About Terry's Aveo...

Well there goes the balance of the tax refund!

The little yellow vehicle went in to have an oil and filter change and to have a general check-up. Terry was complaining of a little shimmy and some rough handling.

The verdict was that it needs four new tires, new rear suspension, and an alignment. The tires have been a P-I-T-A because they are an odd size. When they needed replacement, there was a limited (and expensive) selection. I say "have been" because that is not the case any more. Apparently there are more and more cars with that size tire out there and they are needing new tires. As a result, more companies are making that size and the price has come down while the miles they are rated for has increased. Cooper Tire now has an all season tire for $115 each that is rated to 60K miles. (Compare that to the 20K miles for $175 each we got the last time. And those took three or four days for our mechanic to obtain. The Cooper tires will be there tomorrow.)

Terry may have avoided needing the alignment/tires if she had avoided the curb down in Savannah. A right good thumping along the sidewalls/tires will put all sorts of things out of alignment.

Oh, well. This is the first major repair this vehicle has needed. What is galling, however, is that it has just reached 50K miles on the odometer and this is the last month of our payments to GMAC. Just as I was thinking about the savings of $230 a month in loan payments....