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Cars and Credit

December 17th, 2009 at 04:33 pm

Ugh, yesterday was extremely painful. But, for the best I suppose.

Took my vehicle into the dealership for a LONG put off repair. Very unlike us. But the same engine error code has kept coming on for a while (2.5 years?) on and off. When it got stuck on, our beloved/trusted mechanic could not figure it out - so sent us to the dealership.

Ugh!

The dealership we bought the car from is semi-decent, and dh did call them at some point, and they said it would be 2 months to order a new computer if we needed one. (It's the only thing our mechanic could figure).

Then my dad had a heart attack and we put it on hold. Then I smashed the door and spent $2k repairing it. We decided to wait a bit - if it was just the computer. Whatever. MEchanic said the engine was totally fine. We were starting to think about getting this thing taken care of (certainly by 12/31) and then we got sidetracked with this whole brain tumor thing.

SO, we took it in yesterday, and it is all fixed. Hooray!

The painful part is the owner of the dealership committed suicide, and the place is shutting down. (Tragic, huh? You could suppose it has something to do with the economy). I hate dealershiups, but that one was probably one of the only ones we can stomach. Why we bought a vehicle from them! So we trudged to the big dealership at the big auto mall 25 miles away. Their customer service was absolutely terrible. *sigh*

Dh did not tell them that it was about 6 months ago that our mechanic looked at it. I hope that is all it is, but they just replaced the part the computer said needed replacing, and seemed very confused. They said they didn't think our mechanic had tried to fix it. The part was clearly not working, etc.

Insert eye roll here. Like I believe a flipping word they say.

I was not pleased with this fact, BUT the engine light has stayed off for about 35 miles (a new record) and I am hoping that just enough time passed that it all worked itself out. Like, maybe there was nothing obviously wrong before, but now there is.

My window has stopped working again, so dh inquired, and they offered to replace the motor for $500. Never mind. (The other dealership "fixed" it for $100, our mechanic lubed it up for free a couple of times, and even the body repair shop fixed it without us mentioning it). Though it may be true that this would be a permanent fix, I don't particularly want to spend $500 to find out. I found a free fix on the internet that I keep forgetting to try (just reset the fuse. Which I think is what the body shop did, maybe not even knowingly).

I am $500 poorer, but the original quote was 4 figures, and I've never really had a car payment. No complaints here - turned out better than expected!

Since the part was not working, I hope we didn't do further damage to the vehicle. We usually take our cars in immediately for any repair - just feel so jinxed with this year.

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The most awesome thing is that I don't have to reduce my net worth for this expense. My mom gave me $1100 for the MRI (which may never be billed at the rate our HMO bills) and I have about $700 set aside for it already. SO, her check will probably pay for the MRI and rest of medical bills for year (one more doctor visit at least) AND the car. What a load off that it wasn't a more expensive fix).

I am pleased as punch about that!

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In other news, a pile of credit card amendments arrived in our mail this week.

Nothing to note - mostly removing fees as per new legislation.

I didn't pay attention to the interest rates since hell would freeze over before I would pay those interest rates.

I did have to share though because the topic of conversation came up with friends, and they were kind of annoyed by my attitude about it. I suppose they thought I was poking a jab at them. Hey, they can do what they want. What do I Care? You want to pay 30%+ interest? BE my guest.

It's just funny how people who don't question absurd debt, react to people like me. They think I am just cocky and have never suffered a hardship. I Couldn't possibly understand.

Um, no. Let me put it this way. If I was hard up for money. (Say - if I lost my job. Which is not a terribly far fetched sceanrio). Say I lost my job and ran through our cash. Would I be charging things on my credit cards? Um, no. What these people don't understand is that I Would sell my cars, house, and kidney, before I would start paying 15%+ interest rates on borrowed money.

So yeah - I stand by what I Say. I didn't look at the interest rates because I don't care. Big Grin

2 Responses to “Cars and Credit”

  1. John DeFlumeri Jr Says:
    1261076980

    You are smart not to have car payments.

    John DeFlumeri Jr

  2. Apprentice Bliss Hunter Says:
    1261100416

    Good on you !! :-)

    i don't have a CC.. and flirted with getting one to help me get through Xmas without touching my Savings... but I quickly dismissed that idea..

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