The Tiny Tyrant » car repair

Did I mention?

Queen B — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:20:07 +0000

That when I had my car repaired after the little accident that we also had the cracked windshield replaced? At an additional charge, of course. Have I also mentioned ever since this little repair that if it so much as HINTS of rain my car develops a splash opportunity right there in the foot-well of my vehicle? Did I? Did you know that my car now smells like mildew on the inside? Would you believe me if I said that this morning the windshield was frozen on both the outside and the INSIDE of my vehicle? Well it was, believe it. May I also tell you that they need to remove my windshield and replace the seal to stop the madness? For some reason it has been all week that the part has been on order. And rain? In the forecast. Thank you very much.

Off day!

Queen B — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:13:38 +0000

Today is a half day for the kids at school, which means it’s a whole day off for me!! Biggest surprise for me, my husband has also taken the day off so we have like three and 1/2 hours all to ourselves.

Well, we have to take my car to the shop so don’t be getting any funny ideas. Ever since I got into my little accident in the Vibe, I get a big ol’ puddle in the car by my feet whenever it’s even slightly wet outside. So with the rain we’ve gotten lately it’s been ridiculous and needs to be addressed. We phoned the body shop that fixed the car because they have a lifetime warranty, and they have since CLOSED. Huh? I’ve never in my life heard of that, but times are what they are. So we get to take it to another branch of the same company in a different town. Okey dokey. So long as I can get to work with dry feet on Monday I’m good.

Happy Halloween weekend everyone! Keep your feet dry and have a good time.

Wild ride

Queen B — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:56:33 +0000

So maybe I didn’t mention that my car did NOT pass the Illinois Emissions testing recently. It was a big bummer. Consequently we had to spend $1200 to pass the test, after we spent $100 to get an extension on the registration to give us more time. Notice that I did not say $1200 to fix the problem with the car that caused it to fail the test, that would be too obvious. We simply paid someone to re-engineer the result of that problem, race over to get the car tested and passed, and send us on our way short $1200, with full knowledge that we would have to come back again with more money either to correct the problem or to get the car to pass emissions once again when it was up in the future. Kinda frustrating.

Last night, said vehicle suddenly started shaking and vibrating in every which way while en route. I was on my way somewhere, though, and it was dark, and I said I was en route for cripes sakes, and my husband was at class, and I didn’t have time to wait for anyone to come rescue me. So I just worked with what I had and continued to drive. I ran the regular driving instruments such as the steering and the pedals along with the shifter to go back to neutral when I was forced to come to a complete stop (stall prevention). My son was in charge of watching for flames. He’s awesome at it, by the way. We were both 100% convinced of two things while driving:

We couldn’t stop driving, because we had somewhere to be.
At any moment flames would begin shooting from under the hood, out of the vents, or from the tailpipe, if not from all of the above.

That’s why it required both of us giving our full concentration. CC was allowed to panic in the back and say things like “I think the car is going to fall apart!” or “I don’t think the car is supposed to feel like this mom.” and my personal favorite “It’s like being at the carnival!” Needless to say, it was a wild ride. Now that I’m looking back, it was pretty funny. What wasn’t funny was that we had spent all of this money and had to bring it back to the shop. In addition, I had to miss a day of work because I didn’t have a damned car. We just hope that they aren’t going to take advantage of the fact that we are over a barrel and soak us for another $1200. Every dollar we put into this vehicle forces us to keep it that much longer before trading it in. As it is we’re driving it for probably two more years to recoup the money invested. Why, o why don’t the automobile gods smile upon us? Just once?

***UPDATE… the automobile gods did hear my request and the car was repaired in ONE day, and the shop said that it was a faulty part which caused the problems so it was fixed at NO CHARGE… who can beat that? Oh… They can because they also threw in an oil change at no charge!! Can I get a hell yea?!***