Is it half empty or half full?

tbourner

My cup that is! I'm an Engineer so I would say the cup is twice as big as it needs to be.

Anyway, my car: It broke down, got towed to garage etc. estimates of a Vauxhall repair range from £800 to £1200, I've so far spent £240 and got most of the parts required, should be 2-3 hours work for the independant garage I use, so hopefully barring any issues it'll cost under £500 to get fixed.

So is that a good thing or a bad thing? I've saved hundreds of pounds with a bit of internet searching, but it's still £500 that I can't afford to spend!

I think my 4 year plan is going down the drain. I was hoping to spend my christmas bonus on the training course I'd promised the wife as well.

YORKSHIRELASS

Oh poor you, I dread car repair bills. My story might make you feel better though. Coming back from shopping last week and the car starts making a wierd rattling noise. I am a bit inclined to panic in such circumstances, partly because a previous car I had burst into flames while I was driving it. Got home, asked OH to take it out for a drive and he says yes, there is definitely a strange noise.

So off the car goes to the garage, mechanic rings and says, we cant hear a noise. I get a bit uptight saying we had the radio on quite loud and still could hear the rattle. Mechanic says OK we will take it out for another test drive. Garage owner rings later and says no-one can hear the noise and suggests we just collect the car as he doesnt think there is anything wrong with it. I reply "look I could hear it rattling, my husband heard and it as well and we want it sorting out".

Pick the car up the next day, the garage says they have had all the wheels off, have virtually taken the car to bits and done everything they can. So we pay the £100 bill. Next day I set off to work and the rattle is back, louder than ever. Right I says to my son, switch off the radio, heater fan etc and lets listen. Noise stops. Switch heater fan back on and the noise is there.

Rings OH and says erm I think the noise is the heater fan. OH gets a torch and looks under the dashboard, there is a screw hanging out of the heater fan casing. 2 Minutes with a screwdriver and its sorted.

Now to be fair to the garage they did try to say to me that there wasnt a noise (they had obviously switched off the heater fan before taking it out) and they did say the car was safe and suggest to me that I should just collect it and see how we got on. Had I done this they probably wouldnt have charged me. I insisted that they take the bl**dy car to bits so really only have myself to blame.

Gutted. At least your car did actually have something wrong with it.

tbourner

Heheh that's an awesome story!

I'm lucky in that the wife is brilliant at locating noises, I'll be saying there's a noise in the engine or the front suspension, and she'll go out in the car and after 5 minutes say nope it's the rear parcel shelf rattling against the offside quarter window. I never believe her but it always turns out to be correct!

Moglet

tbourner wrote: »

My cup that is! I'm an Engineer so I would say the cup is twice as big as it needs to be.

Heard that before but having an engineer for my OH, it's oh so true.

Sorry about the car though.