Alison: Revving the Savings engine, with (gulp) 200,000 miles

This is Alison’s 3rd post in our Customer Blogger series. Read her previous post here.

When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there’s a good chance the transmission is shot. ~Larry Lujack

Bear and I have come into the possession of another vehicle. Don’t ask. No, seriously, do NOT ask. It was a gift and it has caused issues with certain people who shall not be named and we feel very, very loved right now.

Anyway, said vehicle is a 2004 Outback that I have dubbed “The Dingo”. Bear thinks that’s the stupidest thing he has ever heard, but whatever. We almost agreed on calling it “The Quigley” but then he took it back. Dingo it is.

This has done some interesting things to our money plan. Bear is still without a job—but he recently had two interviews, so we’re hoping that something comes of that. But without a second income, adding a second vehicle is going to be somewhat difficult.

The car insurance payment is only increasing by about $25 per month. Not as bad as I expected. We’ll have to pay for additional gas, and the car supposedly has great gas mileage, but two things about that: we haven’t taken it out for the big highway mileage test yet AND the car has over two hundred thousand miles on it.

Yup. You heard that right. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND MILES. Hoo boy.

Registration and state taxes were taken care of with the purchase of the vehicle, so we’re just waiting for the registration to arrive in the mail so we can get our street parking permit, as mentioned in my previous post.

The arrival of the Dingo has really been a blessing. Bear has been able to do so many more errands—and beyond that, he‘s been able to get to job interviews without it turning into a logistical nightmare. Hopefully by having the Dingo, we’ll get out of this jobless pit a bit faster.

You better believe my fingers are crossed right now.

The Falcon is having a few issues of its own. I knew I needed to go in for an oil change and get the tires rotated. The plan was to do that by month’s end. But when I was circling down into the parking garage at work, I heard the telltale “fwap fwap” of something stuck in the tire.

The whole time I’m hearing this sound, I’m praying it’s not, you know, a flat or something. Just let it be a rock. A really, really big rock.

Nope. It’s a screw.

We had all four tires replaced a few years ago at a tire chain located near my house. So I called them to find out what it’d cost to fix the tire and get them rotated.

I was told that it would be $22 plus tax to fix the tire—way cheaper than I was expecting. I asked for a quote on the rotation, and after a bit of back and forth, I discovered that because I purchased the tires from this store, they’ll rotate them at no charge. So, score.

I took the Falcon in on Sunday (yes, this place is open on Sunday—they’re that awesome) and was informed that the repair and the rotation would be free: We have insurance/warranty on the tires for the life of the tires. However, I had failed to get the alignment checked and corrected when we bought the tires. So, if the alignment was off, it could cause the tires to wear incorrectly and could, in fact, void my awesome, awesome warranty.

Now, on the one hand, this guy could just be up-selling me. It’s been known to happen and as paranoid as I can be about things that cost a lot of money (like, ahem, a car) I have been known to fall for it. I might as well have ‘SUCKER’ tattooed on my forehead.

However, I grew up in a family that owned a tire business and so I know that this can actually turn into a big deal. I cannot afford to void this warranty so I said fine, do the alignment.

Plus side: The tire repair and rotation were free and will continue to be that way for the life of my tires.

Down side: I shelled out $67.95 more than I was planning to. *sigh*

Maintenance is so important with a vehicle, especially when you can’t afford to replace the whole car. Regular oil changes, tire rotations, check up and tune ups—it does cost money, but let me be very clear:

It costs a lot more when you don’t take care of your baby and something catastrophic happens. This kind of thing can wipe out an emergency savings account quicker than anything.

I still have to take the Falcon in for the oil change and get the wipers replaced, but that may have to wait a week or so longer than planned. But it will get taken care of.

So we have two cars now, both with high mileage. The downside of that is the cost of repairs and fixing things as they fail. But Bear has taken the Dingo on as his own and he’s being a bit, um, obsessive about the whole thing so my hunch is we’ll find the money and the time and get every little ding and thud looked at.

As long as we can keep getting where we need to go, I guess it’s all worth it.

Check out our other Customer Bloggers: Alicia, Matt, T.J., Nancy and Susan.

Tags: Alison, Customer Bloggers