Unless you have a place to store ramps, an oil drain pan, and a container to hold the waste oil until you can dump it at a recycler suck it up and have the oil changes done professionally. Either an independant mechanic you trust or one of those grease monkey shops where you can watch the workers. If the latter, provide your own oil filter and double check what grade and amount of oil they use. The filters those shops use are cheap junk and too often they will do something stupid like overfill the oil, use the wrong grade, or forget to reinstall the drain plug.
Aside from that you don't need a lot of tools to save yourself a lot of money with DIY car repair. If you have a Sears or K-Mart nearby you can get most of what you will need for around $500 and most of it will fit in a 3-4 drawer portable chest. You could fit it all out of the way on the floor of a closet.
Here's the basics:
- 1/4" drive rachet, sockets, and extensions
- 3/8" drive rachet, sockets, and extensions
- basic set of wrenches
- basic set of screwdrivers
- a large and a small set of pliers
- a pair of channel locks and adjustible wrenches
- 4-way lug wrench
- 1/2" drive torque wrench capable of up to 200 ft lbs.
- set of 1/2" drive impact sockets for lug nuts
- wheel chocks
Start with those and just add on whatever else you need when you need it. If you don't have a place to store a floor jack and jack stands that's fine. Just limit yourself to what you can do with the jack that came with the car. If you have room to store a set of four scissor jacks then go for that as then you'll be able to rotate your own tires.
Never get underneath a car that is supported only by jacks. Never never never.
And if you ever take wheels off, when you put them back on make sure you torque them to the tightness specified by the manufacturer. Too loose and you risk loosing a wheel. Too tight and you risk snapping the lug bolts.
But anyway, with this kit you'll be able to do a lot. Change sparkplugs and wires, replace alternators, change accessory belts, replace brake pads/shoes and rotors/drums, etc. Anything that requires draining the coolant or actually getting underneath the car you'll have to have done professionally, but you'll still save enough that you the tools will have paid for themselves several times over.
Also, make sure you have a good service manual for your car. I'm not talking about the Haines or Chilton manuals. I'm talking about the same ones the dealers use. You can usually buy these, but they are expensive. If you search around you'll probably find a copy online you can download. Anyway, you want these because they have the procedures for removing and replacing pretty much everything on the car with detail that the consumer manuals won't go into if at all. Couple those with a basic code scanner, or free diagnostic code readings from a local chain auto parts store, and you'll be able to take care of a lot of stuff that normally costs an arm and a leg to have done but typically isn't all that difficult to do. Also, search online for discussion boards devoted to your car. Whatever the car there is almost always one out there. If you have diagnostic codes you can also punch those into Google along with your make of car to see if anyone has written up anything about the issue.
