The Joys of Vehicle Ownership

There is finally light at the end of my vehicle-less nightmare. Well, sort-of anyway.

Well, the truck finally did it to me, but she waited a good long time and I can't complain about that, however much I want to. It's been about a month now that she's been in the shop, and I finally got done with the warranty battle, the work finally got completed, and now I know how much I get to come up with.

Isuzu's warranty paid for the engine block and the labor. I get to pay for the regular-type maintenance like putting oil back in, new filters and spark plugs, etc. And I get to pay for my clutch, but only the parts, not the labor since that's included in the labor from the engine block.

When it all started, the first words out of the dealership's mouth were $4600 minimum. I said "warranty" and they fed me about a thousand excuses why they thought it wouldn't be warranty. "You didn't have any oil." I had just put a quart of oil in it not ten minutes before this happened. "You haven't kept up with maintenance." There's my service history with Wal-Mart. Always within specs according to the manufacturer's guidelines in my owner's manual. "You aren't the first owner." (I thought that was the most creative one.) When I asked where they got that idea, they said it was because of the mileage. I said, "The vehicle is a 2002 model, which would have come out in late 2001. It was not purchased by me until early in 2003. There were countless test drives on that vehicle before I ever laid eyes on it. And the dealership sold it to me as a new, not a used vehicle. I am the first owner of this vehicle."

About 1 1/2 weeks later, after about 30 voicemails to various people in the service department, I got word that Isuzu would cover the engine block. Then more silence from them with me leaving voice mails asking for progress reports. "Will you give me a loaner?" No, we don't do that. "Then can you speed it up? I don't have a vehicle here." (They don't need to know I've been either borrowing a car from my boyfriend or riding in with him whenever I could convince him to go in early. Besides, the car I've been borrowing has a busted headlight, so when it's dark I might as well not have a car.) We'll do our best, ma'am. These are words I say on a regular basis at my day job, which mean, either I let down 50 other clients desperately wanting my fix to happen right this second, or I add this one client to the back of the list and deal with it in the order in which it was received. I don't bother getting my hopes up too high. I settle for hoping that some hideous amount of money isn't required of me in spite of the warranty group's "cooperation."

So, how much is my little brush with tired-vehicle-itis going to cost me? A mere $554.96. Small change in light of what it was going to cost me, but still, not an easy sum of money to obtain on short notice for the average Jane working two jobs just so she can afford to play once in while. Yep, and it happens right when I finally realize that, “Hey, my body is not going to put up with this abuse any longer. I better find a way to reduce my hours and fast.” And I did exactly that. Now my checks from good old Micky D’s are half the size. Great timing!

So now what do I do?

What any normal American girl living on her own, 800 miles from home, would do.

“Daddy!”