76,800 new tire

day before yesterday i was getting in my car to drive back from CO to vegas and got a low air light ... i picked up a rider from downtown, filled the tire and then proceeded to have a 700 mile drive where sometimes the tire would be losing air and sometimes it wouldn't ... this included me having to do such pleasant things as yanking my spare from beneath the car (in a parking lot full of melting snow) and prep it in case it needed to be used.

but it didn't.

i got to las vegas and everything was fine.

fine, that is, until i had a flat tire greet me in the morning.

turned out i'd picked up a screw in denver and it had apparently been doing its version of the macarena on the drive here.

this means replacing the tire i had replaced only 6000 miles ago.  couldn't make it to the new year without one last bite in the pocket book, apparently.

$132.  including a $15 coupon i had from goodyear's email list.

74,800 air filter and make-up filter

this is supposed to be part of my 75,000 mile service, but the parts cost me 13 bucks and is so fast that i just did it in the parking lot of the auto parts store on my way home.  i'm guessing there's no way a dealer would do this for < $50.

$13

74,765 mile service (& fourth service contract work?)

may well take the continual car to CO for xmas and wanted to get the oil changed beforehand.  but that's not all i'm needing...

my washers have quit working (or more precisely, i hear the motor, but nothing sprays to the windshield) and, a couple nights ago, a valet was bringing my car out and i noticed the belly pan flapping on the passenger side.

and as i was driving home from my last oil change, the check engine light came on.

after three days in the shop, i get my car back, but here's what's weird ... i pay $100 deductible and $138 on top.  but when i look at the receipts, i can't tell what the deductible is paying against and what it's not.  it looks as though i'm paying a deductible and for all service?  i talked to my service advisor for quite awhile about it, but it becomes ever-more-clear that he doesn't really know what's going on.

this isn't the first time i've been given receipts different than what i've paid, nor the second.  i'm not exactly sure what to do here because if i call back, they'll probably end up connecting me with the same service advisor and it's clear that either:

* he doesn't know what's going on and is snowing me.

=or=

* he can't explain it to me in a way i can understand.

the timing on this is a little bad because i was going to write a glowing letter to mr. marchionne about prestige ... this to be the ying to my chapman-is-fraudulent yang letter ...

... but i can't do that yet.

$238
$205 in SCR ($105 for rental car, $100 saved from service i've been told about, but hold no receipt for.)

my free rental car

while the continual car is getting its 75K oil change.

74,700 new brake light bulb

passenger side brake light burned out (but not the tail light ... noticed it when the valet returned my car the other day).  it's an interesting fix because the entire taillight cover is actually held in place by a single screw.  the swap is remarkably easy -- especially when compared to the hondas i've had.

first bulb of any kind to go.

$7

quote of the moment

"Fiat now owns more than 50 percent of Chrysler, with the rest owned by the retiree healthcare trust affiliated with the United Auto Workers union. It is possible that Chrysler will have an initial public stock offering in 2013, Marchionne said, as the UAW seeks to cash out or reduce its shareholdings."

-- reuters US