Car Problems and Vacation Day 1

On August 11, I was taking the kids to our Six Flags to go to the waterpark. Suddenly our car just stopped working. It was crazy! There was probably less than 20 seconds of notice. One minute we were driving, then it stopped accelerating. Before I could process what was going on, the car was stopping. I didn’t even have time to get it fully off the road. Fortunately, we were on a two-lane road and not a highway. Also, fortunately, we were at an area where I could pull off and there was a line of sight so I wasn’t worried about us getting rammed into, despite my bumper being in the roadway.  I called Roadside Assistance and after going through a completely automated process was informed that a tow truck would arrive within 45 minutes. I also called Thomas and told him what was going on. He left work to come meet us. I was close to an hour away from his work. But, he arrived before the tow truck and was able to get the car to start. He decided to drive it back and I followed him with the kids in our car. The check engine light was the only sign the something was wrong. We brought it straight to the dealer.  They didn’t have a chance to look at it until Monday, when they said nothing was wrong, but they were going to check a couple more things “tomorrow” (tomorrow became a recurring theme).

Long story short(er), by the end of the week, they had finally found the problem—the catalytic converter had burned out. Since that doesn’t happen on a car with 11,000 miles, they figured something was wrong with the car’s software.  They had given us a loaner, but it was not big enough for the family. I was not okay with having another weekend with no family car. Also, I was very worried about our upcoming trip. Chrysler Cares said they would give me up to $45/day for a rental and once one of the dealer’s larger rentals was available, I could take that. However, when I called our local car rental place, a minivan was 3x that much! And, Chrysler (doesn’t) Cares said the money would run out as soon as the car was ready and if I took a loaner, I would have to return it when my car was ready or pay the hefty rental fee. So, if we left for our vacation on a Friday and our car was ready Saturday, we could be looking at well over $1000 for the loaner. I was very upset with all this. Our car is less than a year old! There was nothing CC could do, but forward it to their escalation department, who had one business day to call me back. Since it was Friday, that meant they would call Monday (which, they didn’t).  I went to the dealer and talked to 5 different people before it was worked out that I could have a rental minivan and keep it during my trip regardless of when our car was ready and not have to pay overage miles. The dealer was actually very nice, helpful and reasonable. The Chrysler Cares people were not! To this day, I have not been able to speak to the people in the escalation department. They called me several days later, but I could not answer and I have not been able to get them on the phone since.  Our car is still not ready, the Engineers are trying to work out why this happened and they expect to have a solution by the “end of the month.” We shall see. Since we were able to go on our vacation with a minivan, I am not nearly as upset as I was. But, our car is much nicer than the rental and since it is a hybrid it uses way less gas. Plus, we have to pay a fee to use their EZ Pass and several other minor inconveniences that are frustrating when we are paying a lot of money for our vehicle.

For our vacation this summer, we decided to go to Massachusetts. I have wanted to take the kids to the place of my birth for many years. But, the trip kept getting postponed. This year I was determined to make it happen.  And, here we are. It is Sunday morning and I am sitting on my Aunt’s couch in New Hampshire while everyone else is sleeping.

We left on Friday at 6:15 in the morning. Day 1 of our trip was Six Flags New Jersey. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, Six Flags passes are good at any of the parks. Our home park is America, which is near D.C. But, the one in New Jersey is infinitely better and we love going there. Since it is on the way, we added an extra day to our vacation to visit. We made one stop along the way and rolled in at 10:15. The park was much more crowded than when we visited in May, but still very manageable. We had a great day! Luke has suddenly gained ride bravery, which coincided with him hitting the 42” mark. He enjoyed the little roller coasters and we even got to ride a fun family ride—Escape to Metropolis, which I know I wrote about earlier this year.

A fun "big kid" ride!

We left there around 6:30 to continue our drive. I used the Waze App to try and plan out the best driving times, or at least reasonable ones, since driving at 3AM on a Sunday morning was not an option. Our primary concern was getting through New York City. Although we haven’t made the drive often, one thing that stood out from previous trips is that it is always miserable to try and get through NYC. And, it was. We wanted to get most of our driving done on Friday, so I had booked a hotel in Sturbridge, MA. It took us 4.5 hours to drive the 220 miles. Which wasn’t terrible, but probably amounted to about an hour of sitting in traffic.  The kids all slept, at least briefly in the car. Luke was playing his Kindle when around 8:45 he remarked on how he wasn’t tired at all. I told him that he would probably have more luck sleeping if I took his Kindle. I knew how exhausted he was when he did not protest. I barely had it out of hands before he fell soundly asleep.

Everyone fell asleep easily at the hotel. We were all up by 7:30 the next day, which is actually pretty good for a hotel. We showered and had our hotel breakfast and were back in the car by 9. Saturday’s plan was to visit the Freedom Trail in Boston and then get to my Aunt’s house between 6-7.