Car
Meh. For a few months now I haven't been able to use my car radio. One day Joel tried to start up the car and the battery was dead. He thinks it was due to a light not going out that should have or something; I don't know. The battery is pretty old, so it wouldn't surprise me if the battery is just going. Anyway, it's pretty much been working fine since then. However, ever since that happened, the radio wants me to enter a four-digit code so I can start using it again. For the life of me I could not figure out what that code was. It didn't help that until Saturday, my glove compartment was broken and I couldn't even look in my records to see if I had a radio code in there (it's unique to the radio, not the car). I finally got that "fixed" (okay, one of the latches duck taped over because something inside it is broken so that it won't unlatch).
As it turned out, Don (previous owner) didn't have the radio code written down anywhere (although going through all the old papers, I found a speeding ticket of his from 1996, and pretty much the entire car's history of oil changes and new tires and auto insurance). After looking on some Saab forums, I figured out that I would need to remove my radio to get the serial number and another number on it and call Saab with that information so they could give me the code.
I called Saab (the central number) and the guy said that I would have to take it to a local dealership and there is usually a fee involved. That seemed strange to me because in the forums, nobody ever mentioned a fee, much less having to actually take my car in. He transferred my call over to the actual dealership and the guy there said I'd have to take my car in too. I decided it was worth mentioning that I had taken out the radio and had those numbers and he said that I wouldn't have to take my car in after all (much to my relief). I gave him the numbers and he asked what year my car was (1995) and then he started having his doubts as to whether he could get the code since it's so old. That seemed silly to me but I think after he looked on the computer some more he figured out it won't be a problem.
Now the strange thing is that they're going to call me back tomorrow morning with the code. Why they can't plug the numbers into the computer and figure it out right now (it's only 3:00) is beyond me. Oh well. I'm just glad I'll finally have my radio and tape player working (no, I don't listen to tapes -- I have an adapter so that I can plug my iPod in). I want this thing working before Sunday for my long drive back to Victoria. Well, drive to Port Angeles, technically because it's the Coho ferry that gets me from there to Victoria. My drive down here (I'm in Seattle now) wasn't much fun. I ended up putting on my iPod headphones and leaving the volume very low.
And thus concludes my really boring story of the day.
As it turned out, Don (previous owner) didn't have the radio code written down anywhere (although going through all the old papers, I found a speeding ticket of his from 1996, and pretty much the entire car's history of oil changes and new tires and auto insurance). After looking on some Saab forums, I figured out that I would need to remove my radio to get the serial number and another number on it and call Saab with that information so they could give me the code.
I called Saab (the central number) and the guy said that I would have to take it to a local dealership and there is usually a fee involved. That seemed strange to me because in the forums, nobody ever mentioned a fee, much less having to actually take my car in. He transferred my call over to the actual dealership and the guy there said I'd have to take my car in too. I decided it was worth mentioning that I had taken out the radio and had those numbers and he said that I wouldn't have to take my car in after all (much to my relief). I gave him the numbers and he asked what year my car was (1995) and then he started having his doubts as to whether he could get the code since it's so old. That seemed silly to me but I think after he looked on the computer some more he figured out it won't be a problem.
Now the strange thing is that they're going to call me back tomorrow morning with the code. Why they can't plug the numbers into the computer and figure it out right now (it's only 3:00) is beyond me. Oh well. I'm just glad I'll finally have my radio and tape player working (no, I don't listen to tapes -- I have an adapter so that I can plug my iPod in). I want this thing working before Sunday for my long drive back to Victoria. Well, drive to Port Angeles, technically because it's the Coho ferry that gets me from there to Victoria. My drive down here (I'm in Seattle now) wasn't much fun. I ended up putting on my iPod headphones and leaving the volume very low.
And thus concludes my really boring story of the day.