What turned out to be a free recall of my Subaru to replace an airbag turned into an $850 bill!
I took the Subaru to my dealer Tuesday morning for the recall and an oil change and drove home in a loaner, a brand new Subaru Outback.
Later that afternoon, I got the call telling me that my car needed assorted work including a rear brake job. At first I balked at the potential $850 bill, but then I reconsidered since I have driven the car for over a year without any trouble nor maintenance. Also, I am facing a roadtrip to Ohio in two weeks, so I agreed to the work that was suggested.
Meanwhile, I literally drained the swamp on Friday. The west side of my property has a number of springs and the water runs downhill into a culvert that dumps it into a nearby brook. The primary path for the water was clogged with leaves and other debris, so instead of flowing away, a swamp was in the making. So I spent about an hour clearing the path and draining the swamp.
No good deed goes unpunished and I woke up Sunday morning to find my hands and arms blossoming with poison ivy. I applied apple cider vinegar to effectively stop the itching, but it did nothing for the spreading rash. So after I picked up my car at the Subaru dealer yesterday, I drove to the local hospital's walk-in clinic to deal with the poison ivy.
A PA confirmed that I had poison ivy and she prescribed Prednizone and Benadryl. I picked up the meds at my pharmacy, drove home and popped the pills.
About an hour later, I was on my way to Aldi and Stop & Shop to do the weekly grocery shopping, when the Bendryl kicked in and I started feeling very sleepy. As a result, what is normally a 90-minute grocery run took 2-1/2 hours because I was so out of it. Upon returning home, I unloaded the groceries and crashed.
Around 9:30 PM, I decided to turn in. Before going to bed, I went into the room where my radio shack is located to make sure everything was powered down. I could not resist listening to the radio before going to bed and as luck would have, radio conditions were very good (I could hear WJCC on 1700 kHz, which is located in Miami Springs, F-L-A, 1666 miles away!), but I was so exhausted that I shut down the shack and went to bed.
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| (Source: Bluefly) |
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| Alex Newell |
When developing Product Liability law was starting to grow 3-4 decades ago many manufacturers grudgingly started to realize that recalling potentially dangerous products was a matter of economic survival. Not being totally dense they soon realized that they could use a recall not only for self preservation and customer service but as a means of upselling. It is a smart way to go along the lines of when you are stuck with lemons try making lemonade.
ReplyDeleteSubaru gets you into the dealership for the 'free' service. At the same time the get to examine the car and look for reasonable chargable maintenance needs. To compound their marketing approach they let you drive around in a new model and hope that you cruise through the showroom and plant the seed about an auto upgrade...
$850 for a safe car seems like a lot but we want you to be able to stop when you need to.
Pat
I was thinking about a trade-in until I made the $850 investment!
DeleteAuto dealerships TOTALLY SUCK!! Here in the south cars dont rust away, as a result, my last car payment was December 1982, when I made the last payment on a 1979 Datsun (Nissan) 280zx. New the car cost 12,500$ which was a HUGE high end cost for a car then, about the equivalent of 50K now. I also bought the MANUFACTURERS SHOP MANUAL (about 700 pages) and discovered the book was written at a 10th grade reading level. I read the book, fixed the car, invested the equivalent of a car payment for 30+ years, and retired at age 55. My current car(s) are 2 Dodge Dakota 4Doors , the shop manuals are on PDF's (2500 pages)from EBAY for $5.00 each, Parts come from ROCK AUTO. Easy Peasy! AND NO, I dont dress en-femme when I do auto work, but I have thought about it, and perhaps the 42DD's would get in the way of the lug wrench, so I bought an impact wrench... Velma Dinkley
ReplyDeleteI used to do most of the repairs and maintenance myself until they computerized everything.
Delete"Late night when you're sleeping poison ivy comes a-creepin'
ReplyDeleteYou can look but you better not touch!"
Great song lost in antiquity!
NEW CAR? i ain't never had no NEW CAR!
ReplyDeleteAnd i don't need no STINKIN' BADGES EITHER (ah... feels good to fulfill my inner Wallach every now and then!)
ps. as a truly modern male... my Wife leaves the broken Chevy at the levee and has Her Sister drive Her home wher ihad better have lunch including bisquik and gravy ready for both.... with a *curtsy* and a kiss.
ReplyDelete