Posted on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:40 PM
My wallet's in a world of hurt right now, and the pain doesn't end until tomorrow.
I dropped my car off at the shop for the annual MOT and some small maintenance yesterday afternoon. Little did I know what lay ahead until the mechanic called this morning; two of the shock absorbing springs needed replacement and two of my tyres were dry as a bone, so some new rubber was in order as well.
Adding some small stuff like a bulb or two, an oil filter and an air filter ups the ante a bit more, and when they finished the list with labour and VAT, I had to pay nearly 700 euros to get through the MOT.
They also made a remark about one of my front fog lights having a cracked lens, but since the entire unit would have to be replaced without being an MOT requirement, I couldn't care less about that in the immediate future, so I let that be for now.
Just when I was about to leave the shop, the mechanic turns Columbo on me: "Oh yeah, one last thing... When was the last time you had you power transmission belt replaced?"
I guess my silence said it all, and after a quick call with the shop where I had my last big maintenance job, I left the garage, sans car, with the knowledge that they would fix me a new belt, but I would have to fork over another 500,- or so.
So that's about 1200,- down the tailpipe, which hurts quite a bit.
However, one of the things that softens the blow is the knowledge that the Twingo has run without problems for six years now, and that the parts replaced were old and at the end of their useful life anyway, so I had it coming.
But still...
Cheers, K.