FRUSTRATION OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled for a long trip--but a day trip. Thursday and Friday, I am scheduled for a very long trip requiring an overnight stay way up north. I literally drive the wheels off the little car so it is my standard practice about once a month to take the car in and get all sorts of maintenance issues completed. Today, I needed to stop by the grocery store, stop by two more stores to pick up needed items for the house or pets, and fill the tank with gas before taking the car in for its oil change.

It was supposed to simply be the usual full synthetic oil change. During the "check-up" they give the car, they discovered that the battery was about to go "belly up". I called Eric and told him what they charged to replace it (since I have no understanding of what is reasonable and what isn't). He said, get it done. Also, about two weeks ago when it was incredibly cold I went out to start the car. The car was just slightly resistant to starting. At that time, I thought "that battery doesn't sound right and needs to be checked". So, I told them to install the new battery. They installed it and told me to start the car. It started like a champ. I thought it was going to take off and roar out of the garage. And, then with no warning, the car simply died. The mechanics started that car at least 50 times and every time it did the same thing. The car had NEVER behaved that way. After several hours, they called the dealer.

Guess what folks, the company puts this little mechanism in these cars that if anyone but a dealer changes the battery, the idle resets so low that the car will not run. So the garage had to call the dealer back, have them send a tow truck, and haul the car to the dealer so they can "reset the scan". Of course, all their workers were gone for the day so they can't get it done today. That's one of the reasons I try to avoid dealerships. So the garage called the rental car company and rented me a Nissan Sentra for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I had to call Eric and tell him to take off work and come get all the groceries so they didn't ruin overnight at the dealership. He graciously took off work and came and got a complete trunk full of groceries, took them home, carried them all in the house and put them away. And, I went to the rental car place to deal with all their paperwork. That experience alone is enough to make a person contemplate suicide or homicide. I hate Entriprise leasing.

I was just so frustrated. Basically, one is stopped from doing regular maintenance on one's car.