I have had some misgivings about getting this car, a 1995 Mazda Miata, the main reason being that it does not have a back seat and is TINY, but figured since it is going to be Gabe's commuting car, it should be his choice not mine. It is a cute car...and I am falling in love with it the longer we have it. I really do like driving it. Plus, I have this vision in my mind of it being Ashlee's car when she learns to drive. (Is it bad to plan a car for Ashlee when she is only 3? )
We had no problem driving to Galveston and back with it (which was a blessing). But when we came back, a couple days later Gabe and I were out Christmas shopping and it completely DIED on us while driving on the freeway. At that point I was scared that something was seriously wrong, and we had thrown our money down the drain... Gabe had to spend all day Christmas Eve working on it, but Heavenly Father was good to us, and after a couple days of hard work, Gabe, Gabe's dad, and our neighbor (who used to work as a mechanic) were able to get it working again. It turned out to be just a minor problem which I was happy about. (See comment by Gabe.)
Then Gabe decided to fix an oil leak in the Miata, so he went to AutoZone to get a part to fix it. While he was there, it just so happened that our other car decided to stop working. We found out later that the fuel pump on the Jimmy had broken. (**Tip to all drivers: to keep this problem from happening, do NOT run your car until empty everytime before you fill up! Leave at least 1/8th to 1/4 tank of gas in your car at all times!) We found out the hard way. The fuel pump may still break when a car has a lot of miles on it, but I think ours broke prematurely, because we would run it til empty a lot.
I was out of a car for a week. It was a long week, and I don't think I left the house much. We probably saved a lot of money though, that way. :)
Finally the car part came in and Gabe was able to fix it. (Thank goodness for a husband who knows how to fix cars...and also for our mechanic neighbor friend...THANK YOU!) The only problem now is that the fuel gage on the dashboard has stopped working, so we have no idea how much gas the car has now.
But at least both of our cars are working now! Count your many blessings, right? I am so grateful for cars, and that we have the opportunity to go so many places. It is amazing how we take such things for granted until we lose it.
I am also grateful for running water. One of the days that same week (when I couldn't go out) our neighborhood had to shut off our water, and I can't tell you how many times I went to the sink, and needed to wash hands or whatever, and I couldn't! It really made me start thinking about what we are going to do in an emergency, if we don't have good water. That night I went out and bought some water and put it with our food storage. Now we'll be a little more prepared than before.
3 comments:
Just to give a little of my side of the story...
The miata died due to a MAJOR problem that is labor intensive to fix on all vehicles. The reason that Becca said it was a minor problem is because I didn't have to buy any parts to fix the problem. Since I was running the Becca Black discount at the time, labor was free, and since to fix the problem only required labor (and some blood), obviously the problem was "minor". If you are curious and want to know what happened, the timing belt slipped about ninety degrees of one turn on the cam shaft pully (I'd guess about 5-6 teeth on the timing belt) due to the tensioner spring falling off.
Second, when Becca says we ran the car on empty, that is not true; just until the fuel gauge said empty (completely). That is fine to do on the fuel pump. Running until the tank is really completely empty and the car stops running due to lack of fuel is bad on the fuel pump. We never did that. The jimmy/blazer models installed crummy fuel pumps and it is common for them to get replaced. It was just the time for our fuel pump to die.
That is all. I guess the engineer in me has to be all "technically correct". I will continue to run the Jimmy to "empty".
haha, i read this outloud with mike and we had a good laugh at gabes comments. Cute car though. I bet it was fun to drive to the coast for the cruise, and at least "feel" like you have no responsibilities and you're free.
our truck has never been able to tell us how much gas it has - we've always had to rely on the number of miles we'd driven. =)
wow, planning ahead for Ashlee's car, that is quite ambitious! it is a cute little car, I'll give you that.
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