My Luck With Vehicles Usually Means Bad Luck

My luck with vehicles is got to be something that could fill a book with all the crazy things that happen to me. Many of these incidences are probably my fault.

Maybe it's the fact that I try to hold on to my vehicles as long as I can. You know, drive it until the engine falls out. Well, that has only happened once. Well, the engine didn't actually fall out, but it did die within a year of purchasing the car. The used car warranty was up by then, and that didn't make me a happy guy. I ended up spending a few thousand dollars for a new engine. As soon as it was paid off, I traded it in for a new car.

With the fact that I mobile DJ on the side, over the years I've packed my vehicles with heavy audio equipment, and during those early years I had crates of albums that added a bit more weight to the back end of my vehicles. Probably overloaded my vehicles, but didn't really feel concerned about it at the time.

I purchased a used van back in December of last year after running my previous van almost into the ground. I had the previous van for about 13 years. I kept putting money after money into it to keep it running, but in the end, the areas of rust won out, and I had to retire my trusty old Chevy van.

I love my new (to me) van, and a few months ago decided to have running boards installed. I got a set of tough boards since I tend to accidentally bump into curbs and other concrete objects from time to time.

Well. it was a good six months before that happened. That occurred on Monday when I was backing down my driveway to head to work. My driveway is at about a 45 degree angle, and a part of the basement juts out from the main part of the house with a concrete wall in front of it, right next to the driveway.

I thought I was over to my left enough, but no. The back end of the passenger side running board hit the concrete wall head on, pushed it a bit forward and bent it upward. Currently, there is about an inch or two at best separating the front of the running board and my right front tire.

Hopefully it will be a simple fix, but I don't think the word simple resides in my life. On that same day, I was informed that my car needs new bushings, shocks and exhaust system that could cost me up to 5000 dollars.

Maybe I should learn to take the bus to work and save all that money I'm about to part with.