Automobiles: Repair
Right now, I’m really beginning to hate cars.
Not only is the gas crisis getting to me, but just the actual make of the cars, and also my own ignorance with automobiles is bothering me.
Right now I have a 2005 Nissan Sentra, and I bought it pre-owned in 2006 with only 15,000 miles on it. Now I know it is pre-owned, and I know there might’ve been previous problems with it, but for the time I’ve had it, it has been somewhat good to me. It was in one bad accident where while everyone ahead of me had stopped, the person behind me just decided to try and plow through me. It was about $7000 worth of damage and I got a new “butt” on my car. And even though I’ve racked up over 70,000 miles on it from my random trips over the past two years, it seemed to be just fine.
So we come to the end of this most recent labor day weekend where I’m trying to drive back home after visiting family, and I witness typical Garden State Parkway stupidity ahead of me. Someone just decided to swing into my lane, with no directionals, just to pass someone slower ahead of them, and totally forgot I was right behind him. So I, along with a few others as he passed over several lanes, had to slow down pretty quickly in order to avoid a nasty accident. All the cars slowed down, including mine, and it should’ve been fine. However, for some reason, my brake lights wouldn’t go off after I had taken my foot off the brake pedal.
Worried I might have done something to the brakes of my car, I pulled over to the right-most lane and when no one was behind me, tried to press on the brake a few times to make sure I could stop. I still could slow my car down just fine, however the brake lights refused to go off.
I then noticed I was nearing a rest area. “Great! I can pull in and see if I can make the lights go off,” I thought as I quickly pulled into the rest stop. I pulled into a parking spot, turned off the car, and much to my dismay found the brake lights still on.
I had tried slamming the trunk down, pressing the brake pedal multiple times, tried turning the car on and off multiple times to no avail. No matter what, these brake lights weren’t going off.
Friends came over, my mother came over, I pretty much had a mini car fair going on in the parking lot of the rest stop with people trying to figure out what was mysteriously wrong with my car. And between all of us, we couldn’t figure it out.
Thankfully, I had AAA, and I had called them to at least come and tow the car as I couldn’t just leave it there. I then found out in New Jersey, due to our wonderful state legislation, AAA can’t come out to disabled vehicles on the Parkway or the Turnpike. State Police had to come over. And what also pissed me off is I then noticed that even though I had paid my member dues to AAA for another year, they still had not sent me a new card! I knew it was a risk calling them with an expired number but I had hoped I’d be in their computer records so they could look it up. But no such luck, I had to deal with a third party. So I was transferred to the state police to a very nasty guy on the phone. I understand it sucks dealing with people and probably half the time, people call about really stupid things. I’ll even go out on the limb and say out of all the things to call the state police about, my situation was probably a common annoyance. But, you still don’t need to cut me off and be snappy and rude to me. I think I’ve already had enough bullshit to deal with for the night!
So state police never show up but they send a mechanic over who takes a look at my car. Within about ten minutes, he’s able to tell me what’s wrong with my car and also showed me how to override the shift lock in my car. Now this is when I question the make of the car. I want to know who had the bright idea to make a small hole near the gear shift in the middle console where you need to stick your ignition key into to finally move the gear shift if stuck. And then, I want to smack the person upside the head who didn’t put this in the driver’s manual. I had pretty much read that manual by the time everyone came to my mini car fair and the mechanic showed up. NOWHERE did it even mention a shift unlocking feature in my car. You would think you would want to mention that, especially since after researching online, this seems to be a not so uncommon problem.
By then the car was freed, the mechanic told me my brake switch was loose and needed to be replaced, did a temporary fix so I could get home and drive it for a day or two with no problems and was on his way. I will tell you this much, I nervously drove that car back home, wincing everytime I came to a stop, hoping the lights won’t stay on again.
Right now the car is in the shop, and actually as I was writing this blog, just heard back from them with them telling me the replacing brake switch might take a few days to arrive. Lovely. Just more car issues to deal with.
So now you find me here, currently car-less, annoyed at having to deal with cars breaking down so soon. The car is only three years old and I have spent about as much money as fixing up my previous car, a ‘94 Pontiac Bonneville, easy. And that car had a broken sunroof which would leave pools of water in my car during the rainy season!!
I’ve dealt with three vehicles during my “driving lifetime.” A ‘94 Pontiac Bonneville, a ‘93 Nissan Pathfinder, and the ‘05 Nissan Sentra. And right now I’m baffled that the two older cars seemed to be in better shape than my newer car. The Bonneville was a hand-me-down from my mother and I only got rid of it because the engine was finally going. It was an old car, with about 190,000 miles on it and it had a good run. I still have the Pathfinder, but it was my father’s car that I inherited after his passing and it does still need work. I’m currently still saving up for that, since it doesn’t have too many miles on it and when fixed up would work just fine, but everytime I save up just enough to fix it, THE SENTRA BREAKS!
Why is the newer car breaking so often? I don’t know. It could be the accident. It could be the fact I put so many miles on it in a short time. It could be because something happened with the first owner before I got it. I’m not really sure. I just know between the AAA craziness with NJ State Legislation and them still not sending me a renewed card (makes me wonder why I even paid for another year), the obvious gas and economic crisis going on in the country currently, and just the reoccurring mechanical repairs I am getting sick and tired of automobiles. I know learning about cars and car repair might help save money when my car does break, and I’ve been considering it for a while, but until then, I’m stuck at the mechanic’s mercy as I pay more money for a machine that will take more and more money out of me either due to repair or gas later on.
I’m just getting sick and tired of the whole automobile scene.
Not that it isn’t too much better, but I’m seriously considering getting a motorcycle or a scooter. They have better miles per gallon, the insurance is lower, and, in all honesty, I’ve always wanted one. Obviously safety is an issue and also, I know my family would have a conniption over me doing that. But with the way the economy is going, I’m getting very near to not caring.
Well, time for me to get back to work, back to wondering how much my car is going to cost me now, and back to me trying to plan out a scooter or motorcycle purchase without too much resistance.
Random Question: What does anyone think of Lifan motorcycles and scooters? This is the brand I’m currently looking at and have been recommended by an online friend who owns one. While they seem much cheaper than a regular scooter or bike, my concern is obviously the need for repair. I don’t want to keep ending up in the garage with a Lifan. I can do that just fine with my Sentra apparently. Comment below and let me know your views on Lifans or direct message me on my twitter.
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