On our way home from a super bowl party of sorts on Sunday night the crap wagon started sounding really rough, it had been getting bad over the last few days since it got all wet and slushy, but Sunday night it was REALLY bad. And then the check engine light came on. So we left it at the mechanic and bummed a ride home from our super awesome friends. (Rant: I hate having a sucky car that is ALWAYS broken and I also hate being a family of six with only one car. The end.)
So yada yada we got it fixed, it was a huge pain in the butt and cost us a small fortune--AND was something that, had we known that was the problem, Dad totally could have fixed. For about a quarter of what we paid to have it fixed. Nice.
But it gets better.
I sent my Mom a text later that night that said "I am going to cry." She called back to ask why... One word.
Transmission.
It's bad. He's not sure how much longer it will last but he doesn't think it will be very long.
That little bit of information was all I needed to bring Dad over to the "replace rather that keep repairing" side of the car debate. Up until now we've mostly agreed not to talk about it. This time we both agreed that we were not putting several thousand dollars worth of new transmission into this stupid, sucky, car that we had hoped to replace the middle part of next year.
So YAY! New car right?
Wrong.
If you multiply the approximate trade in value of a dented crap wagon that needs a new transmission by about five you'll get the balance of the loan we have against it. Yeah. Fabulous.
So these...
Are now a pipe dream.
Instead I get to pay off some stuff (sadly not the car) to free up some funding for a new car, fix my stupid dryer (which the dryer guy seems to think is just a venting problem), take all of us to the dentist to have our neglected dental work done, and save some money so that when the transmission does die we can call a tow truck and rent a car for a couple days.
Like I said. Sometimes being a grown up sucks. Either you're excited to buy appliances or you're bummed that you can't anymore. Lame-O.
To make things a little more interesting Sam and I have started a little contest, since they will also be replacing their car in the nearish future. You remember Sam's car, right?
We're going to see whose car can hold out the longest.
Loser buys dinner.
2 comments:
We're totally going to win! I do, however, think we need to fine tune the rules. You know, I'd hate for Dad to work like crazy to pay off your van, just to have you penalized and considered the "loser" if you could actually afford the new car. Ya know what I mean???
I'm ready to get rid of that piece of crap ASAP. I hate getting into the car every morning wondering if this is the day the transmission finally seizes up.
Bah.
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