osodecanela | Automotive frustration.....

I drive a 12 y/o Mercedes, a Black C230.

It's been a good ride, reliable, relatively comfortable, not particularly flashy. Decent gas mileage, most recently 27.5 per gallon. It's safe to say I'm happy with it.

However, it now has almost 160K on it and there are things that go wrong with age and use. Last year towards the end of the summer, the air conditioning stopped working. With fall here and the the weather cooling, that went on to the 'to do' list.

So Monday, I had my usual mechanic do the oil, and filters, and brakes and to try fixing the air. The air conditioner didn't charge with freon, so I made arrangements to bring the car in Thurs. for more diagnostics. ($400)

Tuesday, I had them put on new tires which the car was in dire need of ($550), but the could not do an alignment because I needed tie rods (right outer and left inner).

Back the my usual mechanic yesterday, and yup, I needed the tie rods alright, but the inner on this vehicle is one that goes fully across the front end and he couldn't get the part until today. Further, the condenser on the air conditioner is toast. SO, he did the outer rod and and a drive dampener, the tire folks had missed and today he has the car again and is currently doing the remaining work on the front end and the air. This is going to run me about another $1K. Then Monday I have an appointment to get the alignment done back at the tire folks. ($89)

All I can say is I had better get another 100K miles out of this vehicle. (It is after all a Mercedes.)

This is the 3rd one I've owned and the last two both went over 300K.