If you can, save up for an OBD. Then you can google codes and fix most problems on your own. It's hard to justify the upfront cost if you're really struggling BUT they're universal and you can share it with your comrades and friends. They run up to $100 but I've seen some on for $50 or $60.
Fixing cars has also been made immeasurably harder than your parents time too. They're all compact so stuff is in weird hard to reach places and they have so much computer shit in them that it could be something as simple as a borked sensor. Nobody has tools anymore either because they're too expensive and things are often cheaper to replace than try and fix.
My car has to take off the front drivers side wheel to replace the battery, stuff is in absolutely BIZARRE places.
Everybody knows the PT Cruiser when they hear of it.
As a teen I worked on a car lot and one thing they had me do one summer was go around and jump-start every PT Cruiser on the lot and let them idle for an hour or so just to charge the batteries, which were small and would, without use, drain relatively fast. I think that's when I really began to realize that the people in charge of things were not really sending their best.
You can also find really cheap ones for about 10-20 that you connect to on your phone using Torque - it's probably not as good a solution, but definitely usable.
If you can, save up for an OBD. Then you can google codes and fix most problems on your own. It's hard to justify the upfront cost if you're really struggling BUT they're universal and you can share it with your comrades and friends. They run up to $100 but I've seen some on for $50 or $60.
Fixing cars has also been made immeasurably harder than your parents time too. They're all compact so stuff is in weird hard to reach places and they have so much computer shit in them that it could be something as simple as a borked sensor. Nobody has tools anymore either because they're too expensive and things are often cheaper to replace than try and fix.
My car has to take off the front drivers side wheel to replace the battery, stuff is in absolutely BIZARRE places.
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Everybody knows the PT Cruiser when they hear of it.
As a teen I worked on a car lot and one thing they had me do one summer was go around and jump-start every PT Cruiser on the lot and let them idle for an hour or so just to charge the batteries, which were small and would, without use, drain relatively fast. I think that's when I really began to realize that the people in charge of things were not really sending their best.
You can also find really cheap ones for about 10-20 that you connect to on your phone using Torque - it's probably not as good a solution, but definitely usable.
It'll at least tell you if this is a "my car's gonna die soon" kinda thing or a "i can ignore this for a while."