The cost of vehicles

Well ladies and gentlemen we are up to $1400 to Smog Doug's SUV!! Yep. After another call from Doug and more tears; with each call, the price from the auto shop goes up $200-$400 - the price has reached $1000+ for the auto shop and $400 for parts he already replaced. The trade-in value on his SUV is $1400 in "fair condition", but it's not fair condition because it's a salvaged vehicle after it was hit while parked in front of his parents home over a year ago.

And my SUV is scheduled to go back on Friday the 26th. I'm so grateful to my parents for letting us use a truck they have until we can figure out what to do. I've been waiting for the check, but I found out this morning that they won't cut the check until they have my SUV back. Kinda hard to buy another car without money huh? And I have a list of things to fix or replace on the vehicle before they take it back or they'll charge me to replace it. So, I have a rock chip in the windshield to fix and they will measure to make sure the tires have 4/32" tread left on the tires; crap like that. Um....it's going back as a LEMON! Do you really thing the windshield chip makes that big of a deal. The guy even told me to run it through a car wash. If he didn't notice...it's raining! Sheesh.

It's been a poopy morning, every time I answer my cell phone, money has been shooting out the door. As Doug said, "It's cheaper than buying a new car." and Becky said, "Well, it could be a lot worse." Uh yeah! Those don't help right now.