Yesterday was one of those weird days that you’re later forced to make sense out of. I wasn’t feeling well when I woke up at 5 AM to thunder and lightning. Mind you it is February and even here in the lightning capital of America it isn’t normal to have storms in the middle of winter. I’ll leave that evaluation to the meteorologists.
I woke up feeling pretty bad. I had a massive headache and didn’t sleep well. So I did what I do about 3 times a year and called in sick. I always feel such guilt for doing it, but I wasn’t feeling good and I was exhausted. So I’d say it is justified. I popped a couple of Benadryl and drifted off into a blissful sleep. That is until my not so happy girlfriend showed up. Apparently she was trying to call me that morning (I’m a firm believer in tossing the cell phone in another room while I sleep.) Unfortunately, without a house phone, if someone really needs you, they’re out of luck.
So she had called me and got my voicemail. Rightfully so, she wasn’t happy. She left in the morning heading off to work and noticed some noises coming from her tire. Long story short, her tire was flattened and she was stranded on the side of I-95 while I blissfully slept. Luckily a couple pulled over to help her and got her spare on the car. So she came home maybe 2 hours into her day soaking wet. Since I was home, I told her I would follow her over to buy a new tire or fix the one she already had. About 20 feet into our journey, she realized her spare was flat now.
So, we ran to the gas station and got Fix-A-Flat for the spare. I hooked it up and was quite proud to fulfill my manly duty of fixing her tire. Proud that is until she noticed all the foam coming out of the other side of the tire. It was off the rim. I don’t take to fixing car things the way most men do. I know a little bit about them, but just like computers, I hate fixing them. So I grump and cuss and generally get in a crappy mood. Add the headache and the sleepiness Benadryl always brings and the last thing I want to do is jack up her car.
So, I jacked her car up to put the spare from my car on it. I told her to go ahead and call AAA just in case because I had visions of me failing at the mission. For some reason I always doubt myself. In the end, I was able to change the spare out and get mine on her car. We successfully dropped the car off to get a new tire. By this point, I realized I was not going back to bed. So we decided to get lunch. On the way, we noticed my car was really acting up. Long story short, I have had it in 5 times because the clutch is just not right. It makes a horrible noise when you press down on it and it really acts up in low gears (IE lunging and stalling). Since it was being extra obnoxious and we were already dealing with car issues, we decided to take it to the Honda dealership were I got it and have the mechanic look at it again.
I road with the mechanic and insisted he drive it so he could see what was wrong with it. Now, anyone who has drove or even heard this thing will tell you it was jacked up. The mechanic heard the noises and tried to tell me it was the sound of the foot on the pedal. I about lost it there. He explained to me that they have done all they are willing to do. A little back story yesterday was my 6th visit for the same issue and they had promised me if they couldn’t make it go away, by my third trip they would get a new transmission. It is a Honda and they are notoriously reliable. So the last thing they would want is someone driving around a 2003 Civic with a transmission that is already jacked up. At least, one would think.
Long story short, the guy sprayed what looked like WD40 on the pedal and sent me on my way. I drove 5 feet before the noise returned. Six visits and they couldn’t solve this problem. Honestly, based on how quickly the clutch issues arose after I bought the car makes me wonder if the last owner didn’t just treat the car like crap (or drive it through a flooded street after the last couple of busy hurricane seasons.) So we went home.
It didn’t take me too long to decide I had to get them to admit there is actually something wrong with the transmission. So I called the guy I bought it from and told him I would like to come trade the vehicle in. I figured the service records would show him a clear pattern of problems. At the very least, the sales team would not give me a good trade in on it once they heard the clutch. It was my bluff. I was really relishing the moment they came in after evaluating my trade to tell me they didn’t want it because the transmission isn’t working right. Instead, they never mentioned it.
What they did have was a car almost exactly like the one I traded in for the Civic. I bought the Civic to get better gas mileage. Plain and simple. I had an SUV before and felt a lot of guilt about driving so far in one. Truthfully, it gets good gas mileage for an SUV (high 20s) but it is still an SUV.
When the dealers offered me the same vehicle I had before, it was a nerve racking moment. I only considered going back to it because the one I originally had was great. It was fun to drive and had zero issues. I only traded it in for the more fuel efficient Civic. Seeing as next week I’ll be about 4 miles round trip from my job, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea to go back to it.
My only dread is the crap I’m going to catch. Firstly, I have had a steady track record of trading cars averaging about 1 car a year. I’m not rich. These are used vehicles. Usually I trade them because they have some major issue. In the case of yesterdays trade, they were paying off my Civic and giving me my old car basically for what I traded the same model in for last year. My payments went up $20 a month, but my insurance is also going down $160 a year ($13 a month less) with the new ride, so it is actually a $7 difference each moth.
I didn’t feel any guilt about trading the Civic in to the people who sold it to me in the first place. I would have never sold it to a person knowing the transmission has issues on such a new car. Cost wise, it was a “no harm no foul” scenario for me. The part that truly irks me is that they sold me this Civic probably knowing something was wrong with it. Worse case scenario, they’ll lube the clutch and transmission up really good and pass the car on to someone else. Then they’ll go through the cycle of bringing it in to the repair shop. Honda will keep lubing the clutch until eventually it hits 100,000 miles and is no longer there problem.
Truth be told, I think they negotiated the deal yesterday with me because I have been such a pest. They’ll be glad to be rid of me. Maybe the next person who buys the car will just ignore the obvious problem until its no longer under any warranty. Of course, they may replace the transmission now. I’m guessing they’ll have an easier time negotiating the replacement knowing they can turn around and sell the vehicle, probably for thousands more than they gave me for it. I regret nothing more than trading in my old ride for this Civic in the first place. Prior to the Civic was my first ever new car and I knew its history from day one. Unfortunately, like most people, I can not afford a new car. So I’m gambling on another used one.
I woke up feeling pretty bad. I had a massive headache and didn’t sleep well. So I did what I do about 3 times a year and called in sick. I always feel such guilt for doing it, but I wasn’t feeling good and I was exhausted. So I’d say it is justified. I popped a couple of Benadryl and drifted off into a blissful sleep. That is until my not so happy girlfriend showed up. Apparently she was trying to call me that morning (I’m a firm believer in tossing the cell phone in another room while I sleep.) Unfortunately, without a house phone, if someone really needs you, they’re out of luck.
So she had called me and got my voicemail. Rightfully so, she wasn’t happy. She left in the morning heading off to work and noticed some noises coming from her tire. Long story short, her tire was flattened and she was stranded on the side of I-95 while I blissfully slept. Luckily a couple pulled over to help her and got her spare on the car. So she came home maybe 2 hours into her day soaking wet. Since I was home, I told her I would follow her over to buy a new tire or fix the one she already had. About 20 feet into our journey, she realized her spare was flat now.
So, we ran to the gas station and got Fix-A-Flat for the spare. I hooked it up and was quite proud to fulfill my manly duty of fixing her tire. Proud that is until she noticed all the foam coming out of the other side of the tire. It was off the rim. I don’t take to fixing car things the way most men do. I know a little bit about them, but just like computers, I hate fixing them. So I grump and cuss and generally get in a crappy mood. Add the headache and the sleepiness Benadryl always brings and the last thing I want to do is jack up her car.
So, I jacked her car up to put the spare from my car on it. I told her to go ahead and call AAA just in case because I had visions of me failing at the mission. For some reason I always doubt myself. In the end, I was able to change the spare out and get mine on her car. We successfully dropped the car off to get a new tire. By this point, I realized I was not going back to bed. So we decided to get lunch. On the way, we noticed my car was really acting up. Long story short, I have had it in 5 times because the clutch is just not right. It makes a horrible noise when you press down on it and it really acts up in low gears (IE lunging and stalling). Since it was being extra obnoxious and we were already dealing with car issues, we decided to take it to the Honda dealership were I got it and have the mechanic look at it again.
I road with the mechanic and insisted he drive it so he could see what was wrong with it. Now, anyone who has drove or even heard this thing will tell you it was jacked up. The mechanic heard the noises and tried to tell me it was the sound of the foot on the pedal. I about lost it there. He explained to me that they have done all they are willing to do. A little back story yesterday was my 6th visit for the same issue and they had promised me if they couldn’t make it go away, by my third trip they would get a new transmission. It is a Honda and they are notoriously reliable. So the last thing they would want is someone driving around a 2003 Civic with a transmission that is already jacked up. At least, one would think.
Long story short, the guy sprayed what looked like WD40 on the pedal and sent me on my way. I drove 5 feet before the noise returned. Six visits and they couldn’t solve this problem. Honestly, based on how quickly the clutch issues arose after I bought the car makes me wonder if the last owner didn’t just treat the car like crap (or drive it through a flooded street after the last couple of busy hurricane seasons.) So we went home.
It didn’t take me too long to decide I had to get them to admit there is actually something wrong with the transmission. So I called the guy I bought it from and told him I would like to come trade the vehicle in. I figured the service records would show him a clear pattern of problems. At the very least, the sales team would not give me a good trade in on it once they heard the clutch. It was my bluff. I was really relishing the moment they came in after evaluating my trade to tell me they didn’t want it because the transmission isn’t working right. Instead, they never mentioned it.
What they did have was a car almost exactly like the one I traded in for the Civic. I bought the Civic to get better gas mileage. Plain and simple. I had an SUV before and felt a lot of guilt about driving so far in one. Truthfully, it gets good gas mileage for an SUV (high 20s) but it is still an SUV.
When the dealers offered me the same vehicle I had before, it was a nerve racking moment. I only considered going back to it because the one I originally had was great. It was fun to drive and had zero issues. I only traded it in for the more fuel efficient Civic. Seeing as next week I’ll be about 4 miles round trip from my job, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea to go back to it.
My only dread is the crap I’m going to catch. Firstly, I have had a steady track record of trading cars averaging about 1 car a year. I’m not rich. These are used vehicles. Usually I trade them because they have some major issue. In the case of yesterdays trade, they were paying off my Civic and giving me my old car basically for what I traded the same model in for last year. My payments went up $20 a month, but my insurance is also going down $160 a year ($13 a month less) with the new ride, so it is actually a $7 difference each moth.
I didn’t feel any guilt about trading the Civic in to the people who sold it to me in the first place. I would have never sold it to a person knowing the transmission has issues on such a new car. Cost wise, it was a “no harm no foul” scenario for me. The part that truly irks me is that they sold me this Civic probably knowing something was wrong with it. Worse case scenario, they’ll lube the clutch and transmission up really good and pass the car on to someone else. Then they’ll go through the cycle of bringing it in to the repair shop. Honda will keep lubing the clutch until eventually it hits 100,000 miles and is no longer there problem.
Truth be told, I think they negotiated the deal yesterday with me because I have been such a pest. They’ll be glad to be rid of me. Maybe the next person who buys the car will just ignore the obvious problem until its no longer under any warranty. Of course, they may replace the transmission now. I’m guessing they’ll have an easier time negotiating the replacement knowing they can turn around and sell the vehicle, probably for thousands more than they gave me for it. I regret nothing more than trading in my old ride for this Civic in the first place. Prior to the Civic was my first ever new car and I knew its history from day one. Unfortunately, like most people, I can not afford a new car. So I’m gambling on another used one.
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