Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Car Repair

Wifey has been driving her father's Toyota SEG 1.6 since don't know when. Last time it was not my problem but now it is part of my problem, I need take care of it. It is definitely a burden, but I have to do it to ensure that wifey can get to and back from workplace.

It was a not so good year for the car in 2012, probably the feng shui isn't right for it. First, it broke down half way to work on Friday, I had to come back from workplace early (luckily I could go at 3pm) and went to fetch Ah Yung from Kulim to inspect the car.

The car cannot move, something wrong with the timing belt. I spent RM500 to get it fixed, with some routine maintenance of engine oil change, tyres rotation, alignment, etc. Well, that's only in January 2012.

Just into the last week of February 2012, something happened again. It was raining like cats and dogs on Saturday. Wifey drove her car from MB to BI so that we could get to SP together for a wedding dinner.

It was so unlucky that accident happened, the car was trapped in the man-hole that was lifted due to the large volume of water flowing out. According to wifey, the tyre was trapped and the car was spinning 360 degree. I guess she must be terribly shocked (which I denied :p)

In the other hand, it was very lucky that wifey is safe. She drove it to BI and park it there while we headed to SP in my car.

This few days, I finally got the chance to change the spare tyre because the rear tyre was damaged, with a 50 cent big puncture hole, clearly visible. Walao eh. I was thinking, RM200-250 gone for a new tyre. So I changed it and drove to Kulim.

In the midway, I smelled something burned, like to rubber abrasion/burning odour, I knew something was not right but I only can pray that I could reach the workshop before anything else happen, because I already used up the spare tyre.

At last, Ah Yung helped me to check it. The severity of the accident was out of my expectation. Besides the puncture tyre, the rear shock absorber is damaged, knuckle is danaged and the combination of those was scrapping the spare tyre and it (spare tyre) was pretty much worn out when they took it out, bad, very bad.

The initial cost to replace all those is RM700 to RM800 with everything new, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not sure how long the SEG can survive, so I decided to make it work with the least cost.

Today I got the receipt, it was RM430, almost 50% reduction, including the replacement of brake pump that was malfunction and detected just before Ah Yung send the car back to me. Wow... the SEG is sucking my blood.

I really need to have a replacement plan in place, how about Toyota for a Toyota? Prius C? RM97k????? Am I crazy? After some calculation, I don't think we (I mean myself and my wife) want to put our money in a car, at this point of time where our cash are pretty drained off and serving debt for years.

How about a second hand MyVi?

:-)

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