F.O.R.D.

I know I’ve joked in the past about Ford standing for Found on Road Dead, but this time it really happened. My trusty Ford Focus, that I purchased to get me through law school, finally gave out. Well, the brakes went out. The cost to repair: $700. That was $700 I did not want to put into the car. So we parked it. And left it there. And it was finally towed. In the end, I ended up paying more to get it back from the towing company than I did to sell it to the junk my car people.

This is what my car used to look like, back when I bought it. Back when there was nothing wrong with it. It slowly began making its decay in 2009. First it was the trunk that wouldn’t lock. Then one of the back doors would no longer open. Pretty soon, the driver’s side window came off the track. Eventually the brakes gave out. This was my very first car ever. And to replace it, we purchased this:

2011 Scion XD. Technically, we purchased the Scion when Graciela was only a week old. That was 3 months ago. So yes, it took a while for us to finally get rid of the Ford. Don’t judge us.

Ford (n.)
American automobile made of materials that will break down after eight years of use.

Ford (abbr.)
Found on Road Dead

As if getting frustrated with my classmate yesterday (I’m over it, and I hold no ill feelings towards the particular student… he can’t help it that he is a nerd… and I know I can be just as big of a nerd when I want to be) wasn’t enough, I then had to go try to get my car taken care of (if you’ll recall, I had a “friendly” reminder from a cop last week that my registration needed to be updated). So off I went to Jiffy Lube where I waited for 30 minutes for them to tell me that, although the car passed the safety check, the emissions check didn’t pass because there was something wrong with the engine (the check engine light had come on a few days ago but I was just ignoring it hoping it wasn’t anything serious… the car was running just fine so no big deal, right?).

So, armed with this information, I ran down to the court house to see what they were going to say about my ticket. As soon as I walked through the metal detector, the computers system suddenly stopped working (just my luck). The nice girl at the counter wrote down all of my information, and then told me that she would reduce my ticket and give me an extension to get the car fixed as soon as the computers were working again.

So then I decided to take my car to the mechanic (NOT the dealer because they always take forever to get things done). I dropped it off and was told that they would know what was wrong in about an hour. I figured this was fine since I had about an hour left before Luis needed to be picked up. So I left my keys and walked across the street to go get some much-needed nourishment (in the form of a turkey ranch sandwich on asiago cheese bread from Kneaders). While eating, I got a call from the mechanic explaining that the problem was simple to solve and they could get it done in an hour. I told them to go ahead and fix it and since I had some extra time, I decided to walk up the street to try some frozen yogurt at Spoon Me (it tasted fine… not outstanding, just fine). I was enjoying my frozen yogurt and reading a book when the mechanic called again saying that the dealer didn’t really have the part they had said was supposed to be in stock and that I would need to come back the next day.

Another important tidbit of information: remember how I said that I was ignoring the check engine light because the car wasn’t causing problems? Well yesterday the car decided to start stalling whenever I was stopped for longer than 5 seconds.

Fast forward to today: I take an early lunch break so that I could take the car to the mechanic. I should have called before I drove all the way down there. When I got there I was told that the dealer still hadn’t delivered the part and they would call me as soon as it was in. I knew I shouldn’t trust the Ford Dealer. They are never reliable (anytime I have a problem with the car they say they have the right part, but then the next day they don’t seem to have it and they have to order it from a neighboring state, and then when the part gets in it is always the wrong part… so a job that should take an afternoon usually takes them 3-4 days to finish). Anyway, I went away feeling complete sympathy for the mechanic who was trying to reassure me that they were doing the best they could (which I knew they were) and complete frustration towards the dealer once again.

A few hours later the mechanic called me to inform me that the part had finally gotten there and that I could bring the car anytime and they would get it done in 10 minutes for me. So I took it in, got it fixed, and do you know what the best part was??? It ended up costing about $50 LESS than I expected!!!

I don’t often speak to inanimate objects, but when I purchased this car 2 years ago I had a little conversation with it. I told the car that I knew Fords weren’t exactly known for being reliable, but that I wasn’t exactly wealthy and it was the best I could afford at the time. I also told the car that it needed to behave itself for 3 years. Just 3 short years so that I could finish school. And then after those 3 years, it was welcome to break down as much as it wanted to. Well the car complied fairly well for the last 2 years, but this year it had just seemed to be headache after headache. I’m over it. As soon as I have a real job (you know the kind with a salary and benefits), the first order of business will be to buy a nice foreign-made vehicle.