Yo La Tengo – I Should Have Known Better

Yesterday I took my car in to have the brakes looked at since they had been feeling spongey. I had read that somewhere and it seemed to fit the way they felt but I don’t know if that’s a real thing car people say. They took off the wheels assessed the situation and said, the rear brakes need new shoes, drums, pads, but mostly the cylinders were leaking and it should all be replaced. $600. What are you going to do, say no, put the wheels back on, charge me $100+ for the time and then what? So I spent $600 and headed home in the evening feeling like I had done a good thing and had put myself and the car in better shape for the winter.

Hahaha! My car decided that those new brakes were just the opening act. About 2/3 of the way home the battery warning light came on. I managed to get home and backed the car into the driveway so we could come have AAA take a look in the morning. They came, looked, and said, you need a new alternator. But also, your battery is a mess and has a bad cell and you should replace it. I had specifically asked for them to send someone with a battery in hopes of that solving the problem but it did not. The AAA driver wasn’t in a tow truck so I couldn’t have it towed, but as the battery needed to be replaced, I told him to go ahead and install it. Consensus from the repair shops I called around was that I shouldn’t try to drive it to them, have it towed.

So now I’ve spent $800 on a car that still isn’t driveable. And it’s likely at least another $600 for the alternator. At this point I need to spend the money on the alternator to get my money’s worth on the previous two fixes. Did I mention it’s got 215,000 miles? It is a Toyota but still. Argh!

And there’s a show on Saturday that I have a ticket for and I’ve been looking forward to it. There is no reselling this ticket since it’s a small independent theater. That money was spent months ago but why not add it to the tally?😵‍💫

I just can’t help but feel like every decision I make when it comes to cars is the wrong one. Then I become paralyzed and don’t want to do anything because inevitably I will have made the wrong choice. I wanted to sell my husband’s car to CarMax or someplace, then get something with fewer miles on it for me to drive and let him have my car. But he felt like it could limp along a while longer. Until the serpentine belt broke a few weeks ago and it turned out it also needed a new compressor. $900.

Wish me luck. I am really not looking forward to blowing more money here but I also think I have run out of options.