The Chariots of DOOM

[Drunk Monk]

It’s costco. You should’ve bought those tires in bulk.

On a happier note, I bought a new 10mm wrench and placed it in the Funkmobile.

[Greg]

Well that blows.

[Drunk Monk]

Wtf? Darth won’t start. We just drove it downtown and back and it was fine. It whimpers instead of turning over. No clicking. Fingers crossed that it’s just a battery issue. AAA otw…

---

Fixed. Bad battery. Still under warranty so it cost me nothing but time. 

I do so love AAA.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

AAA ROCKS!

[Drunk Monk]

Been tardy in updating this. We let go of the funkmobile finally. It had a parasitic power leak which meant we had to run it every other day or disconnect the battery (which was awkward given the battery mount). That was tiresome. But we couldn’t get it smogged because of other issues (maybe related to the leak) and repairs were upwards of $1500 which seemed like a lot for a car only worth about a third of that. We ended up selling it to a mechanic for his kid’s starter car - it’s a total fixer-upper for a mechanic. 

Now we’re back to a reasonable 2 cars - Darth (crv) and Phoebe (civic) although we shall likely trade phoebe in for a new civic or crv. We’re planning that before next fall. 

The funkmobile had a good run while it lasted. It fell into our laps when out dear neighbor fled the Cruz for Berkeley during the pandemic. It was a zippy ride - a manual Jetta - with a cassette player no less. But it was a pain to maintain. All things are impermanent.

[Greg]

Let's pour one out for the Funkmobile!

[Drunk Monk]

We are millionaires!

Well, it’s only a million plus between the two of us so the plural isn’t quite right. 

We sold Ranch Macbeth. We iz millionaire!

So what did we do? We bought a new car.

S is now the proud owner of 2023 Subaru Forester, fully locked and loaded with all the amenities. She says she’ll let me drive it if I have to do hwy17 in a storm. I’ll wait.

[Greg]

Sweet.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Very nice!

[King Bob]

Took my car in yesterday since the AC gave out and the engine was making a very odd noise when running. No word until 4:30 when the service guy called and said something unclear about followers (bearings?) for the belt wheels (can't remember the correct names) and that they didn't have the parts so I could pick the car up at 5.

Went down there at 5 and he had left for the day. Asked the guy who helped me if I could drive it and, after conferring with service techs, he said if you do and they fail, it's over. So why did the first guy say I could pick up my car? And the first guy never asked me to authorize the service, so they didn't order the parts and now can't until Monday and it won't come until maybe Friday. I always got good service from VW so this was a big annoyance.

Possibly getting to be time for a new car. I'd prefer not. It's only 13 years old with just under 150K miles, so it should have some life left.

Off to the airport in a few to pick up a rental car for the week.

[thatguy]

Went down there at 5 and he had left for the day. Asked the guy who helped me if I could drive it and, after conferring with service techs, he said if you do and they fail, it's over. So why did the first guy say I could pick up my car? And the first guy never asked me to authorize the service, so they didn't order the parts and now can't until Monday and it won't come until maybe Friday. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cXH5Wy_8BbY&t=1m20s

--tg

[King Bob]

Now I discovered that you can't pick up a rental car unless you have a credit card. I haven't had a credit card in 30 or so years, and I've rented a couple of cars within the last 20. Not sure how that worked.

Fortunately, Christina has one, so we'll go after she gets off work. Fingers crossed they still have one.

[Drunk Monk]

I haven't had a credit card in 30 or so years

Wow. And I thought publishing a niche print magazine was medieval. That’s impressive.

Major bummer about your car woes. Hope you scored a phat rental at least, maybe one with base boost.

[King Bob]

This seems to indicate that I should get a credit card. I might be able to get one through my union; I'll look into that.

We got a Nissan Sentra. Stereo is pretty good - better than the one in my car. And my phone will sync via Bluetooth, which it never does in my car - I use a headphone cord. And it's got the steering wheel controls for the stereo which I've always wanted.

When we tried to pick up the rental, Christina didn't have her ID, so we had to go back home and get it, so another Lyft round trip. We did get to ride in a Tesla. I was not impressed. The interior is low quality, not as good as the Nissan is, and I thought it was a bit noisy.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Teslas are shit cars and their drivers are generally the worst.

You can rent a car with only an ATM card (one with a “Visa” logo) but you gotta jump through hoops and only Enterprise reliably does it. H has no credit card and knows The Secret Ways of car rental