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xiphiasEither 1. you drive a junker, or 2. the garage has a REALLY nice loaner car.
Tremont Street Garage is where our car goes when it gets sick, because it's walkable from our house. Our car has potentially $1400 wrong with it; we're trying to decide "fix or replace". Bruce, the owner, thinks "fix", because the 1996 Olds Cutlass Sierra is like the cockroach of cars -- not pretty, never runs WELL, but you can't kill it. There's a zillion of them out there, which means that parts are easy to get. It dies a final death only though the complete disintegration of the body, or by being beheaded and buried at a crossroads with garlic in its gas tank. But we don't know for sure if it's worth it. Both front window motors (power windows) have died, and the computer brain in the middle of the engine that tells it how to fire the spark plugs has developed a HAL complex. "I'm sorry, Ian, I don't think you can start the car now."
Bruce can get the replacement motors and computer, but we don't know. Before we authorize that work, we're authorizing the $95 "bumper to bumper diagnostic". They'll find everything that's wrong with or potentially wrong with the car. That will give us a much better idea whether it's worth fixing.
Anyway, yesterday, when it became clear that the computer was going to be a thornier problem than we'd initially thought, Bruce loaned me their crappy loaner car to get Lis to and from work. Which is fine. It's a crappy loaner car -- it runs reliably, noisily, and roughly. The steering wheel is sticky and smells of garlic. That sort of thing.
So, today when I talked with Bruce, I mentioned that we were going to be going to Vermont over the weekend, for my nephew's birthday party. Just up and down for the day. Bruce felt that our car would probably make it, but he was worried about the computer. So he told me that they've got another loaner car, the one that they loan out when people's cars break down just before vacations and road trips.
It's a Mercury Sable, a sort of borderline luxury car. It's got a CD player. There's a piece of black tape over the "check engine" light, because that tends to go on, but that's because of a faulty sensor, and it doesn't actually cause any problems. I mean, it IS a garage loaner car, so it CAN'T be perfect.
But, yeah. It's a nice car.
Tremont Street Garage is where our car goes when it gets sick, because it's walkable from our house. Our car has potentially $1400 wrong with it; we're trying to decide "fix or replace". Bruce, the owner, thinks "fix", because the 1996 Olds Cutlass Sierra is like the cockroach of cars -- not pretty, never runs WELL, but you can't kill it. There's a zillion of them out there, which means that parts are easy to get. It dies a final death only though the complete disintegration of the body, or by being beheaded and buried at a crossroads with garlic in its gas tank. But we don't know for sure if it's worth it. Both front window motors (power windows) have died, and the computer brain in the middle of the engine that tells it how to fire the spark plugs has developed a HAL complex. "I'm sorry, Ian, I don't think you can start the car now."
Bruce can get the replacement motors and computer, but we don't know. Before we authorize that work, we're authorizing the $95 "bumper to bumper diagnostic". They'll find everything that's wrong with or potentially wrong with the car. That will give us a much better idea whether it's worth fixing.
Anyway, yesterday, when it became clear that the computer was going to be a thornier problem than we'd initially thought, Bruce loaned me their crappy loaner car to get Lis to and from work. Which is fine. It's a crappy loaner car -- it runs reliably, noisily, and roughly. The steering wheel is sticky and smells of garlic. That sort of thing.
So, today when I talked with Bruce, I mentioned that we were going to be going to Vermont over the weekend, for my nephew's birthday party. Just up and down for the day. Bruce felt that our car would probably make it, but he was worried about the computer. So he told me that they've got another loaner car, the one that they loan out when people's cars break down just before vacations and road trips.
It's a Mercury Sable, a sort of borderline luxury car. It's got a CD player. There's a piece of black tape over the "check engine" light, because that tends to go on, but that's because of a faulty sensor, and it doesn't actually cause any problems. I mean, it IS a garage loaner car, so it CAN'T be perfect.
But, yeah. It's a nice car.