Car Talk
- Thread starter JHDK
- Start date
Last time I went to the Toyota place to get my car serviced they came back with a ridiculous sum they wanted to charge me...more than I paid for the car. When I asked them what I need to safely make my Disney trips that bill dropped down to only like $250. This upset me. Coming at me with thousands of dollars just didn't seem right to me so I'm done with Al Hendrickson. It's a shame too. If they had just been more reasonable with their estimates they could have kept me coming back forever. I do like the idea of taking my Toyota to a place just for Toyotas.
A woman at work sings the praises of this place where she goes and loves the owner. It has a silly name but seems to have great reviews across the board. I set up an appointment with them tomorrow. I'm a little under my oil change mileage right now but since I'm back to weekly 400+ mile round trips I thought I should get it looked at sooner than later.
Mad Hatter Mufflers - Pompano Beach, FL
61 reviews of Mad Hatter Mufflers "I wish I could find the equivalent of this place for every service I had to use. They are fair, reasonably priced, and friendly."www.yelp.com
Today was my 4th visit to my awesome mechanic Tom in 1 year and 5 days (see above). Today was also the first time I took it in for an oil change and he told me I needed more than that. So I got a belt, some filter, oil change and new wipers. The total was $158 so not awful.
Three times taking it in for only $40 was more than enough to build a big trust in this guy. I told him the same thing I do every time, that I go to Orlando multiple times per month. He said if that wasn't the case the stuff would probably be fine until the next oil change but to be safe I may as well get it done now. I'm happy to do it. It's much easier to deal with a breakdown while I'm local as opposed to 200 some odd miles away from home.
They have windows in the waiting room so I can watch them working on the RAV and I dig it. Not like I have any idea what they're doing, but it's cool.
Did my normal, weekly wash & vacuum today but added the hour long step of headlight restoration. For about $17 on Amazon I get one of those kits every year or maybe 10 months and sand down then lube up my headlights. It does a pretty good job of clarifying them and they stay that way for, like I said, about 10 months or so.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbert is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
You know how you see older cars with the headlights all fogged over? This gets rid of the fog and makes the casing clear again. And if you do it as often as I do it never really gets all that bad.
This isn't my car (maybe I'll post my pics later) but like this:
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbert is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
I have not seen that the fogging has any effect on the light or the ability to see. I just make sure they are washed.
I think the brightness of the light is diminished due to the fogging but the real reason I do it is because I think they look bad when they get foggy. It's much nicer to see my car with clear light casings.
My daughter had that done on her VW golf when it was 10 years old. The haze definitely reduces the brightness of the headlights. My car must use a better grade of lens material; after 9 years, I can still remove any hazy buildup with Windex.
So this is embarrassing seeing how I'm nearly 37 but I had to renew my registration and that's just something I've never done before. Last time was in 2018 and Hendrik took care of it for me. Turns out it's incredibly easy to do online. $75 for two years. I'm now good until 12.2022. And it only took 3 days for it to arrive in the mail.
Remember when I posted this?
And this?
Well even after surviving a heart attack, bypass surgery, and another heart attack, the following story was too difficult for me to talk about until now.
Almost 3 weeks ago, while I was recovering from my recent surgery, Mrs Scotch suggested we get my old car out of the garage, put the top down, and do some errands. I was the passenger. On the way back home, we were crawling through traffic on Main St in a nearby town center. All of a sudden, we see a woman in a Jeep, coming out of a driveway to our right, and gunning it trying to make a left to cross the road. She didn't see that we were directly in front of her, and all my wife could do was accelerate so that I wouldn't be directly T-boned on the passenger door. The Jeep missed my door, but took out the right-rear of the car.
The axle separated from the drivetrain, and the gas tank was ruptured. Nobody was injured. I was using my little heart pillow between my chest and the shoulder belt.
The woman immediately acknowledged it was her fault, and the officer (pictured) was already there when it happened. So my perfect-for-me car, with a stick shift, that they stopped making 7 years ago, and no car payments, was totaled. And because it had 150K miles on it, KBB said it was worth $5,500.
Two weeks later, her insurance company says they're giving me over $11k for the car. That was a big step in the right direction. But after spending all my time looking for a replacement, there are maybe a dozen stick shift models - of either the 1-series, or next-step-up 3-series - in the US. Most of them are thousands of miles away. The models that replaced them would require me to finance a good amount; and right now, I'm trying to refinance our mortgage to lock-in a lower rate. So I don't want to finance a car.
And here's the happy ending. Through my diligent, non-stop car searching, I found a local guy (outside of Manchester NH) who is selling a super low mileage (46K) 3-series convertible, WITH A STICK. And it's not even a scumbag Manchester car dealer; it's privately owned by a colorectal surgeon (insert joke here), and this is his personal warm weather fun car.
What's even better is that my nephew - the mechanic - has his auto shop close to where this guy is. So I got to get it on the lift, and fully checked out. It's like a new car. Here are some pics
The palatial house in the background is the surgeon's home. We made the deal (about a thousand more than my well-used old car), and I'm picking it up this week.
So between this, my improving physical condition, and something that happened last week that I can't recall now, things are looking up!
And this?
Well even after surviving a heart attack, bypass surgery, and another heart attack, the following story was too difficult for me to talk about until now.
Almost 3 weeks ago, while I was recovering from my recent surgery, Mrs Scotch suggested we get my old car out of the garage, put the top down, and do some errands. I was the passenger. On the way back home, we were crawling through traffic on Main St in a nearby town center. All of a sudden, we see a woman in a Jeep, coming out of a driveway to our right, and gunning it trying to make a left to cross the road. She didn't see that we were directly in front of her, and all my wife could do was accelerate so that I wouldn't be directly T-boned on the passenger door. The Jeep missed my door, but took out the right-rear of the car.
The axle separated from the drivetrain, and the gas tank was ruptured. Nobody was injured. I was using my little heart pillow between my chest and the shoulder belt.
The woman immediately acknowledged it was her fault, and the officer (pictured) was already there when it happened. So my perfect-for-me car, with a stick shift, that they stopped making 7 years ago, and no car payments, was totaled. And because it had 150K miles on it, KBB said it was worth $5,500.
Two weeks later, her insurance company says they're giving me over $11k for the car. That was a big step in the right direction. But after spending all my time looking for a replacement, there are maybe a dozen stick shift models - of either the 1-series, or next-step-up 3-series - in the US. Most of them are thousands of miles away. The models that replaced them would require me to finance a good amount; and right now, I'm trying to refinance our mortgage to lock-in a lower rate. So I don't want to finance a car.
And here's the happy ending. Through my diligent, non-stop car searching, I found a local guy (outside of Manchester NH) who is selling a super low mileage (46K) 3-series convertible, WITH A STICK. And it's not even a scumbag Manchester car dealer; it's privately owned by a colorectal surgeon (insert joke here), and this is his personal warm weather fun car.
What's even better is that my nephew - the mechanic - has his auto shop close to where this guy is. So I got to get it on the lift, and fully checked out. It's like a new car. Here are some pics
The palatial house in the background is the surgeon's home. We made the deal (about a thousand more than my well-used old car), and I'm picking it up this week.
So between this, my improving physical condition, and something that happened last week that I can't recall now, things are looking up!
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbert is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Glad nobody was hurt. Glad you found another car you like but it does suck. You are lucky you got something nice from the insurance company. Most times they screw you.
Glad you both weren't hurt and it worked out after a while.
Did the previous owner have an ASSMAN vanity license plate?
And a dash pic of the new car is required or this is all just an elaborate lie.
Did the previous owner have an ASSMAN vanity license plate?
And a dash pic of the new car is required or this is all just an elaborate lie.
Holy sheit!
There's never a good time for something like that to happen, but that's really not the time for it to happen!
I'm glad that you and the Mrs. are OK, and sorry about your chariot.
It looks like you've found a great replacement though.
There's never a good time for something like that to happen, but that's really not the time for it to happen!
I'm glad that you and the Mrs. are OK, and sorry about your chariot.
It looks like you've found a great replacement though.
It's a 2008, which is older than my previous 2011, but it's only got 46k miles, so it's like a new car. Like most convertibles, it was only driven on warm, sunny days. Here's a more conventional dash pic.
