October 30, 2008

Early bird gets the...bad news first

My friend has been trying to get a catch phrase started. "Up with the concrete guys" for those days you get up and get going extra early. "I'm not sure why the concrete guys are up before dawn, but it has something to do with not sitting in traffic with a truckload of wet concrete, and then not pouring the stuff midday when it stiffens and cracks before it's even smoothed out."

I have one to add today - I was up before the bakers this morning. I am not an early riser, so rather than have breakfast at home, I stopped off at Safeway for a pastry to eat while I drove. And when I got there the cupboard was bare. As I stared forlornly at the empty display case, a kind worker headed toward the back to see if anything was ready. She brought out a tray glazed donuts. One less decision to be made for the day.

One benefit to being up when all is quiet, there is nothing to drown out the metal on metal brake scraping noise. Not sure how long that has been going on, but off to the mechanic I go. I called the dealer and I was quoted $500 if the rotors could be turned, and $800 if not. I have a coupon for a local shop for $50 per axle, with some fine print of course. They wouldn't quote me anything over the phone for my specific vehicle, but offered a free inspection. Going to the mechanic is never cheap. We'll see if they detail all the charges up front or surprise me with some line items with suspicious codes.

Crap.


UPDATE:

Well the rotors needed to be replaced. Not a big surprise since I was hearing metal on metal this morning. There were also a few extra hidden charges, also not a surprise but irritating. Final total with hazmat, supplies and other fees was $375. Not terrible. The rear brakes apparently still have 50% of their life left, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

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