In early December, I bought a 15-year-old Jeep Cherokee for my kids to drive while they were home from college. It sounds a bit outrageous when I put that in print, but my reasoning seemed sound at the time.

With all of them flying home, we’d have extra drivers around for five weeks, and only my car and my wife’s car available. I could have rented one instead of buying one, but the cost was substantial and I would still be the only driver allowed. As long as the old beater held up mechanically, even with registration and sales tax, it would be a better deal to simply buy an old one and then sell it.

The plan seemed perfect… until it didn’t.

The kids put more than 1,000 miles on that Jeep, so it definitely served its purpose. But as I readied the car for sale a few weeks ago, I noticed the dreaded check engine light was on. The car still drives great, and looks great, but that darn yellow light stares at me as I wander around town.

I considered my options…

Sell it with the light on and take a big financial hit, or go through the diagnostic hassle of taking the car to a mechanic and then dealing with repairs?

Then I did what everyone else does these days. I went online.

In less than a minute I found that several auto parts stores would check the “trouble codes” for me for free. Great! Saves me the upfront hassle at a mechanic. But I kept looking, just to see what else I could find.

Within five minutes I found a YouTube video explaining how to see a report of the codes on the odometer for this particular vehicle: “simply switch the ignition on and off three times rapidly, and the code(s) will display.”

Voila! In a matter of minutes on the Internet, I had eliminated at least part of the need for a mechanic.

That is the beauty of the Internet at home.

Beyond Facebook (FB) time with relatives we rarely see, reconnecting with classmates from a school we hated 30 years ago, and a bunch of funny cat videos, the Internet allows for instantly accessible pooled knowledge.