On Wed, 22 Oct 2008, Adam Monsen wrote: > On Tue, 2008-10-21 at 17:03 -0500, benjamin gramlich wrote: > >> But have you? > > This is irrelevant. The question is, do you have the ability to? If not, > you might be locked into using a particular mechanic. Reminder on topic: This is about cars with hoods welded shut. Does it make a difference to a user who would never open the hood to work on his engine because he doesn't know how? My answer is like Adam's answer. Even if you don't know how to work on an engine, you will want to be able to hire someone of your choice to work on your car for normal maintenance and you might also want to be able to hire someone to improve on your engine by replacing certain parts. You need to get under the hood to do things like put in a car stereo. You really do not want to be locked out of your car's engine compartment. -- By the way (and please please create a new thread if you want to reply to this), my favorite Candid Camera segment of all time was one from the early 1960s where a woman with a car broken down by the side of the road tried to get passing motorists to stop and help her out. Men would stop, then open the hood and see that there was no engine in the car! They would say "Lady, you got no engine!," and she would ask "Is that bad?" Mike