There’s an auto parts place in Phoenix known for pinching pennies.  Mr. A likes to buy auto parts there sometimes because they are significantly cheaper than the other stores, Autozone and Checker Auto.

This time the part he bought was universal. He installed it into his work vehicle but the truck was still having problems. So instead of trying this and trying that, replacing one part after another he decided to take it in to our favorite mechanic shop and pay for a diagnosis.

As it turns out, the universal part was defective, and when the mechanic replaced it with original manufacturer equipment, it worked just great.

The part cost just over $50. So Mr. A went back to the auto parts store with his receipt and the part.

The sales clerk first asked him why he cut the wires so low.  Mr. A said this was a universal piece and you have to cut the wires in order to install it. The part was defective, and how else would he have known had he not installed it?   It turned out the guy was talking about some tape Mr. A had put on the wiring to protect it from the heat of the engine. The guy ripped off the tape, and found that the wiring was even cut where he was assuming it had been.

Next he asked for the receipt. Mr. A said, “I already gave it to you,” and pointed to the receipt lying on the counter.

The guy says, “No, I mean the receipt from your mechanic.”

Say what?

Mr. A said he had never heard of needing to bring the receipt from a mechanic, and the guy says, “Yeah, it says it right here on our store receipt,” and proceeded to read the fine print out loud.

Which by the way, said nothing at all about needing a receipt from your auto mechanic to prove a part was defective.

Finally Mr. A decided to leave and come back another day, with the receipt to prove that he was not lying to the guy.

I told Mr. A I had two distinct and conflicting feelings over this annoying experience:

1. Never shop that store ever again.
2. Take the receipt back to prove my innocence.

Have you had any bad customer service experiences lately?

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Mr. A had two great months in February and March.  Of course my fervent hope is that this trend will continue, but I learned many years ago you should never count your chicks before they hatch.

I’m sure you can figure out what that saying means, but we have actually had the opportunity to test the statement first hand.  We haven’t tried to hatch any chicks lately, but Mr. A has in the past.   It is a lot of time and effort, and you can not count on the results at all. Basically you keep the eggs in an incubator (since none of our hens are good broodies) and you have to turn those eggs every day, at least twice daily and preferably three times a day.  This is so the chick develops properly. You might start 36 eggs and carefully and lovingly turn them every single day, but at the end of doing this for 21 days in a row, you might find that only 4 chicks hatch out and now you have to deal with 32 rotten eggs. Now if you had dreams of putting chicken on the table for two months with those 36 eggs, now you have to start all over and take the same chances.

Now where was I? OH, I was just saying there’s no way I’m going to now start counting on the income Mr. A had in February and March, of course we still need to be conservative in managing our money, and continue to pay off our debt.

The other part of the chicks-egg-hatching-counting deal is that our youngest has decided to pursue his dream job. He is volunteering at a very professional business two days a week, because he wants to move on from his current job.  He’s doing it right, he’s looking for a new job before quitting his old one, I’m proud of him for being proactive and looking before he leaps.

Mr. A wanted to help AJ get his own vehicle.  So he put out a call to the guy from whom we bought his work truck. The work truck ended up being a great vehicle and has performed nicely in the last year.

It just so happens he had a great classic car for sale so Mr. A and AJ went to have a look. AJ fell totally in love with the old girl, and Mr. A asked me if we could “afford” to buy the car. It’s always so hard for me to answer that question, since technically no, we don’t have the money sitting around to buy a car since that money should go toward debt repayment.

But then the mother in me wins out over the frugal *ahem* hag.   Mr. A and I had yucky childhoods, and our parents didn’t do much for us when we were venturing kicked out of the nest. You know, like other parents were helping their child get their driver’s permit and teaching them to drive, while ours weren’t. My parents didn’t buy me a car although I should admit that my dad sold the racing 10-speed bike he’d bought me when I went to visit him for a few months when I was 17, later sending me the money when I got on my own at 21.  I used the money to get my first secured credit card to begin building my credit. I appreciated that.

It has meant a lot to us to be able to do the things for AJ for which we felt we’d been deprived. We helped AJ get his learner’s permit, and when he got a job we didn’t force him to sign over his paycheck, although we did ask him to pay us $200 each month for living expenses, which I thought was very reasonable.

AJ will be making payments to us for his car.  I would like to say we bought it for him and just gave it to him, but he wants to pay for it, and I think that’s responsible of him to do so.  I am not going to get caught up in expecting the money, however.  I am planning in my own head, to consider it a gift. It is just easier that way.

Back to the chicks hatching…  AJ is fervently hoping his internship turns into a paying job.  I hope so too, but I’m not going to worry if it doesn’t. He doesn’t have a lot left over from his current job, so his payments will be small, but he also works with Mr. A many weekends and last year made just over $2000, so even if he doesn’t get the other job right away, he has ample opportunity to earn money with the family business.

The vehicle cost $2500.  Thankfully, we were able to absorb this hit without going deeper in debt, and that included making the extra payment to the Discover card!  Hopefully this recent trend with Mr. A’s business will continue, that would be great! I’d be able to retire sooner than my Five Year Financial plan. Man. We’d be able to pay down our credit card in 6 short months if every month was that good!

Do you have any True Confessions to share?

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It was after my old 1983 Mercury Gran Marquis gave up the ghost.  I wasn’t sure what we were going to do without a car and my mom offered me $1000 to help me find a used car.

I found a 1984 Dodge 600 that looked very much like this one here, although it was more silver-blue, like this one.

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

My mom was pretty happy to be able to help me get a car and drove me and the boys over to meet the guy with the car. My mom’s husband came along to help decide if it would be a good choice.  He is a man, after all.

I guess the first clue was the guy wanted to meet at a gas station, and he wanted us to pay him in cash.

The second clue was when I drove it.  I noticed that the transmission was slipping as I went up a slight incline – I’d had to replace the transmission on my Mercury Gran Marquis and I knew what that felt like. I asked my stepfather if he noticed that slipping sound and he said the car just needed to be warmed up. He thought it was a good deal and advised me to buy the car.

Looking back on it, unfortunately my mom’s husband isn’t very knowledgable about cars and he probably wanted me to get the car so they could go back home.

With her husband’s blessing, my mom handed over the cash, took the title and while we were looking in the car checking it out, the guy disappeared.  Vanished into thin air. Well, actually he probably was parked in the grocery store parking lot next door. But he sure high tailed it out of there fast.

I was pretty happy with my little used car. At first.  The slipping problem became more noticeable as I drove it.  When I’d had it for about 8 weeks I asked Mr. A (we were at that time divorced) if he could change the fluids, and do a transmission fluid change.  He found foamy fluid and fairly large metal shavings in the transmission pan.  Not a good sign.

I was able to drive it a few more weeks and the transmission totally went out.  I didn’t have another $1000 to spend on getting it fixed, after all I’d given up my credit cards and had consolidated my credit card debt.

It ended up sitting in the driveway for probably a year or so and the management where I lived at finally complained about it.  By that time I’d lost the keys so when I called someone to come haul it away they said they would have to knock $50 off what they’d offered me since the keys were missing. I think I got maybe $75 for the car.

Eventually we found the keys, in the yard. The dog was digging in one corner and there they were.  But by then it had been months.  And you have already heard the rest of the story, we ended up going without a car for three years.

That’s my car regret story. Do you have one to share?

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Her original note was for seven years, and she just found out yesterday that the service warranty only lasted for six years. So she was trying to get the service warranty extended. She found it would be $1700 for a one year service warranty, but only $2000 for two years. So she decided to go for it. She had to make a down payment of $500 and pay the entire $2000 in the first year.

Then she decided to see if she could get a better deal through the dealer.

She wasn’t sure what to do. She said the guy gave her an amazing deal on a NEW car.  They will take her six year old car with less than 50,000 miles on it and wipe out the remainder of the contract. They will write a new contract, with 5% interest for the term of the loan, five years (she was paying 7% on a seven year loan), and she’ll get a brand new car with zero down, and no payments until February.

She was pretty giddy at the thought. She knows how I feel about buying new cars. She tried to rationalize, saying that she just couldn’t be in a car that was going to start breaking down (she is going to be 67 next month).  I told her I could understand her concern, I really can. After all, I don’t have to do the worrying about my vehicle, Mr. A pretty much takes care of that. And he’s often able to fix our vehicles so we don’t incur huge repair bills.

I’m laying odds that she’ll buy the new car. Sweet Christmas present, for her.

Yours,

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HFHB0AKC58

I lost the cover that goes to the fuse box under the dashboard of my Pathfinder.  The problem is that fuse box cover includes the schematic for which fuses go to what.  With the cover lost, it has been a guessing game as to which fuse to pull when something goes out. Like the inside dome lights, or the brake lights. AJ was looking out the window at work and saw another Pathfinder sitting in the parking lot! He called me and I came down to track who was driving that vehicle so I could ask to get a photo of the fuse box cover. I was successful! Here is that image, if you click on it you can see a much larger image:

I hope it keeps on doing well for me.

Yours truly,

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It’s the rolling down mechanism for the driver’s side window. I have been driving my vehicle for a very long time without the ability to roll down the driver’s side window. It’s difficult to go through any drive thru (bank, pharmacy, fast food) because I have to drive up and then crack open the door, lean out and apologize to the person, “Sorry, my window doesn’t roll down.” Or say someone comes up to my vehicle when I’m leaving someplace, like church or work. They lean in to the window, expecting me to roll it down, and I can’t. Motioning to them to back away, I then open the door. They step back, wondering why I’m getting out but instead I explain, “Sorry, my window doesn’t roll down.”

I’ve had nightmares about what to do if I got pulled over, especially during the week the glovebox was not where it belonged, populated with its important papers, so that I could “tap” on the air conditioner blower motor. “I’m sorry, Officer,” having rolled down the rear driver side window and throwing my voice, “but my window doesn’t go down. Oh, my vehicle registration and insurance paperwork? I’m so sorry but the glovebox is in the back of the vehicle, I’m going to have to get out and find it for you.”

Then there’s the flies… the flies which love riding with me on the driver’s side, buzzing about my head and ears and creeping along the crack where the window would open, if only it would roll down like it should. We keep all the windows up to avoid flies entering the vehicle, but at certain times of the year (mostly when the farmer in the field across the way allows the melons to go rotten several times each year) they are just everywhere and invariably one or two or a dozen fly in while I’m entering my vehicle.

It’s hard to justify spending money when we have so much debt, it just makes me feel sick sometimes.  There are so many things around here that need to be fixed, that don’t get fixed because it’s easier to rationalize that we can live without it being fixed, so we can put the money toward our debt. For example, my bathtub has a hole in it.  You’ll never guess how it happened. One day, Mr. A was clearing out my tub (I have a bad habit of stacking boxes or extraneous items in my bathtub) as a surprise for me since he knew I’d had a bad day at work.  He knows that sometimes I am soothed by a warm bubble bath. During the process of taking them out, he found a spider running around. We don’t mind Daddy Long Leg spiders, but this was a little brown one. So the nearest thing he could find with which to slay it was a plastic hanger. Not a metal hanger, mind you, a PLASTIC hanger. He began tapping at the spider, trying to kill it, and the next thing there was a dime-dized hole in the lining of the bathtub.  Apparently some bathtubs are made of very thin plastic, and can be broken more easily than you would ever imagine. I’m just glad it didn’t happen while I was in it with a tub full of water. Apparently the hole can be temporarily repaired and will cost about $20, but I don’t need to take a bath THAT bad, my shower works just fine, so it remains unfixed.

I could list a bunch of other similar things, but I won’t bore you with the details.  I guess the bottom line is it makes life less enjoyable having credit card debt.

But I am very excited about having my window fixed. I could have gone on without it being repaired, but it is very nice and was a thoughtful gesture on my hubby’s part which I appreciate very much.

Yours Truly,

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That worked for about two days, then the fan wouldn’t come on no matter how much tapping was applied to it.

It’s still pretty darn hot in the desert and I really don’t seem to be tolerating the heat as well as I could when I was younger, so I really need my air to work, and Mr. A knows it. Last Wednesday, he went on a job but when he got there he found the job had been canceled until another day. Since he was in town, he decided to make some calls and see about getting a replacement for my fan. He came by my job to take the fan with him. He tested it while it was out of position and by doing so found the problem. The squirrel cage part of the blower assembly had several fins that broke loose. While the squirrel cage was still the fins went back into position, so you could not see that anything was wrong. So while the blower assembly was in position, the fins would spin out, thus blocking the fan from working/blowing.

He called around and found that one place had the entire blower assembly for $110. But then he found that Autozone had it for $80. They are typically more expensive, so he asked for more information about the part. It turns out it was ONLY the blower motor. They didn’t know where he could find the squirrel cage part. So next he started calling wrecking yards, and within a few minutes he found the part he needed, for $30.  It took only minutes to install and now I’m getting good cold air again.  Now I just need for him to get my glove box installed again and I’ll be one happy camper!

Yours Truly,

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My PF was doing this really scary rocking thing when I hit a bump, or had to take a curve on the freeway. We took it in and had it looked at. The mechanic thought he took care of the problem by replacing the lower ball joints, and the rocking did subside somewhat, but as the days went by I found it was still doing it, especially on the freeway curves.

So I took it to my alignment guys that have a shop close to my job. They are so awesome. They check my alignment any time I am concerned about it, for no charge. Their diagnosis was the upper and lower control arm links, aka bushings. The arm control links are outrageously expensive, only available from the dealer.  They estimated almost $500 for the parts, and another $250 for labor and tax. I did some research online and found this article, where the guy describes exactly the same problem I was having.  At the end he explains that you can save a lot of money by replacing the bushings that go into the control arm links. I guess the big problem is most people can’t press the bushings into the rods and you end up having to remove the arm control rods, then take them to a machine shop and have them pressed in for a charge.  We found the eight bushings online for under $70.

So Mr. A is going to do this repair so we can save the money on labor. I’m so glad he can do auto repair, too.

Mrs. Accountability

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I have been experiencing a few problems. The most pressing issue was the rocking back and forth when I drove on a curved road, or if I hit a bumpy section on the freeway (unfortunately a regular occurrence).   For some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to take my vehicle in and have it checked out.   I have a place that I like to go for suspension and steering issues, and I knew they could give me a diagnosis but I just didn’t want to hear it. So I asked Mr. A if he would make arrangements to have my vehicle looked at.  This takes some scheduling, since I drive my vehicle 50 miles away from home four days a week, and his business has been really busy.

I’ve also had an oil leak that has been getting progressively worse. The place that did the timing belt on my vehicle said they thought the oil leak was a rear main seal, and quoted $650 for the repair.

Mr. A and AJ have thought my transmission was beginning to slip, and since it’s been 283,000 miles, Mr. A suggested we have it looked at. I’m the main driver of my Pathfinder, and I’ve driven a car that had a transmission going bad, and I did not think the transmission was having problems, aside from an occasional hard shifting.  But I agreed it had a lot of miles, and what would be the harm to check it out.  I thought we’d get it R&R (repaired and restored) and it would be good for another couple hundred thousand miles.  Sure, I’d like to keep my Pathfinder until it gets to 500,000.

Mr. A got a quote from a tranny shop we’d used before.  $450 for the tranny R&R AND that cost included replacing the rear main seal.  The other shop wanted $650 JUST to replace the rear main seal, and here we were going to save $200 and get two birds killed with one stone.

The front desk guy said it shouldn’t be more than a day or two. We took it in on Thursday evening (the 19th) after I got home from work.  We thought we’d have it back on Friday or Saturday.

We didn’t hear back from them on Friday, or Saturday.  Or Monday.  Finally on Tuesday, Mr. A gave them a call.  They apologized and said they had just put my vehicle up on the rack to check it out. Ack. Well, luckily my employer has me babysitting one of the company vehicles and doesn’t mind if I drive it occasionally. In fact, the battery keeps going dead, so it’s probably a good thing that I drive it in to work at least a couple times a month.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the shop called Mr. A and told him it wasn’t the rear main seal, it was the valve cover gaskets.  Mr. A gave them permission to do the work, knowing full well how difficult it is to work on that Pathfinder.  The repair would cost $220.  They also told Mr. A my vehicle would be completed by 5pm, so AJ and I headed to the shop after work.  Apparently the front desk guy assumed the mechanic would be done when he talked to Mr. A earlier in the day because when we got there, it was nowhere being finished. No problem. We would just pick it up today after work.

The wind was blowing really hard on the way home, and the stretch of freeway I had to drive at 75mph was really windy so instead of going straight to the shop, AJ and I headed home, where Mr. A was waiting so that he and I could leave to get my Pathfinder back home. We called before we left to make sure it was ready!

We got there, and the guy explained the repairs and the bill. He’d already quoted Mr. A $765, and said they replaced the lower ball joints (that is what was causing the rocking), and my brakes and rotors. I was glad to hear that they’d done my brakes because that was another thing I had been meaning to mention to Mr. A, that my brakes were kind of funky sometimes, you know with that weird grinding noise occasionally? The kind of noise that usually means your brake pads are ruining your rotors?  But it only does it once in a while, so I hadn’t paid much attention.  After we’d paid, Mr. A was looking over the bill, and asked about the transmission R&R.  The front desk guy looked bewildered, and said they didn’t have that on the list of things to check.

Hmmm… that was the FIRST thing on our list of issues!

I was really kind of annoyed that they didn’t even look at the transmission, when that was one of the main reasons we chose their shop.  What annoyed me was I thought the work that was done and the charges, included rebuilding the transmission.  And I thought I wouldn’t need to worry about the transmission for another couple hundred thousand miles.

When I got home I decided to check Repair Pal and see if we were charged competitively.  Here’s the prices:

Lower ball joints… we paid $57.18… RepairPal estimate: $278-$484

Valve cover gaskets… we paid $221.49… RepairPal estimate: $314-$453

Wheel bearings… we paid $356.18… RepairPal estimate: $629-$1115

Brake Pads and rotor replacement… we paid $110 RepairPal estimate: $315-$488

Whew. I guess we got a screaming deal. The low end estimate through RepairPal would have been $1536.  The high end, $2540.  I’m not exactly sure of why, but they didn’t charge us any labor for replacing the lower ball joints.  I think it is was because they replaced them before asking for our permission.

My vehicle is driving much nicer. I even made a point to drive over the bumpy parts of the rural roads on the way home, and it never rocked at all.  The steering feels tighter, and the brakes are more sensitive – no more grinding.

I asked the guy how many miles did he think I could get out of my transmission – he did say the mechanic would have noticed if it was having any problems – and he said they don’t do many Toyota transmissions.  The times they have it’s been because the transmission was leaking and ran too low on fluids, or some piece broke.  So I guess I still have to think about my transmission having a problem some day.  The nice thing is, I know the estimate for R&R will be under $500.  I should start a savings account for that, when it becomes an issue.

Have a lovely evening.

Mrs. Accountability

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I researched vehicles when we were moving out here. We needed something that would haul our family of four (we’re large people), our (at the time) one dog, plus we needed a vehicle that could haul our water for us. We have a 2500 underground tank for our water supply, which we keep filled by making trips to the community well with our 500 gallon tank.

I have no intentions of getting rid of my Pathfinder anytime soon; in fact, Mr. A is planning to replace the timing belt and water pump. It was last changed in 2004, at 117,000 miles. The manufacturer recommends changing it every 100,000 miles. We got by with 117,000 the first time, and now it’s been 141,000 miles. I had a timing belt go out on a Mercury Gran Marquis and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was the car I was driving when I had given up all my credit cards, to pay off my credit card debt and couldn’t get the engine fixed because I didn’t have the money (or credit cards). So I’m a little paranoid about timing belts.

I’m sure we’ll get the timing belt changed in time. The water pump is in the same area, so Mr. A will change that at the same time.

I know that we’re in the minority with a vehicle that has lasted this many miles. It seems common for people to trade in their car for a new one every 3 years, or at least once it gets close to 100,000 miles.

I guess we’re lucky in that Mr. A can do a good deal of the maintenance, although we have at times chosen to take our vehicles in to the shop and have someone else worry about it.

I hear people say that they’ve had to make repairs on their vehicle and now they are looking at another repair costing $1000. They decide it’s time to cut their losses now and buy a different vehicle, often a new vehicle. I had a friend who was in a minor fender-bender and her trunk lid was the tiniest bit tilted. I honestly couldn’t see it until she pointed it out to me. Her insurance company TOTALLED her car, and she decided to buy a new one, because the cost to fix the tweaked trunk would have cost too much money. I would have lived with the tweaked trunk… and I will never buy a new car because they depreciate the minute you drive them off the parking lot.

When we bought my Pathfinder, it was $14,000 and since it was six years old, the longest term loan we could get was 48 months. The payment each month was $342. A year’s worth of payments came to $4,104. Now paying $1000 a year for repairs seems cheaper to me than $4000 a year in payments. And our payment was untypically low.

Then there’s insurance. If you buy a brand new car on loan, you have to have insurance that will cover the vehicle if you in an accident. If we didn’t have an 18 year old on our automobile coverage, we’d be paying around $600 a year for two older vehicles. Not to mention the cost for emissions testing, and paying for your yearly tabs.

I do not look forward to the day I have to replace my vehicle and make payments on another one. We don’t have the money right now to save for a future vehicle, so we will almost certainly have to get a loan when we need to buy another one.

Put me in the camp of keeping a vehicle and maintaining it until there is absolutely no hope left for the poor thing. I hope we’ll get to 500,000 miles. That would be kind of exciting. If I do have to replace my Pathfinder, I am pretty sure I’ll want another one like this one. It has been the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning.

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