I got a "good deal" on this car...or I thought anyway until I drove it home and started finding multiple things wrong with it. No car stereo, suspension is shot, leaks antifreeze, small oil leak, heater doesn't totally work, outside looks like I hit a deer then went into a ditch, inside smells like I've been smoking like a SOB. But for the price I figured it would work for the tour and it's all good. I took it in on Friday to get the oil and the other fluids changed. I was all excited to pick this car up when the mechanic looked at me and asked, "How long have you owned this car." I said, "One week." He then proceeded to ask, "Do you want to know the things that are wrong with this car?" I thought about it for a second and said, "Yes, give it to me Doc."
He looks at his long list he created and says, "First of all you have a blown head gasket, but that's minor compared to the accident that this car was in and what the previous owners did to get it "running" again. You see, they welded a different car to the front of this car. There are two different colors, but that's not the biggest problem. The problem is when they made the cut they didn't cut it straight so it's got a slight curve to it so when they decided to weld the two pieces together it doesn't quite match and they weren't able to get a "good weld" on there". "Is that all" I asked. "No, after repairing the antifreeze leak we noticed there was no thermostat so we replaced the thermostat and now it overheats within minutes of driving". "So, would you recommend me driving this 5000 miles next week", I asked. He looks at me and says, "You'll be lucky to get this home depending on where you live".
Stoked!!! Not sure what to do. As my temporary fix I have rented a car for the tour which is what I should have done to begin with. I think my wife is going to take the car to the demolition Derby and see if she can take a few laps and try and earn a little bit of our money back from it. My friend Trask mentioned I should take it to "Dragon Mans", which is a shooting range out east of Colorado Springs where you can rent fully automatic 50 caliber machine guns and go to town on targets. My "Subaru" being the target.
But no worries everyone. I just received my box of goodies from Arcteryx as door prizes for the show. I'm driving to Salt Lake first thing Wed morning in a fresh new rental car, the weather looks great for the drive so there shouldn't be any delays.
The Salt Lake show is at Brewvies Cinema at 7:30pm. From there I drive straight to Ashland, Oregon where we will premiere the film at Southern Oregon University.
Click here to see the whole tour calendar. I want to personally thank Arcteryx, The American Alpine Club and the Access Fund for helping support my tour.
Hope to see you out there.
chris
