Wow!! That is an ordeal! Happy it got resolved but damn! I guess that's one of the reasons I don't own a car and live in a mostly walkable city. Love the Tune Tag! Never heard of it. Also your sister sounds hysterical!
Once my kids all graduate, I’m going to find a place to settle where I can get around easier without a car! I’ve been saying all along that I want to go back to Tucson because I loved it there! Nicely, they have a great public transit system.
I agree, what an ordeal! My nervous system would have cracked it at the alarms.
Car culture is one of my pet peeves. It’s all well and good for people who 1/ can afford car expenses 2/ can drive 3/ enjoy driving but it is awful for the rest of everyone else.
When the only option for transport is driving then people have no choice but to pour money into car expenses even when they can’t necessarily afford it; children and other people who can’t drive are dependent on others or isolated.
Once you include children i reckon it must be at least 50% of the population who can’t drive. And when you narrow it down further according to people who don’t want to spend money on a car or don’t enjoy driving i reckon you’re getting closer to 80%. But people try to change things like with the 15 minute cities idea and it sparks another rightwing conspiracy.
I wish the public transportation was better here! Bigger cities have much better public transportation. I actually didn’t take a car with me when I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona - I had been mostly taking the bus when I lived in Iowa City and going to the University of Iowa for my undergrad. College towns have great public transportation!
Back when I was going to the local community college here, I had to take a bus to get there when my car broke down, and that was a nightmare - the bus I was on wouldn’t catch the connecting bus half the time (it was supposed to!), so I would miss my first class. Plus, it added hours to my day to take the bus - and I had to walk 10-12 blocks to where the bus stop was.
My kids go to school in a neighboring district, so no option of a school or city bus. They have gone to the same district since Kindergarten and 1st grade, so when we moved I didn’t want to have them switch schools.
Thankfully, I work from home, but I also do some caretaking for my mom and take her to appointments.
I wish having a car wasn’t necessary for me! Most of my car issues have been super expensive! The payments on this newer car are about $150 more than my last one, and the insurance is $30 more, so it’s been a stretch.
Holy crap, what an ordeal! There definitely would have been yelling and scene making if I was there. Car repair stuff is the worst. And trying to schedule your life around the time they tell you it will be ready by. Which it never is. I had something similar happen with all the alarms going off at once with my old VW Golf.
I hope it felt good to get it all out on the digital page!
Thank you!! Yes, it did feel good to get it out! I had been trying to write about it for weeks since it happened, but I had too much up front and it wasn’t flowing. I probably still have too much up front, but completely different stuff this time hahaha! And now the issue is resolved - I was also trying to write about it when there hadn’t yet been a resolution, which probably made it more challenging.
Was your issue a fuse too? I think the issue they were talking about with the driver’s door harness part affected different models differently. The Atlas malfunction is the one involved with the lawsuit because it was actually throwing on the parking brake while driving.
I can't remember if it was a fuse or not with the old car, but it was one of the "clean diesel" Golfs, which were determined to in fact be very dirty, and so were all recalled. I did get 22k for it, which was about 7 more than what I would have gotten selling it myself, so it did help fund a normal dirty car (Mazda 3). Now I have gone full electric, with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, since last July.
I think people like us always have too much going on up front; as soon as we release a chunk of it, the stuff behind pushes to take its place.
You don’t need me to tell you this, but you’re a hell of a great writer. Like, wow. Needs to be said.
I felt for you, I laughed, I was in despair, I was hooked at every cliff hanger, and I thoroughly enjoyed every single word.
So glad the story had a happy ending!
Thank you so much!!! 😊
Wow!! That is an ordeal! Happy it got resolved but damn! I guess that's one of the reasons I don't own a car and live in a mostly walkable city. Love the Tune Tag! Never heard of it. Also your sister sounds hysterical!
Once my kids all graduate, I’m going to find a place to settle where I can get around easier without a car! I’ve been saying all along that I want to go back to Tucson because I loved it there! Nicely, they have a great public transit system.
Love that for you ☺️
I agree, what an ordeal! My nervous system would have cracked it at the alarms.
Car culture is one of my pet peeves. It’s all well and good for people who 1/ can afford car expenses 2/ can drive 3/ enjoy driving but it is awful for the rest of everyone else.
When the only option for transport is driving then people have no choice but to pour money into car expenses even when they can’t necessarily afford it; children and other people who can’t drive are dependent on others or isolated.
Once you include children i reckon it must be at least 50% of the population who can’t drive. And when you narrow it down further according to people who don’t want to spend money on a car or don’t enjoy driving i reckon you’re getting closer to 80%. But people try to change things like with the 15 minute cities idea and it sparks another rightwing conspiracy.
Thanks for your story ❤️
I wish the public transportation was better here! Bigger cities have much better public transportation. I actually didn’t take a car with me when I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona - I had been mostly taking the bus when I lived in Iowa City and going to the University of Iowa for my undergrad. College towns have great public transportation!
Back when I was going to the local community college here, I had to take a bus to get there when my car broke down, and that was a nightmare - the bus I was on wouldn’t catch the connecting bus half the time (it was supposed to!), so I would miss my first class. Plus, it added hours to my day to take the bus - and I had to walk 10-12 blocks to where the bus stop was.
My kids go to school in a neighboring district, so no option of a school or city bus. They have gone to the same district since Kindergarten and 1st grade, so when we moved I didn’t want to have them switch schools.
Thankfully, I work from home, but I also do some caretaking for my mom and take her to appointments.
I wish having a car wasn’t necessary for me! Most of my car issues have been super expensive! The payments on this newer car are about $150 more than my last one, and the insurance is $30 more, so it’s been a stretch.
Holy crap, what an ordeal! There definitely would have been yelling and scene making if I was there. Car repair stuff is the worst. And trying to schedule your life around the time they tell you it will be ready by. Which it never is. I had something similar happen with all the alarms going off at once with my old VW Golf.
I hope it felt good to get it all out on the digital page!
Thank you!! Yes, it did feel good to get it out! I had been trying to write about it for weeks since it happened, but I had too much up front and it wasn’t flowing. I probably still have too much up front, but completely different stuff this time hahaha! And now the issue is resolved - I was also trying to write about it when there hadn’t yet been a resolution, which probably made it more challenging.
Was your issue a fuse too? I think the issue they were talking about with the driver’s door harness part affected different models differently. The Atlas malfunction is the one involved with the lawsuit because it was actually throwing on the parking brake while driving.
I can't remember if it was a fuse or not with the old car, but it was one of the "clean diesel" Golfs, which were determined to in fact be very dirty, and so were all recalled. I did get 22k for it, which was about 7 more than what I would have gotten selling it myself, so it did help fund a normal dirty car (Mazda 3). Now I have gone full electric, with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, since last July.
I think people like us always have too much going on up front; as soon as we release a chunk of it, the stuff behind pushes to take its place.