Saturday, January 07, 2023

Car Woes in the New Year

It's already a whole week into the new year. I was trying to settle in my retirement phase of life but somehow the week was somehow centred around car woes. In my last post, I have mentioned that the car that my third son is using ran into overheating problems. Had the radiator fixed, but the problem did not end there (expected that there will be engine problems thereafter). Earlier this week, the car went into another overheating problem and he had to wait for the car to cool down before sending the car to the workshop. He reached home after 10pm that day. I can only imagine the frustration and the tiredness that he went through. The next day, he went to work using Grab services, further adding expenses and with relatively small livelihood, it will be hard for him. Using public transport has connectivity problems and they tend to be unreliable.

To my mind, that blue Aveo car probably has come to the end of its useful life. The car is as old as my youngest son, roughly 19 years old. Scoured my old photos to see if I kept a photo of the car - that's why I suddenly uploaded some old photos on FB - and I only found this small photo at my other half's clinic when she started out in Seremban.


At one point, this was the main car I used to go to work - labelled by a staff at INSPEM as the 'faded blue' car (biru pudar). Yet to decide what to do with it. In the meantime, we have booked a Myvi car for our son to use (the expenses will be partially shared accordingly). It is difficult to get a new car quickly due to the long queue of car bookings after the pandemic. Hopefully, the car will arrive soon. Also after retirement, there seems to be a lot of hassles in making a car loan. I hope the (hire) purchase will go smoothly for ease of my son to go to work. Temporarily, he has to use my other half's car first.

My main car (Malibu) seems to be having problems as well after the long trip to Kedah. My other half noticed that the car is dripping oil on the floor of our car porch. We got it immediately checked with our local workshop to see if the matter is serious. Well, there seems to be problems with leaking absorber in the back tyre and also leaking near the drive shaft. The local workshop could not do the repair as the spare parts are difficult to get and the car is full of (computerised) sensors and recommended we bring it to the authorised workshop that services Chevrolet cars. 



So yesterday, we had one full day spent in Malacca for this matter. We had the car serviced but we had to wait for the absorber bush and drive shaft boot parts to be ordered first (which means we have to come another one more time). Extra expenses to be considered, right at the end of completing the installment payments. I remembered the day I posted a pic of the car on social media when we first got the car (see pic below), somebody commented that the car is not even ours i.e. owned by the banks. Alhamdulillah, it is now ours. I felt a little strange with such comments when it should not have been their concern. The choice of having such a car was made by the family, replacing some problematic MPVs we are having. It is not meant for show. But I have to say, it is the most comfortable and satisfactory car that I have experienced driving (which is good for my bad back). The only downside I can think is the difficulty of getting spare parts and its servicing due to its computerised sensors.


Let's hope that the car does not run into serious problems and I get to use it until I find no need for myself to travel (and perhaps the children inherit the car in good conditions).

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