Behind the counter at auto-parts stores across the country, there is a kid who has no clue what he or she is doing. We’ve all met that person. Maybe they asked, “What year, make, and model?” for your washer-fluid purchase or sold you the wrong part a time or 10. When you’re in the trenches, time pressed to get a car fixed, it’s easy to write these folks off—their eagerness seems braggart, their inexperience seems ignorant. But before you give up hope, remember: You were that kid.
So many of us transpired through the very same right of passage, cast out into the hostile territory of auto-parts retail, empty-headed and wet behind the ears; of course, we knew everything. We certainly thought so, anyway. But every so often,…
