Category: Car

Car Karma

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I think I have bad car karma or something. It seems like whatever I complain about car-related comes back to haunt me. For instance, I hate SUVs. They (well more like the people who drive them) annoy the heck out of me and I bitch about them a lot. So of course it’s fitting that a young girl in a SUV was the one to hit me. I also have an aversion to white cars. I just don’t like them. So guess what color my rental car is? Yep, it’s white. Not that I had a choice. It was that car, or pay extra out of my pocket for something else. I don’t think so.

I dropped off my Jetta at the body shop on Tuesday and Enterprise gave me a white Kia Rio. Ew! I apologize for those of you who may own this car, but when you’re used to a Jetta GLS with a V6 engine, and you get a car with a MSRP under $10,000, there’s a noticeable difference. That poor 4-cylinder just drags! There’s just no acceleration at all. Plus I’m so not used to manual door locks and windows you have to literally roll down (not that it’s an issue with this freezing cold weather we’re having). I will give it credit, though – the car warms up quickly, which is a must for a winter in Chicago. But I miss my poor Jetta and can’t wait to get it back. Hopefully in a week and a half.

Estimate

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Well it’s going to cost almost $3000 to have my poor baby fixed. The girl’s policy (we have the same insurance company) will cover it, as well as the rental car I will need while my car is in the shop. I spoke to the body shop today and they have to order some parts so I won’t be able to bring my car in until either late this week or next Monday. I so hate driving around in a wrecked car. I want to put up a sign that says “this just happened and it wasn’t my fault!”

My poor baby

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20040108-car.jpg Well that’s what my car looks like after being rear-ended by a 19 year old girl driving a SUV. I was waiting to make a right turn and she was waiting behind me. I was inching up to go once there was an opening, and when there was, I started to go, but so did she, thinking I had already gone at some other point. She must have floored it too because she hit me pretty hard. The ironic part about this is that my boss and two coworkers were “taking” me out to lunch for my birthday but I was the only one who had enough room in their car for everyone. Nice, huh? So after waiting for the police to arrive and do their thing, we had lunch. I’m convinced now that my car is jixed. Too many things keeping happening to it, and none of them are my fault! It has been keyed up by some punk kids, Walmart ruined the rims, and now this. And that’s just the bigger stuff. Let’s not get into the dings and bumper stuff or I will cry. I love my car. Unfortunately, I must be the only one.

VW is trying to rape me

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Boy am I glad Joe found this link – Fix a cracked coil pack. My Jetta’s coil pack went out when I had only 23,340 miles on my car. Luckily at the time my car was still under warranty so I didn’t pay a dime. Well, my car is acting up again. Same symptoms as before and I know it’s the coil pack. We scheduled a repair and oil change tomorrow, but I just cancelled it. Now I can sleep in tomorrow. Yay! The oil change wasn’t quite due yet; it was just convenient since my car was giving me trouble. Forget spending $500 on a poorly constructed part when we could possibly solve the problem for under $5.

The thing that really gets me is that VW has recalled a ton of coil packs, but not the one my car uses. As if my car’s isn’t faulty. Yeah right. That’s why I need a second one only 25,000 miles later. What a bunch of crap. I hope this works. At the very least we’ll save the $150 in labor by putting on the new one ourselves.

VW, ducks and a party

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I’m starting to think my car is jinxed, people. First my issue with Walmart Tire & Lube on Monday (I didn’t post about it because I was so peeved, but you can check the details here), and now what happened today (read on) …

The first thing we did when we got into the car this afternoon was roll down all the windows to get a breeze. I heard this sick crackling noise coming from my front driver’s side window, and then I couldn’t get it to go back up! It was 12:35 pm so we drove straight to the closest VW dealership. We didn’t call first because I was sure they closed at 1 pm and wanted to get there in time.

When we got there we learned they were open til 4 pm, but they couldn’t look at my car right away. So we drove back home so Joe could get his van, and then we drove right back to the dealership to drop my car off.

Curious Swan Then we took the kids out to lunch and to the pond to feed the ducks. The big swan came out of the water and practically walked right into my lap which freaked me out. That picture posted above was not a zoom shot. He was RIGHT there. I was a bit nervous since swans can get very aggressive.

After we ran out of bread, we went to Walmart for a few things and then headed over to the dealership to pick up my car. Turns out the window reglator clips for the two front windows are made out of plastic and they broke off. I was informed that they were recalled (thank-you for notifying me VWoA) so they replaced both windows’ clips for free.

When we got home, Joe’s dad and aunt were waiting outside (we had told them we might be late because of my car). The girl opened her presents (she turned nine years old earlier in the week) and we had cake and talked for awhile. The girl liked her presents and everyone had a good time.

It’s been a long day and I’m looking forward to relaxing tomorrow. Maybe we’ll see a movie. Lately I haven’t been in the mood so we haven’t seen anything in over a month.

More pictures to be posted sometime tomorrow.