Wednesday, April 14, 2010

What a terrible day....

Well....lets just say it all started with a flat tire. I noticed I had a flat tire on Monday night when I went over to my mom's. My dad was there so he used his air compressor and filled up my tire and we check my tire to see if we could find out why it was leaking but we were unable too....hmmm. Well I drove around all that evening and when I got up the next morning my tire still looked fine. Well Levi didn't want me driving to SLC to work on a tire that could got flat any minute...so he said hey why don't you take the morning off and get your car checked out just to be safe and I figured hey why not.
At 1oAM I went to a little tire shop just close to my house and was there for an hour and the mechanic came out and said he could not find anything wrong with my tire. He was just as baffled as I was....so I said thanks and went on my way.
Well I called and told Levi and he said well you've got the day why don't you get the car realigned and the tires rotated. I have free alignments and rotations @ Firestone...so again I thought ..why not. I called them and they said come on down well get you taken care off.
Well I got to Firestone around 11:45....and they got working on my car. Well first they came out and said hey a couple of your tires are pretty worn ...so I said go ahead and give me two tires. Well after about 2 hours of waiting....( it was almost 2 when I left)....I paid the $225 they charged me and I left. Well!! Immediately as I was leaving I noticed that my stick shift did not feel right....so I of course called them right back and asked if they had done anything to my gear shifts or whatever. They of course said well of course not. I said well...it seems to drive okay I'll call you if something changes. I was @ a light when I hung up and when the light turned green I went into first gear to go and that was fine but when I tried to get into 2nd...NOTHING! When I stepped on the gas it was like I was in netural! I had no power. I freaked out! I just started crying! There I was stuck in the intersection with a messed up stick shift. Well I pulled myself together forced it into 1st and got myself off the street. I then called Firestone and said what in the world did you do to my car. The guy there of course said why nothing. We just rotated your cars we wouldn't have touched anything to do with your stick shift. Well I said I am bringing this car back and you are going to find out what is wrong! I was incredibly upset @ this point. Well I figured out I had lost 2nd, 4th and Reverse...but I was able to get my car back to the shop on 1st and 3rd gear. When I got there the owner (who didn't even know how to drive a stick shift...I had to show him how to shift).....said that his tech actually had trouble using the reverse and they had to push my car out of the garage. What the heck!!! Why was I not told this when I paid and walked out the door!!? Not only is that horribly inconsiderate but dangerous! Well they @ least figured out what is wrong for me.....my shift control cable had snapped. Grr!! They claim they had nothing to do with it....but being that the cable is about 6 inches away for the wheel drum....I have my doubts. Well they looked up how much it would be to fix for me and of course the part is no longer made.....so they will do NOTHING for me!! Won't even take my tires back. So I pretty much put $200 into a broken car. GRRRRR!! The reason I am incredibly upset is that I was not informed that my car had serious problem. That is terrible costumer service.
Well I called to some other auto places an no one had the part. I did however call over to a dealership and talked to this really nice guy ( Mark in auto @ John Watson Chevy on Wall Ave in Ogden)....who at least gave me some helpful info. He told me my car Geo Prizm is the equivalent to a Corolla and so even the geo part may not be made anymore ...the toyota part may work just fine....he said he would look into it and call me back. Well he called me back this morning and told me the part is about $270 and the labor would probably be a good $300. Well I love love love my car....I've had it for about 6 years.....but I can't justify putting over $800 into that car (including the tires)....it's an old car....it's final miles were 222,160!!
Well....that means only one thing. I'm in the market for a new car. The only good news I have so far is that the loan officer @ America First told me I had incredible credit and so I can qualify for a good car loan. Now I'm just off to do the one thing I really don't want to do....car shopping!
I aiming for a corolla type car so that those tires I bought won't go completely to waste. Wish me luck!! I'm gonna need it.

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