(no subject)

[hathycol]

I took my car to the garage this morning. I thought the most painful aspect would be getting up earlier than I do to get to work. This was quite painful. More painful is the fact that my car is very, very broken and that apparently there is a chance I should be dead. My steering is very, very broken. I am looking around the £500 mark for repairs. Ish.

Debated crying or cancelling Christmas and doing a sackcloth and ashes routine, but you know what? Buggar it. At least I got the car in befoe the VAT increase and 2 and a half percent of £500 is a figure that is not to be sniffed at, really. I need savings for Moving Dahn Saath (or Oop North, depending) if I get a new job, but statistically that is unlikely to happen this month, so I can start again on the savings in the new year, when I am unlikely to have any massive expenditure; I have no holidays planned and Christmas will have happened. Other than paying off some bits and bobs on the credit card (internet shopping, y'see) I should, fingers crossed, be able to start putting little amounts away. I'm not even anywhere near the overdraft yet!

So I will go Christmas shopping tomorrow, as planned, and I will buy a new dress for myself, as planned. I was only going with a tiny budget for it anyway. I will still go away next weekend, as also planned. There are more important things to worry about in life, and basically I need to stop being so tight.

The real concern is whether or not the car will be ready for next weekend, when I'm driving to St Andrews. They've loaned me a car, which is nice, but it's a diesel and I don't know how they work; I have no idea if the accelerator is meant to be so tough or if it's just a thing with the car. I'm frankly terrified to drive it anywhere, so here's hoping repairs aren't too lengthy.

Comments

[nepygill.livejournal.com]

My KA's heating and steering rack died just before last winter and I had to decide between getting it fixed for a fortune or getting a new car and staying at home for another year so I know the pain!! (I chose the new car option... but I did come this close to killing one parent or the other over the last year).

I've driven my dad's diesel quite a lot and they are so unresponsive! It's normal for them, particularly if it's not a very powerful car. I have to put my foot down much harder and it also helps to lift off the clutch earlier than you would in a petrol car when moving off.

xx

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

That last piece of advice was very helpful when I had to drive it to Southport today - stil terrifying, but now slightly less so.

It is SO EXPENSIVE to fix and I don't even have a total for it yet. As I'm already moved out and don't know how my long term job prospects are looking I'll have to cough up to get it fixed, but it's still very annoying.

[tau_sigma]

Diesels are disturbingly different - they have more torque, but in a different power band, so pulling away is AWFUL because you get to the point where in a petrol car, you would be accelerating away from the junction and at least OUT OF THE PATH OF ONCOMING TRAFFIC, and in a diesel, you suddenly have no more power. (The van was a diesel, I think that was more disturbing than the fact that it was a van.)

I hope your repairs get done quickly, I think it probably depends most on whether they can get parts quickly? Which is probably not helpful. *hugs*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I spent SO LONG waiting at roundabouts, waiting for the biggest gap possible to that I didn't DIE HORRIBLY as I couldn't move out the way of speeding cars.

I have my car back and I love him so much. I'm speedy again!