When will we ever learn, how long will it take, how much must we bear before we break down and give in to doing it right the first time? It may take forever in some cases. I live in a household that enjoys the “cost effective” corner cutting method of home and car repairs. This doesn’t work well for me, I have never agreed with it, and likely never will. There are several instances in my life that illustrate the reasoning behind my opinion of doing something right the first time.

I bought my first car used and anticipated that there would be repairs that go along with owning a used car. Since I knew little about vehicles at that time I inquired on the knowledge of the man in the family when I needed something fixed. This particular man could often be found under or around a vehicle saying things that sounded very mechanical, which led me to believe that my vehicular inquiries could be answered by him.

One of my first car problems was that I needed a new muffler. My car would putter along quite loudly exclaiming that it was in need of a new muffler. Naturally, I talked to man about it. Man informed me that we could just “stick this in there” and it would be almost free to fix. Okay, we'll try that and see how it goes. It didn’t work. So, Man spend the day under my car, jerry rigging, tinkering, peeking and poking. Man tinkered around several times attempting a cheap solution, to my car’s resounding disapproval. Clearly, my car had rejected the idea and was demanding a fix even more loudly than before.

Finally, Man gave in and we bought a cheap muffler that looked pretty good although it was not the exact one that the manual suggested. You can get by with this, he said, it’s good enough. We took the item home and presented it to my car. Even though it was not the perfect size, man didn’t need to force it too much to make it fit just fine and “hunkey dorey”. He pronounced it “good to go”, and my car and I drove off into the sunset.

I got by in my new quieter, calmer car for quite a while, until I heard an awful noise while on the freeway. Sparks lit up against the back of my car and other vehicles passed on either side of me as I slowed and attempted to merge. As I stopped at the side of the freeway I realized what had happened. Poor little car had rejected it’s cheap little, looked pretty good, fit just fine muffler. I just knew it, I should have done it right the first time!

I apologized to my car and we found our way to Midas where they did it the way it should have been done in the first place. I am proud to say that my car and I are very happy with it’s new correctly installed muffler. Now, after we fix the radiator leak, get an oil change, new tires and breaks we will be just right. All of which I will have done right the first time.

Man, on the other hand cannot believe that I did not come back to him before spending so much on a new muffler, he could have welded it back on somehow he’s sure.