Oh, Internet, You Are So Welcome
DING! DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD!
Er, maybe not dead, exactly, but SHE'S GONE!
::happydance::
Yeah, so, that really loud sucking sound you heard Saturday? That was the closing of the giant black hole of money suck that was Audrey, my 2003 Audi A4. SHE'S GONE!
Thanks goodness.
For months now everyone within a fifteen mile radius of me and my interwebs reachy places has had to listen to me whine about that stupid car. For that, I am sorry. Also, you're welcome that it's done.
Now that I'm wearing my fancy 20/20 Hindsight Goggles, I can tell you that there were two major problems going on with that car. For one, the dealership where we had been taking it for service can BITE ME. Ahem. Let's just say they weren't exactly providing the services as one would like them to be provided. For example, we paid for a state inspection and 80,000 mile (read: EXPENSIVE) service earlier this year and they kinda sorta forgot to tell us we needed new brakes. And, of course, that was a fact we discovered the hard way.
The bigger issue, though, relates to that little $2600 repair we paid for about a month ago. We took the car in because it was shaking violently whenever I pressed on the accelerator. Which, uh, I kinda need to be able to do that. The check engine light had lit up, they replaced the torque converter claiming that it would fix the shaking and the check engine light, and it MADE ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE.
So, there's that whole thing where I have no idea whether that part actually needed replaced, but also had the bigger issue of the car still shaking. We were too chicken to take it anywhere to try to figure it out because we had already spent an insane amount of money on that car this year. (My personal favorite was the time the power steering went out when I was driving down a windy road. AWESOME. AND EXPENSIVE.)
My handy dandy 20/20 Hindsight Goggles tell me that the shaking was likely the result of something that happened during that little stop sign incident earlier this year. Getting to the bottom of that mess was going to require a ton of money, and even more time. I didn't have the time to fight with insurance companies and car manufacturers and repair shops and dealerships. It was one just black hole of money suck, and there was no way we were ever going to win that war unless Luke Skywalker showed up to save the day.
I have no faith in men named Luke.
Now I have a brand new Nissan Rogue. We managed to a great price on it (read: below invoice) but got completely screwed on the whole Audrey part of the equation. I'm signing that off as her taking one last swipe at my wallet.
At least now she can't hurt me anymore.
::knocks on wood:: ::crosses self:: ::prays to every deity ever named:: ::throws salt over shoulder:: ::considers deleting this post::
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Reader Comments (22)
Hey, my brother's name is Luke! You can trust him. But only him. He's the good Luke.
Congratulations on the new car! Vincent the Volvo is hanging in there. He's 18 years old and he's got about 170,000 miles on him, but I had to take him in last week because he sounded like a gokart/lawnmower. And my old car place was totally crappy but the new one rocks!
Enjoy driving a new completely reliable car!!! I love my Honda, HANZU!! Never lets me down.
Trust me, I understand. The Mustang was also having a weird shake. Apparently they were just done with us?
Best of luck with the new one! I'd talk about mine, but I'm afraid it would jinx us.
Yay! I like my Rogue and am sad that my lease is up in 6 months...but need to buy something (maybe it) just to finally pay it off and be done with car payments.
WOOOHOOO! Congrats!
Congratulations, it looks like a really nice car!
I hope you have better luck with Nissan. I have a 2004 Quest and in less than 90k miles I've had to replace the same wheel bearing 4 times (one under warranty) and have had 7 sets of brakes on it. Going for a Subaru next time.
YAYYYY!!! Your chances of dying while driving have gone down!
Also, I have a bias against taking cars to dealerships for service. It seems like it's always significantly more expensive and they do a craptastic job on fixing the car. Maybe you should ask around and find a good mechanic near you for future repairs.
Of course, in your case, it seems like a LOT of the issue was just the car. The dealership didn't help at all.
@Katrina--Part of the so-called "charm" with Audis is that you can't take them to just any shop for repairs, unless you're OK with waiting 185234 years to get the car back. That was part of why it took 6 weeks for the very minor damage from the stop sign thing to get fixed--they had to wait for parts to show up from Germany. SUCK.
I hope the Nissan is good to you! Glad you got rid of the other piece of junk. Happy trails!
Congrats! I love my new Rogue! Mine was supposed to be the new car of the family until a tree decided to take out my husbands van while he was driving...now the new car is our Subaru Forestor. These cars are going to get me! However...I do miss my Jetta sometimes but fixing German cars is a bit pricey.
Enjoy!
We traded my 18 year old no-air-conditioning-or-a-speedometor-that-works Honda Civic in this past May for a Rogue. I absolutely love it! Congrats on a new car, always fun :-)
(until the car payments start going out.....)
@Leah--Ain't that the truth! At least I won't have to pony up for premium fuel anymore, though. At least that's what I keep telling myself. . .
Congratulations! My folks have the Rogue and love it. I considered it, but ended up with a Hyundai Tuscon (probably partially out of being a rebellious 37 year old who doesn't want to get the same car her mom has.)
My first car ever was a Nissan and I was a huge fan. Of course now that I bus everywhere, I'm a huge fan of any car.
1. My brother's name is Luke. As far as 18-year-old males college freshmen go, he's pretty trustworthy.
2. I've had a Nissan Altima for about a year and a half now and love it! It requires virtually no maintenance (*knock on wood*) and gets great mileage. And it's a smooth ride. Hope you love your Nissan as much as I love mine!
Nice! Glad to hear you finally got rid of that car!
Oh, that's a sweet car! I was just admiring one today. Congrats, on both the Rogue and ditching the lemon.
So what's Rogue's name?
Cars. They are ALL money sucks. But your new one sure is pretty! :-)
We LOVE our Rogue. It's a little over a year old and have no complaints. The gas mileage is great (for something that's not a compact or sedan). I like the size...not too big and not too small. Goldilocks would approve. Good luck to you!
RAWR!
Congrats!!!!
No WAY! SQUEEEEE! So, so happy for you! You know, I was *wondering* why I hadn't heard cursing of The Evil One for the past few days...