Champion Ford. Avoid It All Costs. Because It Will Cost You.

If you live in the Salt Lake area, I'd like to throw out the advice that you should avoid Champion Ford on 90th South at all costs.

Because it will cost you. 

Here are my reasons, because I usually don't take a harsh stand one way or the other on things.  I feel that people and situations are different and my feelings and experiences are mine and not yours, but this was avoidable, and I want to help you to avoid it.

Starting from the beginning.

We had the air suspension light going off.

And then we had the transmission light going off.

Once the transmission light went off The Man decided to take it to Champion Ford.  Being a dealership he felt that they would be trained and know how to take care of one of their own cars.

Because dealerships are "it" when it comes to car repair, right?

The first thing they did was tell us that nothing is wrong with our transmission.  

And then they said that something was wrong with the air suspension, but they didn't know what.

They kept the car for seven days.

We were patient.

We didn't harass them.  Please, by all means, take the time you need to figure out what the car needs.

Did they?

No.

They said they didn't know what was wrong with it and suggested to us to just remove the air suspension and replace it with struts.

Oh, and this will cost you $1300.

When that was finished we picked it up and noticed that the air suspension light was still on on the dashboard.

Oh yeah, it's just going to do that now.

No it's not.  Please fix it.  I can't have my car telling me it has a broken air suspension when it now doesn't even have air suspension.

So they fixed it so that the light would only come on for a few seconds when you first start it.  The light would go off... as long as I didn't put it into gear during that few seconds that it was on.  If I did that then it stayed on.

And then the transmission light came on again.  

Because, you know, they said nothing was wrong with that.

And the engine light came on.  

It had only been a day since we had gotten the car back.

I told West, either our car is about to completely shut down forever or something has happened to it electronically.

So West took it to Autozone to have them plug it in and see what the engine code was.

They said the OBD2 port was bad and it couldn't even be read.

Pep Boys told us the same thing when we went there for a second opinion.

I talked to my mechanic brother-in-law who said he could look at it but we should probably take it back to the dealer and find out what they did to make the engine light go off.

So we took it back.

And they admitted that they had made the engine light go off, and they fixed it.  Strangely enough, the air suspension light got fixed at this point too.

But then when we went to pick it up, we noticed that something was wrong with the power steering.

It used to be really smooth to drive but now it was really stiff and hard to turn.

So we took it back only an hour after picking it up.

They told us that the steering had nothing to do with electronics and they couldn't fathom why we would say they had messed up our steering.  They hadn't touched it.

They topped off the steering fluid and sent us away.

Did you know that if you google it, the very first search will tell you that the air suspension module is, in fact, connected to the steering module?

If we could find that answer in a matter of minutes, why didn't the dealership, who is supposed to be know their own cars, know?

They didn't even try to know.

Also, my transmission light, the whole reason we even took it in to begin with, is still on.  The car jerks when you hit the gas, but they say it's fine.

Through this whole process they never knew what was wrong with anything, said they didn't know how to fix any of it, and then proceeded to take parts off of the car, creating more issues that they then said wasn't their fault and had nothing to do with what they had done.  

When it did.

We printed it off the internet and took it in to show them how the car works.

Save yourself the time.

Save yourself the money.

Save yourself the weeks on end with no car.

Save yourself the drama.

Go somewhere else.

Little Stories

Is it bad that I've stashed the hot chocolate where The Circus can't see it?

Is it bad that I drink a mug of it every night before bed, after they've already been tucked in?

Because it's mint.  And chocolate.  And warm after working all day.

And it's Stephen's, which means if you just cover up the "en" it has my name on it, so by all means, I have the right to stash that stuff out of sight.

Right?

Also, when you start out a work email in your department about a notice for the road being repaved outside your building, and the replies go and go until finally you all end up with an email that contains only this:

you know you're working with a fun group of people.

And last but not least this is what you get when you have a Navigator full of girls (it's night and you can't really see anything, but that's okay because this is about what you can hear :)):



and unfortunately what the video doesn't show (which makes me very sad that it got missed) was at the very moment that the video ended, my cell phone rang, blue tooth through the radio, which cut the song off and there was a collective, heartbroken

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

as I answered The Man's phone call.

Man, I so wish we'd gotten that part.

One Last Party

Can you guess who made this chip mess all over the kitchen floor?

That would be the culprit, cleaning it up.
What was he doing to make such a huge mess you might ask?
Beating Brynn with a bag of Doritos.
The other end popped open while he was hitting Brynn repeatedly with the bag and...

The puppy boys were given quite the treat.

Our city hung banners on every street corner advertising one last party before the end of summer, so we decided to check it out.

The cool thing about this was all of this was free. 
You can't beat free with 6 kids.
Plus 3 neighbor kids.

There was a car show which was pretty lame, but we found a few treasures hidden in it.

This would be your Japanese Ferrari...

Look at the size of that light!

Tayler scaled the rock wall clear to the top.

Chatting about clouds

And the whole reason I showed up in the first place...

 

 

I love fireworks.

 



put it on itube

The man and I have taken up playing Chess with Friends on our phones.
We'll sit there and complain when it takes too long for a move to transfer over.
Because, you know, we couldn't actually pull out a real board or anything.

Stinky West beats me every time.

Yesterday when I stopped to get gas for my car, I stopped the car but left the key in, got out and started to fill my car.

When it was done I climbed back in and turned the key.
It wouldn't start.

So I tried to remove the key so I could get a fresh start at it.
But the key wouldn't come out.

I struggled with it for a minute. 
Turning and unturning and trying to pull that thing out.

It wouldn't start and the key wouldn't come out.
Finally I succumbed to calling The Man.

He started running through a check list.
Is your steering wheel kinked?
No.

Wiggle it back and forth.
It's not working.

Is the car in park?
And I looked down...

You have got to be kidding me.
I knew I had to tell him.

I left it in drive.
Thankfully he laughed at me for interrupting his work morning with the fact that I didn't put my car in park before turning it off.

I retold this to my co-worker, Linda.
We started going off on "what could have happened" scenarios.

Like the car rolling away from me while I was pumping gas, and taking the gas hose, or even the whole gas pump, with it.
Linda says, "you could have ended up on itube! Or, I mean, the ipod."

She doesn't get out much.
After we were done laughing I was finally able to let her know that it's called youtube.

Brynn's faces for freezing six warts from her toes.
There was a method to my madness, taking pictures of her in this moment.

It made her laugh before she was off on her next face.
It distracted her for a moment.

Maybe I should have made a video for itube.
Maybe I should invent itube.

Brynn was good as soon as we left the office.
Other than she couldn't wear her shoe.
She's the one asking for this treament to be done after all, and when that girl sets her mind on something, it set in stone as far as she's concerned.

breaking up is hard to do

I got in my car this morning and felt the sense of mourning.  We were facing a break up, that car and I.

"It's not you," I told her as I pulled away from the house, "it's me."

Her steering wheel squeaked at me as I turned the corner.

"And really it's not even me.  I don't want this.  But it's the situation.  We're just not right for each other any more. If it were different I wouldn't be doing this."

I hit the gas and she took off, showing me that she wasn't blaming me.  She understood.

"You'll find someone who will love you, someone who will be better for you than I am right now."

I opened the center console and removed the garage door opener.  "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask for this back, it already belongs to another.  Please understand.  It's because I love you, that I have to let you go."

I want you to know that it doesn't matter
Where we take this road 
someone's gotta go
and I want you to know you couldn't have loved me better
but I want you to move on so I'm already gone.

We had a lot of calls to see that Camry of mine.  And finally a 20 something, sharply dressed man came and paid cash on the spot for her.

I imagine he'll demand that people remove their shoes before getting into her.  She deserves him.  No more sticky candy in the door handles.  No more spilled pop on the carpets.  No more fingers drawing smiley faces on the insides of the windows.

I've already found another.  I don't feel like I belong in her yet... but we'll work on that.

She's gray.  She tows.  She only seats 7, but we have plans to amend that.  She has a lot more gadgets and buttons than the Camry did.

I think I might have to make people take their shoes off before they get in her.  And ban all sticky candy.

I had big plans, big plans I tell you, on blogging about my four days in St. George... but last night I sat down at the laptop, the only computer I own with a card reader, and found that someone (we've narrowed it down to four someones in particular) had lost the little piece that connects my cordless mouse to my laptop.  And the built in mouse wasn't working...


That means no blogging with pictures.  I may or may not be considering buying a new mouse on my way home tonight so I can download my pictures.

car talk

We have three vehicles at our house.  It sounds excessive I suppose, and I have to take all the blame for it.  West has his truck that he uses to haul lumber and tow the fifth wheel.  I have my Camry, the car I adore.  I bought it right after my divorce after a freak car accident totaled the clunker I'd been driving (at least the clunker had been paid off...).  When I found myself facing the fact that I had to buy a new car I started thinking, what would my dream car be?  I came up with a gray Corolla.  Guess what a found?  A gray Camry, which is one step better.
When I married West we had to face the fact that we needed a car that could handle our family of eight.  I started looking and really didn't know what I wanted.  I took the first deal that I found.  A white Yukon Denali. 
You know when something seems too good to be true then it probably is?

We learned that the hard way with that stupid Yukon.  Neither of us likes driving it and it's constantly having major break down issues.  A month after we bought it we had to have the transfer case redone.  No wonder it was sold so cheaply.  The previous owner must have known it was going down the tubes and wanted to get away from it before all hell broke loose. 

They did.

Because of my great love for the Yukon (did you catch the sarcasm there?) I haven't been willing to part with my Camry.

So I didn't.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have only one car to my name and not two though?  I'm biting the bullet.  I got preapproved for a car loan yesterday.  I'm going to sell off both the Yukon (which is in working order as of right now) and my beloved Camry and buy a family car that I actually want to drive. 

The only problem is that I don't know what I want.

So far my only stipulation is that it needs to be gray.  Every car looks better in gray.  And it needs tinted back windows, but I can add that afterwards if I need to.

I hate car shopping.  I'm not going to buy it unless I feel I love it, like I did when I met the Camry.  That was love at first test drive.  I feel guilty for moving on from her, but what do you do?  I've outgrown her.

Unless... we just get rid of the Yukon and keep the Camry for a good driving-to-work-mileage car...

This morning The Man drove the giant truck (and I mean giant, I'm 5'8" and I have to hop to get a leg up into that thing) to our favorite Burt Brothers store for inspection.  I picked him up before I went to work and he starts talking about new tires on the truck.  And then he asks,

"remember the tires on the old Ford I had?"

"Uh... yeah..."

It's like me asking him, "remember the shirt I wore two days ago?"