Car Problems... Again

A few months ago The Mazda started to have a bad vibration and I took it in and was told that it was the tires. We replaced then and guess what, the vibration did not go away. We would have fixed it right away, but other things happened. Had to fix The Wife's car and the whole no job think kind of hurt.

I mentioned in a previous post that we got some money back and part of it went to fixing the cars. I take The Mazda in and they find out that the bar and the behring that goes from the transmission to the passenger front tire is shot. It will cost about $5oo to replace. We are fine with that and start to plan when we can get The Honda in to fix the air conditioner. Later in the day I get a call from the shop. The part is in and fixed, but... I don't like to her but on a sentence that should have a period. I'm informed that most of the vibration is gone, but the differential in the transmission is causing some of the vibration.

The place we go to is nice, but the guy who makes all these calls can't keep on track. He keeps veering off asking me if I really like this car, if we need two cars and other not fun questions. Finally it is reveled if we wish to fix this car it will cost us $2626. I guess Mazda thought it was a good idea to put the part that is broke inside the transmission. To just fix the differential will cost us as much as a replacement tranny.

We do the math and we have enough between the amount we set aside for cars, emergency fund and the money we were going to send to the state of North Carolina. I've had some people say that we should just go out and buy a used car and be done with it. The only problem is, the car we buy for three grand is going to be pretty bad and I like my car. I might as well just fix it and keep a car I like.

The big issue I have with all this is five months ago when I brought the car in, did these guys actually look at the problem or did they just look at the tires. I keep wondering how much damage was caused by the bad diagnoses. I'm debating about bringing this up. I don't want to get a discount out of it, I just want to know. If they tell me they can't be for sure or give me a bad answer, I'll be looking for a new mechanic... again. Seriously, why do my cars hate North Carolina so much.