Commuting between Philadelphia and Washington, DC?
I need some advice on a location to live between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. I recently got a job in Philadelphia but wife works at Washington, D.C. We would like to move to a location in between, so that one of us can take the train and other drive. I don't if it would be manageable but we will try. Any advice would greatly be appreciated Thanks SA
Someone hit my parked car and left a note with his name and phone number. How should I proceed?
One week after taking delivery of my 9 year old Toyota Landcruiser I parallel parked it with a “wobble” to the parked car in front.I was aghast. I discreetly walked out and away. I could see a tiny paint mark on the painted bumper of the new seven series BMW in front.A old lady was looking on from the opposite pavement which made doing the right thing an easy decision!I scrawled out an apology note on an old paper parking coupon adding my mobile telephone number.And I waited.There was massive heavy rain that next few hours. Maybe my message had been washed away?48 hours later I got the whatsapp message that my note and apologies was received.At this point. I was so so sad.I had lost my job a year ago and money was very tight. I had a horrible gut feeling it could be very expensive.The other driver seemed most reasonable in not taking his car to the official dealer where a paint repair would be over $1000.Such a nice person. He could have asked for any sum of money up to $1000 and I know that the repair costs at least twice more than the requested $100 from a local paint shop.I was in tears at the kindness of this complete stranger. He could have honestly asked me for the full paint repair cost.I was $100 out of pocket. The other driver had $100 but also a small paint scratch that would cost more than that to repaint.I guess he has had many scratches over the years from other anonymous drivers so he at least appreciated my honesty in owning up.Anyway I found kindness in a complete stranger. Something special indeed.I drive more carefully now! Received kindness has its obligations!
How much does it typically cost to paint and install a body kit?
It totally depends on the quality (read:price) of the body kit, the make and model of car, and the color.First, buying a cheap kit will require a LOT of fitting and extra work and it may not even properly attach to the car. What you save in a cheap kit will cost you double of what you saved for installation headaches. Oh… the more pieces, the higher the cost for installation. Figure somewhere around $800 to start if the job is simple.Some cars are just a big pain in the butt to install anything. This especially goes for those tiny imports that so many people love to destroy. Double the original installation cost above.If you are trying to match a difficult color it is going to be better and cheaper to have the installation done and paint the ENTIRE car. That way everything will match. You could just have the kit painted flat black which will have the benefit of more easily hiding all the repairs when you run into curbs and stuff.Sooooo, if you have a high quality kit and have an easy car to install it on and want to do an all-over regular old paint job you can figure, um, about $2,000.00 NOT including the kit. Painting the kit flat black will cut the cost about $500.By the way, don’t be one of those people that put a rear spoiler on a front wheel drive car. It looks stupid and those of us that know what a rear spoiler does to a front wheel drive car will secretly laugh at you. If you want to know what this does for your own knowledge simply do a search for what a spoiler is intended to do.
What's a reasonable hourly labor rate for an auto mechanic, and what factors contribute to that rate?
I’ve paid various pricesm guessing from $50 to $85.example 0: City of San Francisco - 2003 replace doo-dad in transmission, they looked up the “hours to replace doo-dad” in a reate-book or sort, the book said 12 so they charged me 12 hours. It could have taken em 5h or 15h, but they charged me 12 hours. Labor rate was $85/hour.example 1: San Jose 2014, 30k miles ago - Replace head gasket on an inline-6 engine. The shop is certainly all about car repair - the office is a small room filled with parts and whatnot. Headgasket + head rebuild (machined and cleaned) + new oil + new coolant + parts + labor was $1500 total before tax. Dealer would be $3–$4k (I did not even check, quoting those numbers from an online forum). So for the work, guessing even $500 for parts, then $1000 labor for machining, head rebuild, and replacement, I am certain it was more than 10 hours, so less than $100/hour in labor. Guessing 15 hours, thats around $70/hour.As others have said, it really depends. KEy is find a shop that values you, and they’ll take care of you as a customer.
Where can I find a cheap long-term car rental option? I need to have a car on hand for 3–6 months, but don’t want to get tied down into a lease or a loan.
If you are looking for 3-6 months car lease, LeaseTrader or SwapALease are you best bets. If you hustle enough, you will be able to find a good deal. Do read my blog to know more about these.LeaseTrader.com / SwapALease.com – There are people looking to get out of their lease before its expiry and are willing to strike a deal if someone takes it over for the remaining months. These two sites are quite popular among such people. You can find great luxury cars there: BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc.Turo.com / GetAround.com – Both of these websites are peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace. Anyone can register and list his/her car for car sharing while they are either away/out of town. You can get really good deals here. GetAround has a mobile app too and their website is quite nice. I usedGetaround myself and had a pretty good experience with them.Hotwire/PriceLine – As you would know, these are most popular car rental aggregation websites. They have partnership with Avis, National, Alamo and many more who offer long term renting options. However, there are very limited options available here and will cost you higher.FlightCar.com – Another car sharing website similar to GetAround.Enterprise Long term car rental: Enterprise is one of the most trusted brands in car rental space. Check out the deals on their website too. Some of the options are not shown on hotwire/priceline.Hertz Multimonth: Hertz also have a program for long term car rentals. They are priced a little higher than their competition but offer good service. If you are a Hertz member, you can avail this service.Alamo Insider deals – Sign up as alamo insider program and use the option for last minute deals. You will be surprised to get a ‘too-good-to-be-true’ kind of deals here. There are no membership fees.ZipCars.com – If you need car for just a few hours in a day in a long term, you can evaluate Zipcars.com too. They have per-hour billing rates and you can save some money. Do your maths.AutoSlash.com – This wesbite looks for the best available discount code and books it on your behalf. Have heard decent reviews about this site.You can read about them in more detail in my blog post here: Are you looking for long-term or monthly car rental? These options might help.
Buying house from early 1900's... advice?
I'm a senior in college (interior design major) and my husband is starting his MBA next month. He has a good job now that he's been at almost 3 years. We'd like to go ahead and buy a house b/c it doesn't make sense continuing to flush our money by renting, plus, we want something that is our own. All the houses in our area are like dirt cheap (even new ones) b/c it's kind of a small town. I visited my parents in Baltimore for Christmas, and houses that would be $70-80,000 here are over $200,000 there. Anyway, all the houses we can afford are old. I know our first house is going to be a fixer-upper and I'm fine with that. I know most people just look at the cosmetic aspects of the house (which I would obviously change), but forget the structure (roof, plumbing, walls, etc.) I don't want to be screwed over by some savvy realtor or a shady home inspector. What are some things we should look for? These are the houses we're looking at (keep in mind, it's a fixer-upper): http://lynchburgmls.com/pub/Results.asp