If you work business hours and you need car repairs what do you do? There are at least 3 problems.
Most mechanics are only open during business hours
You need a ride to and from the mechanic
You need a ride to/from everywhere else (like work) while your car is being repaired.
What do people do in those situations? I suppose I could rent a car for a week, and try finding a mechanic who is open more than just 8-6 m-f. Take the bus to/from the mechanic. But its a huge mess. This was so much easier when I worked part time.
Take the bus. Carpool with coworkers. Use a mechanic that has loaner cars (they do exist). Borrow from friends or family that have an “extra” car.
ETA: Have an awesome mechanic like I do, who will come pick up the car if it’s running, or have it towed, and also drop it back off when he’s done. I heart my mechanic.
the bus doesn’t travel between where I live and work (I live in one city and work in another). None of my coworkers live here either. Finding a mechanic with a loaner car program would be great though.
Living in a large city, I use a mechanic that’s in walking distance from the house and use public transit. I have used the shuttle service from the dealership for certain types of repairs over the years. I once took a cab.
I don’t live alone, but I’ve lived in a single car household for most of the last 10 years.
If it’s going to be multiple days, I can drive the car to the mechanic and Enterprise will pick me up from there and take me to their store to rent a car. That’s been a part of their schtick for a long time. When my car is done, I call Enterprise from my mechanic’s and the manager of Enterprise will send a guy out to pick their car up! I don’t know if that’s Enterprise-wide or not, but “my guy” will do it for me.
Otherwise, I cab it. Drop the car off, cab home. Cab to mechanic, car home. It costs about $6 each way; not even a tenth of the mechanic’s bill, most of the time!
When I was cycling to work, I would drop the car at the mechanic’s (he had a drop slot for keys) and ride to work.
For pickup, he would leave it locked on the street. (spare key)
I used to do this…until I figured out that the mechanic I was going to wasn’t very good. My new one isn’t close enough to the office (or the house) to bike in a reasonable time frame.
Luckily, I have retired parents that live about 5 minutes form my mechanics. I also have a friend who uses the same mechanic…we’ve traded rides when necessary.
-D/a
I take a day or two off and use my Comp Hours or Vac Hours. Usually any problems can be fixed in that time period. Its kind of nice staying at the house a couple days and getting stuff done I’ve put off.
If my car needed several days or even a week for repairs then I’d give Enterprise Rent-A-Car a call.
I have a PTO bank, so I’d probably call off for just a day or two. If the repair could wait, though, plenty of repair shops are open on Saturdays. Also, there are a couple mechanics with loaner vehicles around here. If the repair work can’t wait til the weekend, that’s a good option. A rental car would be a last resort, they’re pretty pricey around here.
I take my folding bike in the trunk and bike home. When I pick the car up, reverse.
When without a car, I use my other, sturdy bike with the saddlebags to go to work and for groceries. Actually, I use my bike for groceries all the time. My bike, which looks like this, carries a toddler, half a week of groceries and my purse.
When I had a car, I would drive it to the mechanic on my lunch hour and he would get one of his trainee lads to drive me back to my office in my car. When the work was done, he’d send one of the trainees over to pick me up in my car, then I’d drive him back to the garage.
If I was to be without my car for a few days, I’d walk or get on the bus to wherever I needed to go. Once I was carless for more than a week and it dawned on me that I didn’t really need a car, so I got rid of it shortly after that.
Getting to/from the mechanic isn’t a ‘huge’ problem. I can use the bus within the city. Also doing things like getting groceries isn’t a problem since I have stores in walking distance. Besides I can stock up and go 2-3 days w/o needing to visit the grocery.
the big problem is getting to/from work. I don’t live in the same city I work, and I don’t have coworkers who live here. And it is about 12+ miles, so too long to walk and bicycling 25 miles a day round trip on the highway would not be something I’d like to do if I could avoid it.
I guess I could ask family members to let me borrow a spare car for a few days. that could work. I leave my car with them (at a mechanic in their town) then take one of their cars for a couple days. But since the car trouble I’m having is partly my own fault, I feel guilty about that (like I worry I will damage their cars too).
At my old job I had several weekdays off a week, I miss the flexibility that gave me. I can dip into PTO at my new job, but I’d rather save those for vacations if possible.
When I had a car in NYC, my mechanic was near school so I could drop it off, go to class, and either pick it up after or take public transit home. The one time I had a flat near home it was a royal pain in the ass and involved several cab rides to the tire shop, back & forth.
In Ann Arbor, my mechanic offered morning shuttle service - drop the car off by X time and they would take everyone to work in their van. Then you just need a ride home, which I could get from a coworker. People were usually pretty good about trading rides, it happens to most people at some point.
