Thursday, July 13, 2006
The ongoing mysteries of the Volkswagen Beetle
Leaving the Beetle in the garage for a few months without starting it now and then is a very good way to kill a car battery. Kill it dead! How dead? Hooking jumper cables to it and running those cables to a big fat SUV still didn't provide enough power to turn over the engine. What the hell? Is this what happens when German engineering is moved to Mexico for assembly? Something important gets lost in translation? It's bad enough the transmission is going bad, after only 42,000 miles. Hang your head in shame, German engineer. Shame! But a battery that can't be jump started? You should know better, Hans.
That's right though. I did have enough power for the digital dash to come on, and I confirmed that the car only has 42,000 miles on it. According to Kelly Blue Book, the mileage on a Beetle that age averages 75,000! The car is 33,000 miles below that (for the math-impaired). It's another reason I'm considering getting a few transmission repair estimates from some other local, small-time garage guys. Guys who aren't pussies and won't just say, "Let's replace the entire thing for $4,000 without looking inside the transmission. Sure, it might need a $20 part replaced, but it's too much work to actually look inside." [paraphrase of what the VW dealership told me.]
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Quick note to the person who stole one of my two pieces of pizza I brought for lunch yesterday:
Thanks for at least leaving me the larger of the two pieces. It was very clever of you to find it, seeing how the pizza was in an opaque tupperware dish, inside a blue plastic grocery bag (with the handles folded under the tupperware), on the bottom rack of the office refrigerator! I hope all the cracked red pepper I put on it didn't give you heartburn. I'll use less next time if you prefer. (This is one of those "shrug and get on with your life" moments, as I can't imagine who would actually take the initiative to open a bag and a tupperware container to see what is inside. It's not like I walked into the office singing the "I've got pizza" song. It's just weird. Someone really wanted a piece of pizza.)
That's right though. I did have enough power for the digital dash to come on, and I confirmed that the car only has 42,000 miles on it. According to Kelly Blue Book, the mileage on a Beetle that age averages 75,000! The car is 33,000 miles below that (for the math-impaired). It's another reason I'm considering getting a few transmission repair estimates from some other local, small-time garage guys. Guys who aren't pussies and won't just say, "Let's replace the entire thing for $4,000 without looking inside the transmission. Sure, it might need a $20 part replaced, but it's too much work to actually look inside." [paraphrase of what the VW dealership told me.]
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Quick note to the person who stole one of my two pieces of pizza I brought for lunch yesterday:
Thanks for at least leaving me the larger of the two pieces. It was very clever of you to find it, seeing how the pizza was in an opaque tupperware dish, inside a blue plastic grocery bag (with the handles folded under the tupperware), on the bottom rack of the office refrigerator! I hope all the cracked red pepper I put on it didn't give you heartburn. I'll use less next time if you prefer. (This is one of those "shrug and get on with your life" moments, as I can't imagine who would actually take the initiative to open a bag and a tupperware container to see what is inside. It's not like I walked into the office singing the "I've got pizza" song. It's just weird. Someone really wanted a piece of pizza.)
# posted by smacky @ 8:23 AM 
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I look like I know nothing about cars, so I'm always getting ripped off. I like to figure out what's wrong before I take it to a shop. My favorite was, two years ago, when they told me that my Saturn needed a new carbureator when the problem was that the spark plugs were misfiring (I ended up working on it myself and haven't had any car problems since).
Wait, I said that wrong. I look like I know nothing so repairmen are always TRYING to rip me off. I win the battle, bitches.
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