2001-06-27 - 11:04 p.m.

Car Troubles

Here in America, unless you live in an urban area with good public transportation, you need a car to survive. If you don't have a car, you're a second class citizen. Most of us never think about it, until the vehicle goes on the fritz - then the point is all too clear.

The car I drive is an old car. I bought it new in 1989 and I've been its only owner. I've driven it over 150,000 miles, which is about 7 and a half times around the Earth. It's also 3/4 of the way to the moon.

I love my little red car dearly, but there are signs that it is approaching the end of its life. Before too long it will pass the point of marginal utility where it will cost more to keep it on the road than it will to buy a new car.

For most of its life, my car has given me very little trouble. However, in the last year or so it has started to give me a lot of little problems, and the car is getting to be a quality of life issue. It rusty, the driver's seat is worn out, it paint job is looking worn, and so on. It's a bummer to look at, especially since I remember what it looked like when it was new and shiny.

The hell of it is that its latest bout of troubles happening at the same time that the Manager is having troubles with HIS car - a peeling white Dodge Spirit. For the last couple days I've been taking turns with the Manager's friend driving him to and from work.

Apparently the car has been having some mysterious transmission problems that seem to be baffling the local repair people. Of course I can't resist making the obvious joke: the Manager was willing, but the Spirit was weak.

Heh.

However, this turned out to be not so funny on Saturday night when I was driving the Manager home. He lives about 25 minutes away from the store, but it's a very pleasant drive. But on the way back, for no reason that I could detect, the battery light on the dashboard suddenly went on. Whatever it meant, I knew that it probably wasn't good news. Maybe the car was just playing a little game with me? I resolved to have the car taken to the garage first thing Monday morning.

I also resolved not to drive the car until then, but on the following day, Sunday, I forgot all about that. I wanted to pick up some non-essential groceries, so I hopped in the car and drove off. A couple of blocks from the house I noticed the battery light again. Drat! I resolved to continue with my errand.

However, I was in sight of the grocery store when the electrical system of the car began to fail. The tape player shut itself off, and the dashboard clock faded out. I was forced to make an emergency stop at the nearest car-fixing place - Wal-Mart automotive.

Wal-Mart would be my absolute last choice for a place to take my car, but I didn't have any other options because it died as I was pulling in to their parking lot.

I have to say that in spite of all the bad things I've said about Wal-Mart in the past, the guys in the automotive department did a pretty good job, circumstances permitting. The battery was dead, so they charged it up. However the fellow there said that his best guess was that the battery was fine, but the alternator was shot. They didn't have the right kind of alternators in stock, so there was nothing they could do. They didn't even charge me for pumping more juice into the battery.

Feeling like I was driving a vehicle made of cracked china I gingerly drove my car home. However the lights began to fade again just as I was pulling into my driveway.

Because of my lack of mental agility I didn't call the car dealership until late Monday, and they told me the earliest they could look at my car was Wednesday morning. This was very bad news because the one thing I need my car for, above all else, is to pick up the new comics at the UPS hub on Wednesday morning. With the Manager's car out of commission, we needed to find a third car to get the comics, pronto. Fortunately our old friend Alan, a former comic store owner, was able to help me out. He played taxi while I picked up the comics.

On Tuesday I finally grew some brains, and rather than wait for Wednesday morning to take my car in, I decided to take it in Tuesday. After all, why not? I couldn't drive it anyway. This proved to be smart thinking, because the car wouldn't start at all. I called the auto club and they sent a tow tuck by to take the car to the dealership. This would have been a headache to deal with on Wednesday.

Well, here it is Wednesday night and I have my car back. The dealership discovered that the main problem with the vehicle was that there was too much money in my wallet and once they removed a whole bunch of it, the car worked fine!

No, only kidding. Kind of.

As it turns out the guys at Wal-Mart were right - it WAS the alternator. But there was other stuff wrong as well. Ever since the incident described here the car has developed an annoying shimmy whenever I go over 45 MPH. I thought that one of the tires was underinflated, but it turns out something was majorly wrong with the axle, caused by all the potholes I was hitting this winter. It was dangerous to drive on (!!) and it needed to be replaced immediately. Yes, it certainly would have been annoying to have a wheel come off when I was going 55.

Overall, it cost about a grand to make the car road-worthy again. Sigh.

And there was MORE stuff they COULD have fixed, but why beat a dead horse? I'll fix it if it breaks, but hopefully I'll have a new car soon. I dread shopping for a new car, but Lily says she'll help me, so maybe it will be fun!

Well, hope springs eternal.

Cars, fooey!