Vehicular Fortitude: The Next Generation

This was a bad weekend for the car.  Four new tires and a tuneup.

There went $850.  Ouch.

Vehicular Fortitude, part 4

So I went to pick up my car on Tuesday. It is nice to have the car back, even though I am about $1600 poorer.

The first thing I realized as the car shot forward was that the friction point on the clutch had changed significantly. It went from somewhere around halfway up to about 2 centimeters off of the floor. The next thing I noticed was that it became a whole lot harder to change gears. I had to pull on the stick shift pretty hard to get it to move.

So, in one of my not-so-bright moments, off I went towards home, shifting painfully and trying to cope with a clutch with an instant friction point. After a couple of miles I could no longer get the car in to any gear at all. I missed one light cycle trying to get the car into any gear except reverse.

Did I mention that the road I was on is very, very busy, almost all the time?

Before the next light cycle came around I managed to force the car into second gear. I used a side street to turn around (and almost got stuck in neutral once again) and headed back towards the dealership.

The folks at the Saturn dealership were very nice. They sent me on my way with a rental car and a promise to fix the car first thing in the morning.

They delivered. The next day my car was as good as new. Or at least the clutch was.

Hopefully this will be the end of the Vehicular Fortitude series for a while. My pocketbook can't take much more of this.

Vehicular Fortitude part 3

Sadly, there is now a part 3 to go along with parts 1 and 2.

This month my car is 7 years old. Apparently in car years that's somewhere near 1 million, or at least that's the point where everything starts to fall apart. I admit that I don't really understand what they need to do to the car. It has something to do with some crazy leaking, replacing the clutch, and moving either the transmission or the engine out of the way to deal with the crazy leaking. All this to the tune of nearly $2k.

So today the car is at the dealership, and I have the fastest, most maneuverable car in the world as a replacement. That's right, a rental.

I'm sure wackiness will ensue.

Vehicular Fortitude Part 2

We just got back from getting the car fixed (and a little holiday shopping, but that's a tale for a different entry).

It wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I went in expecting to pay over $1000 to fix the windows, including parts and labor. They offered us an experiment. The correct way to fix the car was to fork over $1k and have them install 2 new window motor assemblies. The motors themselves were fine. It was the plastic guides that broke, but for the model of car I drive, Saturn doesn't make just the plastic guide.

It turns out that the plastic guide for my car is sufficiently similar to the plastic guide for a different model, which can be ordered. So, for about $450 they installed 2 new plastic guides. So far the windows work fine. Of course, the motors may die tomorrow, but that's the risk we were willing to take.

So, Saturn gets a big thumbs up this time around for going the extra mile.

There was also one small problem.

When we got our car back, we noticed several new scratches on both doors. So, I grabbed the guy we'd been talking to and complained. Not a lot of complaints mind you, because he had saved me $500, but still, I don't expect the car to be damaged when I get it back from being repaired.

Anyway, I'm taking the car back in this week and the guy we talked to promised to get someone to try and do something about the new scratches.

All in all, it was a good experience. I wish the car hadn't been scratched up, but really, I can't complain too much.

Vehicular Fortitude

I like my Saturn. It's fun to drive.

Lately, my Saturn hasn't liked me.

First, there was the 60000 mile checkup. That one was expensive. During the checkup they found a problem with the rear brakes. I could either fix the problem then or wait. Waiting could cost exponentially more money. So, I bit the bullet and fixed the car, to the tune of $850 for the checkup and brake work.

The next week, on the way to see Ellie the Service Engine light came on.

I waited for Thanksgiving to pass. Ellie visited. That was nice.

While she was visiting the passenger side window got off the track. We managed to get it back on track and haven't moved it since.

So, last weekend I took the car in at oh-dark-early to get the service engine light and the passenger side window both fixed. I had to replace a sensor on the tail pipe. $250. The window requires a new part. Once the clip goes, you have to replace the motor.

$450 for the part. That doesn't include labor.

So off we went for breakfast. After breakfast the service engine light came back on. Less than an hour after we left the dealership. So, back to the dealership we went.

They looked at the car for 2 hours. They couldn't get the light to come back on.

Sigh.

So, Monday morning bright and early I go to take Eunice to school. Eunice decided she wanted some tasty McDonald's goodness for breakfast, so we hit the drive through. I rolled the drivers side window down, and it collapsed.

The drivers side window clip broke.

We managed to get the window back in place, but I have to have both window parts replaced this weekend.

$2000 in repairs in 4 weeks.

Sigh.