I've been putting off detailing this for a while because I'm of the "Denial Works Wonders" school of thought, but, for the sake of accuracy and thoroughness I need to get it all down in print. This has also been added to my original list "Stuff That's Wrong with My Van."

Week of August 25th: Van dies two different times as it's idling in the driveway. For reasons you may be able to understand, I choose to convince myself it was a fluke and there's really nothing wrong. It runs fine for a few days after that but then, on August 30th, it dies twice as I'm driving down the road. It took me a few tries to get it started again. We then drove it on Sunday and it was fine all day. Monday I looked into taking it to a mechanic but they couldn't get it in until Thursday, September 4th. I took it in on Thursday to the garage (heretofore after known as Incompetent Garage #8,456). They dinked around with it until Friday afternoon and decided all it needed was a simple $250 tune-up and it would be fine. "Um...okayyyy" was my thought, but who am I to argue with the "professionals"? So we picked the thing up and it was fine....for two days. On Monday it commenced again with the croaking. Most inconvenient when one is driving down the road.

So, off it went, back to Incompetent Garage #8,456. They had it for three days before handing down the proclamation that we should put some new gas in it and run a gas cleaner through the tank. Okay. Righty-o. Because that has happened to SO MANY PEOPLE I know. Cars dying on the road right and left, and all because the owner is lacking the miracle cure of a bottle of gas tank cleaner. Oh, and their excuse? "We couldn't get the problem to duplicate when we drove it." Sound eerily reminiscent to anyone else?

Now we have the van back and Robert decides to use it on Saturday to take some stuff to our new house because, by the way, we are moving and need the g*ddamned van to help with that. He leaves the house and, as I know for a fact he's only going there and coming straight back, I expect him back within thirty minutes. An hour-and-a-half later I decided I'd better go look for him. Turns out, he'd made it to the new house, but not until the van had died about twenty times on the way there. Once it took about twenty minutes before it would start again. By the time I got to the house, it had deteriorated to the point that it won't even run for more than a minute or so. You turn it on, and idles and then it's like someone flips a switch and it just shuts off.

And that's where we leave off today, September 15th. The van is in the driveway of our new house, awaiting our next move. I can most assuredly tell you it will NOT be to Incompetent Garage #8,456. No, we are toying with the idea of taking it back to the Dodge garage here in town. Yes, the same place where I made a scene back in January because they refused to even attempt to fix the vehicle. I simply don't feel we have a choice, at this point. Two independent garages have been unable to fix several different issues with it. I'd strongly prefer to take it to the guys in Norman but problem 1 = we can't drive it up there and problem 2 = it would cost the annual budget of a small Third World country to have it towed up there (70 miles). So I'm feeling a bit backed into a corner on this issue. If we do take it over there, Robert will be dealing with them entirely. I refuse to go over there and deal with those people. He is home today so he can go explain the problem to them and give them his phone number for a contact. If I pretend it isn't happening then it isn't, right? *sigh* At least they won't be able to claim they can't replicate the problem, because it's now doing it every sixty seconds or so. Still....I really despise those people and it positively galls me to think of giving them any business.

Update when available.