Yes … again!
Even after draining our emergency fund for sudden car repairs, here we are again! You’re not going to believe this. Here’s what happened:
What Else Could Have Possibly Gone Wrong?
So not five days after my wife got her car back did we have our next costly run-in. For some time now, we’ve known that we were going to need new tires. However, her car is an SUV and 19 inch tires are very expensive. So we’ve been putting it off and were waiting to buy some new ones closer to Fall / Winter.
Life has a funny way to making your decisions for you. This week while driving our daughter to practice, she went over some train tracks and “SWOOSSHHH!” – Out went the back tire!!
Knowing that we were in need of all 4 tires, it didn’t make sense to buy just two and wait on the others. So we bought a set of four new tires at $1,050. Yes, I know that’s a lot. But I like to buy really highly rated tires for the vehicle that takes my wife and kids everywhere – it’s a Dad thing …
As If That Wasn’t Enough:
Going back to my post last week about my Stupid Car repairs, you know that they ended up having to take out the whole dashboard to fix our problem.
While ever since then, my wife’s windshield washer fluid spray hasn’t worked. Coincidence?
Not according to the stealer-ship. When I took it in to have it looked at, they said that the repairs from last week were in no way related to this, and that the spray pump had just gone bad on its own. Grrrrrr!!!! Another $200 to repair!
I’d love to tell you that that concludes the Stupid Car repairs that we have been dealing with recently. But at this rate it might be better for me to tell you that we’ll just wait and see ….
Blogs You Should Check Out:
In case you missed them, here are a few great stories you should check out this weekend:
- Frugal Rules – Finding the Inspiration for Becoming Rich Through Financial Curiosity – This was my Guest Post for the week!
- The Frugal Path – I’m Torn About the Site: What should I do?
- Get Financially Integrated – Secrets of the rich
- Eyes on the Dollar – I Hired a Maid!
- Money Life and More – How to Write a Check
Carnivals & Mentions:
My Money Design was featured on the following sites this week:
- Carnival of Financial Independence, eight edition
- Carnival of Financial Camaraderie
- Yakezie Carnival – What to do with a tax refund issue
- Carnival of Retirement – 68th Edition
- Carnival of Financial Planning May 3rd Edition
- Preparing to Retire – Wealth Management Carnival #12
- Carnival of MoneyPros – (Step Away from your computer and go outside- Edition)
Thanks to everyone for linking to my site and enjoying my posts. I really appreciate your support and hope you continue to visit!
Posts This Week:
- The Pension vs 401k – The 401k Did Not Kill Retirement
- A Ponzi Scheme Example – An Illustrated Demonstration of How One Works
Image courtesy of Connexions
That is a pain in the ass. While it could be a coincidence, who knows. Washer pumps are in the engine compartment, usually, and not under the dash. Sorry to hear about it.
Exactly. They are separated by the firewall. I was hoping it was something stupid like a hose or wire between the two that wasn’t hooked back up properly. But no. It was way worse. I believe now that the electrical damage from the first trouble may have caused that part to short as well.
This is why I don’t prefer to deal with dealership. They make most of their money by inducing more problems that they can claim were unrelated to what they repaired initially. Same ole’ tactic that has worked for ever.
This instance was a bit of a gamble. I thought maybe it would be something small that was related to the first issue and would be easy / free to fix. However, risk got the better of me and it ended up being something else. Although it stings to pay $200, the chances of finding it cheaper and faster anywhere else (on a Saturday afternoon) seemed very slim.
That does sound kind of fishy. I went in once for some repair and I went to pick up my car and the battery was dead. The repair shop tried to tell me that my battery was old and corroded, which it was, but I told them it drove in just fine and I wasn’t leaving until they replaced it. They actually did, but that was only a battery. I’m sure it would have been a different story if it had been an expensive part. Hope you car bad luck is over.
Amen – I do hope that is the last of these car troubles!
Sorry to hear about the recent car troubles. It’s exactly because of these unforeseen expenses (and all the very expensive foreseen expenses) that I don’t own a car.
However, as someone who works at a car dealership I can tell you from an insider perspective that we go to great lengths to fix vehicles correctly and to think that repair facilities break other things in the vehicle to try and drum up additional business is actually quite ridiculous if you sit down and really think about it. It’s patently false. I can’t speak for every shop in the world, but I’ve worked for a handful and that’s just not the way we do business. I think this type of thinking arises from the fact that people are just not very educated about vehicles and all of the innate technology that they come with. I call up someone and tell them that their N-80 purge valve is defective and it costs $450 to replace all they hear is cha-ching as money leaves their wallet. I can explain all day long as to what the part does and why it’s necessary and often it’s in one ear and out the other. In addition, if we break something when fixing the vehicle we own up to it and take care of it.
I sometimes see parallels with my industry and the finance industry in that there is a lot of distrust between clients and the people who serve the clients. Typically the latter group is managing something very technical and hard to understand for the former group, and the technicality of it is confusing and frustrating. It is what it is.
At any rate, again sorry for the repairs. I always cringe every time I see a car that comes in and needs multiple thousands of dollars in repairs. I hate making those phone calls.
Best wishes!
Thanks DM. I apologize if my frustration has reflected badly on your industry. The birth of my distrust of dealerships came from an instance years ago where I once had to pay $180 for a technician to look at my car and diagnose the problem. What he came up with was several thousands of dollars of issues; none of which were serious. I ended up having to pay $180 for the review – just to hear one guy’s opinion, and that was really lame. Ever since I have used other types of service centers that offer free diagnosis and loved them. They were so much cheaper and did great work. Obviously there are some trade offs between going to a high-end certified dealership and someone’s garage, which is precisely how I ended up at the professional dealership in this situation – because the people in the garage did not have the confidence to fix the problem. But in most common situations I have found the dealership to be a higher price than everywhere else.
I went though a couple rounds of stupid car repairs last year, so I can empathize with you. I have some repairs that I should probably get done this year too. Whatever it takes to keep this old beast of mine running.
I don’t mind keeping the old ticker going. But not when I have to fix everything at once! Can’t I catch a break?
Ugh oh no! Car repairs are never any fun.
Bloody hell mate, sounds like you’ve had one heck of a week. I too have to get tires and it will cost me around $1000 but it’s worth it if it protects our lives. The pump, ah well, SOL on that one. I think you need some mechanic mates!! Cheers
As much as I may complain about the cost, I do insist on buying the best and highest rated tires I can find. When you drive around in the winter and snow, its the only thing between you and the ground, so you better make sure your life can depend on it.
Sorry to hear about your problems. We had a similar incident with some plumbing exactly five minutes after the plumbers left. They said that they didn’t touch it, so it wasn’t their problem to worry about.
Although they did cause the issue, luckily I was able to fix it and will never go with them again.
I hope everything goes well with your car for the rest of the year. I agree dealerships can be fishy at times.
I suppose we’re lucky because my wife’s cousin is the manager of the one that we go to and he hooks us up all of the time.
Thanks for the mention.
That is very lucky for you to have an inside track with a dealership. Well played!
I hear ya with the costly repair bills, last month I dropped my truck off at my brothers (the mechanic) fix a few minor blinker lights he noticed I had a crack in the radiator an that it needed to be replaced. That was another $384 down the drain.
The sad part is that $384 was probably a deal. I usually notice of multiple of 3x to 4x the price when I take it in to a professional dealership to get worked on.
Dealership will definitely cost more than usual but the best part about that is, you will get the best parts for your car and if they repair the car, it will last for longer than usual.
Even if you are not knowledgeable about taking your car to the mechanic, there are several ways that you can save money on car repairs. If you educate yourself a little bit about the process and different ways to save money on car repairs, then you will feel better about taking your car to the mechanic and confident that you are receiving the best value on your repairs.
A well-maintained car has a higher selling value which will help you acquire a better return on your investment if you decide to sell it.
thanks the nice post 🙂
i am totally agree with you and should share this info to our friends 🙂
The expense of the tires is a lot, as you shared. Your willingness to get the best quality may be wise decision in the end.
I highly agree. As is often proven: you get what you pay for!
That’s the main reason that many people doesn’t want to deal with dealership. They make more money by inducing another problems that they can claim were unrelated to what they repaired initially. As you said in you post pump repair and they told you that weren’t related to what they repaired.
When you look for automotive repair tips one that you may find frequently is to keep your gas tank full whenever possible. If you drive with little fuel then sediment from the bottom of the tank may be drawn into the fuel system, and this can have serious consequences for your vehicle and your wallet.
I absolutely detest taking my vehicle to the dealership. I can think of no greater pain then letting those vultures poke and prod to see how much money they can get out of my car. It’s a shakedown.
I hear you! I’ve been to some pretty bad ones myself. Thankfully the one I use now is pretty good. So far its been very honest work.