Car Scare

OK, so you know how I've been getting ready to sell my car? This morning, I braked really hard at a red light, and when I started to go again, a knocking-rattling sound started coming from the general area of the transmission. It seemed to knock every time the car changed gears. Fearing the worst -- my little black Golf came to me with a lemon transmission, which was replaced for free about two years ago -- I dropped Cinnamon off and headed straight for the VW dealership in Evanston. It's way overpriced, but it felt like less of a risk than driving another 30 miles to my regular mechanic and potentially doing further unknown damage.

In exchange for my car, I got a rental, a blue Toyota Echo. It blew around in the wind and felt cheap -- to adjust the side mirrors, I had to roll down the window and move the entire mirror module, which pivoted on a ball joint -- but for $30 a day, that's just fine. Off to work.

Obviously, I wasn't in a great mood when I arrived at work. This foulness continued till about a half-hour ago, when the dealership called to let me know what was wrong. The noise I heard was not the transmission, thank god, but the exhaust system: the brackets holding up that big, long pipe from the catalytic converter to the muffler had broken, allowing it to rattle against the undercarriage. Apparently it rattled at a particularly loud frequency right around gear changes. Although such a problem is far cheaper to fix than a transmission problem, they still wanted to charge me nearly $800, so I lied and said I didn't have the money, verified that it'd be OK to drive in the meantime, and I gave a call to my regular mechanic for a Monday appointment.

I can't wait to get rid of this thing.

Posted by Andrew Huff at September 19, 2003 02:31 PM