Car Update

Well, just when you thought my car drama was over...it wasn't.

The car came out of the first shop with issues. The most worrysome were the shaking (the constant, constant shaking!) and the maddening issue that my rear defroster didn't work. The shop at my school took the windshield off after I was assured that it was working by the original shop, only to discover that CrapShop had snapped a wire during installation and taped it over with black electrical tape to make it look as if it was still one part. Three rear windshields later, I was in tears at a body shop in Revere over Christmas vacation, begging them to just fix it. That's right - I went over a month, in the winter, without a rear defroster. Sucked.

So you can imagine my surprise when I brought it in to have the alignment checked at school a few weeks ago. It needed to go back to the body shop - something was wrong. Long story short, the car did another week-long stint at another collision/mechanical/alignment shop while they tried to figure out just how much damage was still left from my accident. Which was, as you may recall, in October. By the time I got the car back yesterday afternoon, the old girl was the new recipient of:

- A new rear axel
- All new rear shocks and struts
- A repaired steering column
- Two new wheels to replace rear ones that were, in the words of New Shop guy, "bent beyond recognition."
- Several hours worth of labor driving, fixing, and re-driving the car. (A half tank of gas worth, mind you.)

This round of repairs was $6900, bringing the insurance company to a total investment of over $12,000 in my car. I know. I can't believe it either. I bought the car for a little over $13,000 six years ago...this whole thing makes no sense. And no, they won't total it after it's been fixed once. So it's me and the Rolla, driving into the ground, from here on out. I'll post again at 100k miles!

Footnote: My darling dearest Ashley keeps referring to the car as 'Joan Rivers', because she's all new parts. Har har har. If only the car looked as good as Joan does on the outside!