Cars

If there is one thing I don't know an almost insignificant amount about, it is cars. I know how to fill my gas tank, how to drive it, how to put more antifreeze in and now, how to change the light bulb of the headlight. But other than that, I know nothing.

Why am I talking about this you wonder? Well, my [parents'] car [92’ Chevy Cavalier in case your curious] has been acting up for a little while now. It started with the car wobbling and shaking. Not know what the problem was, I took it home to find out [which is about 100 miles away]. 

Anyway, my dad is all "Well, one of your tires was really low... And another was sort of low but not too bad." So he fills my tires. My mom recommended getting a wheel alignment. So I still wanted to do this and we took the car to Pepboys. I noticed the wobbling was gone but the shaking was kind of still there. However, on the roads to Pepboys, there is no chance to really get up to 60mph to see.

When I get there, I talk to the guy behind the counter a little bit. And he tells me maybe it’s a wheeling balance problem and recommends doing that. It’s about $30 cheaper. Unfortunately, I was in on a Sunday and they were super busy. And I had to head back to school that night for my internship in the morning. Basically, they would have time to do one but not both. So I went with the wheel balancing because my dad had mentioned that may be the problem earlier.

Picked up the car and on the way back, my brother [who drove the cavalier] said he noticed the difference but couldn’t tell if it was different from what I was experiencing after my dad had filled the tires. Since I don’t really have a choice, I head back to school… And I feel like it is possibly worse than before…

I’m driving back and I hit a little over 60 mph and the car starts shaking rather violently. Almost enough to make me pull over [which for me, is a pretty big deal]. But as soon as I drop back below 60mph, its back to rather mild, “I’m just an old” shaking. So I keep the car at about 55mph on a 65mph road.

And I’m back at Pepboys again [it’s Friday and this is a different Pepboys]. After having told them about the wheel alignment [was once again recommended to do a wheel balance so at least there is some sort of consistency], I’m being told that it may actually be a wheel belt or something. Gonna cost me about $80 which may be about $78-ish if they are ball parking like the guy at the first Pepboys did.

It is times like this that I wish we had a mechanic in the family. But no, I’m not science oriented and my younger brother has a knack for business. And my older brothers all found their niches before I could have even thought to influence them.

What I like about this Pepboys: They are keeping me updated. While I may not understand everything about a car, it’s nice that they are telling me what is going on. Of course, I cannot use this compare this Pepboys to the other one because I did not stay around for the wheel balancing or anything [mostly because I did not have to]. I was even shown a diagram of what is in alignment on my car [which is pretty much nothing].

Though the overall feel I get is that they [at least pretend to] care. Which is nice considering that I don’t know a damn thing about cars.

It reminds me of my project for a basic marketing class I took. We had to make a fake business and make a basic business plan and advertising/promotion plan for it. We did Customer Care Auto Repair [C.C.A.R.]. It was an auto repair business that was specifically targeted towards women who may be intimidated a Pepboys or a hometown auto repair shop. 

But I digress.

Anyway, turns out they replaced a tire and did the wheel alignment. Overall, cost me $156. But it worked, which is what was probably most important. But now I really want my own car. I'm tired of investing in this piece of junk [for more reasons than I can describe]. 

But buying a car is even worse than getting the junker repaired at this point. Because getting my own car means paying for insurance to boot. Right now, my parents pay for the insurance on this car. Of course, you can't get a quote on insurance until you know what kind of car you are getting.

I'm so over this being an adult thing.