Twenty-five hundred bucks.
I am reminiscing about the days when I could drop a vee-hickle off at the dealer or over at Ivory’s or wherever and walk home while they fixed whatever it was that needed fixing. And walk back to pick it up whenever it was done. That was definitely one of the perks of being a SAHM or whatever the heck I was for all those years. Now, not so much. I dread taking vee-hickles in for service. I don’t work *that* far from the Honda dealer. The problem is that it’s a totally unfriendly walking route involving a stretch of over-utilized high-speed two-lane road and then a freeway interchange with a morass of entrances and exits and merging traffic every which way. Don’t even ask me about trying to meet up at the dealer during the rush hour. Y’all know about that. Y’all were “working outside the home” all those years I was hiking around town.
So when dashboard lights come on these days, we procrastinate. Not that we never procrastinated before but it is worse now. The check engine light in the Dogha has been on for something like six months. The scheduled maintenance light has been on for a while too. The Dogha has at least 130K miles on it now. We knew we were in for a major investment this time around and we knew it would take a couple of days.
I dunno. If I had picked up the Dogha, I’m sure I would have have noticed that the maintenance light was still on as soon as I started up the engine. I HATE dashboard lights. I am pretty sure that I would have also noticed that the brake pedal was going all the way down to the floor when I had to stop before turning out of the parking lot, if not before. Back in the Dark Ages, I once had to downshift to get one of our loverly old manual transmission Fiestas to stop at stoplights. And don’t even talk to me about those regulation Moom Chrysler minivans… Grind would be the word. Anyway, I did not pick up the Dogha this time. The person who did (not saying who) drove all the way across town to the EPA with it. Somewhere along the way, he noticed that the maintenance light was still on and that the brake pedal went all the way down to the floor. Say what? It’s okay. This story has a good ending. Our dealer sent a tow truck out to pick up the Dogha and a couple hours later, they brought it back after bleeding the new brake lines, like they should’ve done before putting it out there for us to pick up. They were *very* embarrassed. We own three Hondas and service is usually wonderful.
Yes, we spent $2500 the other day. It was almost enough to kick my very low-level lust for Kevin, my favorite vee-hickle salesman, into high gear but not quite. The Dogha is my fave vee-hickle ever. Thanks to the (GM) Engineer (wherever the heck he is) for suggesting I get a Honda vee-hickle in the first place.
Good night from your own Kayak Woman
December 4th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
That’s a lot of money! We put $1500 into my MIL’s Buick Century so our daughter could drive it; it has about 97,000 on it. BUT it’s not a Honda or Toyota. I hope we didn’t waste our money. I’ve helped my husband bleed brake lines before–it’s not a lot of fun, but pretty darned important!
December 5th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Yeah, back when The Engineer was still kicking, I found myself in the role of Automotive Assistant quite often… mostly regarding the work he insisted on “doing himself” on the Miata (the Toy Car That We Can Never Get Rid Of). That resulted in – for one example – the Koni shocks being set “one notch too low” so the car rides closer to the ground than the stock version (after all that, he said “no way am I taking all that apart again!” once he figured out what he did).
On the other hand, I live in a relatively quiet city, Honda dealer a relatively safe walking distance from home, and I’ve been racking-up approx 600 miles per week on my DGSLD this semester (5 classes/week = 5 round trips between GB & EL); those 5K oil changes come quite quickly on that schedule! The 90K checkup/oil change/service should be coming up in about a couple weeks (and my “MAINT REQ’D” light is giving me the warning flash right now, but I know how to turn it off, too 😉 ). Probably due for new tires soon, and a big$$ preventative maintenance procedure. Cheaper than a new car, that’s the big thing, and I want this baby to last me over a quarter-million miles (hey, gotta have a goal!).
December 5th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
We just did our regular maintenance on the Prius, every 5000. They noted the tires were probably going to need to be changed next time around. And our best Honda (the first) went 280,000 miles, so 250,000 should be doable. And definately more economical than buying new ones all the time. We try to “run to failure” rather than “replace regularly.”