hooptie no more
Backstory: I bought an '97 Camry from a friend earlier this year. Because both she and previous owner are known to be meticulous, I skipped getting the car inspected before purchase. Bad move, should have done a little more homework on the year and the model. There are known problems, and as we close in on 12 years and close to 200K, it's not a big surprise that something came up.
So I took my car to Nippon Don (one of the best mechanics I've ever met) and he...refused to fix it. Only after lecturing me about buying it at all. His rational was that he didn't want to have to fix it all the time, because it would cost too much and I'd come to resent him, so he didn't want to fix it at all, so we could stay friends. He also gave me a quote to fix the immediate problem (power steering) that was over half what I paid for the car, a quote, that is, if he were willing to do the work, which he was not. Kee-rist on a cracker, right?
Thing is, Nippon Don is really smart. Everybody who knows Nippon Don knows that he blows no smoke when it comes to Toyota knowledge.
So, aargh.
The known problem is, or rather, was, the rack/pinion steering, in my case, gear box leak to be specific. A little leak that turned into a power steering fluid guzzling leak. And a car that left power steering fluid in puddles under where it sat. Charming for the client driveways, right?
And then, the door handle broke. The plastic rim around the inside driver's side door handle. I had to roll down the window to open the freakin' door. My mother had to drive it in that condition when she visited in May, something of which I am surely not proud.
And then, the ignition cylinder wienered out. And had to be replaced.
And at that point, (last week), it was either sell the car (at a fairly good loss, since I'm not an asshole) or Do Something.
So I took it to the other Really Smart Don, S 1st St Don (Don's Automotive). And now, I'm almost 1300 dollars lighter, but the steering is completely fixed, the ignition has a new cylinder, and the driver's side door opens from the inside. Did you know that if you turn off a Toyota with the windows up, you can roll down the driver's side window one time (you can't roll it up, and it only works for a few minutes). Like an inside-the-trunk escape latch, it's the little things I appreciate.
But the real reason I decided to do the work was that I bought 4 new tires a couple days earlier. I did that because one of the tires exploded at a low driving speed, and all the others sucked. When I bought the tires, I knew I was cursing myself. I figured something would go seriously wrong in, oh, 24 hours. It took 72.
But now, I've worked through the curse, paid the toll, and by god, hooptie no more.
I believe I'll go get her detailed.
And hope that Nippon Don is just a leeetle less smart than I know he is. I expect I'm going to end up knowing the great guys at Don's Automotive on S 1st St more intimately than I might have suspected or wished.
So I took my car to Nippon Don (one of the best mechanics I've ever met) and he...refused to fix it. Only after lecturing me about buying it at all. His rational was that he didn't want to have to fix it all the time, because it would cost too much and I'd come to resent him, so he didn't want to fix it at all, so we could stay friends. He also gave me a quote to fix the immediate problem (power steering) that was over half what I paid for the car, a quote, that is, if he were willing to do the work, which he was not. Kee-rist on a cracker, right?
Thing is, Nippon Don is really smart. Everybody who knows Nippon Don knows that he blows no smoke when it comes to Toyota knowledge.
So, aargh.
The known problem is, or rather, was, the rack/pinion steering, in my case, gear box leak to be specific. A little leak that turned into a power steering fluid guzzling leak. And a car that left power steering fluid in puddles under where it sat. Charming for the client driveways, right?
And then, the door handle broke. The plastic rim around the inside driver's side door handle. I had to roll down the window to open the freakin' door. My mother had to drive it in that condition when she visited in May, something of which I am surely not proud.
And then, the ignition cylinder wienered out. And had to be replaced.
And at that point, (last week), it was either sell the car (at a fairly good loss, since I'm not an asshole) or Do Something.
So I took it to the other Really Smart Don, S 1st St Don (Don's Automotive). And now, I'm almost 1300 dollars lighter, but the steering is completely fixed, the ignition has a new cylinder, and the driver's side door opens from the inside. Did you know that if you turn off a Toyota with the windows up, you can roll down the driver's side window one time (you can't roll it up, and it only works for a few minutes). Like an inside-the-trunk escape latch, it's the little things I appreciate.
But the real reason I decided to do the work was that I bought 4 new tires a couple days earlier. I did that because one of the tires exploded at a low driving speed, and all the others sucked. When I bought the tires, I knew I was cursing myself. I figured something would go seriously wrong in, oh, 24 hours. It took 72.
But now, I've worked through the curse, paid the toll, and by god, hooptie no more.
I believe I'll go get her detailed.
And hope that Nippon Don is just a leeetle less smart than I know he is. I expect I'm going to end up knowing the great guys at Don's Automotive on S 1st St more intimately than I might have suspected or wished.