Do you sometimes wonder how to make great decisions? What do you do when when you’re not sure where to start? Let me tell you a story about me, my brother and some cars. (stick with me it will make sense)
Many years ago both me and my brother decided that we needed a classic convertible “toy” car for the summer. Not only so we could look great with the roof down but as a little engineering project. We approached our decisions in very different ways, I looked for something small and easy to store: an MG Roadster. My brother on the other hand fancied something a bit more full bodied: a Triumph Stag, clearly he has more room in his garage and was thinking of using the car not just when the sun was shinning.
As the search took shape my brother found a good looking white Stag and after some haggling paid £1000. It looked and sounded great, it had a couple of odd rust spots but nothing that a bit of hard work couldn’t resolve. Me, I struck it lucky when I found a Roadster with only two owners, father and son, had been kept in a garage since new and still had all the original leather covers. After having a new soft-top made and fitted the total cost of £2000.
“OK, we have some good news and some bad news.
The first summer we both enjoyed our purchases, the weather was definitely made us feel we had made wise decisions. Once the frost of winter passed we began the annual service and road worthiness checks. This is when the story started to change as my little MG only needed minor work; oil, brakes pads, etc..(don’t worry not going to get technical), unfortunately my brother didn’t have a spring in his stride when he spoke to the mechanics.
“OK, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news we know why you had trouble changing gears, the bad news is it will cost £750 to fix.”
Well my brother had little choice but to agree and handed over the cash. Both now cars fully functional and summer looming, we used our toy cars everything the sun shone , but the winter arrived all to soon and they were put away until the new year.
When spring arrived and the maintenance regime began my brother noticed a rattling from the rear of the Stag. Another conversation with the mechanics left him with a quandary.
“We’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is we have found the cause of the noise, your rear axle mounts need replacing. Bad news is it will cost £1000.”
“The good news is we have found the cause of the noise.”
This is a difficult question to answer as my brother knew that the Stag in good condition was worth £2500, but if he didn’t fix the axle the car would be worth £1500 at best. Either way he is going to lose money what should he do, sell the car as is and cut his losses or fix the car?
I know what happened in real life but what would you do?
