Stupid Car

It’s the Thursday night of Closing, Adam’s at home watching W while my mom, a friend and I move a couple carloads of boxes to the new house. It’s past midnight, we’re ready to pack up and leave, jump into our cars and mine won’t start, not even turn over. Nice. No biggie, not sure what’s wrong with it, so I call AAA the next morning, we’re painting all day so I wasn’t in a rush. An hour later the guy shows up and jumps my car, I was so mad that that’s all it was…1 call down, I have 3 calls left on my service. That night, my car battery dies again…OK, call AAA on moving day, the battery truck comes out and changes the battery, all fixed, problem solved, moving on.

A week later I’m dropping W off and smell something funny. Get him into daycare and start driving back to work, barely get around the corner from daycare and my car overheats and the inside fills with steam. Scared to death of the steam I jump out of the car and run as fast as I can about 50 feet from the car thinking it’s going to blow up or something. I know, can you visualize this yet! LOL! I immediately call AAA, now on my 3rd call, to send a tow out and get me to the dealership. AAA shows up around 9 AM, with the wrong truck, I told them repeatedly I need a flatbed because I have AWD. Another hour later, my second tow truck approaches. I tell both of them where I want to go, the dealership. Both talk me out of it, they will rip you off, it will be much more expensive than taking me to a body shop, yadda, yadda. OK, OK, I agree after some persuasion and they take me to the “full-service” Sears Body Shop. I get there, there’s now random fluid (which I later find out is anti-freeze), like over a gallon of it leaking onto the driver’s side floor, literally flooding the floor. Sears looks at it around 11 AM, says it’s the only thing they can’t fix and at this point I’m beyond pissed. Um, then don't call yourselves full-service!!! I’m pissed at my car, pissed I had to wait for 2 tow trucks, pissed I let the AAA guys talk me into NOT going to dealership.

Well, just used my one tow, so I can’t call AAA who quoted me about $90 for another tow truck…my 3rd for the day. I said, screw that and call my insurance company who will pay for $50 of a tow and she hooks me up with a company that will only charge $60…so only $10 to me. I jump into the tow truck around noon and he takes me to the dealership and explains that AAA is the only company of its kind they do not do business with. Hummmm.

We get to the dealership, it’s my heater core and they can’t get the part in for two days and won’t have my car done for 5 days. WHAT?!?!? Adam is out of town and I have to rent a car. Cursing at everyone and crying by this point, I get my rental, install W’s car seat and I head to work around 2 PM. Most would call it a day, but working on a hourly wage makes it hard to just not go in just because I don't feel like it.

OK, so here we are 3 weeks after all of this. Adam and I are about 20 minutes on the road on our way home to Columbus from Seville on Easter Sunday. The car fills with steam and there’s that familiar smell again. Looks like someone didn’t install the heater core properly the first time. We pull over with our 14 month old in the car, call a tow and my Mother-in-law. There went my call #4, damn, I’m out, so now I’ll have to start borrowing Adam’s calls. And we already used our one tow a year, this one’s on us…or should I say the dealerships...I don't want to use Adam's tow yet, just incase. 82 miles is not a cheap tow! We're half-way home and realize we don't have any keys or clicker to get into the house. I call tow truck guy who then stops at a rest stop to do a hand off.

On a side note, Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law call us when they get back home around 8pm, they have one of W's shoes. AHHHHHH, anything else! No problem, we have a couple of soft soled shoes. We get W ready for daycare the next morning, he acts like he can't walk with his old shoes on. Already fussy from teething, he throws himself to the ground crying and trying to tug his shoes off. Fine, we stop at Kohl's on our way to drop him off.

Here we are today 3 days later. The part got here today, it will be done this afternoon but I will not pick it up until tomorrow because the dealership would like to steam clean the driver’s side floor and rid it of the hazardous chemicals. Ugh, they act like you don't need a car. Is it Friday yet?