okaySo my car is in the shop getting a new clutch (clutch plate, bearings, slave cylinder) which isn't cheap.
I could tell something was wrong sometime after the first of the year, by March I knew it was getting worse, and in the last couple weeks it was scary once or twice. I described it to my boyfriend as not having enough power; I'd step on the gas and the RPMs would go way up (and the engine sounded fine) but I didn't go any faster. This was especially bad on uphills and trying to merge on the highway. He drove it briefly on Sunday and was all - it's the clutch plate, and you really shouldn't be driving this car anywhere at this point. Whee. This brought up two (okay, and a half) thoughts.
1) J did come to the garage with me to explain the problem. I'm not thrilled with the idea that a guy talking to the mechanic will get more respect than a girl (I understood the issue after J explained it so I could have done it alone), but it just feels true. This makes me wonder if bringing J along was simply smart, or somehow pandering to the status quo. In either case, I'm grateful to J for the help.
1.5) I wish I knew more about cars. Lumped in with this is that I wish there were more female mechanics, somehow cars have become such a boy thing.
2) My poor car. It was in an accident before I bought it and there are lingering issues from that - like the back end isn't square - that I have not ever fixed due to cost. This makes every repair a bigger question of whether or not it's worth putting the money into this car or not. Then again I realized today that I've owned this car for 8.5 years which is the longest I've ever had a vehicle and it still runs well. I suppose it's the same cost/benefit analysis everyone needs to do for car repairs, but I've been slowly inching towards 'not worth it' for a few years, and wonder when I'm going to reach that point.
While my car is in the shop J is letting me use his. So I've switched from a standard Civic compact, to an automatic Frontier pick-up. I like driving it so far, but really hate parking lots in a vehicle that big.
In regard to you taking J to the shop with you, you almost have to play to the status quo right now. The car business is still very geared toward guys and women really aren't given the respect they should be. I don't know how or when that will change but I hope it's soon.
I hope that the issues get resolved. :-(
Yeah, I generally make Mr. Cat go with me when I have to take the car in, because the mechanics always just look at me like I am such a silly little thing... Once I was explaining that the indicator lights on my dashboard (such as the brake, battery, check engine, seatbelt, etc.) sometimes light up for no reason- even when the car is off. I said it THREE TIMES and the guy could not get what I meant. Mr. Cat repeated almost exactly what I said, and voila! The guy understood.
That was when I gave up and decided that since I had a man in my life, he'd just deal with the car. (I need to have it serviced, and I am waiting for him to be available!)
I did once have a mechanic tell me a few years ago, "Well, I don't see anything wrong with the car, but if you tell me there's something wrong, little lady, I guess I just have to believe you!" Yeah. Thanks.
Hope your car can be fixed easily and not too expensively.