Pay Car Diem

My misadventures with my Toyota Highlander continued this week and weekend. I got the car back from the shop on Thursday evening, within a short time frame before preschool closed, said time frame even tighter because the left side of the newly-washed car was presented to me with splattered tar all over it. The body shop guy said "it came in like that", and perhaps it did, but not from my doing. Luckily it came off within a few minutes with some paint thinner, and it doesn't appear to have done any damage (the tar or the thinner). They told me they put just five dollars' worth of gas in it, but when I looked at the gauge, I figured they were mistaken, as it read there was almost a quarter tank full rather than the two gallons that five dollars would have bought.

So, Friday I drove my long route to work, planning to refuel after work so as to get into work early. The fuel light went on just as I pulled in, which most of us would agree should normally allow at least twenty minutes or so to find a station.

Pulled out of the lot after work, planning to do this very thing, but the car began to lurch within a quarter mile, and within another quarter I was dead on the side of the road, feeling like a total idiot, though I was only relying on my three years' history with this car. It does remind me of something, though: twice in the last three weeks I've been talking to ADD on the phone while trying to get to a station in time, though never so dire as this. Twice I have arrived at a gas station to find the pumps empty, so that I now drive past that particular station on principle. And now, third time's the charm, I do run out of gas. In case you haven't figured this out, when the body shop replaced the gas tank, they must have set the gauge quite a bit differently than the factory set it, so that now the car will never even get to "E" before it dies. I should complain; I should go back to the shop to have it adjusted, but I really can't take off any more time.

There are call boxes on the sides of freeways here in California, and probably most other states, where you just press a button and are connected to an operator who will call a tow truck for you. As ADD pointed out, they go out of their way to not go out of their way; in other words, asking you first if you're blocking traffic (if you are, you'd probably get faster service) and whether you have roadside assistance or AAA or someone to come rather than them. Her words were, "Do you have someone who can help you?" which flabbergasted me for a moment. "Someone to help me?? What about you?

I told her I just needed some gas and she said someone would be there within thirty-five minutes. At about the twenty-five minute mark, a truck arrived and the driver asked what I needed. I told him, and he said he could go get gas for me or tow me to a station. "You don't have a couple gallons with you?" I asked. "I told the operator that's what I needed, and now you're showing up telling me this will take another half-hour?!" He told me they're not allowed to carry gas on the truck, "because it's flammable." So, for $77.00(!), which is the standard half-hourly rate whether they're towing you, giving you a jump, changing a flat, etc., he towed me to an ARCO, where I filled up and hoped this would be the end of my auto money pit. Counting my 60,000 mile servicing a couple weeks ago, I've spent well over a grand on this car and the rental. Good thing I had a tax refund this year.