Opuscula I like “cheap”

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, I prefer to pay less for something.

If it meets my needs why spend more?

My flivver is a 2008 Hyundai Elantra. I get the oil & filter changed every 3,500 miles or so. The vehicle is MECHANICALLY in great shape; the interior no so much, but it gets me from Point A to Point B just fine.

Could a Caddy do better? Do I need the speed of a souped up (do people still use that expression) pony?

It’s pretty good on fuel as long as I stray within the legal limit and its fairly comfortable — all-in-all, I consider it money well spent.

I’ve had Fords, Lincolns, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, and even an American Motors Rebel wagon — another good vehicle — but the Hyundai does the job and I’m happy with it.

My daughter gifted me with a smart phone. It’s a Redmi 6A. Hardly a top of the line Motorola or Samsung, but it turns out it sounds better than the Spouse’s more expensive (and slightly bigger) LG.

All the reviews I’ve read are that it is a very good phone for the money.

It meets my needs as a phone, a text message exchanger, and a platform for WhatsApp.

What’sApp for anyone who doesn’t know, is a free, international voice/image service similar to Skype but sans the heavy hand of Microsoft. The “better performance” mentioned above is via WhatsApp.

The daughter got the phones as part of a wireless plan. She also got one for her 7 year old daughter, a/k/a My Favorite Grand-daughter. (She’s my only grand-daughter so no one will have hurt feelings.)

The Princess & her Twin Princes

The phone is a “little” small for my fat fingers, but the Spouse gifted me with a stylus from a neighborhood dollar store. The $1 stylus includes ! a flashlight (torch for those from across the pond) and a red (ruby?) laser pointer. Both work on a replaceable battery — and all for one U.S. dollar.

Actually, styluses — to be correct, “stylii” — are 10 for $10 on line, but with a flashlight AND laser pointer?

Our phone service — smart phones and pseudo-landline — are from Consumer Cellular.

Consumer Cellular, hereafter “CC,” is a pretty good service. I have a ZTE “wireless home base” that converts cell phone signals to something my ancient Uniden cordless system (of two stations) can use.

The Unidens are often more comfortable to use than cell phones of any type, especially when on hold.

CC just sent me an email telling me it was upgrading the service to four or five “G.”

I’ll have to swap out a SIM card and hopefully the card will match my account. Fortunately, CC has “pretty good” customer support; it’s better technically than the billing unit.

The combined CC bill — two cell phones with voice, text and data, and the ZTE (voice only) is less than the bill for our former landline-only service.

Since 90% of all data — including WhatsApp — is via our modem/router, our data usage with CC is minimal. (We still have the ISP to finance.)

My name is not Benjamin Kubelsky (right) and I am not “cheap.” It is just that I hate to pay for a “name” that the only benefit it carries is snobbishness.

True, a Caddy may be better built than my Hyundai — then why doesn’t it have Hyundai's 10 year/100,000 mile factory warranty? — and a Moto smart phone may have a better camera — but does it compare to my 4*5 (inch) technical camera or my old Canon F-1?

My Spouse drives a Benz 350 that is so technologically advanced she can’t use many of the goodies. We had a Jaguar X40 (a/k/a XJ6) — in order to change a headlight the whole front end had to be removed ! — and neither vehicle was as reliable as the Hyundai.

I won’t buy something because it is inexpensive if it is cheap.

“Cheap” meaning “shoddily made” or “made of inferior materials.” That is throwing good money after bad (or something); in the end it is wasteful.

But, when I find something that has good value for the money (even if it is manufactured in China such as are the cell phones and the stylus — the Hyundai is from South Korea), if I have a need for the item, I’ll buy it.

There is a difference between being frugal and being Benjamin Kubelsky cheap.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula When is lifetime Warranty less Than a lifetime

WE HAVE A LOCAL KIA DEALER who advertises that his cars have a “lifetime warranty.”

We have another Kia dealer who “doubles the life of the warranty.”

Only one is telling the half-truth.

KIA, AS DOES HYUNDAI, comes from the factory to U.S. dealers with a five year bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10 year power train warranty.

I have an 11-year-old Hyundai that, save for a thermostat, has been trouble free.

How long is a KIA “lifetime warranty”?

For the KIA dealer – also the mayor of my town – “lifetime” is 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Even that’s not 100 percent accurate.

The 10-years is on the power train – engine and transmission.

The vehicle’s body – the “bumper-to-bumper” part of the warranty -- is only five years.

My Hyundai’s interior is starting to show its age, but as far as the power train goes, it’s great.

The dealer who “doubles the factory warranty” of 10 years/100,000 miles doubles the power train warranty to 20 years/200,000 miles. The same dealer doubles the warranties on several other manufacturers’ products as well, but none come close to 20 years/200,000 miles.

If you challenge a sales person at the mayor’s dealership “How long is a ‘lifetime warranty’?” the sales person will answer honestly: “10 years or 100,000 miles.”

Never mind the huge bill board at the dealership that proclaims a “lifetime warranty.”

Makes you wonder about honesty in local politics.

The 20 year/200,000 mile (on the power train) dealer is “less dishonest.” While no one advertises “on the power train”, given the vehicles’ “from the factory to the U.S.” warranty makes the warranty’s limitations clear,

The problem with the 20 year/200,000 mile dealer is the service department. The mechanics often either do the wrong thing first (and have to redo the work) or they fail to check their work. The dealerships DO honor the warranty and they do correct their mechanics’ faux pas on the dealer’s tab.

The 20 year/200,000 mile dealer gives back to the community with several events throughout the year. I can’t think of the mayor’s dealership doing anything similar (but that is not to state his dealership does nothing – I just don’t recall anything.)

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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