Meet the hubby
Saturday, December 31, 2005
So I can blog on the go...
Go!
Being the sad puppy that I am, I have set up mobile blogging. I can now send pics and text direct from my phone to my blog. So... when I get stuck in traffic... WATCH OUT!
PTs home - woohoo! Now where's the HHR?
So, we got the call from Ron Carter that the PT is ready. They got two guys on it and did it in an afternoon. Pretty good really. I haven't mentioned that Bud had kindly let me use his Nissan Pathfinder and he had been using a pool truck from work.
Off we trundle to pick up the PT, armed with our written cost that Bud had insisted we have to make sure there were no suprises when we got there. At the service desk, the girl handed the invoice to Bud and announced that $1,660. About $100 less than we were told. Fine, we're not going to argue with them. We also didn't get charged for the initial check-up fee of $82. Bargain!
At the end of the day, we came up with the money between us without having to go into debt over it. The car is fixed and we had transport in the interim.
As always, God provided for us when we had needs.
As for the HHR, I am still debating the way forward. I would be better off selling the PT and paying off the note in it, then getting a lease on the HHR instead of rolling the leftover PT payments, after the trade-in value, into the lease.
One day, my HHR will come :)
Hey, it's New Year's Eve... I'm about to get jiggy with the BBQ, Bud will be finishing up in the shop and then we will eat and enjoy a glass of Merlot together to welcome in the New Year.
Happy New Year!!
Off we trundle to pick up the PT, armed with our written cost that Bud had insisted we have to make sure there were no suprises when we got there. At the service desk, the girl handed the invoice to Bud and announced that $1,660. About $100 less than we were told. Fine, we're not going to argue with them. We also didn't get charged for the initial check-up fee of $82. Bargain!
At the end of the day, we came up with the money between us without having to go into debt over it. The car is fixed and we had transport in the interim.
As always, God provided for us when we had needs.
As for the HHR, I am still debating the way forward. I would be better off selling the PT and paying off the note in it, then getting a lease on the HHR instead of rolling the leftover PT payments, after the trade-in value, into the lease.
One day, my HHR will come :)
Hey, it's New Year's Eve... I'm about to get jiggy with the BBQ, Bud will be finishing up in the shop and then we will eat and enjoy a glass of Merlot together to welcome in the New Year.
Happy New Year!!
Friday, December 30, 2005
PT's being worked on...
Last week, I got it into my head that I was going to trade the PT no matter what. So I hit the Chevrolet dealership as the HHR is going to be my next ride. It seemed that they really didn't want to sell me a car, but did advise that I get the PT fixed before trading as I will save several bucks on my monthly payments when I get a higher trade-in value. Fair comment.
While I was at the dealership, I checked out the HHR in the amethyst color. A lot lighter than the maroon / purple of my PT, but a very nice, metallic purple nonetheless. Oh yeh, nice ride.
The rep thought I should have had a 60k drive train warranty on the transmission and that I should call the dealership that I bought it from. I did - they said that it was a 36k warranty and I was only just out of it. In my frustration, I asked the girl what she suggested I should do as the car doesn't even have 40k miles on it and to have the transmission trash itself can't be right. She suggested I call Chrysler and gave me a toll free number.
Before I called Chrysler, I got on the 'net and did what I'm best at... researched the whole PT Cruiser, transmission thing. It tranpsires that it is a known problem on 2002 PT's. There are many, many cases of the planetary gear exploding and trashing the transmission. That is exactly what happened to mine.
Armed with this information, I called Chrysler and 90 mins later had spoken to two different people, been on hold longer than was talking but was left with the impression that they actually did want to help. I made it known that I was aware that it was a known problem on the PTs and it was highly documented on the Internet... With their willingness to listen and help, I was reassured and they were supposed to be calling me back the next day.
Not surprisingly, the call didn't come and I was so exhausted that I didn't call them. I came home from work, picked up Kurtis from the sitter, came home and went to bed. I haven't mentioned that through all of this I was also quite sick... some kind of virus. I had been sick most of the time since Thanksgiving and was already wiped out from intensive rehearsals and four Christmas concerts with the church, so from being sick with a flu like virus for that amount of time had left me wiped out. All this car business and Christmas on top of that was all a bit of a blur really.
Back to the plot... I called Chrysler the next day and another rep got on the case. Long story short - really, it is - they had negotiated with Ron Carter - the dealership that had the car and quoted the $3,700 - and got the price down to $2768, of which Chrysler were going to pay $1,000. We had to pay $1,768 which, is very good for a new transmission so we couldn't really grumble. Needless to say, we accepted their offer.
While I was at the dealership, I checked out the HHR in the amethyst color. A lot lighter than the maroon / purple of my PT, but a very nice, metallic purple nonetheless. Oh yeh, nice ride.
The rep thought I should have had a 60k drive train warranty on the transmission and that I should call the dealership that I bought it from. I did - they said that it was a 36k warranty and I was only just out of it. In my frustration, I asked the girl what she suggested I should do as the car doesn't even have 40k miles on it and to have the transmission trash itself can't be right. She suggested I call Chrysler and gave me a toll free number.
Before I called Chrysler, I got on the 'net and did what I'm best at... researched the whole PT Cruiser, transmission thing. It tranpsires that it is a known problem on 2002 PT's. There are many, many cases of the planetary gear exploding and trashing the transmission. That is exactly what happened to mine.
Armed with this information, I called Chrysler and 90 mins later had spoken to two different people, been on hold longer than was talking but was left with the impression that they actually did want to help. I made it known that I was aware that it was a known problem on the PTs and it was highly documented on the Internet... With their willingness to listen and help, I was reassured and they were supposed to be calling me back the next day.
Not surprisingly, the call didn't come and I was so exhausted that I didn't call them. I came home from work, picked up Kurtis from the sitter, came home and went to bed. I haven't mentioned that through all of this I was also quite sick... some kind of virus. I had been sick most of the time since Thanksgiving and was already wiped out from intensive rehearsals and four Christmas concerts with the church, so from being sick with a flu like virus for that amount of time had left me wiped out. All this car business and Christmas on top of that was all a bit of a blur really.
Back to the plot... I called Chrysler the next day and another rep got on the case. Long story short - really, it is - they had negotiated with Ron Carter - the dealership that had the car and quoted the $3,700 - and got the price down to $2768, of which Chrysler were going to pay $1,000. We had to pay $1,768 which, is very good for a new transmission so we couldn't really grumble. Needless to say, we accepted their offer.
Monday, December 26, 2005
How Much?!? Merry Christmas!
The dealership called on the Friday before Christmas to tell me that a new transmission in my PT Cruiser is going to cost $3,700. That *does* include labor and taxes. Excuse me while I roll me eyes...
While I'm sat at my desk shedding tears on what should have otherwise been a good day - the last day of work before the Christmas holiday - my boss saw that I was upset and when asked what was wrong, I just pointed at the figure I had just written down as quoted by the dealership. He knew what it was for.
Within minutes he had turned my mood around after explaining how it wasn't the end of the world as it's a great time to be trading in for a new car and even with the payoff on the outstanding balance, and the reduced value on the trade-in on my broken PT, I might still be able to trade in and get a good monthly payment figuire - especially if I lease. When it was explained to me, a lease sounded like an excellent idea. Having a shrewd businessman who is also a CPA for a boss has it's advantages!
With that in mind, I went home and enjoyed the Christmas break.
While I'm sat at my desk shedding tears on what should have otherwise been a good day - the last day of work before the Christmas holiday - my boss saw that I was upset and when asked what was wrong, I just pointed at the figure I had just written down as quoted by the dealership. He knew what it was for.
Within minutes he had turned my mood around after explaining how it wasn't the end of the world as it's a great time to be trading in for a new car and even with the payoff on the outstanding balance, and the reduced value on the trade-in on my broken PT, I might still be able to trade in and get a good monthly payment figuire - especially if I lease. When it was explained to me, a lease sounded like an excellent idea. Having a shrewd businessman who is also a CPA for a boss has it's advantages!
With that in mind, I went home and enjoyed the Christmas break.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Goodbye PT Tranny
So, I was driving to work around the beltway this morning and suddenly the throttle on my PT decided not to... throttle that is. The engine was running but I couldn't accelerate. I cruised to a standstill on the side of the road and watched a wrecker just sail on by. He must have already had a job that he was going to.
A Houston patrol car was not far behind me with a female officer who took pity on me and stopped to see if she and her co-worker cold help. They had just picked up a stray dog - a beautiful and very friendly husky. So while I waited for Bud to come and rescue me and the wrecker to tow my car away, I fussed the husky and chatted with the officers.
It was Bud's first day off for the Christmas holidays and was at home looking after Kurtis, so fortunately, he wasn't too far away as I hadn't got far with my 25 mile journey to work.
$160 dollars later (which was the best part of my new microwave and vacuum cleaner money), my car had been towed to a Chrysler dealership and Bud took me to work.
The PT doesn't even have 40k miles on it and the transmission is trashed...
A Houston patrol car was not far behind me with a female officer who took pity on me and stopped to see if she and her co-worker cold help. They had just picked up a stray dog - a beautiful and very friendly husky. So while I waited for Bud to come and rescue me and the wrecker to tow my car away, I fussed the husky and chatted with the officers.
It was Bud's first day off for the Christmas holidays and was at home looking after Kurtis, so fortunately, he wasn't too far away as I hadn't got far with my 25 mile journey to work.
$160 dollars later (which was the best part of my new microwave and vacuum cleaner money), my car had been towed to a Chrysler dealership and Bud took me to work.
The PT doesn't even have 40k miles on it and the transmission is trashed...
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