So yesterday, while driving toward a notoriously busy intersection in town, my transmission decided to call it a career.
R.I.P. after 144,000 miles.
I was going 40 or so when suddenly the car appeared to be in neutral. The RPMs climbed to 6,000. It was super loud. This lasted 30 seconds before the car violently clicked back into gear and everything was fine again. I was able to accelerate for a bit. Then the whole process repeated.
At one point, I was sliding backward, downhill, into the oncoming cars. So, yea. Awesome.
I’ve called three shops for quotes. As it turns out, car shops hate it when you ask questions. I’ve gotten different quotes, methods and warranties at three different places.
One guy builds the transmissions himself for $1,400, but provides only a 30-day warranty. Another place installs transmissions after buying them from a junkyard for $1,200. You get either a 30-, 60- or 90-day warranty depending on the junkyard he picked the transmission up from. The last one provides a three-year, 100,000-mile warranty – but won’t be able to repair it for at least a week and won’t be able to give me a quote for multiple days. I’m betting this one will hover around $2,000.
I don’t really have any point to this, other than to remind myself why I hate every thing about owning a car. This is going to cost me my entire tax return, and then some.
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