Grr. Arg. Feh.

[featherynscale]

I began the biannual ritual of getting my tags this afternoon. This is a black art, but I am willing to reveal its secrets to those fortunate enough not to live in the state of Missouri and have to be initiated into this ridiculous procedure.

1. You pay your personal property taxes. That's right. On your Car. Every Year. 10% of your car's value, every year.
2. You get your car inspected for all sorts of "safety" issues, really important ones. I failed my first ever Missouri inspection because the tint on my front windows was too dark. That's how important these things are. I could have been shielded from the sun! But fortunately, the state saved me.
3. You find your car title and your proof of insurance.
4. You take your property tax reciepts, your inspection sheet, your title, and your insurance card, and go to the DMV.
5. You pay the DMV money, and they review your documents, and then, if you are a good little boy, they give you a shiny sticker for your plates.

Almost all of these things must be done within the hours of 8-5, Monday-Friday, so you will be taking off at least one day of work to get this done. It is the Law. So I took the afternoon off to start the process, but I will not be getting my little happy stickers any time soon. For Lo, my property tax bill on my $1500 piece-of-shit car is $425. And Lo, Also, the nice people at the service station tell me that my brakes are shot, the pads so thin that they cannot be measured by mortal man, and so I cannot pass inspection. They will be happy to fix my brakes for $250. I declined, since I know that a brake pad replacement is $45 worth of parts and 45 minutes worth of labor. At standard rates, that comes up to a little more than half the price quoted. The service guy expressed a profound wish that I would avoid slamming on brakes on the way home, in the hopes but not the certainty that by doing so, I could avoid Flaming Highway Death.

So I can afford to pay either to have the brakes fixed, or to pay my taxes this month, but not both. So maybe I can get my car legal again in December. Or January. The plates only expired in September. Grr.

Comments

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

An $89 brake job involves pads.

A $250 brake job means he was also going to turn your rotors because the pads were so thing that they could stand to be machine-honed.

If you don't get them done lickety-split, then it is a $475 break job where the rotors are replaces and one or mor calipers are shot.

Sayeth the Diermuid who used to not replace pads until he had to drive and use the emergency brake for a few months.

Damn Scots.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I'd buy that, except that I specifically asked him if that included turning the rotors, and he said, no, just the pads, the rotors were probably fine. So I'm guessing it was just the standard upcharge for the customer having boobies. :( Or, this particular shop just charges an ass-ton more than standard for labor. Hard to say.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

It could have been for ceramic pads... I seem to recall your car being pretty spiff.

I've never seen the boob surcharge, but I'm really picky about my mechanics, I usually go with guys who have children in the same school as mine or have some other close community factor. Always within walking distance too, because being the sort of person who will never ask for anything I tend to drop off my car then walk home.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Since you used to live in our general neck of the woods, who did you use then? We're partial to the Midas on State Line, but a) they're in Teh Ebil Kansas, and b) they may still charge more than we have to (though not outrageously so).

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I used Great Scott off of James A Reed and 95th, but another good shop for cheapity-cheap repairs was the one across from the Hypermart (Bannister Walmart) although I usually only went for really cheap repairs to cars I hoped to replace soon.

If nothing else, I ask them to itemize repairs, and then I can determine if I want to upgrade or downgrade brake pads, shocks, etc. For example, if shocks are $19 each and the labor is $50 each, I tend to upgrade the shocks to the $39 each type because otherwise I'm paying a lot to have shite pieces added to my car.

With any garage, it is worth building up a rapport... I tend to set in the wiating room with a laptop and joke with them as they come through and go through their garage dramas. I tend to become more educated, and they tend to become more open to options or even tell me about maintenance things I may not have considered yet, or my fave, telling me which things are really worth it, and which are crap for the car I have. 8-)