Here's the problem: I pulled into the street near my home Sunday night, returning from a shopping trip. I stopped to check my mail. Stepped on the brakes -- suddenly spongy, which usually means there's air in the brake lines. Not a really good sign. Checked my mail, got back in the car.... No brakes at all, hardly. Unless I practically stand up on them. The pedal went right to the floor. Not good.
Got to my driveway without destroying anything. Next day a holiday. So the day after that, called a local garage that seemed to have a good rating -- I'm new to this area -- and had the car towed over there.
Let me explain, I've had mostly junk cars all my life. Two of the really nice-running cars I had were stolen. I mean, one by one, not both at the same time. One car I owned only enjoyed the luxury of brakes intermittently, and I had to drive that thing about 20 miles back and forth to work every day in city traffic. So you learn to drive very carefully and very well. And you also learn a whole lot about: 1) How cars work; 2) The scams mechanics perpetrate. I can usually tell where the problem is in a car is by listening to it. And, of course, the scent of leaking fluids is a dead giveaway.
One really fun adventure was having the hood of one car pop open one day while I was barreling along down Lake Shore Drive. That was interesting. You do realize, you can't see anything in front of you when the hood is up. And no shoulders. Had another car that the points and timing were so bad, it kept backfiring and the engine would just shut off when you took your foot off the gas. Of course, turn the ignition and it would start right up again. I remember negotiating the "S" curve on Lake Shore Drive, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the ignition key.... Oh, the good old days....
So, anyway, I bought my current ride brand new a few years back when it was still possible to make a living in the USA, and have had almost no problems with it at all. (It even has an automatic transmission.) I figured I probably broke a hose. The brakes went out suddenly -- I mean within minutes. No slow loss of braking over time. No little puddles left in the driveway. Ever. And I could smell the brake fluid. I told this to the woman who answered the phone at the garage. Her immediate answer was, "It could be the master cylinder."
Cha-ching. Suddenly what could be a relatively minor repair now is at least a couple hundred bucks. And, curiously enough, I actually had the master cylinder go out in one piece of junk I owned, so I knew exactly what she was talking about.
But wait! There's more!
Had the car towed over there and the mechanic called me about it. It's not a hose, he says. It's not even the master cylinder. All my brake lines are rusted out. And, "if you touch one part of it, all the rest of it just comes apart." He estimates the job will cost about $2,000.00, and on top of that, I should have the front brakes replaced, and something done with the back brakes, yada yada yada, for another $900.00. All kinds of exotic terms, like "shoes" and "drums" and so on. (As though we haven't all taken our brakes apart at one time or another and carried the discs in a tote bag over to TraxAuto to have them re-ground.) He doesn't even think the car's worth fixing! Until I suggested, "Well, maybe I'll just junk it, then." He got rather quiet at that.
So I go to the internet and look up brake lines, something that I wasn't all that familiar with, as opposed to hoses and master cylinders, calipers, etc. And find some kind of Q&A list about brake problems, and -- lo and behold! -- here is a person describing MY brake line problems -- in exactly the same words this mechanic used to describe them. The question was written about a year ago.
But wait! There's more!
I checked the internet for pricing for the job, and the highest possible price for these repairs seems to be about $2,000.00 -- but that for high-performance and custom cars, foreign cars, classic cars, and maybe certain trucks. A couple people (who claimed to be mechanics) suggested that you shouldn't pay more than $150.00 per brake line replacement. That's like $600 max, given that most cars have four wheels and four brake lines.
In addition, I looked up the reviews for several auto repair places in my area. Funny thing -- it seems that every damn time a car gets towed to a shop without its owner -- any shop -- the repair is suddenly thousands of dollars and takes at least a week. No matter what the original problem was.
Seems that the towing is key. If your car is towed as opposed to driven in, the repair shop apparently believes they've got you by the short hairs. I mean, you're walking. Know what I mean? And maybe you can't walk to the repair shop very easily to verify their claims.
Anyway, so I figure I probably REALLY just cracked a hose, but I can't drive the car without brakes, and tows are $75.00 each. So what to do?
If anyone reads this and knows an honest mechanic in northern Illinois, please leave me a message. Pretty please. With sugar on top. Maybe my insurance agent knows someone. Because that's another thing I've learned: If you're a friend of a friend, garages actually fix your car at a reasonable price.
No wonder the nation and the world is such a mess. Are there no honest people anymore?
But we have to approach this diplomatically, because if there's anything liars and cheats really, really hate, it's realizing that you're onto them. I mean, look at how bitter the Comrade is becoming, along with many other democrats.
Save the Intrepid! I mean, the republic!
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