'Tis The Season...For Major Things To Break
2005-12-20, 12:58 p.m.

Was it me who was wishing for a suck-free holiday season? Not this year, in the wallet area. There�s a financial black hole hovering over the auto repair shop. They�ll have a great Christmas, since Hubby and I are financing gold, jewels, and a yacht or two for their 11th-hour holiday upcheer.

I knew my car just wasn�t �right�. Lots of little things, some constant, and some intermittent, just enough that speaking up made me feel like an auto-chondriac. You know, how you SWEAR it�s making a certain noise or doing a certain odd something and the second someone else drives it, it stops? There have been plenty of clicks and wobbles going on, not yet affecting the driveability, but more than enough for me to notice. Then there were the ominously squeaky brakes, and, even worse, having to add power steering fluid. Sunday night, Hubby noticed the oil pressure gauge was off the scale which was the final straw, and we took the car to the shop yesterday morning.

Then came the first call.

That clickety-click that you could feel more than hear? Broken motor mount. They�ll fix that first, and then get back to us later on the rest. Vindication! I wasn�t imagining things, and my car has no poltergeist infestation. In my humble opinion, this is an aftershock from last Christmas� car-smashing, the $3K worth of damage done by an inattentive woman in a Ford Expedition, poster child for �Look behind you, moron, before you put it in reverse.� I knew other things would turn up sooner or later. Busted motor mount? Not your everyday car-go-wrong thingy.

The second phone call.

Oil pressure switch.
Left and right front out tie rod ends.
Alignment (necessary after tie rod repair).
Basic front brakes.
Rear brakes with rotors.
Rack and pinion.
Power steering pump.

None of these were things that could wait. The kids and I are leaving for SC day after tomorrow. I have no desire to be careening down a mountain and have the brakes fail or the power steering pump go kaflooey.

The third phone call, the final cost.

(I was in the middle of the mall, so I could neither collapse nor scream without garnering a fair amount of attention.)

$2400.

In case you had trouble reading that, it�s TWENTY FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS.

TWO. THOUSAND. FOUR. HUNDRED.

DOLLARS.

This shop has a reputation for both good work and for being reasonable. Hubby got a couple of unofficial second opinions, which were unanimously �That�s ALL they�re charging you?� That made it a little easier, but in a �we�ll beat you with a hammer instead of a pickax� sort of way. The half-gallon of colonoscopy prep, instead of the full gallon. But hey, you take what you can get, and I�ll be getting a happy healthy car. I love my car.

Merry Christmas, Bonneville. Love, Mommy.

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