Growing Pains

As with buying any new-used car there are going to be growing pains; things the previous owner didn't fix that you get the pleasure of fixing. Some problems you can spot before you buy the car. These problems you can use to haggle down the price. This particular car needs new rear brakes, tires real soon, and the clutch in about year. Those are great haggle items and I used them to get the price down quite a bit. But there are always the unforeseen problems lurking beneath the surface waiting to emerge in the first few months of ownership. On the first day the radio died: No problem I had a spare. On the first road trip the clutch slave cylinder seal popped letting out all the clutch hydrolic fluid: no problem, some plumbers tape, an O ring from Home Depot, and a hasty roadside repair by dad and everything works fine. Recently the key has stopped working. It requires a lot of jiggling to unlock the trunk, door and worse of all, to start the car. How embarassing when trying to show off your new wheels to someone and the key won't turn. "It'll start I just have to jiggle it" - Not cool.

Both the main key and vallet key are quite worn (17 years old), luckily the key number tag is still attached so I can go to Mazda and have fresh keys cut. In other news the rattling under the car I mentioned earlier has rattled itself out and has not returned. Another problem fixed. Sometimes you get a freebie.