It took me nearly 40 some odd years to get my own BRAND NEW vehicle. I’ve had it now for 7 years and it’s all paid off, runs like a dream and has been very dependable for me. Prior to getting my Impala, I’ve been the owner of many hand-me-downs, to name a few:
A 5 speed Subaru GL10 (I believe, can’t remember the model). Cute little car, but was forever having to climb through the leaking sunroof to retrieve forgotten keys left in the ignition - back before the car would ding at you for leaving the keys in. Should have seen me crawling on top of that car and squirming my way in through the sun roof - whew what a sight that must have been :-) Although I was younger then and my ass wasn't as big.
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| OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not by much! |
A rusty beat up red Ford Pickup truck – nuff said!
An ancient pukey green grandma’s Oldsmobile Cutless! Again nuff said – this one was a beauty.
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| Think there might be a few miles on me? Watch it, Buster! |
A faded black Ford Taurus that had more miles on it than a hooker from the old west!
These last 2 weeks have been interesting because my trustworthy paid-off 2003 Chevy Impala, which I love, has been sending me messages in the way of warning lights. My Security light is flashing, my big red Battery Warning light is flashing and pinging, and my Service Vehicle Soon light is flashing as well.
Kind of freaked me out to see all three of them going all at once.
When I got home from work, frazzled because I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, wasn’t sure she’d get me all the way home, so my honey fixed me a glass of wine and I sat down at the computer to see if I could find a copy of my owner’s manual online because I can’t find the actual book anymore. I used to be so organized but that has gone out the window with most of my good habits. I love the internet. I quickly found a copy of my owner’s manual and looked up the yapping warning signals.
The manual tells me that we need to take it to the dealership. Well, we’ve been trying to avoid that because we know they’ll find something wrong or something we need to buy, and we’ll be charged out the wazoo. So in an effort to save on what is sure to be a large expense we took it to two different car shops. The first said they couldn’t do anything unless they could see the lights coming on, and of course while my husband was driving her, the stinking lights wouldn’t come on. This always happens to me, be it cars, computers, etc. whenever I ask someone else to take a look, whatever it is won’t do what it was doing to me. Things blink, ping, stare and jump at me, but not for anyone else – no, I know I’m not losing my mind! They wouldn’t come on for anyone else but myself.
So, I was forced to drive my husband’s old, very used, many repairs later, Durango to work, which is a vehicle sorely lacking in many fine comfortable things. The radio sounds like you're inside a tin can (bad start), the seat wobbles and slides a few inches back and forth every time you hit the brakes or the gas pedal, oh joy!
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| Yikes! |
We took my car to another shop and the mechanic said they had another car in there doing the same thing. He was able to see the lights though, and he checked the battery (which was fine) and whatever else he could and said the most he could do right now was to disable the warning lights. Fine.
Well, guess what came on, on the way to work this morning! Yep my Security light is flashing, my big red battery warning light is flashing and pinging, and my Service Vehicle Soon light is flashing as well. So, I get to drive the Durango again tomorrow. Now we have to take the Impala to the dealership to get it checked out because no one else can figure out what is wrong.
I firmly believe that the factory sets some of these warning lights to go off after a certain number of miles and they are the only ones who can figure out what is wrong, if anything, and they are the only ones who can service these warning signals.
What happened to the old kind of car that anyone could fix with the right tools? They’re making vehicles so complicated these days with all the new technology, technical wiring, and groovy upgrades, which I’m a fan of, but now it’s so difficult and costly to get a car repaired. When I was younger, I could do a few things to my car, check the oil, change a battery if I had to, change burned out fuses, change a tire, even put a new window in a door once, but gosh even those simple things have become complicated. Getting the battery out of the car is a real chore.
Oh well, I guess we have to adapt to the technological changes and just go with the flow, but really, should it be this difficult to get a car repaired? I think not!
So wish me luck, my car will be in the shop, again, tomorrow. At the dealership this time! I want my car back!
It fits me!
I love my car!
Happy Driving!
Wendy Treitel
Good luck with that! Maybe it's going haywire because it's old. Or maybe it's just the lights that are going crazy. Things that grow old with us tend to be attached to our habits, so your hesitance for your husband's car is understandable.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for you. 40 years of waiting is very tough. Show us your new car, my friend. You can actually restore old cars with the right parts. You can even use opt to cover them with the original color options. Well, that is, if you're persistent enough to do that.
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