Oorgo

Clunk - Kaching!

I finally took the Grand Am into the shop yesterday to get the clunks in the front end checked out. It turned out worse than I thought, but not really much more money (still too much IMO). Turns out that the ball joints and outer tie rod ends were fux0red, in fact one of the ball joints had 1 inch of play, the mechanic said they would fall out soon if not fixed.

Well that shop didn't bother looking at my car until 3:00 even though I was the first one on the schedule for yesterday AND I brought my car in at 8:30 as asked. Of course they couldn't fix it that day and would hold it overnight, and they wanted to charge me $885 plus the inspection cost of $47. Well I paid the inspection cost, took the car home, took today off and went to my regular repair shop.

The guy I usually use charges $14 less an hour, plus he agreed to put a mix of quality of parts. The ball joints took 4 hours so we put on the ones that were $122 each, but the tie rod ends were only 1 hour of labor so we put on the $35 ones instead of $120. Hey, I expect to sell this car within the year so any money I can save I will. Parts totalled $335 after tax, labour was 2.8 hours approx (this is why I go to this guy) and $80 for an alignment. $640 later I go home with a sound car, and saving about 250 dollars.

Funny and oddly enough, the amount I've spent on my car exactly totals the amount I was planning on saving for a downpayment on a new car. The thing has it in for me, I swear. On the bright side I was able to spend the morning with my family, got to see Xavier at his preschool and the car has a completely new front end. That's a major selling point when I go to sell it, that and the 4 new tires. Still... $640 was not budgeted and was geared towards other more important things like paying down a loan and paying off some debt.

If you drive a car it's a losing game. You never gain, it just keeps wearing away at your bank account until you've had enough and you buy another one, thus continuing the vicious cycle. Give me a bus pass and a decent transit system and I'd never drive the friggin things.

Posted by Oorgo at May 4, 2006 06:41 PM Permalink - Category: Things | TrackBack