The Driveway: COBbies talk cars

I GOT MY CAR.

Picked it up yesterday. It's lovely to drive. There's still damage to the doorframes, which isn't visible when the doors are closed. And other subtle evidence that it was totaled. But nothing that affects the car's function. The doors close smoothly and quietly, and the car handles like new.

As my brother put it, "You can tell it's a salvaged car, but you'd be confused as to why."

So many automatic features on this thing. Automatic environment controls. Automatic lights. Automatic pairing with mobile devices. Gonna take some getting used to. The owner's manual was lost in the wrecked/totaled/auctioned/salvaged shuffle. I kinda want that in hardcopy, so I found a new one on eBay.

The owner's manual finally showed up. That thing is a brick. I'll probably spend a few hours customizing things, now I know what they do.

All right, folks. The Vespa will have to wait a little because I, uh, slept through my motorcycle class and have to retake it. And I ended up jumping on a used car. The owners had the original title, receipts for new tires, and a passing smog check, and the test drive went fine.

It was thirty miles away, but since only one person could help me drive the other car back and I had to pick them up, I basically drove there and back twice, about 120 miles in all.

There's only some slight paint peeling on some minor panels, which I'm getting a quote on for repainting.

Tomorrow I'm getting it registered at the DMV, detailed inside and out (except for the peeling paint), and checked out by a mechanic just in case. Once that's done I'll share the before and after pictures.

Make? Model? Year?

I hope it serves you well!

It's a GMC Vandura 2500, and I think the exact same paint job as the model in the photos (more obviously worn and faded, of course). I shall call it the War Rig.

May you ride shiny and chrome!

(Yeah, it's been a while since I've been in this subforum. )

Edited by Nohbody on Nov 27th 2018 at 9:37:09 AM

Well, I'm ten weeks away from my practical driving test now. This may suck.

Why suck? You can get some decent practice in over ten weeks.

Because I've been learning for almost a year and I'm still making rookie mistakes?

If it helps, I've had my license for twenty years, have a pretty good driving record, and still sometimes make rookie mistakes.

Good luck! It's okay to fail the test. Many people have to take it more than once.

Record for my family is five fails.

And really this is the part of the test I'm looking forward to the least. Not parallel parking or any of the other reversing manoeuvres.

Edited by Deadbeatloser22 on Jan 2nd 2019 at 2:28:58 PM

Oh wow, I seem to have accidentally unfollowed this thread (or maybe intentionally since it was one of the threads I felt like I was constantly bumping) and there's been over a page of posts since.

On Tuesday I left work after closing and the car was stalling horribly and a lot of difficulty starting. Back in November I had stalls and it got diagnosed as the Idle Air Control sensor. I got it fixed cheaply (part cost less than $20 and the mechanic was a friend and said since the replacement was so simple, I should just bring some pizza by the shop) and that was the end of it. Except I had the occasional stall in the intervening couple of months, but I was able to get it going again pretty quickly.

Tuesday was not like that. Tuesday I was stalling at cruising speed if I let up at all from the accelerator. I pulled over and called a tow truck. An hour later, when we were taking the car off the truck at the shop, the car behaved perfectly.

The shop I had it taken to was one of two options AAA recommended that I knew better, as it had been a customer when I worked for Auto Parts Shop. I did not get any better treatment than friendly greetings when they realized it was me. They did a fine-toothed comb inspection for over a hundred dollars and diagnosed it as a frayed positive battery cable shorting out the Mass Airflow sensor, and they'd have to replace both and then test drive it extensively to see if there wasn't a problem with the Engine Control Computer. They gave me a first-time customer discount, so it was only $550. I just replaced the MAF sensor last October. I know how relatively cheap and simple that is.

They also gave me a laundry list of stuff that needs attention, from the not a priority "scratches in a dozen places" to the "front brakes are about to be metal-to-metal".

Also the left front turn signal stopped working. I thought that would be a quick fix with a new bulb, but it turns out it's not the bulb, it's a frayed wire immediately behind the plug. I'm confident I can splice a new one in, but the new socket costs $30 and since I just dropped a rent payment on my car, I want to hold off on that since I can push the wire in place so the contact is made.

Also tonight my car had a weak start again. I've been noticing a pattern of it occurring more often with wet weather, and when I search for that correlation, everyone says "leak with the ignition system, replace the spark plugs, coils, or wires". Welp. Guess that wasn't as low of a priority on their list of repairs as I thought.

I bought a new tire earlier this month too... and the only reason I could pay for the repairs and make rent tomorrow is because I had a $500 freelance job I hadn't put toward paying off my credit card yet.

Well, my test is tomorrow. Little bit nervous.

Oh right, I passed. Just.

Congratulations!

Random auto-related thought that occurred to me the other day...

If for some reason I was to buy a BMW X1 or X2, would a custom license plate of "BELL AC" (7 characters max on SC plates) be too obscure a reference?

Amusement of the day: Earlier this week, I finished paying off my car loan (~2.5yr for a 6yr loan, delivering pizza pays fairly good). Today, I get a paper letter from the loan company.

I open it up, and find that it contains a check for $1.82. Somehow, I overpaid the loan using their online loan payment system.

Don't worry, I won't spend it all in one place.

Took my car out to get the engine worked on because it kept shaking, especially when starting. So I went to my old boss from the auto parts store and he set me up with installer-priced parts and the number of one of the better mobile mechanics he knows, and I got the spark plugs and wires (two of the wires broke just from getting pulled off the plugs) as well as one ignition coil that had a corroded contact replaced, and while we were checking that the new parts worked, we found a vacuum leak and kludged a new hose assembly. Somewhere under $300 later, my car runs very smoothly again.

Still on the list: driver window out of clips or broken regulator, AC blows hot, probably need brakes soon, and the lowest priority stuff, the fuel sensor and wiper fluid pump.

Random thought that occurred to me earlier today:

The Chevy Suburban was also known in some places as the "Texas Cadillac", for its size, comfort, and ability to handle less than ideal conditions.

Now that there are GM SUVs being built as Caddies, does that mean there's no more need for "Texas Cadillac"?