I took my car in to Tire Kingdom to get serviced this morning. I had a 7:30 am appointment because I had a lot of errands to run before leaving town at 12 pm. All I wanted was an oil change and for them to check my engine and see why it was making this weird noise. I mean the car is a year and a half old. What problem could it have? Maybe a minor one........but I wasn't expecting this.
After waiting 30 minutes they came back and told me that it's my belt tensioner assembly and it would cost $260 to fix. Damn!! What the heck is that, how serious of a problem is it, and why is this happening to a car that is less than 2 years old? Needless to say, with me driving 300+ miles later that day, it was essential I get the car fixed. Alright fine......fix the damn car! (I was pissed).
So they fix the car.....or so they thought they did. The car is still making the same dang on noise. The mechanic decides to dig a little deeper. DIG A LIL DEEPER?!!!? Ummm isn't that what you did in the first place? How did we come to the conclusion of the belt tensioner assembly being the issue? UGH!! I am so pissed at this point I am calm. You know the kind.......deadly calm. I tell the service manager to go ahead and have the mechanic "dig deeper" but I wasn't paying for the new assembly that they just put in. He opened his mouth to say something, I gave him that "Don't F with me" look, and he nodded his head and went back to the mechanic in the service bay. An hour later they come back and tell me that it's my water pump and that I would need to take it to Honda to get it fixed. LOL. Yeah whatever man. I paid the $38 bucks for the oil change, they gave me my keys, and I bizzounced.
When I got to Honda I spoke to a service advisor and was told that the water pump would be covered under my warranty if I was under the 36,000 mile limit. Well guess what? BB clocked in at 39,185 miles (Yes I named my car.......BB stands for Black Baby......What?....Did you say something?.......Oh.....Ok). So I have to pay $500 for a water pump plus labor and fees because I am 3000 miles over my warranty max? I didn't think I could get more ticked off but that did it. I purchased a brand new car in order to avoid situations like this. And I purchased a Honda because I believed it to be a reliable car. Obviously I was sadly mistaken because I am having to pay $500+ for a damn water pump on a vehicle I purchased a year and a half ago. The rep must have seen that I was getting angry so he said he would speak to his manager and see what he could do. They could fix the car today but they wouldn't be able to look at it for another hour or so. And then they would need to get the parts from their dealer and basically my car won't be ready until about 5 or 6. Its 11 am by this point and I have had no breakfast. I am tired and I got stuff to do but I need to get this car fixed. So I leave the car with Honda. Luckily they have a Hertz right next door. Convenient huh?? I go and rent a car for the day. Cost = $35.
Sigh anyways to make a long story short (I probably should have done that 2 paragraphs ago) I started thinking about how all this ish could have been avoided if I had used the $3000 I got from my parents for graduation to purchase a good used vehicle. I mean think about all the money I have dished out on this car and then to have this slap me in my face. I used $2500 as down payment on the Honda and I have been paying around $530 a month for my car note. That's a total of $12,570 spent on this car. And to those who say that a used car may have given me more issues, I say maybe so. If I didn't take my time to do my homework and just bought the first pretty car I saw then I probably would have winded up with a used car with a whole lotta issues. But I would have done my homework and I would have had my dad and uncle with me to help. And I know I would have gotten a decent vehicle. Unfortunately I didn't have the kind of mentality then that I have now.
You live and you learn. That lesson might cost you 12 G's but you learn.
Oh yeah.....Honda called me at 5 to pick up my car and I paid $0. That was God all the way. I could have dished out $972 today. Instead I only paid out $73 bucks and my car got fixed.
Definitely Him.
After waiting 30 minutes they came back and told me that it's my belt tensioner assembly and it would cost $260 to fix. Damn!! What the heck is that, how serious of a problem is it, and why is this happening to a car that is less than 2 years old? Needless to say, with me driving 300+ miles later that day, it was essential I get the car fixed. Alright fine......fix the damn car! (I was pissed).
So they fix the car.....or so they thought they did. The car is still making the same dang on noise. The mechanic decides to dig a little deeper. DIG A LIL DEEPER?!!!? Ummm isn't that what you did in the first place? How did we come to the conclusion of the belt tensioner assembly being the issue? UGH!! I am so pissed at this point I am calm. You know the kind.......deadly calm. I tell the service manager to go ahead and have the mechanic "dig deeper" but I wasn't paying for the new assembly that they just put in. He opened his mouth to say something, I gave him that "Don't F with me" look, and he nodded his head and went back to the mechanic in the service bay. An hour later they come back and tell me that it's my water pump and that I would need to take it to Honda to get it fixed. LOL. Yeah whatever man. I paid the $38 bucks for the oil change, they gave me my keys, and I bizzounced.
When I got to Honda I spoke to a service advisor and was told that the water pump would be covered under my warranty if I was under the 36,000 mile limit. Well guess what? BB clocked in at 39,185 miles (Yes I named my car.......BB stands for Black Baby......What?....Did you say something?.......Oh.....Ok). So I have to pay $500 for a water pump plus labor and fees because I am 3000 miles over my warranty max? I didn't think I could get more ticked off but that did it. I purchased a brand new car in order to avoid situations like this. And I purchased a Honda because I believed it to be a reliable car. Obviously I was sadly mistaken because I am having to pay $500+ for a damn water pump on a vehicle I purchased a year and a half ago. The rep must have seen that I was getting angry so he said he would speak to his manager and see what he could do. They could fix the car today but they wouldn't be able to look at it for another hour or so. And then they would need to get the parts from their dealer and basically my car won't be ready until about 5 or 6. Its 11 am by this point and I have had no breakfast. I am tired and I got stuff to do but I need to get this car fixed. So I leave the car with Honda. Luckily they have a Hertz right next door. Convenient huh?? I go and rent a car for the day. Cost = $35.
Sigh anyways to make a long story short (I probably should have done that 2 paragraphs ago) I started thinking about how all this ish could have been avoided if I had used the $3000 I got from my parents for graduation to purchase a good used vehicle. I mean think about all the money I have dished out on this car and then to have this slap me in my face. I used $2500 as down payment on the Honda and I have been paying around $530 a month for my car note. That's a total of $12,570 spent on this car. And to those who say that a used car may have given me more issues, I say maybe so. If I didn't take my time to do my homework and just bought the first pretty car I saw then I probably would have winded up with a used car with a whole lotta issues. But I would have done my homework and I would have had my dad and uncle with me to help. And I know I would have gotten a decent vehicle. Unfortunately I didn't have the kind of mentality then that I have now.
You live and you learn. That lesson might cost you 12 G's but you learn.
Oh yeah.....Honda called me at 5 to pick up my car and I paid $0. That was God all the way. I could have dished out $972 today. Instead I only paid out $73 bucks and my car got fixed.
Definitely Him.
Comments
I think it is funny because, I will never buy used again. I was sold a "Certified Pre-Owned Toyota" that was in an accident. I wound up with no undercarriage metal from the back of my seat completely under the passenger behind me seat. The only thing protecting my passengers from going through the floor is the foam under the carpet. I had to sue the company and, i only got the cost of the estimate to fix it by another dealership. So I paid $16,000.00 for a "luxury" broken car.
I'm glad to hear that your issues were solved and that you didn't have to pay for the negligence of the mechanics.