Auto Estrogen

Auto repair is a chore, no matter how you look at it:
- It takes time out of your day
- It takes money out of your pocket and
- There’s nothing fun about it

It is a fact of life, however, if you happen to own a car. It’s an absolute, so the best thing to do is to prepare. The problem is, you never really know what’s going to go wrong. There are so many possibilities, some minor and only slightly burdensome, others major and total disruptions. Take the increasingly louder noise I heard the other day on my way to a conference. “Oh no, is that my car I thought?” After turning down the radio and listening intently, I discovered that oh yeah, it was me. My only desire at that moment was to make it to the parking lot without any problems. I did. And then . . . well, I went on my way, along with my day, almost completely forgetting the little noise that troubled me on the way to the conference.

Once I returned to my car, it hit me, an instant reminder. I had problems turning the steering wheel. So there I was — in car maintenance hell — what could be wrong? Is it a minor or a major?

I got on the phone, called my auto service and arranged for a tow. One thing I knew. I would not be left on the side of the road!

Fast forward three days later, yep, the auto shop was closed, it just happened to be a weekend and so my poor car had to sit by idle over the weekend before she (my car) could get some relief. The verdict —- a minor (that’s when your bill is under $500 ).

So here’s what I decided. As women we have to take better care of our cars. And we have to do it, not someone else. At our women’s auto clinic back in April, our female automotive mechanic told us something that was very enlightening. She said that we were the experts when it comes to car maintenance — not her. Wow! Talk about power. How revealing it was to find that out. Although we might not be the technical experts, we are indeed experts. Why? We’re the ones driving the car on a daily basis and we’re the ones that know when something feels funny, sounds funny, or runs funny. We just have to do a better job when it comes to descriptions (I’ll share more on this in another blog).

Being a Car-Buy-Her is not about being an automotive expert; it’s about becoming informed and empowered when it comes to your car, it’s care and it’s maintenance. We can do that by being better stewards of observation. By taking notes and listening to the heartbeat of the vehicle we’re in. And then by putting those that we entrust our beloved to, to meet the standards in which we’ve set.