Car Trouble

All of our vehicles have been cursed as of late. We've spent a fortune on them in the past month or so. First off, the Neon died at the beginning of June. This is the car M. drives back and forth to work. We knew it was coming eventually and can't really complain. It was a '97 with over 200,000 miles on it, so we got our money's worth. So for two weeks, he drove the truck to work. The first week, he spent $170 on gas; the second week, $190. We had to stop the bleeding, so on Sat., June 24 we went and bought a Chevy Cobalt. We hadn't planned on buying a new car, but we got a really good deal on it and it won't be something we have to sink a lot of money into. And we specifically bought an American car because we haven't been that happy with the Kia.

June is also the month we have to renew our tags and get all of the vehicles inspected, not a cheap investment in PA. The van passed no problem, then we dropped off the truck for inspection and to replace the spare tire. It also passed, but when we went to pick it up, it wouldn't start. It wasn't the battery, it was the starter. Well, M's truck is a 2004 and surely that's covered under the warranty. The warranty to the truck is a measly 3 years/36,000 miles. Guess how many miles M. has on the truck? Guess! 36,433! Can you believe it?! No wonder people don't want to buy American cars anymore and so much for us going back to Chevy. $400 later, it's fixed. My dad thinks I should still call Chevy and see if I can work a deal with them to pay half or something.

In the meantime, the van has been acting kooky. Last Friday, I had to run into the doctor's office. When I came back out, the gas gauge was on E and the gas light was on. I knew I had atleast a half a tank of gas left and was only at 169 miles, when I usually get 300 out of a tank. But I went and filled it up anyway. I only put 12 gallons in to fill it and the light went off and the gauge went back to normal. Now I'm waiting to see if it does it again when I get back down to a half a tank. And to top it all off, on Saturday, as Big H and I were driving up to the mall, we got a flat tire. Yes, another flat tire. And of course, we were in a construction zone. If we had driven another 25 yards or so, there wouldn't have been any place to pull over and the shoulder we were on was already very narrow. I called AAA (my cell phone that I've had for 5+ years paid for itself just with that one phone call) and while we were waiting for them to come, a very nice man and his son stopped to help us. I told him he didn't have to change the tire because AAA was on the way, but he changed it anyway, which was incredibly nice. I tried to give him a twenty, but he wouldn't take it. I am extremely grateful!

So now I'm hoping we can make it through this week without spending any money on our cars except on gas!