Mike and the Mechanics

My brother-in-law (who, for the purposes of this blog shall heretofore be referred to as "Mike"), has had a jolly old week of dealing with car problems. Since I have currently very little of interest (or even very little of no interest at all) to share, I figured I would regale you with his story instead.

It all really started about three years ago when it was time for Mike to get a new car. He had been drooling over the Monte Carlo (I know, I know) for some time and so, the stars aligned, and he drove home a silver Monte Carlo. Being the loving sister-in-law that I am, I promptly offered to buy him some speeeners to trick it out. He refused. And stuck his tongue out at me. (But seriously...when was the last time you saw a Monte Carlo without spinners? Or hydraulics. But those were out of my price range.)

Not a week later, his car was back at the dealer to get the brakes replaced. In retrospect, this should probably have qualified as "the first clue."

The car has had, off and on, considerable trouble over the last three years. That, coupled with the perhaps a tad over the top ribbing that he gets from me about needing spinners - or at least to have his car lowered - has combined to push him in the direction of wanting a new car. (Well that and the fact that no one at work wants to climb into the backseat of his 2 door so he always has to ride with other people rather than being able to drive. For a control freak this is a big deal. Of course, when he's going somewhere with my sister, he has to ride shotgun cause she's an even bigger control freak about driving than he is. So you would think he'd have a little more tolerance for that reason. But whatever.) My sister, trying to enforce their mutually agreed upon new leaf of frugality has resisted his wheedling about a new car.

So last Saturday we get a call and it's Mike asking Tim to take him to the shop to drop off his car. Apparently he thinks there's a problem with the speedometer indicating that he's going 50 MPH when at a stop light and in park. Picky, picky. So they drop it off. The shop is essentially unsure what the problem is. They know it's electrical and, if you know anything about cars, electrical problems are the tricky ones to find and fix. But, after about a week and some research, they decide it's the ignition switch. (I think that's what he said. Point being, they have an idea.)

My sister is happy they have a potential solution. Mike not so much. Cause he wants a new car. But after some hemming and hawing and rationalization, they go ahead and fix it. And it's fixed and all is right with the world again.

For the whole drive home.

The next morning, the car is sitting in park in the garage going 50 MPH. Or at least thinking that's what's going on. So it's back at the shop and they're looking at it again for free and hopefully this time it'll actually be fixed. But this isn't going very far towards making Mike happy about driving his car. So I was thinking...we really need to do something like this: