Car Repairs
Ah, the mental and financial agony of car
repairs.
Both our new Sienna van and our 2001 Mercury
Mystique (think Ford Contour) needed work done. Yesterday the van and today the
Mystique.
The van's electrical system
died for some reason. The dealer had it towed, replaced the battery, and now
everything's fine. I'm not upset both because I chalk it up as as "stuff"
happens and it was covered under the warranty so it didn't cost us any cash. I
am a little worried because I checked the battery and it seemed to be charged. I
will make sure to keep my receipts in case this becomes a repeat
problem.
The Mercury needed some normal
maintenance (oil and tuneup) and the front brake pads needed to be replaced.
Also understandable and even though it's gonna' cost a bit, it's
due.
I remember years ago when car
problems were so stressful. In graduate school we had a Toyota Tercel which was
a great car. It went from California to Ohio to Missouri. But, we took it in for
a tuneup one time and they botched the job. While we did get a free ring job, we
were without our car for a total of two weeks while going back-and-forth about
it. We had almost no extra money (week-to-week, paycheck-to-paycheck) so we
couldn't afford to buy even a "new" used car. They ponied-up for a rental car
part of the time and the rest we got rides from friends. I even walked home from
Ohio State a few times (took about 3
hours!).
When I was an undergrad I had
a longbed Toyota truck. When the engine died I had two choices. One, buy another
used car. Two, have a rebuilt engine put in. I was fortunate that I had good
credit so I could get a loan through the company I worked for and have the
payments automatically deducted. I chose the rebuilt option and what a mistake
that was! It's a long story that involved the brother of a woman I was dating
and... well... it wasn't a good choice. I ended up selling the truck to pay off
the loan and bought my stepfather's car- a Datsun
280ZX.
The Datsun was an awesome car
but I just couldn't afford to maintain it once I was a graduate student and we
lived in Ohio. I had the alternator replaced one time and I caught the place
trying to overcharge me. I had a funny feeling when they quoted me the price and
I called a dealer to check the price. When I called the repair shop back and
with price I had (about $50 less than what they told me), they did some checking
and told me they had misquoted the price. Right. It's the places like that one
that make people so mistrusting of repair shops. I ended up selling that one and
we just had the Tercel.
We ended up
selling the Tercel to a yard a year after buying the Mystique. It was nice
having two cars since I taught off-campus part of the time but we couldn't
afford the insurance and it wasn't going to pass the safety inspection so it was
time to go to that big car lot in the
sky.
We are very good now about
scheduled maintenance on our cars. And I don't do any work on the cars anymore.
Granted, with all the electronics I couldn't do anything now other than oil
changes anyway. But, we pay someone else to do it. I don't have to get oil
everywhere and I also don't have to dispose of the oil. It's worth my money and
time to have someone else do it. I used to do other things like brakes and
tuneups but it's worth my time to have a professional do it for us and make sure
it's done right.
As an instructor I
hear about car problems all the time from my students and I am so glad not to
have any!
Ack... quick, where's that
wood to knock on?? I don't want to jinx myself!!
Posted: Tue - June 15, 2004 at 01:26 PM