We almost didn't make it to church last Saturday.
We got on our car and all sorts of lights were turned on at the dashboard - frankly, I haven't driven around much since I started working from home a couple of months ago so I don't even remember which of those lights were supposed to come on and stay on until the car starts and which ones are supposed to be off.
Anyway, the battery light was on (hubby says it's supposed to be like that) and when he turned the key to start the car, there was this gad-awful grinding, choking, wheezing sound coming from the engine. He stopped what he was doing.
A few seconds later, he tried starting the engine again and this time, it did start but the entire front of the car was shaking and there were loud sounds coming from the engine. Our vehicle has a boxer engine, it's not supposed to shake/vibrate like that so when it did, it scared me. I wanted to get out of the car lest it blows up (dramatic ba ?).
We were parked away from our bldg (we thought it was going to snow so we parked away, as per our condo's policy, from the building the night before) so we decided to just move the car to our reserved spot in front of the building since it was brighter (more light). All this time, the car was still making that awful noise and vibrating like h*ll. I was so scared that it might die in the middle of the road and we'd have to push (btw, can you push a car with automatic transmission ? I know that you can't make kadyot, but you can still push no if it's in neutral ?).
When we got to our spot, we cut off the engine and I started looking for the roadside assistance number - in case we needed a jump start.
A minute later, hubby decided to try again and this time, the car started without any problems. Baka nalamigan lang ? But Saturday was WARM compared to the previous times we've used the car.
Hay. This got me thinking, my friends lease their cars because they want to be able to switch to a new vehicle every 2 or 3 years. As for me, I thought it was more cost-effective to just buy my car, which I did. I always thought that I'd keep my car and replace it after 5 years. But this car has always been in excellent condition, is underused (less than 30k mileage over 5 years) and still looks new so I changed my timeframe and plan to keep it for another 5 years.
Now, my car is 5 years and 1 month old. It's always been well-maintained by the dealership (casa) - I'm OC about that. Now, I'm wondering if it's time to sell or maybe that was just a fluke because of the cold ? and because we have not been using it daily ?
Ano kaya ? For now, our car is under observation.
4 comments:
Hmmm not an expert with cars,but do make sure you start your car once in a while when it's not in use for some time. Oh and about the leasing, Jarno and I are doing the same thing for the same reason you mentioned. Plus insurance is covered by the leasing company so wala ng hassle hassle when accident happens. The company takes care of it. Also it's pretty much like buying your own car without any downpayment or loan since we are allowed to buy the car eventually after the leasing period.
aaah, it does make sense for you guys to lease then.
but don't you have to pay a whole lot more if you lease and then choose to buy your car at the end of your lease compared to just buying it from the start ?
I say have it checked just to be sure. Let the mechanic try to figure out what went wrong and then decide.
Good luck with your decision!
Hi Jean. Well the good thing about company leased cars is that the company pays a huge percentage of the monthly fee, and should you buy the car eventually, you pay its depreciated value.
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