On Tuesday, April 6th, I had a 1989 Toyota 4Runner that ran. It was noisy, but it ran. By Thursday (maybe even Wednesday, I don't know, it was done rather secretly), I no longer had a truck that ran, but instead a truck with most of its innards piled all over the dirty floor of an extremely disorganized garage. It won't recover from this for a long time, and it certainly won't while I own it.
It all began when I realized that I should take my truck in for work on the transfer case. It was terribly noisy. The transfer case is the magic box that switches a two-wheel drive vehicle into 4-wheel-drive vehicle. I won't name the shop...yet. But we shall see what happens later.
I brought it in on Monday, and they said that it should come in so they could look at it and figure out what was wrong. On Tuesday I took it in, dropped it off, and was taken over to Rent-a-Wreck to rent the lovely and delightful Korean POS aka Kia Sephia. The middle-eastern owner told me that the car was dirty, was that okay? Okay, fine, I just need a car, I said. Little did I know that every seat looked like it had been peed on. But that's another story.
I asked for an estimate of the work as soon as possible. Until we look at it, they said, we can't possibly tell you anything.
Okay, but call me today and let me know, I only have three days or so to get this done because I can't afford to rent a car any longer than that, even at Rent-a-Wreck. And the truck only cost me $4500, so please be sure to let me know what you find, I am a self-employed music teacher, it isn't like I have a lot of money, I told them. The point here was that I didn't have a whole lot of money, and that the truck wasn't real expensive, so that expensive repairs weren't going to be cost-effective.
Okay, they said.
For the next two days I tried to get them to call me back and tell me what was wrong with my truck. And to give me an estimate. Every time I talked to the mechanic, he said that he couldn't give me a price. NO PRICE AT ALL. Not a ballpark, not a range, not anything. Nothing. Nada.
This was making me nervous.
When I did talk to them, finally, the mechanic said that he'd "torn it down" and that the job was going to cost in excess of $3000, and that if I wanted my car back, UNFIXED, it would cost me $1800.
Now, I'd been calling and calling and had been told that this particular mechanic was the only one in the shop that could work on Toyotas, and that he hadn't been in the shop much at all. Not anywhere near the 24 hours of labor he was trying to charge me with (at $75/hr).
In fact, on Wednesday one of the mechanics told me that my car wasn't taken apart, and four hours later suddenly the "Toyota" mechanic calls me and says that he has "torn it down" and that it's going to be $1800 for him to put it back together.
All of this without any estimate at all. For two days I'd been asking for an estimate.
I should have walked out the door when they refused to give me an estimate. I admit it. I was too trusting. But I'd been referred and I thought that maybe these guys would do a good job.
In the end, after a possible call to this shop by a friend's lawyer, (I don't know if anyone called them or not) I was called by this supposed mechanic and told that I could pay him $300 to get my truck back, unfixed, with all the parts in boxes. Fine, I told him. (It was better than $1800 for a broken truck.)
Thank you for breaking my truck. Fuck you very much. All I can say is that it's a goddamned good thing that I DON'T HAVE A GUN.
I'm picking my truck up on Sunday. On a trailer, in parts. A co-worker is going to buy it from me for a bargain price (what can I do???--he's going to have to buy a whole newe transfer case and automatic transmission, these assholes have FU'd the whole thing beyond recognition).
On Monday I'm calling the BBB, the Attorney General's office, the DA's office, and writing a letter to the editor. And whatever else these "mechanics" deserve.
Bumper stickers and T-Shirts have been suggested by helpful co-workers. But I don't want to remember these absolute assholes that long.
With the money my co-worker gives me, I'm going back to good old UnAffordable Used Cars and buy as late a model 4WD Toyota truck as I can afford. With a WARRANTY.
