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mylescorcoran at 03:48pm on 14/03/2005
mylescorcoran at 03:48pm on 14/03/2005This morning I left the car in to the garage to have a leak looked at. It looked like the radiator had been holed. I was talking to the mechanic a short while ago and got the bad news.
Hole in radiator: yup
Right headlight bracket broken: yup
(I knew both of these were on the cards. I'd bumped a lamp-post with some really clever parking back in January to damage the headlamp bracket, and the leak was obvious)
Head gasket needs replacement: Huh? SHITE.
This last one seems to be the killer. Without know much about much I'm aware that a screwed head gasket can lock up the whole engine. I think we need to get a new car.
On top of that, there's some problem with the fuel feed (or something) that manifests as an intermittent loss of acceleration when moving off. Press the accelerator and nothing happens.
I think it's time to get a new car. Problem is we've got, through some complicated sequence of events, an automatic. Automatics aren't common in Ireland so replacing it isn't going to be a straightforward (or as cheap) as it would be with an normal stick-shift. Sigh.
This comes, of course, in the middle of the most expensive 3-4 month period we've had in years. The trip to Finland for my brother's wedding is at the end of the month and has already cost us more than €2000 in flights and accommodation. We coughed up already for a service on the car in February (they didn't notice any problems then, the feckers!), paid the WorldCon memberships and have had several doctor's visits for Rowan too.
As a friend said: buy a car, never have money again. Why couldn't he have told me before I got the car?
[To be fair I didn't buy the car. It was a gift from my brother when he was done with it, and we got about a year or 15 months out of it. ]
Hole in radiator: yup
Right headlight bracket broken: yup
(I knew both of these were on the cards. I'd bumped a lamp-post with some really clever parking back in January to damage the headlamp bracket, and the leak was obvious)
Head gasket needs replacement: Huh? SHITE.
This last one seems to be the killer. Without know much about much I'm aware that a screwed head gasket can lock up the whole engine. I think we need to get a new car.
On top of that, there's some problem with the fuel feed (or something) that manifests as an intermittent loss of acceleration when moving off. Press the accelerator and nothing happens.
I think it's time to get a new car. Problem is we've got, through some complicated sequence of events, an automatic. Automatics aren't common in Ireland so replacing it isn't going to be a straightforward (or as cheap) as it would be with an normal stick-shift. Sigh.
This comes, of course, in the middle of the most expensive 3-4 month period we've had in years. The trip to Finland for my brother's wedding is at the end of the month and has already cost us more than €2000 in flights and accommodation. We coughed up already for a service on the car in February (they didn't notice any problems then, the feckers!), paid the WorldCon memberships and have had several doctor's visits for Rowan too.
As a friend said: buy a car, never have money again. Why couldn't he have told me before I got the car?
[To be fair I didn't buy the car. It was a gift from my brother when he was done with it, and we got about a year or 15 months out of it. ]
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Renewed in car-free fervour
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Do you have to replace it with another automatic?
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Or even a used one. They last forever, and are very forgiving as long as you top up the fluids and get is serviced regularly.
And I agree about the standard format; fewer problems and they are more fun to drive. Now you got your driver's licence and know how to use an automatic car, it's only a weekend's learning to learn to drive standard. I learned to drive standard driving from Toronto Ontario to Fredericton New Brunswick, a distance of just over 1000 km as the crow flies, but closer to 1500 on winding mountain roads, on an old Honda Prelude. It took much gnashing of gears and crashing of teeth (or was it the otherway around?) but after 17 non-stop hours of driving I was pretty adept at changing gears and avoiding stalls.
::Brian::
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Similarly, while my current licence says nothing about being restricted to automatics, I'd be in breach of my insurance if I just bought a standard car and started driving right away. Fine so long as there's no accidents...
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I've *never* heard of such a restriction up here in Canada, Myles. They seem to do things differently there in Eire.
The provincial licensing authorities in Ontario Canada (where I live) only care if you need glasses and can pass a road test; they could not care less if the car is standard or automatic. And while they have recently introduced graduated licences to new drivers (ie. cannot drive on highways, after dark, or with more than one passenger with them), they don't care about the gearbox.
::Brian::
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