Thursday, September 20, 2007

CARS! ARRGHHH

So do they have a Head Hunter for buying cars? That is the question of the month. I have the worst luck with cars. So here is my story about my different cars.


The first car I had was a Blue Pontiac Sunbird, a hand-me-down from my brother. He knew that he would be getting a new car when he was 18 so he did not care how he treated this car. So when I got the car it was not in the best condition. The radiator was bad so it would die all the time, no air (or that's what I thought), no emergency brake because he would drive down the rode then pull it up just to have fun. The things we do when we are 16 are crazy. Finally mom decided to get a new car so we traded in mine. So the night before we go to trade it in my dad tells me to go take the car for one last spin around the block. I thought why in the world would I want to that. I was ready to get rid of that car. So I got in it for one last spin and on came the AIR full blast and cold!! The only thing wrong with the air the whole time was that dad had unhooked the fan belt because when the air was on it would over heat the car because of the radiator. Well you would think when we got the radiator fixed dad would have hooked it back up but no he waited until we traded it in!


The second car was a Nissan Stanza, another hand-me-down but this time from my mom. This was a good car! It had air and ran really good, at first. Before I got the car mom was traveling home from Nashville and the car started messing up on her so she did the smart thing and pulled off the interstate and called dad to come get her. Well dad decided to drive the car home even though it was not running well at all. What happened was some belts broke and he got those replaced and we thought everything was okay. I drove the car for about 1 1/2 years until I had enough. This car started dying on me so I took it to the shop and it had a blown headgasett (very expensive to fix). So I decided this time to get a NEW car, no more hand-me-downs.


The third car was a NEW Cavalier. I was so glad to have a new car that I would not have any problems out of it, but boy was I wrong. I had the car for about 9 months and then all the problems started. I would be driving down the rode and the radio would just turn off all the sudden then it would come back on really loud. Weird I know, I thought I was going crazy the first couple of times it happened. So I took it to the shop and it was a something electrical. I thought they had everything fixed but then it happened again. I took it back to the shop, they said the same thing. Then a few weeks later while driving down the rode at night my head lights went out. No head lights at night, not a good combination. The next evening the head lights worked great, no problems. So things like this kept happening all the time. Finally one day I had enough, after I pulled into the driveway and the car died before I got it into park and would not start back up. I think my car was in the shop oh about 30 to 40 times within a 8 month period. The guys at the shop knew me by name at this point. I told the guy that if he did not get things fixed then I wanted a new car because mine was a Lemon (I worked for an attorney and had paperwork already drawn up for this fight). They finally gave me a rental and kept my car for three weeks. They got it fixed this time, for now. Well the car did fine for about a year or so then all the sudden no head lights while driving home from work and they never came back on except for bright but by this time my warranty was up. I had a few different people look at it and could not figure out what was wrong and with the background of the car it was looking as if all my problems were coming back. So instead of paying someone alot of money just to try and find the problem I decided it was time for a different car. So off I went car shopping!


So the fourth car, which is what I have right now, is a 2002 Hyundai Elantra. I bought it used which is the route I wanted to go this time. It has been a pretty good little car for me. I've had the car for almost three years and just now having problems. I drove to Shelbyville to go to work, when I got into town my car acted like it did not want to pick up and go from a stop, so I took it to get the transmission fluid checked and get an oil change. It was overdue for the oil change (about 5 months late) and they said the oil pan was dry and dirty. So after about $80 we finally got everything cleaned out and the oil was good. I had to get this taken care of because I was suppose to drive to Florida for a vacation that I really needed. Well after driving to FL and then back to TN my car did not like me at all. It started shaking 'like a mad woman' so my dad did a "tune up" on it. The tires have what you call cups so he rotated them and changed some other things out too. Well I drove to Smyrna one Saturday morning to go to work and the check engine light came on and I did not think I was going to make it home. The car would not go! My brother gave me his car and kept my car so he could drive it to see what was going on. They tested it at Auto Zone and I had a bad censor. My dad went to pick up the car on Sunday afternoon to fix it and the stupid car was FINE for him. This always happens, dad will take the car and it will not act up for him. He drove it for a few days and the only thing that happened while he had it was it did not want to start for him the first morning and then again that night, but after that no problems.


I am still not real sure about keeping this car because I travel and run around so much that I need a reliable car. I am looking at some different cars right now to see what I want to do. I guess we will see what happens in the next few weeks or months. I will keep you updated! :)

3 comments:

Susan said...

I think all your cars are messing up because you drive them to go SHOPPING ALL THE TIME!!! lol

Joy said...

Susan does have an interesting theory!!! hahaha =0)

Holli said...

Ok Ali...You have to take care of your cars to make them last. You can't go 24/7....shopping, parties trips and so on without giving it a break!!! Slow down, keep the oil changed and you should be ok!!! lol