Car Problems Are A BIG Problem For Me

This week, my brakes on my car messed up. It was a real pain too. My boyfriend went out of town on Sunday, so of course he wasn't around when it happened. Monday morning, I had a doctor's appointment and on the way I noticed that my brakes weren't working properly. I was having to hold them all the way to the floor and it would still take about a hundred or so feet to stop. I know, scary right? It was getting worse and worse, but I had to keep driving my car. I had classes I just could not miss. Talk about stressful. I told my boyfriend on the phone and he said "Why don't you take it to a break place?" I got to thinking about all the times in the past that I have tried to deal with car problems on my own.

A few years back, I had this cute, little, 2 door Saturn. I got into a wreck and decided it was worth fixing. Among other things, I needed a new radiator. The man fixing it charged me $300 plus labor for the new radiator. I paid it and got my car back in the next few weeks. It was still acting funny so a friend's grandpa took a look at it for me. He discovered that the man had just put the wrecked radiator back in after trying to straighten it up. The worst part was that he used zip ties!!! Also, there was duct tape under my hood. I know duct tape is supposed to fix everything, but come on. It took more work and another $600 to get my car back to running right. I only kept the car for about 6 more months before buying another one. Wish I would have just bought another car from the start.

The next April, I was driving downtown to the bus station to pick up a friend. All of the sudden, my power steering went out! After messing around with the car a little, I discovered that when I turned the air conditioner off, the power steering would come back. I took the car to a shop to have it looked at. The man explained that the compressor had went out on my air conditioner, and for $800 he could have it running like new. He acted like he was doing me a favor because compressors were usually much more. I didn't have that kind of money or any way to get it, so I committed myself to a southern summer with no AC. It was miserable. What made it worse was that I had leather seats, so it was gross too, because my legs would sweat to the seat. The following September, the guy I was dating borrowed my car. When he got back he was running the air. I was like "Noooooo! That will mess up my car!" I explained about the power steering and the compressor. He looked skeptical and decided to have a look under the hood. He discovered that my problem was a $20 serpentine belt that took all of 20 minutes to change. At least, I didn't shell out the $800 but I was still upset.

Many times I have taken my car to get an oil change and the places have tried to convince me that I needed a $200 part, or I have taken a tire in to have it plugged and ended up leaving with a $60 bill. So, my boyfriend wanted me to take it in myself, I don't think so. He got back in town late Wednesday night and took my car in on Thursday. It is still costing me $300, (Ouch! That hurt!) but imagine if I would have taken it myself. I would probably be car shopping right now.