Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

So for the last couple of weeks I have noticed that there is some oil leaking under my car. While more noticeable than a little drip, it was not enough for me to panic and rush the Corolla into the shop. They had just replaced some belts and tuned my timing belt, so I know they had to open up part of the engine that has oil in it, I figured that something just needed to be tightened.

This morning at 8:10 am I found out that is not the case. We had dropped the Corolla off at the shop last night after dinner and a trip to CostCo. But for a reason relating to copper and electricity. The alternator in the Corolla had finally died.

For the past couple of months (possibly three months) the little battery shaped light on the console has been flashing (or sometimes just stayed on). The battery (despite looking very bad) is fine. This meant that the alternator was on it's last legs.

Well, last night after dinner, Gina dropped me off @ CostCo (we had left my car there earlier). I started it up and turned on the lights and cranked the radio. I noticed that the console lights looked dim, I dismissed it as possibly just my own slightly neurotic issues with light and visibility. However, after cranking the dimmer up to the max brightness the lights still did not get to what was their normal brightness.

I was cruising down the access road of 183 about to merge over and get onto the highway, when the radio rebooted.

This freaked me out, as I had been in a car before when the battery had completely died (after the alternator died) and surprisingly the vehicle will come to a complete stop, quickly. Not wanting to repeat that event, I immediately shut off the radio and even removed the faceplate, seeing as it was shining quite brightly in comparison to the console lights.

I stayed on the access road, in the hopes that if the Corolla did finally drain the last of the battery I would at least be able to get the car into a driveway, rather than have to call a tow truck while on the side of the expressway.

I also immediately called Gina who was probably about 5-10 minutes ahead of me. I asked her to wait for me to follow me home, so that in case I was stranded, I wouldn't be alone.

The battery lasted long enough for me to make it to the Brakes Specialist up in Cedar Park (my mechanic of choice).

I woke up early this morning and headed over to the mechanics to drop off the keys and inform them of what needed to be done. As I also was due for an oil-change, and wanted to inform them of the oil leak that I had noticed.

When they called me this morning shortly after eight o'clock, they informed me that the 'rear seal' between the engine and the transmission had busted (I forget the word he used). He informed me that there was oil all over the under-side of the engine and that I should have noticed it earlier.

Well, so my theory on this is as follows.

They recently tuned my timing belt, in doing so they gave me 'more power'. This tuning had two effects on the car, I do indeed have more power between 10 and 50 miles per hour, I can feel the car accelerate faster. It also made the inside of my car a heck of a lot quieter.

I believe that because the timing belt on my car had been in that state for so long in the 'less power' mode that when it got 'more power' it broke the seal. Because, I didn't notice any oil immediately after they did their work, but a couple of days later.

Well, the damage bill for the alternator + rear seal (and I assume the oil-change) is about $900.

This price tag brings to mind the idea of a new car.

However, $900 isn't too bad considering I don't have a car payment now. And even if you combine the alignment and other work I had done when they were doing the tuning of the timing belt, that makes the 2008 care charges about $1400 (including the alternator&seal).

That is still well below a $300 a month car payment.

So I am willing to give the Corolla one more chance. Brake Specialists are currently doing whatever they are doing to fix everything.

I am hoping they will have all of the work completed by 3pm. However, I am expecting a call from them around 2pm to tell me that they won't be able to finish it all. This means that I will need to rent a car this afternoon.

Because, I am driving to Dallas this afternoon (hoping to be on the road by 3pm) for some meeting tomorrow.

I am glad that the alternator decided to finally die yesterday, rather than while I was on my way to Dallas.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Laterz

I think. I believe I offended one of the staff there, Matt posted a comment on an old entry "An unexpected addition to the Benner family".

From his brief comment, he didn't appreciate the term "grease monkey".

I apologize, I didn't mean to offend. It is just a term that I picked up as a kid watching old movies and TV shows from the 50s.

I looked it up on Wikipedia to see if my understanding of the term fit with their definition, and it pretty much does.

"Grease monkey is a slang term used to describe a mechanic, generally an automobile mechanic, and dates back to at least 1928. The term may be considered insulting."

I didn't realize that it "may be considered insulting."

Matt & Fast Eddies' staff, I'm sorry.

I should also note, that while the message they were trying to convey about the "freeze plugs" or "metal plugs" leaking anti-freeze was correct, they were leaking. But in the actual communication about what was leaking didn't jive. Our mechanic down here in Cedar Park, Corey over at Brake Specialists, was able to tell us exactly what they were and what the purpose of the freeze plugs is for.

Once again, Matt. Sorry, didn't mean to offend. And I apologize for not giving the Fast Eddies' staff the credit of properly detecting the anti-freeze leak.

Course, now I am a little scared to get an oil change there, next time we are in Lansing.

Laterz

Now, before anyone freaks out. No we are not pregnant.

Gina's car, the beloved 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SL has driven it's last trip. And replacing it is a sporty new(ish) 2005 Pontiac Vibe.

Back in July, we were getting the Achieva an oil change at Fast Eddies in Lansing. They changed the oil and told us that our "soft metal plugs" were leaking. We checked under the care and didn't really see any leaks. We hadn't seen any leaks under the car for the weeks leading up to these grease monkeys telling us about them.

So we decided to chance the drive back to Tejas. Obviously, we made it home just fine. However, during one of the 100+ days that we had in August, Gina was driving back from Longview, TX and saw that the car was heating up too much. So she added some anti-freeze and went about her way. With my Corolla I have occasionally had to add anti-freeze after a very hot summer, it seems to just evaporate over time.

However, the Achieva was needing more and more anti-freeze, weekly basically. But there wasn't an evident leak. With having to run the A/C in the car there is always that puddle of water under the car, which is in just about the same spot as the anti-freeze leak. The two were mixing and making the anti-freeze leak harder to see.

Well, not wanting Gina to be stranded on the way to or from Longview. I took the car into the shop yesterday. The same shop where I now know the manager by name and for now he has won our future business. He has to be the most honest mechanic that I have worked with.

They checked out the Achieva and informed me that the "metal plugs" in the front and the rear of the engine are corroded. Which, is causing the leak.

He proceeded to inform me that the cost of replacing the front plugs would be around $400. Replacing the rear plugs would be around $1200. Why so much for the rear plugs? Well apparently the design of the Achieva engine is such that the transmission would need to be removed to get to the rear plugs.

This means that it would be at least $1,600 to fix the Achieva. Then there was the caveat that Corey said, "Due to the amount of corrosion under the hood, I can't guarantee that we wouldn't break anything trying to remove the exhaust manifold to get to the front plugs or the transmission for the rear plugs."

So that means between $1,600 - $2,000 (assuming they only break the exhaust manifold related items).

Yeah, not a good idea to put another $1,600 into a 14 year old car with 143k miles on it.

Gina and I had already decided that before we drive home again in the summer that we want a new car. However, we had been planning to replace the Achieva in like 6 months.

I of course asked Corey about whether or not replacing the front plugs would get us by. He told me that it would fix the primary leak. However, that he couldn't guarantee that the rear plugs wouldn't empty out and dump all of the anti-freeze within about 4 minutes. Of course, a few minutes afterwards the block would crack.

Corey also told me that he wouldn't want to be driving that thing on the highway for the fear that the plugs could go at anytime. Leaving us with a boat anchor.

I called Gina and gave her the news. She didn't take it very well. I am sure that I wouldn't be happy if she called to tell me that my Ghetto Sled had died or couldn't be repaired. She was volunteering at the shelter that morning and was just finishing up lunch when I had called her.

She came home and got ready to go out and look at cars. I looked online using AutoTrader.com, Cars.com and a few local car dealership websites. I found a few good deals here and there. Nothing spectacular though.

It was around 1:30 or so I guess when we left the house. We headed to I-35 and made our way to south Austin. There is this stretch there along the road where there are about five to seven dealerships in a row.

We figured we would start with South Point Pontiac, as Gina wanted a Pontiac Vibe. Go straight to the affiliated dealership. We saw some nice news ones sitting there when we first pulled up. Around $21k, too much for what we wanted to spend. Not to mention that buying a car brand-new is just not a good idea. It depreciates immensely as soon as you drive it off the lot.

We asked them about used Vibes. They showed us a Kia Spectra and a Dodge Calibur. Again, not a Vibe. Finally someone from the Used Car builing walked out and showed us a Silver 2005 Pontiac Vibe. It had 36k miles on it, the inside of the car had some wear and tear on it. The rear cargo area had some soda stains in it. Oh yeah, and there was an Orange in the back, yes a piece of produce.

We took the car for a test drive. It was zippy for only being a "four banger", only having "four squirrels" under the hood.

Gina loved the car. That meant it was time to delve into negotiations. The first thing I found interesting about South Point was that they didn't have any prices on their used cars. This apparently was explained by the sales guy (I don't remember his name) that the lack of prices on the cars was a benefit. It was to supposed to allow them to make sure we could get the payment that we wanted.

Gina wanted a payment in the $250 range. So we negotiated with the sales guy on the price of the car for about an hour, at least. The first 30 minutes we focused on the payment. Which kept on being in the $325-$350 range.

The price of the car was apparently originally like $17,999. But they had sent out a "Roach Flyer" announcing a $2,000 off sale. This means that the car was $15,999.

Since Gina's dad is selling cars, she called him. He told us that a 2005 Pontiac Vibe at the very most should be like $14,700 retail. That means if the car is in great condition it should have been priced at $14,700. Apparently, severe wear and tear have it valued at $12,000.

Well the vehichle they showed us and that we negotiated over was not in great condition. It wasn't in terrible condition. But it had high mileage for a vehicle that age. It had definitely been a rental vehicle (Enterprise is whom they bought it from at auction).

What is funny is that the manager (again, don't remember the name) was from Michigan. And had sold cars in Lansing at one point. There had been this dealership near the corner of Logan and Holmes, I think that is where he said that he used to sell cars. They apparently were desperate enough to follow us out of the building and ask to speak to Gina's dad. With whom we had been consulting with throughout the course of negotiations.

The simple fact of the matter is, we didn't want to pay more than $13,000 + TTL for the vehicle. They were willing to sell it to us for $14,100 (ish) + TTL. They told us that they couldn't give us $13,000, because it would mean they would not get enough for the car vs what they paid. Obviously, this can't be entirely true. I took the statement to mean that they wouldn't be able to make the margin/profit that they needed to make on the car @ $13,000.

Did I mention that on the way to the dealership (now about 2 hours prior) I told Gina that I was starving? So I was hoping we could grab a bite to eat. But no such luck, Gina did want a soda. We grabbed a diet coke from Arby's and decided on what to do next.

I have to say that I was very proud of Gina during the negotiations. She stuck to her guns and didn't back down. And on top of that we had a nice little "Good Cop, Bad Cop" going with the sales guy. I was the "Good Cop". While, gina was the "Bad Cop".

We decided to take a look at another dealership, you know before feeding me. We did a once more around the block and got back to the start of the line of dealerships.

Now, it isn't necessarily a closely guarded secret that the Pontiac Vibe is basically the same vehicle as the Toyota Matrix. And when I say "basically the same vehicle" I don't mean same kind of vehicle. I mean it is the Pontiac style of the Matrix. They get made at the same plant(s) in California. The Geo Prism is a different style of the Corolla. The whole thing is quite interesting, I will have to do a post about it later.

The Toyota dealership was two dealerships down from South Point. We pulled into Champion Toyota and were very pleased to see that they were not very busy. Reason being is that less customers means a better chance for us to make a deal.

We parked and walked up, Gina saw this little Chevy Aveo that she was loving. First thing I noticed was that they had the price tag hanging from the rearview mirror. That was the first of many differences between Champion and South Point. Given the distance between the two dealerships I was quite suprised at how differently the two organizations were run. And yet, not suprised.

A nice older sales guy walked up to us and offered to help us out, Jack Whitmire. He immediately got out their little golf cart and began to drive us around their lot to look for any used Matrix vehicles. They had none, but he did drive us by two Pontiac Vibes. A silver one and a burgundy red.

The silver one was $16,991 and the burgundy was $15,991. Both of which were more than $13,000. However, both were in immaculate condition in comparison to the one over at South Point. No produce in the back, they had plastic on the floor, they had obviously been vacummed. It was almost like they wanted to sell the car. Go figure.

We told Jack a little bit about our recent encountour with the guys over at South Point. He told us that he could probably get the price of the burgundy down to $14,991. The burgundy Vibe had 22k miles on it. And the condition of the car was much better than the one at South Point.

Jack had our licenses copied to allow us test drive the car. Gina wanted to test out the Aveo first. Which suprisingly is a really nice little car. I might have to look at them as an alterantive to the Yaris, but I am a pretty die-hard Toyota fan these days.

The Aveo was a manual. I don't drive stick and probably never will. Gina does drive manual on occasion. I just about got whiplash while she remembered how to drive stick. Anyway, I survived and we decided that the Aveo is too small.

The next test drive the the burgundy Vibe. It drove as well as the other we had driven about 2 hours before. But the reason I bring all of this up is because when we test drove with South Point, the sales guy came with us. This meant that we couldn't talk very freely about what we thought about the car.

Jack's salesmanship style or Champion's standard operating procedure has much less pressure. Jack allowed us to drive the cars by ourselves. This allowed Gina and I to speak very freely about the vehicles. This was the second big difference that I noticed between the two dealerships.

After the test drive we walked into the Used Sales office building to speak with Jack. This was when I noticed the third big difference. The sales office at Champion was modern. Each sales person had their own little cubicle area. They each had computers on their desks. They had a water cooler and coffee machine in a little waiting room in the back.

While the South Point Used Sales office building honestly looked like a hole. It was actually a little reminiscent of Boiler Room. There were no set desks or cubicles. There were just seemingly randomly placed tables and mis-matching chairs. There were no computers on the desks. No water cooler or coffee machines, just a coke machine.

Did I mention that Jack offered us a soda out of a little fridge that he had near his desk?

We began the negotiation process with Jack. Which was much less pressured than the one with South Point. Jack had some carbon copy based documents that looked very standard. The South Point guy had some very crappy copied documents.

Jack explained the sales process to us immediately. The South Point guy was more interested in getting us to agree in principle to the price.

A good deal of this difference could be derrived from these two things.

1. Jack is a retired gentleman, who doesn't NEED the money from this sale to survive. Thus, he can afford to cut us a deal and not PRESSURE us. The South Point guy was younger, an immigrant from Mexico (he has been in Austin for about 10 years).

2. Champion is actually regional brand name of Auto Nation. A nation-wide auto sales company. This means that their procedures and forms are standardized. South Point is just one dealership and obviously is more on the shady side, upholding the saying "slimy, like a used car salesman".

We got a good price on the car. A decent amount for the trade-in on the Achieva. The checkout process in the finance office took a bit longer than I would have liked. Again, remember I was starving at 12:00. It was about 9:00 or so when we got out of there.

We headed home. I convinced Gina to go to see a midnight showing of PCU at the Alamo Drafthouse with me. I had a very tastey salad with chicken. Gina had a good turkey & avocado wrap (i stole her chips and salsa). Oh yeah, we had mozzarella sticks too.

The movie was good, but it was a very long day. I nodded off at least once for a couple of minutes, Gina fell asleep a few times.

That is basically the end of the day and the story.

On Monday (tomorrow) we will take the Achieva over to Champion Toyota and drop it off. I just hope we don't have to get it towed there, knock on wood.

The following may not be our exact route, but this likely to be pretty darn close. (Map Details)



1,473 miles the distance they say it will take. 26 hours is how long they say we will be on the road.

I believe we have driven this about 7 times. I will have to confirm that with the wife. But I think it is 7 times. When we finally get back to Austin, that will bring the total to 9.

Historically we have been able to make the trip in approx 24 hours.

Avg speed of:
70 mph = 21.00 hours
65 mph = 22.66 hours
60 mph = 24.55 hours

Due to the fact that I can't sleep while Gina is driving, I force her to stop for the night along the way. Not to mention the fact that spending 24 hours in a car (with 4 dogs) is not at all my idea of fun.

This time around I hope to get her to let me stop and take photos at scenic points along the way. You know to say that we at least stopped for 5 minutes here and there along the way to take into perspective the cities and states that we go through. From my point of view stopping once in a while (for more than gas) on a trip that takes 24 hours of straight driving, doesn't hurt. Now if the trip was like 3-6 hours. Sure, stop for gas and that is it. But more than that and you need to try to enjoy the trip itself, cuz it isn't going to be over anytime soon.

Now who wants to take bets on how often we will have to stop.

Oldsmobile Achieva (specs)
15.2 Gallon fuel capacity
28 MPG (spec)

1,473 miles @ 28mpg = 52.6 gallons
52.6 gallons @ 15.2 = 3.46 times.

It has been too long for me to remember what the Achieva's LONG distance mpg is. But recent trips to Dallas definitely have it between 26 and 28.

The avg gas price right now is between $2.75 & $2.85. However, I fully expect that the avg price is to be about $2.99.

This means that it is going to cost between $144.65 to 157.27. (approx $300 round-trip).

If we had been able to take the Corolla (spec) we would get about 32 mpg.

Meaning:
1,473 @ 32 = 46.03 gallons
46.03 @ 10 = 4.63 stops

$126 to $137, approx $263. So only about $40 in savings. But in the summer that is some decent beer money.

Time to hit the sack. Got a long day tomorrow too.

Not exactly what I would have wished for lunch. But it was filling, course come 4pm I am sure I will be starved.

I have some goLean Crunch in my desk too, makes a decent afternoon snack.

Again, this is just a quick post. Still trying to get some discipline about making posts. And as I have stated, this is my personal blog. That means it might occasionally have updates that talk about what I had for lunch. Or the dogs, or a philosophical rant about Python vs PHP.

Just depends on what is going on and how much time I have.

Anyway, I had been planning to get some cruise control put onto the Corolla. My beloved POS transporation vehicle that has been schlepping me too and from Dallas lately. I bought the Corolla back in 98, May I think. I had about $600 to put as a down payment. I got screwed on the interest rate, but that is what happens when you got nada for a down payment and no credit history. My boss at the time had to write a note saying something to the effect of "Yes Ben has a job and we intend to employee him for a long time to come."

It has been a fine vehicle, affectionately dubbed the "Ghetto Sled". It however was a base model corolla, about the only fancy thing it has on it is an alarm. Which when I mention it people are like "You had an alarm installed on that thing?".

NO, it came with it.

Now, while the Corolla has no power windows or anti-lock breaks, or cruise control. It does have ice cold A/C, a working heater, a cd player (i upgraded just this last winter), and not to mention I can get a full set of tires installed for about $270 (including tax), the Corolla will be my car for a while.

The estimate for the addition of aftermarket cruise control was like $600 bucks. If the Corolla was not as old as it is, I might have said 'OK'. However, they also mentioned that it would not work well going up hill. That was the deal breaker. I had read a few reviews/forum posts about aftermarket cruise control. And the biggest complaint I saw was from those that bitched about it not working properly going uphill. So $600 and it wasn't going to work well uphill. Screw that.

That means that we will be driving the Wife's 1992 Olds Achieva up to Michigan for vacation this year. Probably the last summer it will go up there. That care has seen better days, but it is a fighter and is hanging in there. Gina has been wanting a new car for about six months now. And depending on how the rest of the week goes, that might pan out sooner, rather than later.

All of this means that my car is basically relegated to staying in the Lone Star State, Tejas (Texas for all you gringos).

Sucks though, cruise control would have made those drives to Dallas a bit more comfortable. I intend to drive the Corolla into the ground, my new car will either be a Pontiace Vibe....



or the Toyota Yaris...


I think the Yaris is about the only car that I would buy brand new. The price of one of these puppies brand new is only about $2-3K more than what a used Vibe goes for. I mean it is like just under $14k for a version with cruise control.