Car problems in The View from the Terrace

Our new car has packed up. Well, it wasn’t a new car, just a new to us car, quite old really but seemed a good buy at the time.

Two days before our visit to Amsterdam our last car developed problems. The turbo stopped working. We were told that we could still use it but it might get worse and it wasn’t worth repairing. Hubby was quite happy to drive to Bristol airport in it! I wasn’t, I didn’t want anything to spoil our trip. Then Tony found our present car on Auto Trader and it was in the next village! I couldn’t believe our luck. It had one lady owner and had been serviced in our local garage. I always name our cars and I called this one Lara after Lara Croft because it had saved the day.

The first time I drove it after our return from Amsterdam I noticed that the temperature gauge wasn’t working. I told Hubby and asked him to take it to the garage but, as usual, he just argued and said it was working it just took a long time to register. Like a fool, I believed him. I’m always doing that, he has a very convincing way about him.

In late June the car overheated on the way to visit Cat. Hubby was driving and says he didn’t notice if the temperature gauge had gone up but it wasn’t working later, this was confirmed by the garage. The first thing we knew was it lost power and there was an ominous knocking sound. We came home on a breakdown lorry. When we had the garage look it over and they thought we had got away with it. They fixed the temperature gauge and the problem that had caused the overheating. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed it was losing power and then picking up again. Once again Hubby insisted there was nothing wrong. Eventually even he couldn’t stay in denial any longer and he took it to the garage on Monday. They said there might be damage to a piston and the head gasket seemed to be going, really bad. I said we needed to look around for another car and postpone our plans for a short break in Cornwall. Hubby said he thought it would be OK for a few weeks and told me to book the holiday!

On Wednesday I asked him to drive me to my voluntary job as I wasn’t feeling too well and didn’t feel I wanted to cope if it broke down. He said he would drive me and come home and then come back for me as he doesn’t like hanging around. I only do a 3 hour shift and we live 12 miles away so I couldn’t see the sense in him coming home in between especially as, if the car broke down, I would be stranded as there are no buses in the evening and Tony is without a car, too, right now. He said he would sit in the car and wait. He always makes me feel like he is putting himself out for me. I suggested he could do the shopping and then have a coffee and I would be almost done. He said the cafe in the supermarket would be closed. In the end he went to McDonalds after doing the shopping so he didn’t have to hang around, and what a good thing it was that he waited, as the car almost refused to start when we set out for home. It just got us home and now won’t start again.

Now we are trying to find a new car which is difficult as we are in the country without a vehicle to travel in to look for one. We are trying to find one near a bus route that we can look at in the daytime as buses only run until 5.30. If that fails we will have to ask Chris if he will come and take us to one.

Last updated August 28, 2018