I am an idiot and a fool.
What I should have done many months ago when my car’s starter was beginning to bog down while cranking the engine was to take it to a shop and have it replaced with no downtime.
What I did instead was ignore it until last weekend when the starter stopped. At my apartment, the motor spun but the solenoid did not engage. It took a few tweaks of the key to get it engaged and start the engine.
What I should’ve done was stay at my apartment and tow it somewhere on my own time.
What I did instead was drive it to the cafe, park it, and find it will not crank at all, leaving my car dead in the lot. The rainy, crowded lot. With me a mile from home.
So, in a panic, I found a tow truck through my insurance and had it towed to the dealership 6 miles away. Insurance then told me I didn’t actually have free towing on my plan, so I had to pay. To add insult, the tow driver arrived 2 hours late, and dropped me off at the dealership after-hours, dumping my car in the wrong lot and costing me at least 2 days of lost shop time. I had to schlep bags around the building to the key drop. Took a rideshare home. Ordered pizza.
Next day I scrambled out of the house, via rideshare, to the only car rental place in town open until 2pm on Sunday. Rented an economy car online. They gave me a massive truck at the counter instead. A goddamn truck? None of their economy cars were clean. Fucking timing.
Didn’t hear from the dealership until Tuesday, when I myself called them. Service manager said they’d been hit with ransomware and were 3 weeks into getting their systems back online. Not my problem, but now it’s my problem. Fucking timing.
What I should’ve done was find a new aftermarket starter for relatively cheap and either replace it myself or find a nearby mechanic to do it cheaper than the dealership. What I did instead was pay the dealership 7 times the amount. I think that’s the last time I take it to the dealer.
After extending the rental another day, buying gas, dropping off the truck, and hailing another ride to the dealership, I got my car back on Thursday. The new starter sounds great, by the way; it’s the only positive out of this whole debacle.
$150 tow
$400 car rental (4 days, plus gas)
$1400 shop service
$50 rideshares
I am an idiot and a fool.