Man, I hate when you have to do expensive responsible shit. Like you just dropped all this money and don’t even have anything to show for it. Especially the preventative shit. I was about to compare this to gutter cleaning (something we’re about to have done) — but at least you can SEE that they cleaned the gutters. You can see that the gutters aren’t overflowing anymore. Car shit though? You get nothing.
So after driving to Nashville this weekend, I realized I needed an oil change. I don’t know how this escaped me, but I over shot it. I usually get my oil changed when it’s reading like 20ish percent. They always tell me it’s too early, but whatever. This time it got to zero. Yeah. And the oil change light didn’t even come on. I just clicked over to check and “oh shit, it’s at zero!” Welp, now I know why my default screen wasn’t showing like it usually does. I thought the wrench was referring to the bad tire pressure sensor — nope. Must have been the oil thing.
Well, as luck — or whatever the opposite of luck would have it be, I had today off. Yay long weekend! Screw your day off, you have errands now. So I’m gonna go get my oil changed. It’s a pain in the ass because I use the dealership and not one of those fast places. I do this because the dealership price-matches, and they’ve done everything on my car. I bought it there and they do everything on it. Except when I got new tires. NTB had a better deal on the exact same tires. Dealership couldn’t price match because it wasn’t a discount — it was “buy three get one free.” So yeah, other than the tires, they’ve done everything. And they’re honest. I’ve asked them to do things to the car and been told I don’t need it. They seem decent.
I also know for a fact that some places (cough cough Walmart) purposefully cut the lamest corners to save time on an oil change. As long as you keep taking it there, you don’t notice — but take it somewhere decent and now you need a new oil pan. Why? Well to save time, Walmart doesn’t screw the oil cap into the pan. They just stick some glue on it and jam it in there. Cause god forbid it cost you like ONE MINUTE to screw it on. So yeah. The Sonic is the only new car I’ve ever had so I take care of it. It gets everything done at the dealership.
So: Oil change. Oh but wait, you’re at 57,400 miles! Coming up on 60k there. There are things to be done. Haha, fuck you. You need a transmission flush and the throttle body needs to be cleaned. Ok, how often does that need to be done? 60k for the transmission, every 30k for the throttle. Have you ever done that? I don’t know, look in your records and tell me. That’s the advantage to not doing shit anywhere else. So I’ve never done either and my maintenance book does have those in the checklist for 60k so I know they’re not lying. Fine do it.
Oh but hey! I have a coupon! At my 60k checkup, I get a free rental car! No you don’t. But I have a coupon, see. I bought the car here. We don’t have a rental car anymore. What the fuck? The rental car place shut down with covid. Can I get a discount because my coupon is worthless? Nope, I’m already giving you 10%. I work for the army now, is there a discount or that? Same 10%. Damn.
Oh and they NEVER remind me that there’s a fee for paying with credit. I don’t carry around my debit card or a checkbook. Can you just remind me when I drop the car off about the fee? PLEASE. It bites my ass every time.
So now, $640.00 later and I got nothing. I don’t even have a cute air freshener or a pair of socks or a cookie — NOTHING. Just money out the window. The car looks and drives exactly like it did before. Nothing. So lame.
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OK, let me pause to ponder the old “rich get richer while the poor get poorer” thing. We all know this is a thing. Look up Vimes’ Boot Theory or something. I am so very blessed to be able to afford preventative maintenance on my car. This was not something I could have done even 11 years ago. And as such, my car will run better and last longer. I may have just been smacked in the face with a very large bill I wasn’t expecting, but not only can I afford it — it’s preventing an even bigger massive bill when something fails on the car because I didn’t take care of it. So thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for helping me step up in the world!
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Update. I’ve given Qubie (the car) a new airfreshner scent so I feel like something changed.
