Every once in a while, life has to throw me a curve-ball to liven up my dreary and simple everyday ho-hum life. This afternoon, I was finally smucked upside the head with the proverbial snowball of my truck. I have been sick of it for a while and I was planning on trading it in this summer anyway.
This afternoon I got an oil change. No big deal, right? Sure. I have a mechanic that is in Neenah and I trust him. He is pretty blunt and treats me the same if I'm alone or if I'm with my brother or mom. (The brother thing makes a difference to me cause then I don't feel like a sad, stupid woman barely holding it together.)
He came out when his technician was getting ready to wrap up the oil change and told me that my ball joints were in "very bad" condition and that he recommended getting them repaired ASAP. I could feel the blood drain from my face. I asked for an estimate and it would be about $800. Crap!
I told him that I have had it with this truck and I was planning on trading it in this summer. I said I wanted to make a phone call, which he didn't care about so I talked to my mom and I calmed down a bit. I sat in the waiting room for a while and he came back from the garage area to talk some more. I asked him, is it drivable? Well yes but be extremely careful, no highway driving at all and generally it is risky as the joints could go at any time. All righty then. I was trying to decide what to do.
He must have been thinking fast because he finally mentioned that he was considering getting a new loaner vehicle for the business and that he would be interested in purchasing my truck for that purpose. The cost of the truck would be based on the Kelly Blue Book value. I told him that I would think about it over the weekend and definitely call him on Monday. (I already looked at in fair condition, my truck value would be $3135 for private party or $1700 for trade in. I'm thinking $2500 is the minimum that I'll go.) I am going to take him up on that and I will be meeting with a guy from my bank on Monday afternoon to get a different car.
My mechanic did say that Jimmys/Blazers do tend to have a lot of problems and I have pretty much experienced all of them. Oh joy!
So I just had a very expensive oil change. I hope you don't have an experience like this!!
1 comment:
Actually I have had worse with my old car, and not as bad with my car now. My old white car about 2 or 3 years ago decided to up and die on me when I was driving to Ryan's. During rush hour mind you, were Badger and Richmond Street come together. Right there. Luckily Ryan was two or three cars behind me, and helped me. So did a nice gentleman. It got pushed over the intersection and onto a side street. Were the tow truck came. Okay long story short. It supposedly got fixed. Drove it and it died again on my way to dialysis. So after a while my dad just junks the car. Not sure how much it was to fix it, supposedly. But my car now had to have the exhaust system replaced. And my dad rebuilt the engine from ground up when he got the car. So if you need another mechanic. My dad is the man to call. He works for a case of beer. Seriously. Cheap labor on his part. He utilizes our heated garage really well. He helped fix Ryan's old truck. He is really kowledgeable. Just wanted to put that out there. Have fun deciding what to get. Good luck!
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