A little wisdom about car repairs...

I know I've whined a lot about my car which had only 1 working window. They're all electric, and only front-driver side worked. I had made it a goal to fix the windows before the heat comes in late Spring and Summer. So, when I got my bonus for work, I got to work. Rather, I had my dad do the dirty work. (For those of you curious, he's doing great and isn't in pain anymore. Thanks!)

Anyway, we needed to buy the motor and the kit for the windows. Most stores carried the piece... at the cost of $110~$150 PER WINDOW (as seen here). Since I didn't have $600 just laying around, my dad went to Ebay and got all 4 new motor kits for $150 with free shipping from Ebay (as seen here). The only reason I'm linking these up is because it sounds rather unreal overall, and one of my co-workers I shared this with wouldn't believe me. But that's the gospel truth, as they say.

So my advice to anyone with car problems: ask for which part needs to be replaced, and ask how much it is for the piece only without the labor. A lot of my car repairs, even when they need to be done by a mechanic (like the ignition mechanism), we bought the parts for much, much less, and just had it installed.

If you're not 100% comfortable with buying parts, don't be afraid to contact the sellers. Most of them will be more than happy to help you match the right parts to your vehicle, and even match brand-store pieces to their inventory.

Needless to say, since I had budgeted $250 for this whole process of fixing my car windows, we could say that my dad got a $100 labor tip. I did help install one of the window, but only after following up after him while he installed the first three. Things like these can make car maintenance a little easier on the budget.