Auto Talk for Women – Why “for women”?

Okay, here’s the thing: Auto Talk for Women by Shirley Kachur is a not-spectacular title… cuz… uh… “for women” … as if a car manual for women might include things like “How not to break a nail checking the fluids” or “Avoiding antifreeze leaks at that time of the month.”

In reality, this is a textbook… and a damned good one, especially if you know next-to-nothing about cars.

And yes, it is geared (Ha! A pun!) to women. I mean, not many men would put up with cartoons of cars wearing lipstick and eyelashes. So, I guess that means the author (also a woman) believes this will pull women into wanting to know more? Heck if I know. I didn’t pick it up for that reason. I just picked it up because I’ve never seen anything like it.

I found it in a … say it with me… thrift shop. I bet you guessed that already.

There’s everything from changing a tire to replacing the oil to engine blocks to air bags to driving habits.

There’s also a pretty-good troubleshooting guide for those weird noises that keep you up at night… or at least, send you to the nearest mechanic.

Would a woman (or man, for that matter) be able to swap out an engine after reading this book? Probably not. But … maybe? I guess.

Now look… for me… I’d prefer to leave things like fixing my car to the experts. I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman as long as they do it well. My husband agrees with me. We could both change a tire if push came to shove, but we’d rather not. The big stuff? There’s an auto club to take it to the shop for that!

And true, I don’t know a lot of women who are all-about cars, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And actually, my youngest daughter took a college-level auto shop course and was the belle of our family cuz she changed her own oil… so, yeah, there’s something to be said for thinking outside (or would that be inside?) the box that used to be “Boys Only”.

The reason I’m sharing it with you is that … darn it all… it IS important!

It reminds me of a friend of mine… years back. I wrote a monthly newsletter for our church and had “guests” among the church family contribute. One of the more controversial articles was by this friend of mine – a divorced woman – who suddenly found herself in the position of having to do everything her husband had been doing before he left her… stuff like balancing the check book, mowing the lawn and fixing the car. She determined to learn it all. She never wanted to feel beholden to a man again. So that’s what she wrote about! You can imagine how well that went over in a fundamental Baptist church with an all-male leadership.

*THUD*

In hindsight, it very brave of her to write it and even kinda brave of me to let it run. Boy, did we hear about it!

But times have changed, right? Right? Well, this book wasn’t written in 1957. It was written in 2000. Interesting.

Everyone who drives a car should make sure they have a very good team in place to take care of their vehicle… or know how to do it themselves. No matter who you are.

Would I recommend this book? Actually, yes. Between the silly drawings, there is a ton of great info. It’s 300 pages of solid info.

And don’t tell anyone… but the silly drawings were kinda cute. Shhhhh…