Taking the Focus to the shop

As you know my car is getting up in age and miles so I am trying to take care of her and make sure that she sees the doctor often. I have been really good about getting the oil changed when needed and just keeping up to date on regular maintenance. There was a Firestone that I liked in St. Louis and for the most part it worked well for me to take my car in when it needed something. Now that we are here in texas and driving substantially more the Focus needs a little more TLC.

One Saturday my dad was on his way out of town and was coming to spend the morning with me so I hopped on the chance to take my car to get the oil changed since I wouldn't have to sit there and wait the whole time. I dropped the car off and headed out with my father. My dad and I hung around the apartment for a while before we went off to play. While we were deciding what we should do for the day and having our typical discussion of my finances (I used to loath these talks but as I get older and have slightly more money I am loving that I can talk to my dad and hear his experience with money and get his take on how I should treat my finances) the shop called.

My note trying to write down everything that he said... see the price $1647.44?!?!?! 

Now I figured this was the typical your car is ready phone call so I wasn't really paying attention in the beginning but as it went on and on he kept listing things that were wrong with my car... to a final tune of roughly $1600. Thank goodness my father was there and he told me to tell the mechanic that I would think about it. As I look at my father with terror in my eyes and try not to panic (I was pretty unsuccessful on that front), he talks me off the ledge and we start making a plan. For the most part what the mechanic wanted to fix were things that were beginning to go bad like my breaks, shocks, plugs and wires, wipers, air filter, etc etc. I am often of the opinion that if it is bad fix it and since I don't know how to do much on my car I just let them do it. As we talked about this I realized that many of these things were not bad and probably didn't need to fixed at this point. The mechanic called back twice to try and talk me into getting this stuff done and kept giving me different discounts... that was a little strange.

As I stood looking at the non-existant corrosion on the battery and the air filter container that hadn't been touched I realized that he was trying to take advantage of a single female. So I decided that I am going to hang on to the Focus for a little bit longer and not panic but start to make plans for a new car. I am not sure what I am going to get next but I am making tracks toward figuring that out. Sometimes having a car and being single sucks but then again I have a great family that helps me out in these moments.