That's Larry, over to the right - or a reasonable facsimile of him, anyway. (Minus the hat) You see, that's how you dress after bringing your car in to the local shop because you heard a strange noise from the rear brakes. Who knew that replacing the entire brake assembly could cost the same amount of money as a new stove and a new dishwasher would have? And how essential are those back brakes, anyway? Shouldn't the front ones be enough?
Have I introduced you to our friendly neighborhood mechanic yet? He's over there to the left. Nice of him to let Larry keep his shoes...
[Barrel photo credit: Culture Vulture]
[Moneybags image credit: Upgrade Travel Better]
Feel your pain. Just replaced the crankshaft pulley in our car. Awesome that this stuff always happens around the holidays.
ReplyDeleteThere definitely seems to be a conspiracy afoot to keep you washing dishes by hand!
ReplyDeleteYikes. Our newest crisis is that I managed to disconnect the dryer vent on accident last night. No big deal, right? Our dryer is vented through the floor to the crawlspace. in some strange jacked up way, of course, because it goes with the other strange repairs in the house...
ReplyDeleteI always take my car to Brakemasters; they're about $260 for each, front or back.
ReplyDeleteThe car = money suck. I just had to replace the crank in the driver side window, which was electric. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
My spray window washer also stopped working but forget that, I'll just carry Windex in the car as they said that would cost $150.
Geez.
I know exactly how much a new dishwasher and stove cost, because we had to replace ours on the same day.
ReplyDeleteIn the last few months we've also replaced the refrigerator and water heater, and now the washing machine is acting funny.
We've joked that we are getting a brand new house.......one piece at a time.
Ow, that's not the kind of Christmas gift you had in mind...but so nice of you to finance your mechanic's trip to Hawaii!
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you aren't secretly me, and Larry isn't secretly SuperDad?
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. My "check engine" light has been on for weeks. I just haven't had the courage to take it in to the dealer. I think "check engine" translates to "give Honda $600". Seriously!
ReplyDeleteOhhhhh I feel ya. I remember having to do ALL FOUR brakes a couple Decembers ago on a car I used to have, and it blew Christmas out of the water. Ech.
ReplyDeleteboy do I feel your pain! Happy New Years! Here’s to a fabulous new year!
ReplyDeleteI totally feel for you. Our much needed 12 passenger van (that we just spent $800 repairing) has kicked the bucket. Now the tax return that we planned to use for home repairs will have to go towards another van. Joy, another year of leaky bathtubs, bad wiring and lousy air conditioning.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, the back brakes have to match up with the front brakes or your car will pleat up. This can be uncomfortable, but it's easier to park.
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteBut I do love your illustrations.
Since he has his shoes, he could've skipped the brake repairs and stopped the car Fred Flintstone style. I joke because my van has been making strange noises and I'm afraid if it breaks down, I'm going to break down.
ReplyDeleteCar stuff makes me CRAZY. No matter what it is that needs fixed, it always costs a fortune. Why? Why IS that? I have been known to cry at the mechanics shop. Real tears.
ReplyDeleteHeh. And people think the road to riches is winning the lottery. DUH. It's going to auto mechanic school.
ReplyDeleteCars are such money-sucks. I got ONE LITTLE SCRATCH - over $1000 and then the deductible went up . Moving out of the city did wonders for my scratch issues.
ReplyDeleteBut to answer your question: rear brakes ARE, in fact, useless. I say, give it a go with just the front ones for a while. Just maybe don't go over 10 mph.
I love my mechanics. If they can not find the problem, they do not charge me. They also notice things, like the car inspection being expired we forgot about, and took it to get inspected for me when they were done changing the oil. We have gone there for years, I figure if the town police and fire departments have them doing all their vehicle repairs, they must be doing something right. :)
ReplyDeleteAfter we got my MIL's car (a 97 Oldsmobile) a few years ago, we paid her $2000 and then paid almost $2000 to get everything repaired so it would be safe and also pass state inspection. It only had 50,000 miles on it then, it has 135,000 now with no major repairs since then...