Non-Beetle Activities Lately

I haven't posted for a while because there hasn't been a lot of Bug related activity for the last week. I did manage to get my key blanks cut, so now I have 3 keys for the Bug. And, when we installed the carpet we obviously didn't get the stick shift aligned correctly because it started popping out of first gear. My son and I realigned the shift plate and stick shift, and the popping out of gear problem stopped.

This is what I have been doing . .

My son had his first fender bender this week. Dented up his front bumper. After the accident we heard a grinding sound when it turned. We thought it was the bearing, so we brought it to the local repair shop where we get our tires done. They replaced the bearing but the sound didn't go away. Turns out, the bumper was rubbing against the tire when we turned, and the bearing didn't need to be replaced. So now we are fighting with the repair place for fixing something that wasn't broken, and trying to find a new bumper.

I have been looking at cars, and I think I am going to trade in the Boxster for a car that has more storage room and gets better gas mileage. Since the car I want can drive on the snow, that now frees up my son to sell the Durango and get a car. So he and I have both been doing legwork getting ready to sell our cars, and buy new cars.

We both went to Car Max and got quotes to sell our cars. Rumor had it they would offer more than a regular dealer would offer on a trade-in. They low-balled both of us, so those rumors are not true. They undershot the trade-in on my Boxster by $3500.

Of course we had great fun at Car Max with my Boxster. A while back I hit a tire tread on the interstate, and dented the front of the car. My husband put a deflated basketball in the front, and inflated it to pop out the dent. Unfortunately, with the dent popped out, we couldn't remove the basketball and it has been there ever since. My son took some pictures as three of them looked at the front of my car trying to figure out what the heck was in there.

Since we don't want to let Car Max buy the Durango, we also have to re-install the original stereo system. So far we have completed the radio, amp, and speakers in 1 of 4 doors. My son had previously installed a really loud stereo, which promptly blew out all of his new speakers. So he hasn't had a radio that works for a while. At least for the short term he can listen to the radio at a reasonable volume until we sell the car. We also need to find a new bumper. Hopefully with these obvious issues fixed, we can get a reasonable price for the truck, and he can get a nice sedan that gets good gas mileage to use until he gets out of school.