my engine's ready to explode, explode, explode
Less than 48 hours ago, aside from the usual minor things of life, all was right with my local world, my car (the 2006 Subaru Outback we acquired last year), and our bank account, and xuth was driving home from Boston after having picked up his carload of stuff from the burning man shipping truck post-playa.
From that introduction, you can probably guess where this is going. Pre-emptive cringing might be advised.
About 200 miles east of Pittsburgh on Sunday night, Xuth saw the CIL come on, noticed the car was overheating, and pulled over. After a short evening and most of a morning full of Google searches and subsequent phone calls to Subaru customer service, to various garages, to State Farm, to Subaru roadside assistance, to tow companies, to bus companies, and to a motel, the final verdict (after two inspections) was cracked head gaskets (common, I'm told), leaking radiator, and enough engine damage to recommend a complete replacement.
We talked about options (there aren't many), but decided that full repair is a better choice than not repairing or half-repairing, since I really like this car and want to keep it in the best possible running condition, and giving up on this one would still end up with us without a car, requiring even more money that we don't have spent on a new (used) one.
Xuth did all the legwork, crashed the night, and caught a series of buses indirectly home yesterday, while the car is sitting in a Subaru shop in Northumberland, PA awaiting repair. Sometime next week we'll figure out a way to get back out there to pick it (and his carload of stuff) up to bring home.
To summarize things from my thoughts in a series of punctuation bits:
----- This happened, with apparently minimal warning signs. Can I add more minuses?
+ It turns out you can call Subaru customer service (at 1-800-SUBARU3, during daytime hours) and say, "This happened, what do we dooooooo?" (in perhaps slightly more adult phrasing) and they were very nice and responsive and helpful and didn't make me feel like an idiot. I even got some suggestions for things to try that turned out not to be applicable but were still useful information (like, Sprint offers emergency roadside assistance as a plan add-on).
+ The Subaru shop we ended up with (purely by virtue of location) has impressed me so far with their response, communication, and pricing. Reviews I've seen are positive, and so far I feel pretty confident we are getting a good value for our money. Only time will tell for sure.
+ State Farm (our insurance) was also nice and helpful and made me feel like a valued customer. It's not clear how much of this we'll be able to get covered (almost certainly very little of the overall cost), but I don't feel that's their fault for not doing their job or trying to help.
+ After a lot of logistics and time, it does mostly resolve down to a problem we can throw money at, and we HAVE the money to do so. It sucks a LOT, and it takes away most of our buffer for the rest of the year or so, but we are both job-having adults without much debt, so we're not in dire straits.
+ We are a household that can survive without a car for a week without much difficulty. The boys have buses to school and other places; the neighborhood is walkable; Xuth and I bike; and we have awesome nearby friends who can help us out if a need comes up.
+ Xuth is home safe now; I was usefully at keyboard and phone when I needed to be; we had good communication through every step thanks to technology; everybody stayed calm and got things done.
From that introduction, you can probably guess where this is going. Pre-emptive cringing might be advised.
About 200 miles east of Pittsburgh on Sunday night, Xuth saw the CIL come on, noticed the car was overheating, and pulled over. After a short evening and most of a morning full of Google searches and subsequent phone calls to Subaru customer service, to various garages, to State Farm, to Subaru roadside assistance, to tow companies, to bus companies, and to a motel, the final verdict (after two inspections) was cracked head gaskets (common, I'm told), leaking radiator, and enough engine damage to recommend a complete replacement.
We talked about options (there aren't many), but decided that full repair is a better choice than not repairing or half-repairing, since I really like this car and want to keep it in the best possible running condition, and giving up on this one would still end up with us without a car, requiring even more money that we don't have spent on a new (used) one.
Xuth did all the legwork, crashed the night, and caught a series of buses indirectly home yesterday, while the car is sitting in a Subaru shop in Northumberland, PA awaiting repair. Sometime next week we'll figure out a way to get back out there to pick it (and his carload of stuff) up to bring home.
To summarize things from my thoughts in a series of punctuation bits:
----- This happened, with apparently minimal warning signs. Can I add more minuses?
+ It turns out you can call Subaru customer service (at 1-800-SUBARU3, during daytime hours) and say, "This happened, what do we dooooooo?" (in perhaps slightly more adult phrasing) and they were very nice and responsive and helpful and didn't make me feel like an idiot. I even got some suggestions for things to try that turned out not to be applicable but were still useful information (like, Sprint offers emergency roadside assistance as a plan add-on).
+ The Subaru shop we ended up with (purely by virtue of location) has impressed me so far with their response, communication, and pricing. Reviews I've seen are positive, and so far I feel pretty confident we are getting a good value for our money. Only time will tell for sure.
+ State Farm (our insurance) was also nice and helpful and made me feel like a valued customer. It's not clear how much of this we'll be able to get covered (almost certainly very little of the overall cost), but I don't feel that's their fault for not doing their job or trying to help.
+ After a lot of logistics and time, it does mostly resolve down to a problem we can throw money at, and we HAVE the money to do so. It sucks a LOT, and it takes away most of our buffer for the rest of the year or so, but we are both job-having adults without much debt, so we're not in dire straits.
+ We are a household that can survive without a car for a week without much difficulty. The boys have buses to school and other places; the neighborhood is walkable; Xuth and I bike; and we have awesome nearby friends who can help us out if a need comes up.
+ Xuth is home safe now; I was usefully at keyboard and phone when I needed to be; we had good communication through every step thanks to technology; everybody stayed calm and got things done.