Get in gear!

Well I have my latest car woe fixed.

Friday morning I get into my car to head to work.  I crank up, put my foot on the brake, and try to move my gear shift.  It does not move.  I try several times, but nothing.  Wendy pokes her head out the door to see what is going on.  She tries, but nothing.  I call my supervisor from work.  He is pretty handy with cars and might know a trick.  He tells me to try and couple of things.  The gear comes out of park.  So I am good to go.  Of course I never think any more about it.

Fast forward or look back to Saturday morning.  Wendy, the girls, and I are headed to pick up a few things from the store.  So we load up into my car.  The gear shift will not come out of park!  I struggle with that thing for awhile.  Wendy tries.  I call my supervisor again.  This time the over the phone consultation does not work.  He says he will come over.  He arrives, but cannot get it out of park.  He feels the release, but cannot get it to release.  Of course Wendy's car is in front of mine in a single driveway.  Tommy, my supervisor, is able to move her car out to the street.

One problem is that my car is needs to be worked on.  The next is without getting it out of park, it will have to be towed.  Meaning for you keeping score, an extra expense.  I ask Tommy would the dealership know a trick to get it out of park, to bypass the safety feature.  He knows someone better.  He makes the call and the person says if you take a screwdriver into a little hole by the gear shift it will manually release.  It works!  The car can get into gear.  Now I have to wait until Monday to take it to the auto shop.  Why do things like that happen on Saturday?

Monday I take the car to get it worked on.  It turns out an actuator went bad.  Which I guess is some kind of motor to release the gear.  Of course the part could only be gotten from the dealership so I had to pay for the dealer's name and markup.  Then an hour and half of labor.   So I am looking at a $200 bill.

With my car lately it has been little things adding up to big bills.  I suppose each day has troubles of it own, most of it deals with possessions.

Maintenance on cars, cannot live without it, cannot afford not to do, cannot afford it when I do it.