Rent to Learn
Sometimes ideas don’t always hit you when you first see them as novel or a nifty idea, and this is true of a trick my parents did more than once, when they were looking to buy a new car.
Whenever a big vacation was coming up, my parents would make sure they rented a car while on vacation, partially because they hated driving to the destination, but also so that they could use that opportunity to have a “trial period” with a car that they were thinking of driving.
This extended trial gave my parents a chance to try out the car in a real life scenario (i.e. usually the whole family was present during this vacation) and see how the car dealt with day to day usage by the family (albeit in a non-standard day). This seemed to work out quite nicely, as both times the car they were thinking of buying worked out just fine, and thus they were confident when they went to a dealership which car they wanted, they only then had to worry about bargaining with the salesperson about the price of the car, and such.
Some folks can extend this Rent to Learn model with technology as well. Some employers give their employees access to pools of equipment (mostly computers) to work at home with, or to take on extended work trips, and this would be another excellent time to try out the technology. Think of ways you use the technology at home and try it out on the loaner equipment and see if you want this or not.
Many times folks buy things, not on impulse, but without fully thinking about whether they really need the article in question, or how they might be using it, so if you could try it out first, you will learn more about whatever you are looking at, and thus make a much more informed purchase.
Practicing What I Preach
This past weekend, I tried out an iPad, as a friend loaned me one, and it was an interesting piece of technology. Another friend who owns a system, calls it a Technology Convenience Tool, which is very true. It is excellent if you have a sudden idea and you want to look at a web site, write down a note, look at something on line, or the like, but as a straight compute device, I think I am still not sure it is worth what I would need to pay for it.
It was a fun tool to work with, and I enjoyed it, but I have a hard time justifying buying it (however, my business may buy me one, we shall see).
One problem with the car rental is that sometimes they don’t guarantee the car you get
Unless you only want to test drive a “category”
e.g. You might want to try Dodge Caravan, and you get GM/Korean minivans instead
Even more so with Sedans
That is a good point, and that happens far too often, so yes, that is something to watch for as well, maybe have a wide scope of cars you’d like to try.
It’s always important to try things out before you buy. Your parents are very smart in having done that. Likewise, I also did that with my car that I am driving right now. I was unsure whether or not I wanted this kind of car so my friend generously offered me to drive her car to see whether or not I’d like it enough to buy the other car. It was a great experience so I did go with it in the end.
Good idea
I like your parents way of doing things. Very basically smart.
I know this is how most laptop owners would view the iPad if they were truly honest with themselves.
Companies that manufacture items spend huge amounts of money hiring other companies whose sole task is to create ad campaigns to convince us we ‘need’ the newest gadget, upgraded car, high-end clothing, etc. so we will part with our hard-earned cash, or worse, go into debt for these items.
We need to do a better job of teaching our children critical thinking. But most of us don’t, because that makes them question us. And the school system won’t, because that would give kids the tools to question authority. And society prefers sheep. But I digress.
On a totally unrelated note, if you have the opportunity to catch National Geographic’s ‘Aftermath: End of Oil’ on the small screen, I highly recommend it. It’s right up there with H20 as food for thought.
Agreed, as for the End of Oil, I think I have seen it, interesting stuff.