Breakdowns are Inevitable

A few days ago, the Suburban started making a noise. I thought it was possibly the alternator bearing. We scheduled it at a Chevy dealership and took it to be serviced this morning at 9. Just as we were about to leave the park onto the street, I heard something lock up and saw smoke from the fan belt. I turned off the engine and got out to look.

I called the Chevy dealership, and the whole experience was a fiasco. When I called, if I pushed the service button, I got a lady in a foreign country who barely spoke English. I wanted the service man to call me so he could get a wrecker coming for me, and also to know I wouldn't make the appointment. She said she would have them call - no dice. After several calls, I thought I could outsmart their system, so I pushed the sales button. I thought at least I'd get a human on the property. The guy was nice and said he would have a serviceman call me. After 10 minutes, the guy called me, but said they don't have wreckers and couldn't recommend one. He said the way their service works is that I bring it in, talk with their service rep., they have a mechanic look at it sometime today, and then schedule the work in 2-3 days. In all this, although I was frustrated, I was really calm.

Just yesterday, we changed insurance companies, and they said they would pay $100.00 toward a tow bill.

I googled towing companies and called Tim's Towing. He said they could be there in 20 minutes, and asked where I wanted it towed. I told him I needed a good service place, and he recommended Dad's Service. He said he could tow the suburban there for $195.00.

By now, we had been there about 50 minutes, and while we had our hood up and 4-way flashers on, most people in our park who came out to leave just sat behind us and honked. We had to be out of the suburban motioning them around. I don't know about these old people! They must be 69 years old! (Like me) (smile)

The driver was great and offered to let us ride along. He had a cute dog that rode with him, so we got to love his dog as we rode to the shop.

The shop was great. They let me walk in and be there while they diagnosed the problems. They found the coolant was low and saw that the water pump had a slow leak. Also, the alternator and belt-tensioning pulley were a bit rough. So, the new water pump, alternator, tensioning pulley, and belt, with labor and anti-freeze, come to $1,700.00. I didn't think that was a bad price, and they will have it done today! We took an Uber home and will Uber back to pick it up later this afternoon. Things like this don't bother us. It comes with owning "stuff". The more "stuff" we have, the more we have to break down. The suburban has 113,000 miles on it. Our Uber driver was driving a 2015 Toyota Prius with 350,000 miles, and he said he had had no maintenance done on it. Pretty good.