About seven months ago, I decided to but my first car. Like any young, inexperienced girl, I thought I could walk into a lot, pick out a car I liked, put my money down and drive away. But because I'm young, have very little credit and have never owned a car before, I had alot of trouble getting approved for even the crappiest of cars.
Finally, I stumbled upon a lot near my house. The cars looked new, the prices weren't too bad, and the employees seemed nice, even letting me take the car home so that I can pick up some extra documents. I had them look at the car and service it before I paid for it. These people are too nice to sell me a bad car, I thought. Finally, after endless hours signing papers and waiting around, I drove off in a 2003 Ford Zx2. I was so excited.
Two days later, I was driving to work when I noticed my brakes felt a little slippery. I didn't feel that firmness you feel when you stop at a normal speed. I figured it was just my imagination and kept driving. But when the car skidded at a traffic light and I almost got hit by oncoming traffic, I knew something was wrong. Fearing for my poor, young life, I decided to drive the two minutes left to work-very carefully-and have one of the guys check my brakes.
Lo and behold, i never made it - the brakes slipped completly and I rear ended the car in front of me. The cop had to follow me to a nearby parking lot (very embarrassing) so that I could get a tow. "Your taillight is out, "he informed before going off to do whatever cops do.
I called the on-site shop and asked for a tow. "I don't know any numbers of tow trucks, " the service manager who shall remain nameless barked. I told him that I'd just had an accident, was sitting in a parking lot unable to drive, and that I had no other way of findind a number. There was no way I driving that car again. "I don't have time to look through a phone book, "he snapped." And we don't have any tows."
I called the main office, who got me a tow... I thought he said they had no access to one??? Anyway, after I argued with him about the brakes (he just didn't believe that they would "just go out") they agreed to fix the car. When I got the brakes replaced, I was told that they went out because I'd been driving with the emergency brakes on. Wait a sec. I live in Florida, which is flat country. I was driving an automatic. Why I wouldv'e ever had a reason to use the e-brake was beyond me; I'd never even so much as brushed the damn thing with my hand.
I paid for the stupid brake job, cursing everyone in my head. They seemed to think I was some young, naive girl because it was my first car, judging how I was treated whenever I called with a problem. I tried to talk to the owner myself and I kept getting the run around—he's unavailible, he's out of town, etc. It was almost like it was a joke. I don't even think he knew what was going on. I was told that I'd bought the car As Is and therefore it was not their problem." You shouldv'e gotten a warranty, " people said. Ha! I wouldv'e gladly gotten a warranty—if only I'd been offered one, which I wasn't! Pretty convenient, huh?
Two weeks later, I started noticing that my car was acting strangely. It was jolting, stalling in the middle of the road while driving in traffic (another situation that couldv'e gotten me killed), and it was shaking like crazy. I took it another shop-i didn't trust that other mechanic anymore-where I was told I need alot of stuff done. There was an oil leak in the engine, I need a new fuel gasket, and the spark plugs need to be replaced, among a crap load of other things.
Turns out, the car had never been tuned up or serviced, not even before I bought it. They just sold the car in whatever condition it was in when they received it. Five hundred dollars later, I drove the car home hoping that was the last I'd ever see of the inside of a repair shop.
When I checked the fluids, they were completly out.
Then the ac went out. Which really sucks in 98 degree weather.
The O2 sensor went bad.
Keep in mind, I'd done the best I could to maintain the car. Put fluids in it, etc. So when my friend's boyfriend drove my car and informed me that I need transmission fluid, I went out and bought some. But that's when things started reaching the end for me. After a week, my transmission was still shifting really bad, and the car was really sluggish, so when my boyfriend looked at it and said the fluid wasn't the right color it was sopposed to be (it looked burnt) I immediatly took the car in. Apperently, the fluid had never been changed—ever— and had burnt, causing pretty much every part of the transmission to break. Yes, I needed a new transission and it wasn't going to be cheap.
The dealer people did help me with that, which I appreciated, but at that point I'd already spent so much money on repairs, not to mention the inconveiences I'd had to deal with, that I was starting to question whether I still wanted the car or not.
So when, a week after spending almost a thousand dollars getting the tranny fixed, the car started driving funny again, I decided I'd had enough. Unfortunatley, it was too late—First the car started shifting funny again, really sluggish between the first and second gear. Then, hours later, the ac was blowing out hot air. I was on the way to work and didn't have time to go to the shop, so I fugured I'd go tommorow.
Too late. On the way home, at twelve in the morning, the car broke down on the edge of the highway. Once again, I'm lucky there was very little traffic and that I wasn't killed, because the car just sputtered and that was it. Imagine being a girl, stranded in the dark on the edge of the highway! I couldn't even put it into neutral. Some guy stopped and helped me get it to the edge of the road, where I called my boyfriend to come and get me. When the engine cooled, I checked the fluids. No coolant! Impossible! I'd filled the coolant not too long before that. There was smoke and the smell of burning rubber everywhere. There was oil in the car. Everything else was fine. I had the car towed into the stupid shop the next day.
Turns out, the water hose had broken, leaking water all over the engine, and the head gasket had blown. "It's your fault, "the service manager said. MY fault? How was it my fault? I'd used my magical powers to break the water hose because I enjoyed wasting my money? If they had serviced the car in the very beggining like I'd asked them to, alot of this wouldn't have happened.
They, the service manager specifically, treated me like an idiot who didn't know anything. They wouldn't work the repairs into my payments and they wouldn't trade me another car. The worst part is, I couldn't afford to pay my car bill (three hundred a month!) and get the car fixed, so I volunteered repo on it and now after all this money I have no car. They have the car so now they can sell it again and make even more money off some poor fool. All my bills are behind now and I have school to worry about, so Im super broke. For that kind of money, I couldv'e bought the stupid thing cash or been driving some thing much nicer. Five thousand dollars and I have nothing to show for it. Which is a shame, because it was a nice car. It's really too bad.
I live 45 miles from my job and I have school and now I have no car. It's been hell. The bus system is terrible and everyone has their own life to worry about, so it's hard to get rides everywhere. I'm so mad that I couldv'e just saved all that money I wasted and be driving something worth the money, but I guess you live and learn. I almost lost my job, and I havn't had a life because even when I had the car, I could never drive anywhere. There's nothing I can do because it's not under warranty. So basically, I got screwed. They even charged me $50 to get my tags and stuff back, which is bullcrap. Havn't they taken enough of my money? But, that's okay, because God don't like ugly. On the bright side, atleast I learned alot about cars.
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