Its okay...Mommy's here......
Should one person be so attached to their car that they would sacrifice themselves to save it....yeah, probably not. Its not nearly that dramatic. I love my car, this much is very apparent to anyone who has been in the car with me when I reach Mach 5 on the Autobahn...as they sit screaming " I have so much to live for!!!!". It is also very obvious to anyone who has tried to drive my car, or heard me talk about her. * Yes, I call her "her" and she has a name, Kitt* Don't judge me.
I have worked really hard for this car, and I love every minute driving her. And in some small way I think that the fate that has befallen her is both ironic, and a little appropriate for the general mood of Saturdays little excursion. The irony has not been lost on me. I will not go into the gory, dirty little details. But I will say that this weekend was a few days of soul-searching and acceptance. It was a cleansing weekend. A drinking weekend. It was the weekend that Kitt showed us what it is to come together and work together....you can learn a lot from a car breakdown. I certainly did.
A day trip to Heidelberg. I'm not sure why I thought that things would go well, or even pan out the way I thought they should. Its even that easy. Its me, after all. The three musketeers head to Heidelberg....but Kitt has better ideas.
The sensor lights on the dashboard - the ones that warn you of impending doom - yeah, well, they decided it was time to alert the passengers.....to impending doom. I have the stress capacity of a lemming. Therefore, I immediately go into - "Holycrap" mode....you know the episode of Faulty Towers when Basil's car breaks down when he trying to get dinner transported to the Hotel....and loses it, and breaks off a branch from a tree and starts beating the shit out of the car....Yeah. That was my thought process at the time. And if there has been a tree close by with a branch I could have used.....I would have gone postal on the car. Seriously. WTF.
It a 2007 Subaru. Its technically less than two years old. What the hell does it think its doing? Bad Kitt. Bad. Despite the trauma of Kitt's little blinking light fit, we trudge on with our trip. In time we forget that issue and quite happily return to the car. I'm driving and desperately trying to ignore the warning lights of death on the dash. Uh no. The ligths are there for a reason dumbass. And true to form, Kitt starts losing power. Oh, did I mention we are on the AUTOBAHN!!!
No front power + Autobahn = Sitting duck.
We limp her off the Autobahn and into the IKEA parking lot. ( For those who know me...the irony is not lost on me). And we stare blankly at the engine block. Yep, still doesn't make sense to me, and have no idea what I am looking at or what I should be looking for. We. Be. Screwed. We limp her back onto Autobahn minus me as the driver, and head for home in third gear. Don't ask me why. I don't know, she just did better in third and didn't make such a horrific noise in that gear. We made it home. Call dealer on Monday.......Yeah right!
Fucking, Goddamn German Holiday Monday!!!! ARGHHHHHH. Someone hates me.
Aaron gets her to Ramstein on Monday, but then she starts to smoke. Oh. My. God. I believe I begin to cry at this point. Aaron, being the lifesaver that he is, gets a rental car for a great price and promises me that we can solve this with minimal heartbreak. Yeah, I said it. I'm heartbroken. Kitt is my car, my baby, MINE!!!! And she is broken and I'm pissed. Not a great combo.
She is at the shop right now. They have her on life support. Subaru is saying they can't honor the EXTENDED POWER TRAIN SEVEN YEAR WARRANTY - well we shall see about that. I'm a pissed off, flip-flop-wearing Latina and I paid good money for the fucking warranty and I want my money or my car fixed bitches! Oh yes. Bring it. *breathing* I can ask all big, and bad but really the true power has been Aaron. He has been taking in the car, and talking with Subaru Corp. and doing all the guy stuff. I just sit in the peanut gallery and shout obscenities.
The bottom line is we are driving a rental and we are praying that the mechanical fuck-up that is currently my car is the result of a recall turbocharger assembly. Please, say it's true!
:::: Where's my beer?:::::
