1 House 3 Beds

Years ago, I used to be a lover of all things automotive. I would memorize every make, model, statistic and minutiae that had to do with every car on the road. I remember at one point in my younger years when I had loads of spare time and an equal amount of discretionary money to blow on such things, I subscribed to...

European Car, Turbo magazine, Sport Compact Car, Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Automobile, Import Tuner, and the super glossy large scale English imported magazines "Car" and "EVO" all at one time! Yeah, I had a rich and balanced life and a mailbox full of reading material.

Fast forward ten years.

Married life, work, church callings, lawn to mow, snow to blow, Christmas lights to hang, plumbing leaks to fix, and a little 2 year old girl in the mix, I just don't seem to have the money or the inclination for the high speed life showcased in my old stack of monthly periodicals. Don't get me wrong, if I had a spare $96,000 dollars in the piggy bank and an extra garage I would indulge myself with a Porche Carrera (C4S) but, I might be 96 myself before I have that many pennies saved.

A lot has changed in a few short years and while I don't want to be too negative about it, I now seriously HATE owning and paying for the family automobile.

Last Saturday, I was running all over town and ended up in the Costco parking lot with our little "Grocery Getter" dying with me behind the wheel. This was a more serious episode with the car making some klunking noises under the hood. Usually I would get all greasy and fix the problem myself, but of course modern cars have way too much electronic gadgetry to even attempt a do-it-yourself fix. So off it went on a flatbed truck to the nearest dealer fifty miles away. I was thinking ... So much for Christmas money. Well I checked my voicemail and I got a call from the friendly dealer guy after he looked at the car. If I knew how to up-load my voicemail to the blog I would because It's priceless. But it went something like this.....

(Keep in mind our car is only 4yrs old and has 75,000 miles)

Hey Ryan, we looked over your car and it doesn't look so good. You will be needing a new motor and that should run about FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. Just let me know what you want to do. Have a good day. Click.

I owe $19,000 on a car that's worth maybe $17,000 and now needs a new $15,000 motor just to be in the same condition it was on Friday.

Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I researched for a couple of days online and discovered that out make model and year and engine number had an internal design flaw that the manufacturer has covered up from the public. Well it took a week of fighting and playing nice at the same time and some strings pulled and a few favors called in. (Thanks Jone) A lot of prayers were answered today. We were made an offer that was entirely fair and we are all so happy. Volvo Cars North America made a one time offer to the dealership/us to pay for everything but ten percent. What a crazy week.

Man I hate cars.

Ryan