[speaker001:] Hi, my last, uh, auto repair was my, my, uh, alternator went out. I have a nineteen eighty-six Toyota, uh, it's a little Tercel [static].
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [pounding].
[speaker001:] And, uh, I have a fri-, a friend who's real good with, uh, repairing cars so I got him to take the alternator off and take it and, uh, you know, get a replacement part.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] So we went to a, uh, a, a place called Quality Auto Parts an, and their parts are supposed to be guaranteed and, and everything and they're, they're, uh, very reasonable. So, uh, I bought the alternator, we p-, put it on the car and it, it didn't work, and it blew out all the fuses.
[speaker002:] Oh, no [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] How much was the alternator?
[speaker001:] Uh, I bel-, something like sixty-nine dollars, som-, something on that order.
[speaker002:] Did he, did he hook up the wir-, wiring wrong?
[speaker001:] No, he hooked it up right. It, it was just that the, the part just, just didn't fit the car, so. I took it back and, uh, he, he took the alter-, the guy in, in the parts shop took the alternator and he put it on the little thing he has in there to test them and, uh, he said there was nothing wrong with the alternator so we, we went back and tried it again, put it on again and it still didn't work, and we took the car up to, um, a little place called Pep Boys, I don't know if you have them in your area
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but, uh, they're, they're pretty reasonable, uh, car repair place also. So, uh, took it up there, towed it up there because it, you know, wouldn't start or anything and this thing just kept blowing out the fuses and, uh, took them about an, an hour to, um, figure out what was, what was blowing the fuse, and it was, it was the alternator that was blowing the fuse. Anyway, [breathing] ended up taking it to the Toyota dealer and the only problem was that, uh, it had to be a genuine Toyota, uh, alternator because most of the other ones that they say will fit it, that, that, you know, they sit in there and everything but there's just some little difference that, um, causes it not to work an i-,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, they probably built that in so they could make money.
[speaker001:] Ye-, yeah, I guess so and that was my, that was my last experience.
[speaker002:] Well I had a weird, there's a little sensing device, uh, in front of my, uh, [pause] um, I'm not sure, right in front of the f-, fan, it's a, it's an air conditioner sensing device. I don't know why, it actually, there's a metal piece that fits through the belts, uh, and somehow that broke off and, uh, I, I still can't figure out how it broke, and, uh, anyway, so a-, this piece obviously, um, I have a Subaru, and, uh, I think you can only get it through Subaru dealer, etcetera, so.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, this little sensing device costed like sixty bucks [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Goodness, are you able,
[speaker002:] And, and I haven't had too many problems with my car, I got a eighty-eight Subaru, G L X T and it,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] uh, and then, you know just basic maintenance and oil changes an I, and I do not do my oil changes and I will not do my oil changes. I've, I think the first time I tried to do one and ended up, um, trying to ge-, uh, yo-, borrowed somebody else's jack and I did this and I went and bought everything,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] so after buying the filter and all the oil, you're looking at ten bucks at least,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] or somewhere in there an, and, uh, and then to go to the trouble, that I figured it's easier spending eighteen bucks at Jiffy Lube.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So that, that's, um, you know, [throat clearing] as far as any maintenance on my car, I, I shy away from the oil changes, that's for sure.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, well my car is, uh, it's an eighty-six and I really hadn't had any, any trouble with it un-, until that and the car now has a hundred and thirty something thousand miles on it and, uh, and this was just recent, so I really can't complain about this one.
[speaker002:] How did you put that many miles on it, in,
[speaker001:] Um, well, I used,
[speaker002:] four or five years?
[speaker001:] I used to work, uh, it was a seventy mile trip everyday, you know, two ways was seventy miles.
[speaker002:] Oh, a hundred and forty mile trip?
[speaker001:] No, it was, it was just seventy miles.
[speaker002:] Oh, thirty-five miles each way.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I did that for about three years and it really, it really added up. I've only taken, uh, maybe two trips that were about four hours long dow-, uh, down to Shreveport. And, uh, the rest of it was, you know, it's just basically driving a long ways to work. And now I drive like twenty, twenty-three miles each way, so, I'm getting a little, a little, uh, little relief, but still I drive a long ways.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] But I guess because they're highway miles, you know, it's not so bad on your car as, as if it, you know, were just regular street, you know.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Do you work for T I?
[speaker001:] Yes I do.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] Do you?
[speaker002:] I was going to ask you, you know, as far as how we're getting compensated for what we're doing right now, um, I don't work for T I and I'm just, I get these green, I don't know what you want to call them, fake [pause]
[speaker001:] Points.
[speaker002:] point things,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, uh, I just wondering how I go about getting the cash [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Uh, there's a number that you call, it's the same number that you, that you call to make a call.
[speaker002:] Oh, okay.
[speaker001:] You, you call that number and, and, uh, somehow or another they'll give you an option to leave a message and you can leave a message.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] I know someone that did that, you leave a message and they'll, they'll call you back.
[speaker002:] Okay, all right, well that's good to know. I haven't been doing th-, this is the first time I've been called in a long time and I haven't been doing it so,
[speaker001:] Oh really.
[speaker002:] And, uh, I've done it maybe twelve times.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Well I don't know if I've done it quite that much, but, uh, mine is mixed up too, I have to call and get it fixed [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Uh, let's see before I had this car I had a, um, I bought an Audi five thousand
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but I bought it, I bought it used. I, I just bought it from a friend who was going to, who just charged me what the dealer was going to give, give him for it for a trade-in, and, uh, it had a whole lot of miles on it. I, I figured maybe I'd get one or two years out of it, an I, an I did get a couple of good years out of it and the, uh, the engine messed up on me and then I gave it to a guy to repair who works for the aut-, for the Audi dealer and, uh, he took the engine apart and, you know, he just said he couldn't fix it so the engine never got put back together again.
[speaker002:] Huh, oh well.
[speaker001:] I,
[speaker002:] I was driving a sixty-six Plymouth Fury.
[speaker001:] Wow. I think those old cars
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah, and,
[speaker001:] might, might be a pretty good bet because you [LAUGHTER], I don't know, i-,
[speaker002:] Oh, tha-, that's when they made cars, though, this things was, the body was in good condition and you know, it ran fine. It was starting to burn some oil.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. Um.
[speaker002:] And, um, but I had to [pause], you know, ge-, you know, I, after about thr-, couple of months after I was out of college I finally splurged and bought my car so.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, I read a book one time that said that the best cars were made before seventy-four.
[speaker002:] Yeah, well, you know, these, these cars made in the sixties and stuff, I mean the steel, I mean, the thickness, I mean, i-, those thin-, they're just, th-, you just don't see cars like that.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And they last a long time. And they were simple too, the engines were simple and durable and
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] some people will still buy them, you know, they'll,
[speaker001:] Yeah, it's easy to, it's easy, I guess it's still easy to find engines for those cars, engines and transmissions and if you, I guess if you keep trad-, changing them out you can keep a car for a long time. Course I guess I could do the same thing with the, the Toyota that I have, I just don't know how much they'll want to charge me to,
[speaker002:] [Yawning] It almost costs so much to fix anything or do anything with it, you're just better off buying another car.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I guess so, but I just think they cost too much in the, in the first place, now a days.