Today I got my car fixed. I had a coworker follow me to the Goodyear garage before work, wait while I dropped off the car, and then drive me back to work. I had been hearing a ratcheting sound when I turned my steering wheel too far clockwise or counterclockwise – every time I made a 90-degree turn, I’d hear “clackety clack” from my wheels. Also, on my trip down from Kansas City, I noticed that the breaks were beginning to squeak. I realized I hadn’t had them looked at in some time, so I decided to have them checked, too.
They called me at work with the bad news: my CV joint was completely dry and ready to break, and needed to be replaced. My front breaks needed to be replaced, too, although my back breaks were fine. Grand total, including tax: $645. Now, just a couple of months ago, the tax assessors in Kansas City had valued my car at $830. (In Missouri, you have to pay property tax on your car. What a rip-off!) At first, I didn’t really want to sink that much money into my car when its value was so low, but then I thought about it more closely:
A) It doesn’t really matter how much the tax assessors value the car for. All I’m concerned about is how long my car will run before I get a new one.
B) If I don’t get my car fixed, there’s high probability that something will break sometime soon. If this happens on a back road, it might not be so bad, but I’m travelling I-75 and I-285 for 50 miles a day – and if it happens there, the results might very well be disastrous.
C) If I don’t get my car fixed and I want to avoid an accident, the only other option is to buy a new car – and that’s something I don’t want to be rushed into. I don’t want to take out a loan, either. I just got out of debt!
The mechanic there said I could expect to get a quarter of a million miles out of my little engine if I took care of it, and that’s another 110,000 miles. Since I have a job and can pay off a $645 bill without too much trouble, I decided to go ahead and get it done.
I wound up sitting at my workbench sorting screws, since all the new computers that needed building had already been built. One of the guys there suggested I ask our boss if I could drop by and pick up my car early, since there wasn’t anything going on. So I did, and he very graciously let me use company time to get my car.
A different coworker took me back to get my car. Boy, did it feel nice having everything working properly! I hadn’t realized how tense I was driving my car when it was making all sorts of weird noises, wondering (correctly, as it turned out) if something bad might happen soon. Now I can relax and enjoy the road.
Well, as much as anyone can enjoy I-285 during rush hour.
They called me at work with the bad news: my CV joint was completely dry and ready to break, and needed to be replaced. My front breaks needed to be replaced, too, although my back breaks were fine. Grand total, including tax: $645. Now, just a couple of months ago, the tax assessors in Kansas City had valued my car at $830. (In Missouri, you have to pay property tax on your car. What a rip-off!) At first, I didn’t really want to sink that much money into my car when its value was so low, but then I thought about it more closely:
A) It doesn’t really matter how much the tax assessors value the car for. All I’m concerned about is how long my car will run before I get a new one.
B) If I don’t get my car fixed, there’s high probability that something will break sometime soon. If this happens on a back road, it might not be so bad, but I’m travelling I-75 and I-285 for 50 miles a day – and if it happens there, the results might very well be disastrous.
C) If I don’t get my car fixed and I want to avoid an accident, the only other option is to buy a new car – and that’s something I don’t want to be rushed into. I don’t want to take out a loan, either. I just got out of debt!
The mechanic there said I could expect to get a quarter of a million miles out of my little engine if I took care of it, and that’s another 110,000 miles. Since I have a job and can pay off a $645 bill without too much trouble, I decided to go ahead and get it done.
I wound up sitting at my workbench sorting screws, since all the new computers that needed building had already been built. One of the guys there suggested I ask our boss if I could drop by and pick up my car early, since there wasn’t anything going on. So I did, and he very graciously let me use company time to get my car.
A different coworker took me back to get my car. Boy, did it feel nice having everything working properly! I hadn’t realized how tense I was driving my car when it was making all sorts of weird noises, wondering (correctly, as it turned out) if something bad might happen soon. Now I can relax and enjoy the road.
Well, as much as anyone can enjoy I-285 during rush hour.
posted by Mark at 1/16/2004 10:24:00 PM
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