Car repairs come three at a time
Somehow, I now own three cars, and this is not a happy
situation.
One car, for all intents and purposes, belongs to my son Ross,
who is at college. But the car remains in my name because insurance
is cheaper that way.
Another car is my minivan, and the other is a used car I bought
a few months ago, which may end up with my younger son, Hunter, if
he ever learns to drive.
Car repairs come three at a time
Somehow, I now own three cars, and this is not a happy situation.
One car, for all intents and purposes, belongs to my son Ross, who is at college. But the car remains in my name because insurance is cheaper that way.
Another car is my minivan, and the other is a used car I bought a few months ago, which may end up with my younger son, Hunter, if he ever learns to drive.
Also, when you live in the country, it’s a good idea to have more than one vehicle. If something goes wrong with one, you can drive the other. At least in theory.
Riding a bike or walking isn’t really an option where we live. The closest (small) grocery store is more than a mile away; because it’s hilly, it’s a 40 minute walk. And to do any kind of substantial shopping, I have to drive to a real town, which means 10 to 15 miles. Not practical by bicycle.
However, in a perfect storm of coincidence and bad luck, all the cars have had problems in the past 30 days.
It started with Ross’s car, which was not unexpected. It has 150,000 miles on it, and we had been aware for some time that coolant would evaporate from it at an alarming rate, which signaled a water pump problem.
Sure enough: the water pump finally failed and an expensive repair was called for.
Like I said, not unexpected and not unforeseen, but still painful.
And then, of course, there was an add-on that made it more pricey. There always is where cars are concerned.
I talked to a very nice man at the VW shop where the car was being fixed, who gave me the bad news: the timing belt was terminal, and a cash infusion was needed to save the patient.
“As long as we’ve got everything taken apart, you might as well get a new timing belt,” he said. “The old one doesn’t look so good.”
So: that meant another $300 on top of more than $1,000. Ouch.
Nevertheless, the car is now in tip-top running condition, and so I am happy about that.
However, that was just the beginning of the troubles.
I was taking the garbage out last week, which I usually do with the van since my house is a quarter-mile from the main road, and happened to notice that the van was handling like a drunken elephant.
Sure enough: flat tire.
The next morning, I tried to put air into it, to no avail. My friend Mike from Aromas Auto was kind enough to come to the house and try to put air into the tire, to no avail.
We could hear the air hissing out as fast as he put it in.
I got in the van and we limped down to his shop, where he discovered a large piece of jagged metal stuck in the tire. The tire was DOA. I needed a new tire.
Now the van has the cute little spare on it, and I have ordered a new tire, which has not yet arrived.
With this new awareness of tires, I decided to inspect the tires on my “new” used car, which up to now I hadn’t realized were a bit on the bald side. No wonder I was hydroplaning on wet days.
So … off to the tire store to get four new tires. Ouch again.
It seems like the automotive gods are angry with me for some unknown reason. I wish they’d get over it. Or at least spread the pain around over a longer period of time.
