You can't take it to the dealer because they are too expensive and too inconvenient.  You can't take it to a repair shop because they do crap work even if they are cheaper and really conveniently located.

So you can probably guess what just happened.

You have my sincere sympathies. I know exactly what you mean. How does four hundred dollars for an alternator sound? Or three hundred dollars for a sealed headlight assembly? Of course, those prices do not include labor.
What this planet desperately needs is a dependable, simple auto that will just get us there and back without ruinous expense. But that's not going to happen. The big money is made producing over engineered money pits that guzzle fuel like there's no tomorrow.
I wonder how many people would buy a clone re-release of the original Volkswagen Beetle with a sticker price under five thousand dollars?

...is it mechanical or electrical?

i'm sorry...i jumped into the middle with that question.

what's the make and model?

This was for my sister's car BTW, but she got me involved with this and then told me what happened.

They originally said it was steering (she took it in because it kept making a thumping noise whenever she turned) then they called and said they had to break off the radiator for another 350 because it was put on too tight and breaking it was the only way to get it off.  In my sister's logic, letting them break the car more and then fix it was a better alternative than telling them putting it back together as is and then taking it to the dealer to fix right.

Car mechanics have officially gotten worse than lawyers and politicians in my book.

A thumping when she turned? I had that and all it was, was my CV joints. I even fixed it myself, and I am by all mean a computer nerd, NOT the mechanical type lol

An on topic post in an on topic thread, thereby making the post itself off topic...

I hate Poser cars.  Mostly because the nice looking ones are usually ridiculously high poly.  The materials are invariably set up badly and the material zones are more often than not completely nonsensical and badly named.  There's no reason to have 70 million polys on the hood or 6 million polys on the tailpipe.  A little sense, people, please.

The majority of lower poly vehicles look terrible and have octagonal wheels or other such nonsense.

I also believe it should be a capital crime for any Poserized item to have Reflect_Lite_Mult set to "on".   And fake reflection maps.

Just had to get some welding done to fix my car, so it passes it's MOT. Wasn't too bad but still waiting to have the sensors for the engine checked to fix a slight over-reving problem.
God, I miss the days when I had my old style Mini and I could do the some of repair work myself. These days you need an expensive computer plugged into it to tell you why it doesn't want to work properly! Some designers been watching R2D2 plugged into the Millenium Falcon and thought "that would be cool!"

Don't get me going on cars my opinions of them are very radical in a nut shell I feel they have become more harmful to humans than the good they once were. I come from what is called the "Shade tree" mechainc era. All my friends in high school worked on their own wheels as did a lot of people then. Of course as the poster above me stated you didn't need no friggin' computer to tell ya what was wrong. Back then a good mechaninc could just listen and tell you what the problem was. It was so easy to work on cars then many times you could pull good part you needed out of the savage yards. Front wheel drive cars make things so hard to get to work on you almost have to tear the car apart to get to the belts and other things that in rear wheel drives was a piece of cake.

Poser cars..pfft so many polys spend on things you don't see that could be used in other areas of the car. To me when someone says they have made a fully rigged car you'd better mean it. If the steering wheel doesn't move, the seats, the gear shifter, the pedals and so forth the car isn't fully rigged.

 I seriously want to buy me a huge american gas guzzler before they get completely banned for environmental reasons.  I just want to experience the sound of an old american V8 before I die ;)

And ditto on the Poser cars.  Most cars I've tested in Poser could hardly even be used as Matchbox toys for Daz's Kids.  I have a half decent pickup in my library though.  It has moving wheels and you can open the hood and doors.  The materials are simple though but okay.  I think I got it from ShareCG.

Attached Link: http://open-tube.com/30-amazing-cg-cars-with-astonishing-artwork

Now, something that makes me salivate. Check out the link above and take a gander at the two F1 Ferraris posted mid page.

 I've bought a fair number of cars for Poser over the years - and yes, I have several of Don's cars - but the majority of them are massively poly heavy.  I'd love someone to make modern high performance models with a more reasonable number of polys than the current crop.

Cool link, Mogwa.  Wish some of those were available in Poser friendly formats and sizes.

Quote -  I seriously want to buy me a huge american gas guzzler before they get completely banned for environmental reasons.  I just want to experience the sound of an old american V8 before I die

I had one when I wore a teenager's clothes. A 1978 Dodge Magnum with a 400 cubic inch engine and a few bells and whistles that would easily do 180 MPH if not more. The speedometer only went up to 110 but it was circular and wrapped around. I had that bad boy wrapped back around to 80 on more than one occasion. I am still amazed that I didn't die in a fiery crash! When I was going that fast, I could literally watch the gas meter drop.

Now, I drive a little Toyota. But at least it gets good mileage!

car mechanics are worse than PC fixers...both mostly crooks though. I hate to lump them so generalized, but I'm not finding either type that are honest around here.

some nice Poser cars at DAZ .. a bit too sporty maybe, not everyday cars.

It would really be nice if they were to make some everyday cars for Poser

Quote - > Quote -  I seriously want to buy me a huge american gas guzzler before they get completely banned for environmental reasons.  I just want to experience the sound of an old american V8 before I die

I had one when I wore a teenager's clothes. A 1978 Dodge Magnum with a 400 cubic inch engine and a few bells and whistles that would easily do 180 MPH if not more. The speedometer only went up to 110 but it was circular and wrapped around. I had that bad boy wrapped back around to 80 on more than one occasion. I am still amazed that I didn't die in a fiery crash! When I was going that fast, I could literally watch the gas meter drop.

Now, I drive a little Toyota. But at least it gets good mileage!

That is awesome!I wouldn't mind getting me one of'em Magnums or even a Charger.  My car ownership history is very short.  I've owned a Skoda Felicia '94 and a Skoda Fabia 2006.  On a good day I could almost get the Fabia close to 120 kmh.!!  They both had great mileage also.

Daveso, that is, or was, a fantastic machine! Just beautiful.
I guess I must be getting old. Most all contemporary cars all look the same to me, devoid of any style or personality. I can't imagine anyone forty years from now collecting the junk we're forced to buy these days, except as museum exhibits.

Tabby ('72 Chevelle):

and Ariel ('37 Chevy business coupe):

wow....i'm speechless. very nice. both of them.

Yer preachin to the choir. Between my van, and my wife's car, we've literally spent $5000 this past summer in car repairs.

Needless to say, since this was RIGHT after almost dying in the damned hospital back in April, we are BOTH more then ready for 2011, and the end of 2010.

Quote - Yer preachin to the choir. Between my van, and my wife's car, we've literally spent $5000 this past summer in car repairs.

Needless to say, since this was RIGHT after almost dying in the damned hospital back in April, we are BOTH more then ready for 2011, and the end of 2010.

   Amen, Garee. I suppose I've had worse years, but this one has been a genuine trial. Whenever I start feeling depressed, I try my best to recognize how fortunate my lot in life is compared to what most people have to suffer in this vale of tears. Compared to having to watching your children slowly starve to death, I guess my problems shrink to the level of minor irritations.