So we’re in the LTVA (long term visitors area) in
Winterhaven California. We spent our first few days here in the lot
of the solar place. On Saturday they
installed our new inverter. It looks
like our batteries are fine. I think
when we disconnected the fuse we screwed it up somehow, but now we have plenty
of power to last us into the night. The
new inverter hook-up cost $80. That was
great.
What’s not so great is our Nissan Armada (the follow
car). We got a ‘Service Engine Soon’
light. After ruling out a loose gas cap
we went to Autozone to have them tell us the code and what the problem was
(they do this for free, pretty sweet).
We need a new catalytic converter. Le sigh. Fine. We drove to the garage across the street to see about getting this done. This is Alice Auto Repair in Yuma. Can’t say I recommend them. The guy made up some malarkey about us needing OEM parts and quoted $1,700. When I claimed I didn’t have the money he suddenly decided we didn’t need OEM parts and went down to $1,200.
We need a new catalytic converter. Le sigh. Fine. We drove to the garage across the street to see about getting this done. This is Alice Auto Repair in Yuma. Can’t say I recommend them. The guy made up some malarkey about us needing OEM parts and quoted $1,700. When I claimed I didn’t have the money he suddenly decided we didn’t need OEM parts and went down to $1,200.
I was pretty pissed.
You could see the dollar signs in his eyes. And we expect to be ripped off at mechanics,
but by one or two hundred bucks. Not
$500+. I claimed I’d have to ask my
brother for a loan, paid $35 for the quote and high-tailed it out of there.
Someone on Facebook said that I should go to an exhaust
place for this kind of repair. On
Saturday I took the car to Meineke on 4th Ave
in Yuma. As I was driving there the car was not doing well. I’d step on the gas and it would take a few
seconds for it to actually go. Every
stop sign was a struggle for me to get moving again. This was a 30 mile drive and I felt that if I
couldn’t get the work done the same day I was going to be screwed. I couldn’t manage another round trip.
Meineke quoted me $350 over the phone, but my Nissan is a
fancy expensive car and needed a fancy expensive catalytic converter. I wasn’t surprised when they told me the part
was going to cost more in the range of $600 and would take hours more labor
than they anticipated. This jived with
what the last guy quoted me.
What I didn’t expect was to walk under my car and see that
my muffler was rusted out and clogged with carbon. It’s supposed to be hollow, but when he
knocked on it it sounded like it was stuffed full of crud.
So I need a new muffler too.
Yay. I got quoted $1,400 for both
repairs, labor, tax, etc. Is that
good? I don’t know, but it’s still less
than the first guy quoted me just for the catalytic converter.
More importantly, I barely got it there and I wasn’t about
to start driving around trying to find another quote. In fact—I wasn’t even going to drive it back
to the campground. That thing was
staying there until it was fixed.
Since we’re going to Mexico
I told her to do a full diagnostic and see if anything else needs to be repaired. Then I installed Uber on my mom’s phone and
got a ride back to the camp. I’d never
used it before. I got a drive home with
pleasant conversation and no complaint about making him go out to the middle of
nowhere. I’ll use this again if I need
to in the future.
I explained to my mom that I had to leave the car
there. We agreed it was the best way to
do it. She had gotten our solar work done
while I was gone and was happy to report it was only $80.
Later on I hear the solar workers saying that the woman in
the RV was waiting for her daughter to get back and couldn’t move the RV off
their lot herself. I yelled out the
window that I was back.
“What? How did you
get home?”
“I took an Uber.”
“Wow! You’re brave!”
What? I didn’t feel
brave. I wasn’t sure if I was dealing
with a technophobe or a sexist.
Anywho, I took the hint and moved the RV off their lot. We dumped and got water, though before finding
a spot to settle in. No sense in moving
it twice. We’re parked a few hundred
yards from the solar place because I wanted to be close in case anything they
did for me wasn’t working. This is also
close to the Christian Service
Center where we’re getting our mail
forwarded. It’s good to be in walking
distance to stuff when you don’t have your follow car.
After the diagnostic, new tire rods, a leaky transmission
line, an oil change, and a cracked power steering line added another $500 to
our quote. Ugh. That’s $1,900. But I don’t doubt the things they’re telling
me. It’s a ten year old SUV and the
previous owners did not do routine upkeep.
Yes, we have to put money into it to keep it running well. It’s better that than buying a new car.
Hopefully the work will be done by Thursday. At that time I will see if this one guy who
offered to give us a ride is still willing to do it, or I’ll call the guy who
Ubered me the first time and see if we can work something out. There’s no Uber in this remote area.
In the meantime, we’re stuck home. We need groceries. I’m stretching out the last of our food as
best I can. If we don’t have the car by
Thursday we might have to go camp at a Walmart so we can get provisions while
the work gets finished.