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After a little over 13 years and around 370,000 miles, my Toyota Matrix was about used up. (It needed around $3000 worth of work to be safe for winter, and I think it was overdue for new shocks/struts, and it was burning a quart of oil every 1000 miles or so.) So I've been trying to find another car with a manual transmission for a few weeks. The budget was under $10k. I wasn't finding much. On Friday, I stopped at the local Honda dealer, and they had a 2008 Civic with 99K miles that had just come in. Their price was about right, and I liked the test drive. I decided to go for it. Put a deposit on it on Friday, had my mechanic look it over and they thought it was fine. And today, after doing a couple last errands with the cargo space of the Matrix, I drove to the dealer with the Matrix and drove away with the Civic. It would be perfect if it were a hatchback, but it's a sedan. We'll have to see how I adjust to that.
Got the car back at 5 yesterday. In addition to replacing the clutch and slave cylinder, they replaced the transmission which didn't work when connected to the car hydraulics. They also replaced a wheel bearing (which I hadn't realized was out) and did the oil change and tires as scheduled. They couldn't fix the odometer, so it's still pinned at 299999. But it runs, it shifts smoothly, and I have my own car so I don't have to borrow ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
birder2's to access my own bed, kitchen, desktop computer, etc., which has been a pain for both of us the last week.
They didn't charge me for labor for replacing the transmission, so I got a substantial discount, but it still cost a great deal. So I fervently hope that it will be a couple of years before I have to really think about a new car.
birder2's to access my own bed, kitchen, desktop computer, etc., which has been a pain for both of us the last week.They didn't charge me for labor for replacing the transmission, so I got a substantial discount, but it still cost a great deal. So I fervently hope that it will be a couple of years before I have to really think about a new car.
It gets worse
Dec. 6th, 2012 12:10 pmMy car is not fixed. They had it taken apart, they said everything seemed to be OK. They put it back together with the new clutch and slave cylinder and it would not shift -- the transmission seems to work when they shift it by hand but it doesn't work when connected to the hydraulics.
I think I need a new car, and I don't even know where to start. What I've been able to find with Google so far has been very unhelpful -- all the sites start by asking what make and model you want. I don't know what make and model I want, I want as cheap a car as I can find that fits my needs: has to be reliable, has to get decent gas mileage, I would distinctly prefer a hatchback with a manual transmission. I don't care what make it is as long as it's not something exotic that's super expensive to maintain.
I think I need a new car, and I don't even know where to start. What I've been able to find with Google so far has been very unhelpful -- all the sites start by asking what make and model you want. I don't know what make and model I want, I want as cheap a car as I can find that fits my needs: has to be reliable, has to get decent gas mileage, I would distinctly prefer a hatchback with a manual transmission. I don't care what make it is as long as it's not something exotic that's super expensive to maintain.
A most unwelcome complication
Dec. 2nd, 2012 07:57 pmI went up to Mt. Prospect for the housefilk at chaoticgoodchic's house last night. The trip up was completely uneventful, the dinner was nice, the music and companionship were good. I got back in my car at 1:00, figuring I'd make it to bed about 4, I'd be tired but it should be OK. It rained off and on as I was driving home, but had no problems, until I got to the interchange between I-57 and I-74. I can't remember exactly what happened. The car suddenly started making a disturbing noise, but I can't remember if it was before I touched the gearshift to slow down for the ramp or not. But on the ramp, the car made "pull over right now" noises, and it was in neutral. The engine was still running but not delivering power. I got onto the shoulder and tried to force the car into first. It didn't want to go, and then it popped right out again. Clearly something is very wrong with the transmission. And it's 3:30 AM Sunday, and I'm a little too tired to think completely clearly.
After a few minutes, I pulled myself together enough to look on the net on my phone, find a tow truck, and have it sent out. Then I texted a friend who is often up at that hour. I had the car towed to the mechanic, my friend gave me a ride to my mom's (thanks Jeremy!), and I spent the night there.
Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting installment of Phil's Car Explodes, Now What?, when I hopefully find out what is wrong with the car, and whether it will take a few hundred dollars and a couple of hours to fix, or thousands of dollars and weeks (in which case, I will have to somehow find another car).
chaoticgoodchic's house last night. The trip up was completely uneventful, the dinner was nice, the music and companionship were good. I got back in my car at 1:00, figuring I'd make it to bed about 4, I'd be tired but it should be OK. It rained off and on as I was driving home, but had no problems, until I got to the interchange between I-57 and I-74. I can't remember exactly what happened. The car suddenly started making a disturbing noise, but I can't remember if it was before I touched the gearshift to slow down for the ramp or not. But on the ramp, the car made "pull over right now" noises, and it was in neutral. The engine was still running but not delivering power. I got onto the shoulder and tried to force the car into first. It didn't want to go, and then it popped right out again. Clearly something is very wrong with the transmission. And it's 3:30 AM Sunday, and I'm a little too tired to think completely clearly.After a few minutes, I pulled myself together enough to look on the net on my phone, find a tow truck, and have it sent out. Then I texted a friend who is often up at that hour. I had the car towed to the mechanic, my friend gave me a ride to my mom's (thanks Jeremy!), and I spent the night there.
Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting installment of Phil's Car Explodes, Now What?, when I hopefully find out what is wrong with the car, and whether it will take a few hundred dollars and a couple of hours to fix, or thousands of dollars and weeks (in which case, I will have to somehow find another car).
As you know if you know me very well, my car is getting kinda long in the tooth as it were. In fact, I was approaching a milestone -- 300000 miles. I was getting all ready to take a cellphone pic of all the zeroes and post it. I was leaving EFRC and it was at 299997, so I'd hit it before I got to the interstate, so I could pull over. All good, I'm driving through Center Point, I roll to 299999, driving along, waiting for it to roll over. And waiting, and waiting, and it never does.
My odometer is pinned at 299999 miles. I've driven about 150 miles and it hasn't changed.
It's digital, so somebody specifically programmed it this way. The trip odometers and speedometer still work so it's not some amazingly timed mechanical failure.
My odometer is pinned at 299999 miles. I've driven about 150 miles and it hasn't changed.
It's digital, so somebody specifically programmed it this way. The trip odometers and speedometer still work so it's not some amazingly timed mechanical failure.
FCN, very briefly
Apr. 17th, 2012 12:54 amMade it back from Furry Connection North in one piece. The trip to the con was trouble free. The con was great fun and if there were any disasters they didn't happen to me. Really impressive tech system at the dances -- amazing laser light show, and speakers that sounded good pumping out rave-level sound. Watched the dance competition, and really enjoyed it. I've never been very into dance; watching this made me feel like I've been missing something. Carried the camera around almost the entire weekend and took around a thousand pictures. We finally got on the road around 3 today, after lingering over lunch. The trip home was not quite so trouble free. First, I caught a rock to the windshield that left a crack, it is small but it will grow, I suspect I'm going to need a new windshield. Then shortly before the Indiana border, suddenly started getting a lot of noise from the left front wheel well. The lining of the wheel well, which was pretty torn up, had come loose and was flapping around. Managed to get it to stop making awful noises, with the help of some duct tape, but I will have to have it looked at to see how it should be repaired in a more lasting, but hopefully not terribly expensive, way.
Unpleasant milestone
May. 6th, 2008 08:06 pmI had to get gas today. So, of course, today was the day our corporate masters decided it would be fun to raise the price another 30 cents.
For the first time, it cost over $40 to fill up.
For the first time, it cost over $40 to fill up.
I was in a car accident in Milwaukee at 2 AM on New Year's Day. After taking several weeks to determine that it would take more weeks at least to get someone else to pay for fixing my car, and further that the damaged suspension was ruining the tire and it needed to be fixed right away, I turned it over to my own insurance, which means I'll be eating my deductible at least until State Farm's bureaucratic machinery recovers it. State Farm told me to take it to Tatman's. After going over my options with Tatman's, I elected to have them fix the body damage (which is only cosmetic) as well as the rear axle which actually matters. Since the axle is way more than my deductible, fixing the body is free except that I have to pay for a rental car for a while. But the rate for the rental is a lot less than I expected, so I decided to go for it. This is why I have a white Hyundai Elantra sedan in my garage tonight.
Definitely not the specific car I would buy; it's a sedan, automatic, and white, all of which are the wrong choices. Between the gear ratio and shift point selection, and the fact that it's unfamiliarly quiet, I have to be careful or I go faster than I intend to. It seems to be a pretty generic car.
It has a GPS. Perhaps I will have it long enough to learn more about this modern wonder than how to turn it off so it will shut up.
Definitely not the specific car I would buy; it's a sedan, automatic, and white, all of which are the wrong choices. Between the gear ratio and shift point selection, and the fact that it's unfamiliarly quiet, I have to be careful or I go faster than I intend to. It seems to be a pretty generic car.
It has a GPS. Perhaps I will have it long enough to learn more about this modern wonder than how to turn it off so it will shut up.
WHAM! Argh.
May. 17th, 2007 12:28 amDriving home tonight, almost to the St. Joe exit, and I notice that there's a truck 50 feet to the right of the highway, pointed away from the highway, kinda sticking out of some trees. Perhaps I was distracted by the sight, but I didn't see the thing on the road, probably left behind by the accident that caused the truck to be there. But I definitely felt it! And within half a mile, I could feel that I was losing a tire, so I pulled off on the exit ramp. Sure enough, the right front tire was pretty much flat. Of course it's the brand new one -- I'd just had to have one replaced due to road damage (I hadn't even noticed what I hit, but there were two huge knots on the inside sidewall, and I'm surprised the tire hadn't blown before I got it replaced).
So I go through the rigamarole of getting everything out of the way to get the toy jack and toy spare tire out. I get the jack in place, the car up, the lug nuts off, annoying but no big deal.
And I can't get the tire off. It's like it's welded on. I'm afraid something is damaged and if I try any harder to get it off, I might break the car worse, so I need a wrecker. But I don't have road service, so I don't know who to call. I decide it's just early enough thatbirder2 might still be up, so I call, and she answers, but I can't seem to convince her to look one up in the phone book and tell me the number. She says she'll drive out and meet me.
While I'm waiting, a sheriff car pulls up, and the officer gets out and checks the situation out. I explain. He looks at the wheel, and recommends that I kick the tire. I already did, but what the heck, I try it again. This time, of course, it moves, and in seconds the tire is off, just like it was supposed to be, and in another couple of minutes the doughnut is in place. Butbirder2 is supposed to be on her way. The sheriff wants to stay there to make sure nobody runs into me on the ramp. I don't want to leave until she gets there, because it would be pretty crass for her to come out and me to be gone. So we wait another 10 minutes or so. She arrives, I say sorry, we all drive away.
( insult to injury in my mailbox )
So I go through the rigamarole of getting everything out of the way to get the toy jack and toy spare tire out. I get the jack in place, the car up, the lug nuts off, annoying but no big deal.
And I can't get the tire off. It's like it's welded on. I'm afraid something is damaged and if I try any harder to get it off, I might break the car worse, so I need a wrecker. But I don't have road service, so I don't know who to call. I decide it's just early enough that
birder2 might still be up, so I call, and she answers, but I can't seem to convince her to look one up in the phone book and tell me the number. She says she'll drive out and meet me.While I'm waiting, a sheriff car pulls up, and the officer gets out and checks the situation out. I explain. He looks at the wheel, and recommends that I kick the tire. I already did, but what the heck, I try it again. This time, of course, it moves, and in seconds the tire is off, just like it was supposed to be, and in another couple of minutes the doughnut is in place. But
birder2 is supposed to be on her way. The sheriff wants to stay there to make sure nobody runs into me on the ramp. I don't want to leave until she gets there, because it would be pretty crass for her to come out and me to be gone. So we wait another 10 minutes or so. She arrives, I say sorry, we all drive away.( insult to injury in my mailbox )
Dear God, WHY ME?
Jul. 14th, 2006 08:04 pmStill no water. But today, I tripled my efficiency in dealing with the problem. Yes, today instead of being ignored by one plumber who was supposed to call me, I was ignored by three. But I resolved to just deal with it. On the way home, after taking a shower at birder2's, I stopped for gas, at the (as of today) bargain price of $2.999/gallon. I got in the car and closed the door, and something made a funny clinking sound. I tried to roll the window up, and it didn't close all the way. Trying to lower it and raise it got it stuck lower. I stopped at the Goodyear store, and asked if they could possibly do anything about it. This was, of course, just after 5. They couldn't. But in the course of fiddling with the window to demonstrate the problem, somehow the glass got stressed impressively, though I wasn't aware of it. There was this cracking sound, and the whole window transformed from a sheet of glass to a green marbled patchwork, riddled with cracks with an average spacing of 2-3mm. Amazingly, the window was mostly intact, and the transformation was instantaneous. It would have been cool, if it hadn't been my car that was self-destructing. After the mess was somewhat cleaned up, I headed to Farm and Fleet on the Goodyear guy's recommendation, to get some plastic sheeting to try to cover the window until it could be fixed Monday. Nobody at Farm and Fleet had heard of Visqueen, the plastic the guy said I should get, but I found some plastic sheeting that seemed like it would do, and tried to stick a piece of it over the window in the parking lot, using the duct tape I had in the car tool box -- which had been in the car way too long. It had progressed perhaps not halfway, but at least a quarter of the way, from layers of tape to undifferentiated goo. I should have gone back in to the store and bought a fresh roll, but the outermost layers weren't as bad and I was mostly done with the job before it really sank in how awful it was. My wonderful patch job didn't even make it to the interstate; as soon as I hit 40 MPH it started coming off. I drove home with my left hand clutched on the bottom part that had come loose, and then spent a bunch more time doing a (hopefully) much better job with much better duct tape.
Now I'm frantically scarfing a little dinner, a full hour after the time I meant to be on the road to Indianapolis, and I still have a few things to pack. So I'll stop this whinge and get back on the stick.
I just have to wonder what nonexistent cosmic force I have offended.
birder2's, I stopped for gas, at the (as of today) bargain price of $2.999/gallon. I got in the car and closed the door, and something made a funny clinking sound. I tried to roll the window up, and it didn't close all the way. Trying to lower it and raise it got it stuck lower. I stopped at the Goodyear store, and asked if they could possibly do anything about it. This was, of course, just after 5. They couldn't. But in the course of fiddling with the window to demonstrate the problem, somehow the glass got stressed impressively, though I wasn't aware of it. There was this cracking sound, and the whole window transformed from a sheet of glass to a green marbled patchwork, riddled with cracks with an average spacing of 2-3mm. Amazingly, the window was mostly intact, and the transformation was instantaneous. It would have been cool, if it hadn't been my car that was self-destructing. After the mess was somewhat cleaned up, I headed to Farm and Fleet on the Goodyear guy's recommendation, to get some plastic sheeting to try to cover the window until it could be fixed Monday. Nobody at Farm and Fleet had heard of Visqueen, the plastic the guy said I should get, but I found some plastic sheeting that seemed like it would do, and tried to stick a piece of it over the window in the parking lot, using the duct tape I had in the car tool box -- which had been in the car way too long. It had progressed perhaps not halfway, but at least a quarter of the way, from layers of tape to undifferentiated goo. I should have gone back in to the store and bought a fresh roll, but the outermost layers weren't as bad and I was mostly done with the job before it really sank in how awful it was. My wonderful patch job didn't even make it to the interstate; as soon as I hit 40 MPH it started coming off. I drove home with my left hand clutched on the bottom part that had come loose, and then spent a bunch more time doing a (hopefully) much better job with much better duct tape.Now I'm frantically scarfing a little dinner, a full hour after the time I meant to be on the road to Indianapolis, and I still have a few things to pack. So I'll stop this whinge and get back on the stick.
I just have to wonder what nonexistent cosmic force I have offended.
