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View Full Version : New (to me) van FAILS first long distance road trip... sigh.. UGH



Running Mommy
03-15-2009, 08:34 PM
We recently bought a used minivan to haul the bikes around in. We have an overpriced bmw that is about to be turned in at the end of the lease, so we decided to go used and cheap.
Well we learned what "used and cheap" truelly means on it's first long road trip.
Running son had a bmx national race in Vegas this past weekend. It's about a 4.5 hour drive.
On the way home we were about 40 miles from anywhere when it decided to start stalling out. AZ is mostly open desert, and that's exactly where we were. Not fun since cell service is spotty at best. We limped it to the next town and called AAA. All hail AAA's "Plus" plan with 100 miles of free towing! We used 60+ of it today to get it to our local mechanic.
Lucky for us we have dear friends that drove 60+ miles to rescue us without hesitation!
All in all a very stressful end to our busy weekend!
We have a kid that rents a room from us, and he was a certified toyota technician. He said it sounds like a fuel filter. A silly FUEL FILTER!!
argh!!
Fingers crossed that it's only that.
So I guess it's a toss up. Have a car payment, but have a car that you don't have to worry about breaking down. Or give up the car payment but have to worry about it breaking down on you... sigh.. OY!

On the plus side, running son placed third in both of his races this weekend. He's now ready to move up from rookie to novice, so thats a HUGE step for him. He is on a team now and is progressing well.

Jones
03-15-2009, 10:55 PM
Congrats to running son.
Sorry about the car trouble.

sundial
03-16-2009, 05:22 AM
Don't you just hate it when a "new" car gives you problems? :mad:
You sound very blessed to have a live-in mechanic, good friends, and free towing. :) And your son placed THIRD which means you have quite an athlete in the family. :)

Biciclista
03-16-2009, 05:59 AM
Wow! how fortunate that it broke down on the way home!

back in the day that I was driving beater cars, whenever i went on a long trip,
i would take my car to a mechanic and tell him what my plans were. He'd look the car over, tune it, and give me a clean bill of health for the car and a big zap of confidence before I left.
Of course, sometimes it broke down anyway; but never for the routine stuff.

I hope it was just a fuel filter.