Monday, December 6, 2021

Not the day to buy a lottery ticket

This morning, stretchy pants on, tee shirt on, weights and water bottle in hand, I jumped in my two-year-old car to head off for a much-needed session at the YMCA.

I pressed the start button and suddenly more flashing lights than a Vegas slot machine blazed in front of me, accompanied by threatening dings and beeps.

          Brake Malfunction!! blazed across the dashboard.

          The car refused to start, and beeped and dinged more with every attempt. I would not be going to exercise class today.

          It wasn’t even happy when I exited, still dinging at me after I’d shut the door, and the rear brake lights refused to go out.

          Meanwhile, my dive into my registration packet (which I needed to access Honda’s roadside assistance program) revealed that I’d been driving an unregistered car since March of 2020. What!?? We’d registered the car in Florida, where we’d acquired it, and a call to the dealer steered me to an on-line registration service. Zip, zip, zip, and $200 later I had a registration due to arrive in three days. Easy-peasy.

          I arranged for a tow, which arrived a surprisingly short hour and a half later. One look at the driver made me wonder how far back the car seat could go, but somehow he wedged himself in, decided it was likely just the battery, and after a jump from his handy battery pack my car hummed back into life, although the pinball-machine of dashboard lights still went on blinking.  

          Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided not to risk things going flooey on the way to the Massachusetts dealer and asked him to tow it anyway.

          In a brief moment of calm, I took another look at the registration packet. Uh oh. From a back pocket I pulled out yet another registration card, this one stating that we were good until March of 2022. I frantically entered a request into the registration website to disregard the first order, but didn’t receive an answering response. Finally, I managed to extract a phone number from the fine print at the bottom of the site’s page and was thrilled to find myself speaking to a human, so what if he had an accent so thick I found myself squinting to understand him.  Yes, of course he would cancel the order, and no, not to worry because the system wouldn’t permit him to register a car twice.

          The dealer called to say they’d received the car, and it would be ready by the end of the day. The battery is covered by the warranty, and my $200 is staying in my pocket. Phew.

       

 

14 comments:

  1. And did they say what was wrong with it, was it just the battery? I've had plenty of batteries die on me and not once did it turn the dashboard into a flashing pinball display. Well, at least you got the registration figured out.

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  2. Well, your post title was very appropriate. I wouldn't buy one today if I were you, either. Glad to hear your car is okay again! :-)

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  3. You had me at $200 to register a car. That is MUCH cheaper than it is here. About 20 per cent of the cost of registering a car here.
    I hope your flashing lights and bells and whistles are done and dusted.

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    1. Where I live registering is annual and mine costs around $50 these days. You're saying $1000 per year just to register? That's very expensive. And insurance on top? Wow.

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    2. No, I imagine the $200 would buy me a couple more years of registration.

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    3. Well over a thousand. And, as you say, insurance on top.

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  4. So glad you are fixed and got your $200 back. It does makes me glad I have an 18 year old vehicle. It always starts and never threatens me. Where is some wood to knock on.

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  5. My Honda Fit was designed by a drama queen. The least thing it wants to tell me and it's flashing lights, honking noises, and when it's settled I have to go back into settings to return everything to normal readings. First couple of times I was on the road in traffic, nearly swerved off in shock.

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    1. Why can't they wait till we get home to alert us to all that? Proof again that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!

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  6. AT one time you could drive a iffy car, at least to the repair centre.

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    1. Too many interconnected bells and whistles nowadays.

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  7. Now I'm even MORE thankful I no longer own a car.

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  8. All is well that ends well. I hate car problems and hate not being able to get out and about.

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