Frustration

The Dog Utility Vehicle is back at the local repair shop and in the capable (I hope) hands of the mechanic who worked on it just a little over a week ago, when it had to be taken in because the rear gear box was going to pieces.

This new issue is directly related to that last repair - apparently, when the rear gear box was going to pieces, this damaged the rest of the transmission, considering it had to work overtime to keep going correctly - and strong enough to cut through the gearbox.

Trueman originally noticed a slight issue with the transmission slipping while shifting gears around 45mph the day after we got it back, and did talk to our insurance representative, but chose not to take it right back in due to work commitments and a lack of funds - Enterprise had kindly both charged the credit card for the extra insurance on the rental and placed several holds on it at the same time. He'd informed the insurance fellow that he would take it in as soon as possible - which was today.

Now we are waiting for the mechanic to talk to the insurance guy and explain to him that this damage was directly caused by the incident that damaged the gear box, and that it needs to be repaired. Hopefully, at that point, the insurance guy will say, "Go ahead and repair it." and the insurance will take care of it, because - frankly - if the insurance doesn't, we're just shit out of luck, considering we've got a move coming up, need to put the deposit on our new digs up this Friday, have no spare money laying about, and just put another $300 on the credit card for this week's rental car expenses (which, if the insurance does pay for it, will be refunded).

It's just beyond frustrating at this point.

The rental of the week is a little silver Kia, and the only thing I can really say about it is that it is larger than the Aveo they saddled us with last time. The Kia actually has a surprisingly roomy trunk, which is a plus, as we may end up needing to take it to the Virginia Beach Air Show this weekend, transporting our entire display, ourselves, and two dogs. We may have to make two trips, realistically - at least it gets good gas mileage.

When we get another vehicle in the future, whether it's one just for me or a new "family" vehicle, I want it to be a Toyota 4Runner like the one pictured below.

I have not yet heard a bad thing about them, with the exception of them being difficult to find used "because people are keeping them." I talked to a number of 4Runner owners on the big dog board I belong to, and the general concensus is - reliable, great in the snow, no "common" issues, and it just keeps on going. Even a Toyota mechanic chimed in, pointing out that there really are no major issues with the 4Runners. And that's exactly what we need - dependable and problem free!


On the positive side, the AKMS is up on Gun Broker with less than a day to go and a bid on it. So whatever else happens, at least it's going to a good new home and we've got a $1000 to put toward moving (or car fixing...) expenses, however the cookie crumbles. (Unless any of you fine people would like to bid on it, in which case it would be more than $1000, as the bidding goes... I can hope, can't I?)