Now you hit a sore point.
Newly weds. I showed the wife the engine gauges in my Fiat I had bought new before our wedding. She drove the Fiat to work and I drove a clunker. Sunday I fire up the Fiat and before I got out of the garage the Engine Temp needle was pegged in the red. No steam when I removed the radiator cap BECAUSE THERE WASN'T ANY COOLANT LEFT IN THE RADIATOR!!!! Water pump had failed, head on the engine was warped. Wife said she thought the engine was making strange noises the week before.
1979 I bought my last new car, a yellow VW. Came home one day and noticed white talcum powder covering the whole passenger side of the car. On closer inspection it wasn't talcum powder it was white PAINT! Not "green" soft paint that could be flicked of. Dry paint. I asked the wife about it and she had no idea what I was talking about. When I showed it to her, "Oh that? There was something white in the road the other day but she didn't know what it was." "If you didn't know what it was, why did you drive thought it??? We just lost a $$$$ on resell value!" Wife gives me her "blank" look.
Then there was the Buick hubcap pieces she handed to me in a sack. "What did you hit?" Nothing she was aware of. "Then how did you know to stop and pickup what was left of the hub cap?" Wife gives me her "blank" look. I went out in the garage to look at the rim. The RIM IS BENT! So bad that I'm surprised the tire is still holding air. How do you bend a car rim and claim not to know how it happened?
Van. Sunday we were half way to church when I notice the engine temp is slowing climbing pass normal. When asked the wife said the engine temp was normal the day before. After church I added a gallon of water, engine gasket blew to the passenger compartment heater. Wife had taken some girlfriends Saturday to the big city (about a 300 mile round trip). When I was backing the van into the garage wife asked me which gauge showed the engine temperature. I was stupid and asked,"If you don't know which gauge is for the engine temp how did you know it was normal yesterday?" Wife gives me her "blank" look.
I haven't listed everything. Every vehicle I have bought her...yes EVERY VEHICLE.
Then there is the 2 totaled cars, a front fender, two rear fenders, 2 rear bumpers, a trunk lid and a dent in the front she says you can't see and a partridge in a pear tree. Showing her the repair bills, offering to review the basics with her (again) and what can I do to help her...Wife gives me her "blank" look.
BUT I did figure out a way to keep my blood pressure from blowing and lower my costs for mechanical repairs and body repairs. I stop buying her vehicles! When she wrapped the last car I bought around a pole I told her I was done. If she wanted another car then she would have to pay for it and maintain it. She's had her Pontiac for 6 years. For the last 2 years she hasn't put any new dents in the body or required major mechanical repairs. This is a record for her! First few oil changes she went several thousand miles pass the "change" date but now rarely too many miles pass the date. You see when I was absorbing the repairs costs she didn't see the need to "change". Now that it's her money that being affected she saw a need to change.