Well, I finally got around to getting our car into the shop for it's oil change and to get the cooling system checked out (since I've been working on getting it fixed for three years and no one has been able to fix it). I love having all of this extra free time on my hands now. I had one of my students come over while Nathaniel was napping, grabbed a book and a peppermint hot cocoa from Starbucks and took my car in to the shop to get fixed.
Two hours later, still no word from the technician. Hmmm...what's going on?
Then the mechanic approached me, handed me a pair of safety goggles and said, "I want to show you what's going on with your car."
He then led me back to the shop and showed me my poor Buick. Apparently, they don't know what is wrong with it, but back two years ago when the brilliant technician told me that it was fine to put water in my cooling system it only made everything worse for my poor aluminum engine. My entire cooling system is full of orange goo (aka rust) and there is a leak somewhere which means any number of things could be wrong with my car. There could be a gasket leak or a hose leak or something somewhere in the middle of my engine.
Ugh. There went my nice relaxing afternoon. Both mechanics leveled with me and told me that I should either buy a new engine or just count it as lost and get a new car.
At least they were honest with me and didn't screw me over by taking everything apart and continuing to add up my bill.
But, now just as student loans are coming due I have to go car shopping. We were hoping that this car would last us a few more years (it's only a 2002 with 90,000 miles on it) and that when we got a new car it meant that we would have two cars instead of one. It also means that I have to buy a car without Sam's consultation! Not that I can't do it, I'm completely capable. I just hate making large purchases like that without him around.
At least I only had to pay for the oil change (which I needed regardless) and the diagnostic. 50.00, totally doable. Sigh. Time to do car research!
Our attempts at raising God-fearing children while joining the real world. It's been a crazy ride so far, but God is ALWAYS good.
2 comments:
Car shopping can be fun. Or car shopping can be incredibly stressful. It admittedly sounds like less than the ideal situation right now for you.
One thing to keep in mind - with the American auto makers' troubles right now, you can probably get a good price on one of their products, but some analysts are saying now that there may be a risk to it - If they do go belly up, then that could potentially make future repairs more difficult and/or expensive, as there wouldn't be a steady flow of parts and technical training.
As far as I'm concerned, Consumer Reports' studies and results are spot-on, too.
Let me know if I can be of any service with suggestions/advice from this end. :)
I know a wonderful city where you don't really need a car (except for occasional out-of-town trips) and only snows once every 2 years. Let me know if you're interested. *wink*
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