Friday, May 18, 2007

Living On The Edge

Last week Lucy went yard selling with the GiGi and a couple of hours after she got back, one of the tires on the Focus Wagon was really low. So I man-upped and took it to get patched…only they couldn’t patch it since the leak was in the side…and since they were looking at tires they decided to check out my other three…and found out something had worn them down to the point the wires were sticking out…they could get me new ones for only $400!!!

As far as what caused my tires to wear down? The mechanic could only guess it was the shocks and that would run me about $300 to fix…if that was the problem. AHH HAAA!!! BUT I HAVE A WARRANTY WITH FORD!!! So I gave them a ring, told them the problem, and got this answer:

“Well yes you have a warranty the best parts of it ran out last year, but you did good and got the extend so we are guessing it could run you anywhere from $50-$400.”

What kind of estimate is that!?!?!?! How about the next time a cop pulls me over I said, “No I don’t know how fast I was going officer, but I’d guess between 50mph-400mph”

I wonder how big of a laugh I would get.

Then the Ford guy says “Well it’s $70 just to look at it. Now just by what your telling me it sounds like the alignment so that’s about another $100…then again it could be the shocks and that’s about $300…but if when we type up what wrong in the computer it says it’s covered by warranty all you gotta pay is $50…but we won’t know than until we look at which again will cost $70 if it’s not covered” So his estimate plus tires equaled $500-$600!!!!

Now I’ve got this money, but my problem with the whole mess was/is that the car only had 26,000 miles on it!! That’s amazing for owning it for 3 years. That’s less than 10,000 a year. Tires and shocks are not supposed to go bad after only 26,000 miles, maybe after 50,000 but not 26,000.

Call me a cheap skate or whatever, but I’ve got big plans for that $600 and it don’t include car repairs. It also didn’t include a new digital camera, but that broke (without being dropped or anything. Just click and it quit working after only 1 ½ yrs) the next day. I’ve got to have a camera with the way Fred is growing so that I’m willing to sacrifice though I’ll never buy a Canon Powershot A520 again!!

My plans for our savings include a summer filled with trips to the zoo, the beach, and the movies…not the backyard where a water hose and the cat await.

With all of this car mess driving us nuts and the image of our hard earned money slipping through our fingers, Lucy says we should just buy a new one and pray they don’t notice the problems with our trade in….and that’s all it took. Would you believe that I Charlie Blockhead a guy who plans every detail out to the second, eats the same lunch everyday, a man happy to be in his ruts….bought a new car after only 1 look and one full day after the idea popped into his wife’s head!?!?

That’s right!!! We thought it, we saw it, and we bought it in less than 36 hours!!! We are now the proud owners of a brand new burnt orange 2007 Ford Edge!! Our payments only went up a bit, they gave us good money for our trade, we get to keep our savings, we can go to the zoo/beach, and it’s all under full warranty again. Now given I guess in the long run it will cost us more than just fixing the wagon, but it was just too good of a deal to pass up. The salesman was an old/new friend and he put our payment right where we wanted it the first time. I have never made such a major purchase that fast in my entire life and after a week I’m still a bit nauseous when I think about it.

Since I can’t take a pic of it yet (should have a new camera next week) here is one off the web. Tell me what you think!!

 

1 comment:

chelle said...

great decisions you've made... unavoidable circumstances like car problems are usual,as what my friend told me..but its not usual to spend a lot of money on car repairs...right? i had just replaced my mercedes wheel bearings for about a week ago...coz it got loosed and now it works fine..i was hoping no more problems may come again.. :)