SmartGreasemonkey

Back in 1982 I was 23 and stationed at Loring Air Force Base, Maine. I bought a used 1974 Vega Station Wagon for $500. It had 43,000 miles on it and the wheel wells were starting to rust out. It ran like crap and would barely idle. After paying to get it tuned up at the Chevy dealership and an independent shop it ran even worst. Then I found a civilian mechanic at our motor pool that owned one. He taught me to tune it up. It ran like a top from then on out. In 1987 it had 135,000 on it and was still running strong. I gave it to two buddies of mine that were opening a junk yard. In 2004 they were still using that old Vega Wagon to pull parts in their junk yard. I guess I got my monies worth.

My Civic Si was fun to drive and very practical. There was nothing more fun than passing an expensive sports car on a twisty mountain road. Its not the car it's the driver that makes the difference. Learning to drive on those twisty mountain roads is a big advantage. I was about to buy a Civic Type R a few years ago. Then I decided that my wife's Accord Hybrid Touring in sport mode was good enough these days. She gets 45mpg commuting to and from work. Driving her car I can have her hurling in no time on a twisty mountain road, lol.

Jeep has been the number one vehicle to avoid buying for many years.

Since I was a kid I have helped people change their tires. As a mechanic I have change countless tires. Helping others when you can is always a good thing. When you help others you never know how that may circle around to help you later on. Last year I had a total knee replacement. I was six weeks out from my surgery. I had just started driving again. I saw an old man on the side of the road with a flat tire. I stopped to help him. He did not know how to use the jack. I got on my hands and knees for the first time after surgery and jacked his car up for him. I changed his tire. He offered to pay me. I refused his money and told him to pass it forward to someone in the future. The next day I was at our local butcher shop buying $95 worth of fresh shrimp for a dinner party. As I went to check out at the register a woman walked up. She handed the cashier a $75 gift card and told her to use it for my purchase. I thanked her. After paying we stepped outside and I thanked her for her kindness. She told me that she had been shopping down the road. When she walked out to her car a stranger had given he the gift card. The stranger told her that she would know what to do with it. As she drove by the butcher shop she felt compelled to stop and give the card to whom ever was checking out. I told her about my good deed from the day before. She told me that it all made sense. The good that I had put out the day before had been passed forward and returned to me. We parted company knowing that the good that we put out there does not go unseen.

My wife drives a 2025 Honda Accord Touring Hybrid. She commutes into the city to work. She is getting 45mpg. On several occasions it has gotten as high as 70mpg in rush hour traffic by letting the car drive itself. The adaptive cruise control is amazing. On a road trip with the cruise set at 85mph we got 48mpg letting the car basically drive itself and go with the flow of traffic. Think of all the poor folks driving their gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. EVs may be a thing in the future but right now they make no sense at all. On the other hand a hybrid gives you the best of both worlds. There is nothing more stressful than driving an EV on a depleted battery and praying you make it home or to a charging station before your battery dies.

Buy a basic Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. My daughter's 2019 Civic gets 39mpg commuting to and from work. It will go 350k easily.

If money were no issue I wouldn't be wasting any on an expensive car.

The FM transmitter that you plug into your cigarette lighter socket works great! Just buy a decent one. Look for one with great reviews. I have one I use in my older car. My smart phone works hands free almost all well as my new car with Android Auto. I mount my phone to the dash and plug it into the FM transmitter. I paid about $25 bucks for the one I have. I had a cheaper one that didn't work as well.

Get it started and go to an auto parts store. Don't turn it off. Have them test it. Batteries only last three or so years these days. If it tests ok you may just need to get a battery charger and put a good charge on it. If you live up north in cold country always buy a battery that has high cold cranking amps.

Just beware that you don't always get what you pay for. I once worked a motorcycle shop. The owner got 10W-40 oil for practically nothing. That was in all the big name oil barrels. The owner of a quick lube place did the same thing. You paid for Mobile 1. You saw the barrel. It was 10W-40. They both made some really good profit on oil changes, lol. I always did my best to get the customer to pay for Bel-Ray. It comes in quart bottles. It is actually engineered for motorcycles. As always, buyer beware. I once took my truck to the local Ford dealership to get the alignment checked. It was due an oil change and I figured why not just pay a few bucks labor to get it done while it was on the alignment rack. I put a six pack of Mobile 1 oil and an oil filter on the passenger seat. I asked the service manager to use my filter and oil. I went across the street to a coffee shop. My truck was in view the entire time. I watched the mechanic put my truck on the alignment rack. Then I watched him walk to his truck in the far back of the dealership and put my oil in the back of his truck bed. About an hour later I was called and told my truck was ready. I walked back over. The service manager told me that they didn't find my oil in the truck. They were billing me for oil. I told him that I saw his mechanic put my oil in his truck. That red one parked out back. He insisted that his guy would never do such a thing. I told him that if he and his mechanic wanted to make it onto CNN Headline News, angry customer shoots and kills service manager and mechanic at small town Ford dealership, to continue down that road. He went out to the truck and brought me my six pack of oil. He apologized and claimed he would fire the guy. He took the charge for oil off my bill. I have never set foot in another Ford dealership since then.

I have turned wrenches at several dealerships. We frequently see stripped drain plugs from our customers that went to a quick lube joint. Quick oil change places are like security guards at Toys For Us used to be. Your not good enough for the A team so you take the job you can get. A good independent repair shop is probably your best bet. Our local Honda only shop is very reasonable when doing oil changes. He wants you to come back when you need other work done to your car. Food for thought. I once knew someone that owned an independent quick oil change place. He bought the cheapest oil he could find. Normally 10W-40. He put that in all these different barrels with all the different brands and blends of oil. If you paid for Mobile 1 you got his cheap oil. I really felt sorry for his customers.

Back in the day I drove from Limestone, Maine to Atlanta. That's about 1540 miles. The Air Force was transferring me to a base in Georgia. I had a date in Atlanta lined up for the next evening. I was hell bent to make it down there on time come hell or high water. Her parents were out of town and she told me we would have the house and pool to ourselves. A cooler full of Mountain Dew helped keep me going. I drove straight through stopping to get gas and hit a drive thru as needed. The next afternoon I was about worn out. It was raining in South Carolina. I revived myself by sticking my head out the window, lol. Made it to Atlanta in the evening. Showered, shaved, dressed up and went out on my date. Met my date at a night club and spent the evening dancing with her and her girl friends. We closed the club and took the party to her folks place. I didn't get any sleep until late morning the next day. Those were some good times.

I have driven several cars and trucks for more than 10 years.

Yes

I didn't give a shit about cars. I was into anything to do with airplanes. Was working on them in eighth grade.

I did 20 years in the Air Force. Lived and traveled all over the world. There is no better place than good old America. The only place I went where people didn't flat out want to move to America was Japan. People in America don't understand how good they have it. Just the fact that you can safely drink the tap water most anywhere you go here is a huge deal. Even our so called poor live a lifestyle that is unequaled by most of the earths population. Americans take lots of things for granted because they know no better. Everywhere I went people were friendly and I made local friends easily. Saudi Arabia was the only place that the natives showed no interest in being your friend unless there was money to be made.

The KKK is still around but I couldn't tell you where. I grew up in the South. When my best friend was about 17 he attended a KKK rally. He told me that he had never met a more ignorant, pathetic bunch of people than the ones he met at the KKK rally. He was totally appalled with the people he had met. Attending that rally gave him a totally new perspective on racism. He said that you have to be really stupid to be a racist. Unfortunately these days when you hear the news talking about white supremist they are usually referring to people that attend church, not the KKK. Some how being white, attending church, and having moral values is a huge threat to many people in our country. The last time I checked white people weren't the only people that attend church. What about the rest of the people that also have moral values? I guess you can only pick on the white ones.

Sad to say but unless they asked Google most probably can't.

Never! I observe people spending $30+ a day on various beverages, coffee, soda, energy drinks, etc. Then they bitch about not being able to pay their bills. That's my house payment. Drink your coffee at home and learn to drink water. Every place I have worked in recent times has chilled filtered water and ice cubes.

I prefer Walmart. Walmart is closer and cost less. If you have any doubts write down 50-100 things you buy on a regular basis. Then go price them at both stores. Keep in mind that the size can be different. One store may have a 12.5 ounce can and the other a 10.5 ounce can. Advertising is marketing. Marketing is brain washing you to pay more or buy something you totally have no real use for. Be a smart shopper. Don't let marketing brain wash you into shopping somewhere were you are paying more. My daughter shops at Kroger because they give her $.05 cents off per gallon of gas. The gas is $.10 cents more per gallon than Murphy/Walmart. The grocery prices are also higher. She is a complete victim of marketing. She perceives a value and savings that doesn't exist.

You can't go wrong with the Civic. I have worked as a technician at multiple dealerships including Acura and Subaru. The only way a Subaru lasts is if you pour money into it to keep it running. If you see a Subaru with 180,000 miles on it someone has shelled out some money to get it there. I have owned several Hondas that went over 200,000 miles without anything but oil/filter changes, brake pads, tires, and a battery every four or so years. Snow and black ice are no problem for a Civic with good tires on it. My 2019 Civic gets 39 mpg all day long driving in suburbia. My Accord Hybrid Touring gets 48 mpg on the highway and has gotten as high as 70 mpg in rush hour traffic. I have had to pick up and deliver customers EV's. Driving when the charge is low gets pretty stressful. They also have a very low resale value.

Service advisors are there to make the dealership money. They are not there to help you. If they don't nickel and dime you to financial ruin they will loose their job. Use your coupon to get your oil change. They will do a multi point inspection of your car. They will find things that may or may not really need to be addressed. Thank them for servicing your car and leave. When you have time go see your regular mechanic and let him review what the dealer recommended. Many of the things the dealership tries to sell you are totally unnecessary. They will sell you a brake job when the brake pads aren't actually bad. They are almost to the point of needing to be replaced. You can still drive your car safely for at least a couple of thousand more miles. Many of the things they recommend like fuel system, fuel induction system, cleaning are all just money grabs. You pay $25+ for battery terminal corrosion cleaning. The actual bottle of cleaner will do dozens of cars. If you pay for it make them give you the bottle. The dealership has fixed pricing on everything. You probably won't be able to negotiate a lower price on anything. You will get a better deal from your regular mechanic.

During my 20 year military career I was called to jury duty 2x. I called the court clerk and was dismissed. Since then I have been called for jury duty 4x. Twice I called and was dismissed due to having to care for my parents. The last two times I reported in and was quickly dismissed and sent home the first time they screened me to be seated on an actual jury. My father was a lawyer. I helped him study for the Bar Exam. Here is what my father said about picking people to sit on a jury. You do not want anyone with more than two working brains cells on a jury if you can help it. You want to select people that think Oprah walks on water and is the second coming of Christ. You don't want anyone with a real college degree. You don't want any conservatives. The more liberal the better. You don't want anyone with a lawyer or law enforcement officer in their family. You don't want anyone with common sense. You want a bunch of dummies. When I report in for jury duty I just make sure that I'm the polar opposite of what my dad would have considered a good pick.

If you have a garage door opener and use it daily hook a trickle charger to the light fixture. Hook that up to your battery. It will charge the battery each time you open and close the garage door. That is the lest expensive way I know of to maintain your battery while not using the vehicle. It works great for all your outdoor toys you don't use in the winter.

Young people in our country aren't used to actually engaging with other people in person. They have grown up shut in their bedroom staring at a screen. If an older person tries to talk with a young person the young person considers it to be a verbal assault. They get uncomfortable around other people. They suffer from high anxiety when they get a job that involves dealing with the public such as working at a store. You go to a restaurant and see a table of young people dining. They have their phones out and are texting on their phones. They aren't speaking to each other. Then you watch a family dining and the kids all have a screen in front of them playing a video to keep the kid occupied. Now parents are letting a screen raise their children. I can't wait to see how that works out. You think having your 35 year old "child" still living with you is bad. Just wait to see how today's kids turn out.

I have never actually seen such a thing in my travels. I've heard of such a thing but never seen it. What I did see was a steak house that served a 5# porterhouse steak. If you ate the entire steak you got another steak for free. I turned down the free steak

When I was a kid there was nothing to watch on tv except on Saturday mornings. You were better off finding something to do outside. We would wake up to snow on the ground and be out there in our pajamas sledding when our parents woke up. They would freak out and make us come inside and get dressed properly. We went ice skating on the river. We made snow forts and had snowball battles. In the Air Force I was stationed in northern Maine. It got freezing cold in September and didn't warn up until June. I worked on B-52 bombers. They were normally parked outside. We had a stretch of really cold weather. For weeks it was never warmer than -40 degrees Fahrenheit. I should mention that aircraft mechanics back then were a bit crazy and loved to drink when off duty. One Saturday morning the sun was out. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was dead calm. The temperature was a balmy 0 degrees. It was as close to a summer day as we were going to see for several more months. There was a softball field next to the base enlisted club. The snow was waist deep. We waited until the package store at the club opened. We dressed in gym shorts and tank tops. We each bought a case of beer in bar bottles with the flip top case. We walked over to the softball field and dug the snow out of the dugouts. We went around single file and created base lines and a pitchers mound. A case of bear went were each base belonged. We had an hunter orange softball and several bats. We sat on the concrete benches in the dugouts and drank beer. We cheered our team mates. When you hit the ball it sank into the waist high snow. Several players would have to start digging for it. You would run the first base, open the case, remove a bottle, drink the beer, hold the empty beer upside down over your head, then put it back in the case and close it. Then run to the next base. The parking lot became full of people in cars watching us play softball and get rip roaring drunk. That was the best game of softball I ever played! Years later I was stationed in Montana. On weekends we went ice fishing. It would be colder than -40 and the wind would be blowing 40-50 mph. You just wore lots of layers. They had just started selling those chemical hand warmers. The ones that you open the package and shake to activate it. I kept one in each pocket and didn't wear gloves. I was dressed so warmly that with the hand warmers in my pockets my hands never got cold. Everyone wanted me to go ice fishing with them because I could tie lines, bait hooks, and dip the ice out of the fishing holes with my bare hands. Nobody knew I had the hand warmers in my pockets. They just thought I was immune to the cold. We also did lots of hunting. The hiking did help to keep you warm. In Montana I owned two stand up jet skis. I had a buddy that also owned one. We would get Chinook Winds that would bring in warm air. My buddy and I would go jet ski when is was above freezing. There was normally no ice around the boat ramp on the Missouri River. We wore wet suites. When we came to some ice we would go real fast, jump onto the ice, and slide across to more open water. If you fell in then you rode straight back to the boat ramp and called it a day. Either way we would end up going to my place and hopping in the hot tub when we were done. You don't let some cold weather keep you from having fun. You just dress properly and go have some fun. I have worked out side all of my life. I have worked in any kind of weather you can name. I have worked in blizzards to typhoons. I have worked in rain that was coming down so hard and fast that it had no place to go. You were just standing in a foot of water. You were soaking wet no matter what you did. Deal with it. I have worked when it was -65 to 120. We were once working on the wing of an airplane on a really hot afternoon. The sadistic crew chief started cooking bacon and eggs next to us while we worked. He asked if we thought it was hot out. I have always figured that if I can work in it I can play in it. No matter how tough things are always find a way to have some fun.

Way back when dinosaurs still roamed my mother got the bright idea to put leashes on my younger brother and I. It was a complete and utter disaster. Literally! Mom would go one way and we would go two separate ways. We ended up knocking over store displays and clothing racks. My mom had never owned a dog so she had no clue as to what could happen having two young boys on two leashes. No wonder my mother drank.

Despite my being a frugal person there have always been some brand name items that I absolutely refused to do without. Steak sauce, milk, yogurt, salad dressing, chips, coffee, and soap for the dish washer to name a few. In recent times though the prices of those name brand items have gone up significantly. I tried the Great Value brands and Publix brands. They are 1/4- 1/3 the price of the name brand. They are much better than they were several years ago. We now buy the store brand of those items and sacrifice little if anything in taste or quality.

See if you can get a job as a valet at a local dealership. You will need a driver's license. You may be too young but try. Apply for the valet position and get yourself a job interview. You may just want to see if you can sit down and talk with the service manager. Explain your interest in being a mechanic. Let them know that you are seeking an opportunity to prove your worth. Working as a valet will get your foot in the door. Be ready to work Saturdays. Doing a good job, being early for work, and showing initiative will establish you as a reliable, valued worker. Many dealerships have express service. Normally its people in the 18-19 year old range that start there after graduating from high school. That is an entry level position. The dealer normally provides the tools. You learn how to do a multi point inspection, oil changes, change filters, tire rotation/repair/replacement, and other very basic fixes. If you show an aptitude for the work and have a good work ethic then you can be given additional responsibilities and training. You can start buying your tools at this stage. I have supervised the express service technicians at a previous job. Having an aptitude for the work trumps going to technical school. I have seen lots of tech school graduates that had no business any where near a car. Several of the guys that worked with me had no prior experience and were full blown service technicians is as little as two years. You identify the talent and move those individuals up the food chain. The bottom line is to go talk with the service managers at any nearby dealerships. They will more than likely at least give you some good advice. If there are any independent repair shops near you go talk with the owner/manager. Showing the initiative to be out there looking for an opportunity to work and learn scores you lots of points with who ever you talk with. Once you have experience and tools you can start focusing on what you want to do long term. There are almost unlimited opportunities out there for a good technician. If it turns out that you aren't cut out to be a service tech then perhaps you would be an excellent service advisor or parts department worker. Nobody is going to let a good worker go. They will find a position that fits the valued worker.

People in Georgia and Alabama love to make fun of each other. At a previous job I worked in Birmingham, Alabama the first Monday of every month. We would stop at a Waffle House in Aniston, Alabama Tuesday mornings around 0200 for breakfast and coffee. There was a group of locals that would wait for us to stop in. We had a good natured rivalry. Unfortunately for them we always came out on top. There is one thing that every Georgian knows. What do you call someone with an IQ above 70 in Alabama? "Tourist". The poor locals never stood a chance, lol.

We are in North Georgia. We keep the thermostat at 68 during the day if we are home. The rest of the time we keep it at 64. Around 64 is the ideal temperature for sleeping.

My 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring. It will virtually drive itself. Gets 47 mpg on the highway. Letting the car drive itself, using the adaptive cruise control, in rush hour traffic I have gotten as high as 70 mpg. With the adaptive cruise control on the car will follow the car in front. If the car ahead slows down and stops my car slows down and stops. If the car ahead stops and then starts creeping along my car follows. I drive lots of treacherous mountain roads. With the sport mode engaged I can keep up with most any other car. Now if they could just come up with something to keep my wife from getting car sick when I drive in sport mode, lol.

Your Honda is good for hundreds of thousands of miles if you just do the basic maintenance and oil changes. The KIA will be a huge question mark after it hits 100k. If it makes it that far. Think Bic lighter(KIA) vs Zippo lighter(Honda). I know lots of people that really like their KIA. They are less expensive and loaded with all kinds of cool features but at the end of the day they don't have the reliability of a Honda or Toyota. Another thing to keep in mind is that a Honda or Toyota has a much higher resale value than a KIA.

You should probably take the professional driving classes. These days kids grow up sitting in the car looking at a screen the entire time they are in the car. They are clueless as to what is going on outside the car. When my daughter started driving she was unable to drive anywhere with out using the GPS on her phone. She literally didn't know how to get to school, Walmart, or anywhere else without her phone to guide her. When she backed down the driveway she didn't know which direction to go to leave our neighborhood. You learn to drive by observing how other people drive. Many people are very poor drivers these days. They failed to get the turn signal option when they bought their car or truck. You don't want to learn from one of them. Let a professional teach you.

Remember that your car can be a weapon. Car windows can be difficult to break unless you have the right tool. With windows up and doors locked you are semi safe. You can drive to a safe location. Years ago two girls I went to high school with were down town late at night. They were stopped at a red light. They were surrounded by a large group of young men. They started trying to open the doors, rocking the car, and striking the windows with hands and elbows. There were four guys standing in front of the car with their hands on the hood. The driver floored the gas. They looked very surprised as they disappeared underneath the car, lol. You reap what you sow. Enjoy your new found freedom of movement.

If you are in the left lane and other cars are passing you on the right you are in the wrong lane. When in the left lane passing other cars I always try to get over and let the faster cars get by me. I do ten over. If they want to go faster that is good for me. They can flush out the cops setting up the speed traps. I have had many cops wave to me as I went by doing ten over. The cops seem to be interested in people driving aggressively, 20 over posted limit, window tint, and expired tag. A lady friend did get a ticket for slow car in fast lane. She was being a A-hole and doing 55 in the left lane. She argued with the cop that she was merely doing the speed limit. The cop told her she was a treat to public safety driving in the left lane. That if she wanted to drive that slow do it in the right hand lane. Everyone else was doing 80.

Just learn to relax. I spent two years working as a courier. I drove three different vehicles. When driving the small, two door hatchback I got tailgated all the time. When driving my truck I seldom got tailgated. I drove the same way in both vehicles. I normally drive 10 over the posted speed limit. If someone tailgates me I clean my windshield. They normally back off pretty quickly and you see their wipers come on, lol. Driving here in the U.S. is a peace of cake. In other parts of the world if you don't learn to drive extremely aggressively you will never get anywhere. Worse you may get killed. You learn to merge into traffic with inches to spare. Who ever has the loudest horn and most guts gets there first. Then you come back here and drive the same way you did there. Some of those every day A-hole drivers somehow freak out and end up in the ditch. I had my turn signal on for three blocks. You didn't back off and let me get over. I had a few inches of clearance and changed lanes anyway. It's not my fault you thought I was going to hit you, jerked the wheel right, went off the road, across the sidewalk, over the berm, and ended up in a parking lot. Perhaps next time you will ease off and let someone get over. Driving can be a great adventure!

You will get much better gas mileage on the highway using cruise control. My wife drives a Honda Accord Touring Hybrid model with adaptive cruise control. Driving in Economy mode with the cruise engaged in rush hour traffic the car has hit 70mpg. We recently took a road trip. The traffic on the highway was FUBAR due to all the Florida evacuees. After owning this car for nearly two years we discovered that if you just let the cruise control do its thing the car would creep along behind the car in front of us. Our car would stop when the car in front of us stopped then it would start moving when the car in front of us resumed moving. You didn't have to do anything but just sit there and let the car drive itself. If you stopped for more than a few seconds you just had to touch the gas pedal to resume following. We were also getting around 50+mpg. Stop and go traffic is so much easier to endure when you don't have to ride the brake pedal all day long. I routinely use the adaptive cruise control when driving. We frequently drive two hours to a summer home we own. It is mostly a divided four lane highway. I set the cruise for 10mph over the posted limit. The car also has automatic braking. Recently while in the fast lane a car made a left turn in front of us. Totally violated my right of way. There were cars in the right hand lane. Our car applied the brakes before I could even start to move my foot towards the brake pedal. Our car decelerated smoothly and did not awaken my wife in the passenger seat. If I had actually had to brake I would have slammed on the brakes and startled her, lol. Yes, if you let the safety systems the car has you are probably way safer than if you don't use them. You paid really good money for those gadgets. Try using them. Android Auto is also totally hands free. You can do virtually anything by opening your mouth and speaking. There is no excuse for having your phone in your hand. You have to be pretty stupid not to be able to use the handsfree mode. Just saying!

People are driving worst because there is no traffic enforcement anymore. Years ago I lived in a small city. The busiest road in the state ran through our main drag. The road was a two lanes in each direction with a middle turn lane. One intersection had the highest accident rate in the state. Most of the accidents involved people turning left and into the right hand lane. By law you are supposed to turn into the left lane. Then merge to the right side lane. Police started giving out tickets for improper turn. They ticketed failure to stop and all those other bad habits that people have. The tickets were around $250 each. They gave out lots of tickets. People learned to make a proper left hand turns and to follow the other traffic laws. The accident rate at that intersection went down to almost O. The accident rate city wide saw a big reduction. A friend of mine that clerks at a state court told me something interesting this past weekend. She said that many of the new, young people going into law enforcement did not feel comfortable talking to strangers. They have real problems with pulling someone over and engaging them in a conversation. Never mind explaining why they were pulled over and getting a ticket. Something to think about.

The key to merging into traffic is to have your turn signal on and to being going faster than the flow of traffic if possible. Then pick your opening and slow to the appropriate speed as you merge over. If they don't back off a bit to let you in that is on them. As long as you don't hit anyone call it good. Having driven in some of the worst traffic this planet can offer up I have rarely had any trouble merging into traffic. Sometimes you have to just muscle your way in. Driving in Tokyo Japan was hands down the worst traffic I have ever encountered. I was driving to a girlfriends house for the first time. She failed to tell me there was an amusement park near her home. The traffic was not moving. I got out of my car and went to a store. Bought some rice crackers and a Coke. Went back to my car. The car in front of me had moved about two feet. A car coming out of the parking lot pulled up so that the corner of his pumper was between my car and the car in front of me. In about 45 minutes he had merged in front of me. It took me a total of six hour to get to my GF's house. The drive back to base at 0300 was about 40 minutes.

You can't go wrong with the Civic. Just the gas mileage alone makes it worth keeping. You can easily get 300k+ out of it with very little maintenance required. If you go with the Charger you better like spending time driving a rental or loaner car while your Charger is in the shop and spending money for repairs.

Subaru engines do not lubricate as well as most engines in other cars. The quickest way to trash your engine is to go more than 5k between oil changes. If I owned one it would be every 3k. I have worked at a Subaru dealership in the past. When I would tear down an engine that had failed with around 30-50k on it you could clearly see that oil changes had not been getting done in a timely manner. If you had a Honda or Toyota you could get away with going longer. Even then just because you can doesn't mean you should. Even with synthetic oil I am leery of going more than 7.5k if that is what the manufacturer recommends. Oil changes are the most cost effective way to keep your car's engine running smoothly.

I would just take it to a reliable shop and have them give it a good multipoint inspection. I have seen many cars and trucks that were stored in a barn or outbuilding for years. They ran perfectly after a new battery, fresh gas, and oil change.

From Loring Air Force Base, Maine to Atlanta was my longest drive with stops only for gas. About 1,470 miles. Left at about 11:00 a.m. and was in Atlanta early the next evening. Went out dancing and hooked up with an old girl friend. When I lived in Montana people didn't think anything about driving 100 miles to go see a friend. There was no speed limit so you could be there in less than an hour, lol.