Over the last three weeks, I’ve had a battle with my car and getting it registered. The first two installments/blog entries are at the following links: Part 1 and Part 2.

I spent the weekend deciding if I should keep the car and pay the dealer an obscene amount of money to allow it to pass emissions or trade the damn thing in for something newer and less susceptible to an annual lighting of the “Service Engine Soon” alert.

The Final Verdict

I won’t go into detail about all of the new cars I saw on the road and the drivers with the big smiles or getting behind the old beater cars that pollute the air, while sporting current year registration tags. Nope. In the end, my final decision was to give my vehicle one more year and a brand-new catalytic converter.

In the stern talk I had with my car, I warned it that if the light goes off again next year, it’s splitsville and to look forward to having a new owner. I can’t keep pumping all of this money into a car [so far, just over $1,000 in the last month] when there is really nothing wrong with it. It’s too much frustration to deal with.

So for the next 8 months, I live with this paid-off car that runs great but pisses me off once a year. Only time will tell if it heard a single word I said to it.

As you can see from above, the “Service Engine Soon” light is still on, which prevents my car from passing emissions. If you are just joining us, read the first installment here.

In this annual on-going battle to make it legal to drive my car on the roads, I am once again needing to spend almost $1,000. Last year it was the O2 sensors ($850). The year before, it was some manifold replacement ($700). This year’s “issue”: the catalytic converter ($900).

Ok….I’ll be honest here. I’m no expert when it comes to knowing how a car works. I know some logistics, but I am not skilled in knowing how to fix cars. I do, however, make sure I keep them maintained with regular oil changes and the such. And it’s not like the car is a broken down piece-of-shit….. it works perfectly. I’ve never once had any major issues with it. It gets 28-35 mpg on a regular basis. But for some reason, a few weeks before I need to get it licensed each year, there is always something that prevents it from passing the emissions certification that the state of Utah requires before sending out new license plate tags.

So each year, I consider dumping the car and getting a different one. And the temptation this year is greater: I made my last payment on it in February. And as much as I need to take that car payment that I was making and apply it to my growing credit card debt, the thought of having a brand new car that is covered under a warranty would remove the stress and anxiety I experience each year.

Decisions, Decisions

As the weekend approaches, I am going to evaluate all options before making a decision on Monday. The two I am considering are:

 
OR

So until Monday, when I make my final decision, tip a glass and drink often.

above image is free to download and use from (c) Adam Hart-Davis

I’ve had my 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE since February 2003. For the most part, it’s been a pretty good car and has almost 90,000 miles that have taken me various places on the West coast and Rocky Mountain area with decent gas mileage.

But every January or February, I see the above light come on… and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the same time I need to have the car inspected and emissions tested in order to pay more money to get it registered.

And every fucking year, there is always something “wrong” that somehow costs a shitload of money to “fix”, even though the car has been very reliable and runs great.

So this year, I thought I would get one step ahead when I noticed the light pop on. A friend of my fiance’s has a boyfriend that is a head mechanic at a local car dealership that agreed to look at it.
After a few hours at the shop, the verdict was: “We don’t know what is wrong. You need to take it to the dealer.” At this point, the light is now off, but it’s due to the car having been reset after the search for the “problem.”

Dealer = a double shitload of money. Fuck.

I decided to take it to Firestone, where I take it every year for the emissions/inspection and for most of its regular maintenance. $60 later, they give me this paper that shows what “failed” or what has been labeled as NOT READY.

“‘Evap Sys’ and ‘O2 Sensor’… what are those?” The O2 Sensor sounded familiar. Looking up what it cost me last year to get the vehicle to pass emissions, I see it was just over $900 to replace the O2 Sensors.

Fuck. Fuck.

So I talk to the auto tech and he tells me that I need to perform a “manufacture recommended drive cycle”, which for my Nissan is a combination of driving 75 miles AND starting and stopping the car 10 or more times.

So over the course of the next 7 days, I do this. The light remains off. I call the shop, ready to take the car in to have them run the emissions again (no extra cost, thank god) but am told the only emissions tech they have is out injured. I’m leaving for out of town in 8 hours and won’t be back for a week.

So I get back home last night, start up the car and again I see….

Triple Fuck.

So now I drive it around this weekend before taking it back on Monday to have the emissions re-run. Then we find out how much longer I need to drive my car unregistered and how much I must spend this year to make it legal. Stay tuned….