Well, great new exhaust, great new shocks...I walk out to my car and I find a trans fluid and coolant mess on the ground

Looked like I blew coolant line, well, nope it was worse...my rad is cracked where the tranny cooler line enter the radiator....$1200 easy..

What a brutal couple of weeks. Here is the good news. I can pay it off and not take to much of a hit, its nice to have some reserves. Geez, I got lucky there. Interestingly enough, the previous owner of NorthStar works at the dealer. We have become social acquaintances, he helped me out with reasearch on the busted ELC yesterday. He drove me home and we started talkin about the last couple of weeks. I told him about my dad and he was really shocked..as we all were.

Just a few minutes ago, he called me up...he talked with the service manager and they are going to help me out on the cost...losing family, rear shocks, a rad, 2 cooler lines and watching 2 friends get laid off at work is to much to handle in two weeks, nice to know that people want to help out. So thats my story.....

The saga continues (I almost welled up in tears when he called back to say they were going to help me out.....)

Can't wait to get my car back....

Well I was quoted $575 for a rebuilt at Clements, and $60.30 for the lines and $60 for the pin connectors for the ELC. Oh plus 2.5 hrs labour which is $297 dollars.

Then the guy told me he will swing a deal with GM to get the $700 rad for the same as the Clements unit. All stock plastic of course. The District has a metal rad...cheaper in cost, go figure.

Then after our little talk, Randy felt really lousy and had another talk with the service manager to "see what they could do". I got my fingers crossed. The funds are there if I have to use em, but damn $1100 yesterday (well, $700 of it was for me :P go Magnaflow, but this "top end" $1200 hit the next day...man...I dont make that kinda net salary in a month

Ugh...leaves a bad taste in your mouth :?

What pissed Randy off, its that he had that car serviced to the MAX at GM, and its condition shows...its a beautiful car. Pristine, but ya after 6 or 7 years cracks develop. Probably dad teaching me a lesson Spend useless money on an exhaust I didn't need....ha...

Oh well, I am without car tonight and tomorrow. Gives me a reason to get work done

Bummer Jim. Don't go buy a lottery ticket. Wait a couple weeks for you luck to turn. Let us know how it goes.

True what they say, I suppose, "When it rains, it pours..."

I hope you are right Bill.

Bummer man, bummer. At least you have some cool mechanics/dealerships up there...Kendras front rotors are warped (they were warped when we looked at the car, I had them replace them before we purchased it 3 months ago) again. They either just turned them or bought the cheapest crap they could put on it. I went in to the dealership to ask about a warranty on the rotors seeing as its only 3 months old and they basically told me no. Bought two 20,000 cars from them in 2 months and this is how we get treated. I feel your pain man, and hopefully it will only get better for you...

-- Rogue

Damn...that ain't fair either Todd. geez

During the whole buying process, the previous owner and I co-operated on all fronts, it was one of the best used car sales I could ever want. So, in turn given my situation and the bad breaks I have been put under lately it was nice of them to offer to help out. Besides, he had that car in all the time at this dealer, so he was shocked to see the cracks in the rad had not been fixed. The leaking was only a matter of time.

I have my fingers so crossed on each finger they are all bent out of shape. :?

The car comes stock with a 180 stat Don...

Degradation happens...kinda like ****

Hey that'* a bummer about the radiator, but you do have a nice hookup with the dealer there, so be nice to them, and they;ll be nice to you! It'* nice to see you're taking things easy, maybe a trip to mankato this fall would help Wait i can't drink here (legally) maybe we should come up there.....