Good News About the Van and Some Bad News

I got the call shortly before the end of the work day. Wayne, my mechanic called to say that the van had been fixed. It turns out that it was the front axle. I park in an underground parking garage and apparently this is quite bad for cars due to the dampness accelerating rusting. Advice for people parking in underground garages from my mechanic. Oil coat the underside of the car and wash weekly during the winter. The dampness, salt and above freezing temperatures means that the salt is actively rusting the car when it is parked. Someone who parks outside or in an unheated garage won't have the same problem because it does not get warm enough for the salt to actively rust the car. At least that is my understanding.

What happened is that the axle had rusted so badly that it broke under the stress. Fortunately, the repair came to just under $300. Micheal, the mechanic who worked on the car say that the underside of the van is badly rusted and I might only get a year out of the body of the van.

This is good, because we can make a plan to be in a good position in a year to replace the van. Most of the tax returns are going into the savings account under the car replacement heading. The $257 extra in our biweekly pays that was going towards extra debt payments will also be going in to the car replacement fund. This should mean that we will have $7,000 to $9,000 saved up in a year to replace the van. Even if it does die earlier we will have a very good down payment if necessary.

We will take a little longer to get out of debt, but we'll be able to afford to replace the car!

I hate to think what would of happened six months ago!