. Bad clutch safety relay. I bridged it with a piece of wire until I could get a replacement. I had the the clutch resurfaced at 123,000 miles.

As to paying cash for a car, have you ever done it? I paid cash for my last 3 cars over the last 10 years…a Mercedes, a Lexus and lastly a Toyota. In each case there was no reduction in the vehicle cost. Nothing was taken off for paying cash. I’ve read that you can get cents off when financing, because that is one of the ways dealerships make money. Probably you end up paying about the same for a car either way at least if you finance for 2 years. Let me know if you get a deal for paying cash.

I absolutely refuse to let my wife out of the house unless she has her AAA+ card and a working cell phone with her…