Car Repairs (Again!)

Sunday we picked up my car from the shop when we had left it to have the a/c fixed. We drove the thing for about an hour before breaking down on the side of the road.

We had driven down to the house we recently moved from (a three hour drive one-way) last weekend to clean and load up a few odds and ends, and left my car there with a auto shop that we trust (one who has worked on my car several times in the past year). This past weekend we went back down to do the walk-through with the old landlord and we picked up my car. About an hour later we broke down and had a tow-truck tow us to a Nissan dealership in town since we didn't know of any auto shops and wouldn't know which ones we could trust to do a good job. We left my car there and they called us on Monday with the results of their tests. The distributor went out (which we knew was bad, but hadn't gotten around to replacing yet) and a couple drive belts needed to be replaced. They also recommended a coolant system flush, and replacing two hoses but we waited on that.

Here is the breakdown of what we have now spent on my $2,000 paid for car in the past few months:

Distributor, 2 Drive Belts, Diagnostic Test, Tow - $1,000
A/C Compressor & 2 Supporting Parts - $901
2 Tires - $290
Timing Belt, Water Pump - $688

Total = $2,879!

*This total does not include the clutch pedal, new battery, and two additional tows for this car this past year. By the time we are done we will practically have a brand new car (that is maybe a slight exaggeration). We have decided we should no longer drive this car on long distant trips, I will just drive it around town when I need it and we will take my husband's car on the weekends.