Thursday, March 11, 2010

Princess dearest..



This afternoon I went to pick up Princess, whom for a few days now on will truly be living up to its name. It would be sitting prettily doin nuttin at home, while Im gonna be waking up early every morning, rush like a mad person and try to catch the TP bus at 745AM!! (if Rizal is not around la, like whole of next week huhuhu)

What I feared the most now have occured, and just like our other cars, Princess's gearbox decided to give up on me. I have a feeling that it had something to do with the heavy flood I braved-thru last week. Which was silly of me. But there is no point fretting about it now :(

Before that there was never really problem with the gearbox and I had religiously changed the ATF whenever it is due.

Princess was at GeotAuto for the past few days so that the experts can diagnose its problem. Geot Auto had confirmed that it is indeed the gearbox problem - more specifically clutch slip. Whatever that means. They say a new gearbox would cost around 20k+. Obviously that is out of question. Next best thing offered by Geot is a used one - costs at 7k, with one month warranty. Frankly I am not comfortable with that. When Rizal had his done, it was with 6 months warranty. Even then the problem came back soon after. So one month definitely too little time.

My brother had also made some calls, and he told me there is this place who can overhaul the gearbox instead. There are two options, Option 1 - to use OEM which costs around 3k+ and Option 2 - to use Peugeot Originals which will costs around 4.5k. If I go for overhauling, I will need to leave the car for at least one week and will get 6 months warranty. Which sounds more promising, and cheaper too.

Besides that, I had not ruled out other options too. I had also called the place where Rizal had his gearbox done, and make an appointment to take Princess there this sat. Maybe they'd have differnet opinions on whats wrong and can suggest best method to fix since they are like the gearbox specialist.

The last option I have is to just let go Princess in that condition and get a new car. but... . dun think I am quite ready for it.

All this while Princess is just running okay, and never really gave me any problem. Weathered all sorts road conditions , highways ... hilly ways... city driving, u name it Princess never fails me. So, I am now in dilemma. Should I keep, or should I give up. My heart says keep it, on top of that I havent found any other car that I fancy except of course the new 308. Or the Audi TT. Hmmm...

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