Deja Vu

I'm sitting at home playing Madden 04 (I only have a PS1... sorry, I'm not cool enough to upgrade) when I get a phone call and The Wife is having problems with the Mazda... guess what's wrong... the transmission, again. She gets stuck on a busy street, fortunately for us we have AAA and get a tow back to the auto shop.

This is getting ridiculous, if it wasn't free I would be going to another shop. For the first time in a while fortune looked upon me and it was not the transmission, but the coolant line in the transmission. It only took a day, but how many weeks will it be before something else goes wrong. I haven't gone two months this year with out having this thing at the shop. We are just under $2,000 away from having this thing paid off. I'm wishing it was now so we could save that 265 a month a buy something that doesn't suck as much. Even a used rental car can't be this much trouble.

The problems don't stop with the Mazda, the tank of a Honda is running fine, but can't pass state inspection, why? I need two tired, or so we did a few weeks ago. Now all four tires won't allow me to pass. I understand why we have these yearly inspections and for the most part they are good, expect when I have to replace something. The back two tires are on the boarder and if I find the wrong inspector I would fail yet again. What's the running price, $356 for the lowest tires they sell. Great more money pumped into the car that does not involve my gas tank.

I Need a Young and Old Priest

I had a nice start to my day on Saturday, took Lucy to the dog park and then went to Kohl's to get new shoes. I find the shoes, go to the car, turn the key... nothing. I have enough power to turn the radio, but not enough to start the car. Of course, the Mazda does not have jumper cables and no one in at Kohl's will help and no one in the parking lot with cables I walked over to Just Tires and finally ended up buying a new battery because the old one in there was the original. The guy walks it over to the car changes it over and I start the car... well, that's what I wanted to happen. All I got was a particle click and nothing.

Since Just Tires only installs batteries the guy was clueless as to what was wrong. I then try to use my cell phone and it is dead. I walk to the other side of the strip mall and buy a charger. Why didn't you use a store telephone? That's the problem, I only have two numbers memorized, The Wife cell phone and The Parents number. The Wife is at a women's treat and is hard to reach, so I had to get a charger. I finally got a hold of Eddie to take me home.

While at home I start trying to find a tow truck to get the car to the shop. I finally figured out that AAA's basic membership is cheaper than a tow. I get a membership card and call for a tow. I head over to the car and as I am waiting for the guy to show I get an idea. Why don't I try to restart the stupid thing? I get in, turn the key and it starts up without any hesitation. I am now frustrated beyond belief. I'm still going to use the tow truck, knowing my luck, if I leave it overnight it will get impounded.

The only good thing to come out of this was the tow to the house was exactly three miles, anymore and I would have had to pay a little. I'm just getting tired of this car, ever since I hit 75,000 miles it has started to fall apart. I only own $2,000 on it and if I had a joke I would be trading it in right now. Instead I have to continue to pay off this thing and hope to save money and maybe by an older car that is a little more reliable than this Mazda. I will no longer want to own a Mazda, I will probably switch over to a Honda or maybe a Jeep Cherokee. Sorry Mazda no more zoom zoom for me.

Loaner 2: The Electric-Boogalo

With the Mazada getting it's third transmittion this year, I again get the loaner seen here. You can read the previous exploits here, but I have a new problem... this thing over heats. I was driving to a business meeting/ golf outing when I kept hearing a "bing" and looked down to see the temperature needle was pegging the hot. The one thing I learned in drivers ed was when your car over heats, but the heat on to suck the air out of the engine. If this was February, not a problem. The fact it's April and already in the 90s makes it a problem. Not only do I have the windows open on a hot day, I've got the heater blasting warm air all around.

It takes the mini-crap about five minutes to get back down to normal, but 45 seconds to get back to the red line. So far the worst has been driving around during rush hour traffic on Capitol. When it takes 10 minutes to get through a light, it gets very hot a muggy. By the time I get home I need a shower. The Mazda better get fixed soon and won't have to go to the shop for a long time.

Here We Go Again

Sunday I was driving the Mazda and I noticed that the tachometer was around 6000 RPMs. That's not normal, I turn of the radio and roll up the windows so I can hear what is going on. Well, ever time the car would shift into fifth gear the car would shutter a little and the RPMs would jump. As I kept driving I started to lose fourth gear, luckily I was near our church and nothing less happened. Church is over and I have The Wife follow me home to make sure nothing else happens. Of course, I now can't get the car to stay in third gear.

Monday morning comes around and we are going to take it to the shop and you won't believe what happened? I completely lost third gear and second was starting to act up. You may or may not remember, but I had the transmission on this car replaced in March. My level of frustration on a scale of one to ten (1 being calm 10 being an insane crazy person that has to have the cops called) I'm a 41. I walk in as calm as I can, I tell them the problem and the guy remembers my car and makes the comment "I hope for you that it is the transmission because that's going to be cheaper for you." I'm thinking two things here.

1. Something else is wrong and it's going to cost me.
2. I am going to get a free transmission.

Later on Monday I get a call and come to find out... it's the transmission. He doesn't tell me exactly what is wrong, but I'm guessing they got a bad transmission and the gear box went bad.

This is kind of a good thing, I'm getting all the work done for free, but I'm without a car for a week. I might get another lovely loaner, but that won't be until sometime on Wednesday. I'm just amazed that I am going to have my third transmission on a car that has 84,000 miles. When will all this end? I need some really good news soon.

The Loaner

With the car in the shop for a week, the auto shop was nice enough to give us a loaner. I was worried about what they were going to give me. I kept flashing back to the movie The Mask and seeing a giant hoopty, little did I realize that a hoopty would be a lot better.

I go in and see the keys to a Chrysler and was thinking that the car off to the side was a Chrysler and that would be fine. No, that would be too nice. I'm directed over to the other side of the building and I see a blue Plymouth Voyager... from what has to be the mid 90s. It's the kind of mini van you see on the side of the highway broken down. The Wife immediately laughs at me knowing my hatred of minivans.

This thing has all the mediates of the mid 90s, AM/FM radio, tape deck, air bags, a horn, heat and power locks. I am stylin and profilin here, look out ladies I'm crusin in style. I keep thinking of the minivans The Dad use to get while working for EcoLabs. It was always a minivan so that he could get all his equipment in there. Of course that flashes me back to high school and I fall into a fetal position, and last time I check you can't drive from the floor boards. I can't wait for Wednesday to arrive.

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.