Winning for losing (part 2 of 3)

A road trip to buy a used car, mechanical woes, and discerning the path forward

The ferry leaving Bridgeport, CT for Port Jefferson, NY

In my Substack Road trip I made reference to traveling to Long Island to pick up a 2011 Volvo C30.  I did this back in April 2024. The entire day was an adventure, as I set off with $5300 in cash in a money belt strapped inside my shirt, feeling like I was going to conclude a drug deal. My favorite part of the trip was the ferry from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Port Jefferson, New York and back. When I lived in Denmark, I always enjoyed the ferry rides between Jutland and Sjaelland. Some ferries in Denmark have a lavish buffet with their open face sandwiches that are delicious. And then there’s the good Danish beer.

Love at first sight, in a back parking lot

In the four months since I bought the C30, I have had a lot of time for buyer’s regret. I was so focused on my desire to come home with THAT car, that I willfully overlooked numerous flaws, which would have nixed my decision if I was in a more rational state. There are numerous significant impairments (aka dents) to the car’s quarter panels. It has had a couple of brushes up against poles or other cars that it shouldn’t have, and although they aren’t rusting, they are certainly not in mint condition. The windshield had a crack in the bottom right corner, not obvious to casual observation, but a full-stop roadblock to passing NYS inspection. This was later replaced to the tune of $400. The battery needed to be jumped before I even left the seller’s parking lot. Replacing the battery was another $400. (We favor sturdier batteries for the cold New York winters). The air conditioning wasn’t working, although the seller had stated in his Craigslist ad that it ran crisply cool. There was a check engine light on which he vaguely reassured me was because of some recent repairs to the engine and “After driving 50 miles it will turn off.”  The right fog light was broken. The back left reflector was cracked. Probably the most significant thing, which is more a matter of aesthetic, but has definitely impacted my enjoyment of the car, is that it smells like dog. It does not have a sweet smell.

The list goes on. When I got it back to Ithaca, I took the car to the dynamic duo which we have trusted for more than twenty years. Ana Snyder runs the front of the shop and her father Art Snyder makes it happen under the hood.  Art taught at BOCES for a while and any visit to his shop is likely to get you a lecture in physics, chemistry, and mechanical engineering.

Because they are located twenty minutes outside of Ithaca, over the years I have typically brought our car to the shop and waited in their pleasant and cozy porch, or in warmer weather, outside, where one can enjoy their extensive plantings and abundant avian visitors. Art’s classic line after he has looked over your vehicle, ambled out of the shop and up the steps to the porch, is “Well, there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. Which would you like first?”

After Art inspected the C30, I don’t think there was anything good.  He said, “Well Scott, you’ve inherited a few problems.” And smiled. The timing belt needed adjustment. There were carbon deposits inside the cylinders. A section of the exhaust system was rusted and broken. There was an oil leak of uncertain origin. The air conditioning needed diagnosis. The left rear shock had lost all of its fluids, so that both rear shocks needed to be replaced. The total bill was about $2000. My $5300 bargain, if you count the windshield, the battery, and  registration, etc. was now an $8000 car.  Even after that work was done, the steering wheel still tilted to the right, and would need realignment or at least centering.

Then I had a brief period of trouble free enjoyment.  With a new shocks, the car didn’t go KER-THUNK every time I hit one of the many, many Ithacan potholes.  The acceleration on this little car is just amazing, owing to a five cylinder transverse engine and a manual six speed clutch. I made some effort to eradicate the foul smell of the car and it faded a little bit. Combined with a little denial, it smelled just fine, especially with the windows down.

I took care of some little issues myself. I replaced the right front fog light. I replaced the back left cracked reflector. I replaced the two rear license plates lights, as it wouldn’t pass inspection without those. I got a new handle for the inside hatch. I even replaced the Volvo logo on the grill, which made it look sharper. Then I took it to the local Volvo shop to get inspected, as Snyder’s recently gave up on the expense and hassle of handling New York State vehicle inspections. It passed!

In June, I drove the C30 from Ithaca to Ocean City, New Jersey and back.  One of my goals for that trip was to drive for as long and fast as I could in order to heat up the engine block and catalytic converter to help burn off some of the carbon deposits Art had noted during his post-purchase inspection. The Atlantic City Expressway was especially helpful in this regard. While in Ocean City, I asked my cousin Danny to go for a drive with me. With Danny at the wheel, we headed off the island of Ocean City to some back roads where he could put the car through its paces, and this demonstrated to me that the C30 had even more muscle than I had thought.  

Back up cameras were not standard back in 2011 and I had only been in Ocean City two days when I managed to crack the right rear tail light backing into the driveway of the place where we were staying.  I felt nauseous because I saw dollar signs and figured that little mistake was gonna cost me at least $300. When I got back to Ithaca, I dropped the car off at the Volvo shop. I had made this appointment weeks ahead because they are so busy. The original plan was for them to center the steering wheel, but while at the shore I had called and asked if they could order the right rear tail light for replacement while they were at it. 

Hairy-legged ballerina atop tutu-adorned Volvos in the Ithaca Festival parade

Why didn’t I take the car to Snyder’s? That is a fair question, and the best explanation (excuse?) I have is that the Volvo shop is a ten minute walk from our home and they have decades of experience in maintaining and repairing Volvos. Ithaca is a Volvo town, or anyway it used to be, but now it’s becoming a Subaru town. Maybe a Tesla town next. The annual Ithaca festival has a parade in which a dedicated group of Volvo owners drive their cars with ballerina skirts around them while hairy-legged men in ballerina outfits dance around and on top of the cars. This pre-dated the popularization of trans culture. If you think that sounds bizarre, it is.   Not to be outdone, in recent years, Subaru owners formed their own parade contingent and perform the Subaru Samba with synchronized door opening and closing. My colleague Dr Fazio recently told me that Prius owners had a brief period with their own contingent, but we agreed that although Priuses get good mileage, they aren’t nearly as cool.

So, the Volvo place is close, a ten minute walk away, but it is also kind of a pain in the ass to drop the car off on Sunday night and pick it up on Monday after work. Which leads into how I managed to have five visits with them over the period of two months. When I went to pick the car up the first Monday night I saw that the bill was $150. That told me that they hadn’t replaced the tail light. A back-and-forth ensued between me and the owner, in which I asked about the tail light and at first, he said they hadn’t ordered it. Then he double-checked in the back room, returning to say, “Actually, it’s in the back, and we forgot to do it, but it’s late, so we’ll have to reschedule.” At least the steering wheel was centered.

Two weeks later, we dropped the Volvo off again on Sunday night. I left a note with the keys in the dropbox saying that I heard an odd sound coming from the left front of the car. At the short, my cousin Danny had thought there might be something wrong with a wheel bearing. When I went to pick the car up Monday night. The invoice said ninety bucks and I thought “Shit!” They didn’t do the tail light again. Another conversation ensued with the owner, in which he said the sound from the left front of the car was due to part of the inside of the wheel housing rubbing against the wheel when it was turned. He was sorry that they hadn’t done the light, but it was late and they were busy, so we would have to reschedule.  I asked him if he would be so kind as to double check that they had the right rear tail light waiting. He went to the back for a minute, and when he returned, he said “It’s a good thing you asked, because it looks like we ordered the left rear tail light. We’ll have to order another one.” I said “Well, if we make another appointment in two weeks do you think that the light will be in?” he said “Absolutely.”

Two weeks later, we dropped the car off on a Sunday night (need I mention that this was quickly getting old?) I left a note with my key adding two requests. One was that the mechanic please turn off the “needs mechanical service” light which automatically comes up at 150,000 miles. The other was that the ABS warning light had come on briefly, indicating that there was a malfunction and then turned off the next day.

When I returned on Monday night, the tail light…had not been replaced. The mechanic turned off the check engine light and evaluated the ABS issue, cleaning the sensors, but somehow didn’t get to the light. I know, I know. Some of you are saying “Don’t go back!” Yes, I had another conversation with the owner. He was apologetic about not replacing the light, but not amazingly so. He said yes, it’s too late. We’ll have to reschedule you again. I took note of the mechanic’s typewritten message on the invoice, which said that the serpentine belt was old and should probably be replaced. Ever the eager learner, I asked the owner to clarify for me the difference between a timing belt and a serpentine belt, because I knew that the timing belt had been replaced at 110,000 miles, and we were now at 149.000 miles. He adeptly explained the difference between the two, which left me with the impression that replacing a serpentine belt was a relatively brief and inexpensive job costing a few hundred dollars. 

We brought the car back on a Sunday night two weeks later. I had a lot of visits in the office the next day, and was not able to get downtown to pay the bill before the Volvo shop closed. I asked my beloved wife Kerrie to do so in my stead and she texted me that the bill was $1500. Holy shit! That Monday we picked it up after hours. As soon as I turned the key in the ignition, I knew that something was wrong. There was a new, unpleasant sound coming from the front of the car, which sounded like an exhaust system  gone awry.  I drove home with a heavy heart, popped the hood in the driveway and could hear the sound and smell the exhaust rising directly from the engine compartment. No Bueno.

I called the owner of the Volvo shop first thing Monday. If you haven’t figured out by now from reading my Substack, I have a long fuse, but when you get to the end of it, I have one hell of a temper. I’ll call it a Marsland family trait, no matter your gender. To my credit, I kept my language clean and my tone civil. I explained my disappointment that I had dropped off the car for a limited specific job and got the car back with a new problem that the mechanic should have heard while driving the car out of the garage and investigated further. The owner didn’t disagree with me, and this time, rather than making me one wait two more weeks, he agreed to have the car come back in in the next day or so.

When I talked to the owner in our next conversation, he said “Yes, you were right. There is a problem with the exhaust system. The gaskets for the manifold need to be replaced and that is about a $600 job. But, that has nothing to do with replacing the timing belt and would have happened anyway. “   I didn’t argue.

My memory finally caught up with the current situation and I recalled that there had been a sticker on the engine block when I bought the C30 indicating that the timing belt had been replaced at 110,000 miles.  The Volvo mechanic had conspicuously removed it. I took the car in for replacement of a serpentine belt, and they replaced that and the timing belt. They charged me an extra $1000 for their effort, and gave me back a car with a new problem.  That evening was when I noticed the fluid leaking under the car. Oh no. The next day when I was driving home from an errand, the steering got funky and I barely made it around a corner using all my strengths to turn the wheel. I pulled into the driveway and said “That’s it! Time to go to Snyders.”

I had AAA tow the car to Snyder’s repair shop. I didn’t expect rocket-fast service, because I was abruptly dropping my tale of woe upon them. The next week I got an email from Anna and the report was far worse than I could’ve imagined. All the fluid had leaked out of the boot for the steering system and the rack and pinion would need to be replaced. $2300.  The exhaust system was damaged where the flex pipe exited the engine block and would need to be replaced, including the expensive catalytic converter, which would cost $5300. The water pump needed replacement, which at minimum would be a $700 job, but there might be other issues while repairing that. The caveat was that the total cost was uncertain. My $5300 bargain now needed an infusion of $8300 at minimum to be roadworthy. My first response to Anna was to ask, “Have you ever donated a car to a charitable organization?”

I’ll tell you that I’m a performance-improvement-oriented person. I think that is one of the things that makes me a good clinician at the Leading Edge Clinic. I’m observant, and although I can make mistakes like any other human being, I tend to learn more quickly from them and correct course. I’ve had several weeks to reflect upon my decision-making and path with the C30. I know that there were many signals from the beginning that this car would be trouble and that I should leave it alone.

I got to speak with Ana and Art in person last week.  It helps to have known each other for 20 years. They were both very kind. They are both faithful Christians and very gentle people who are slow to blame, but in our conversation they were both crystal clear that the damage to the exhaust system was directly related to the timing belt replacement, which didn’t need to happen.

Anna said “You can just chalk this up to a midlife crisis.” I’ll tell you that, at least up until this moment, I didn’t think that I was having a mid-life crisis, I thought I was having an I bought a junky used car that I shouldn’t have and now it’s broken crisis, but hey, Anna was calling it as she saw it. I replied, “A very expensive midlife crisis.” Anna replied, “They always are Scott, they always are.”

Art’s therapeutic commentary related to his love of flying. When you are standing inside the shop getting your invoice and paying your bill, aside from one of the many cats walking around, you will see a photo of a younger Art Snyder shaking hands with another man in front of a single turboprop plane with the caption that he had just received his complex flying license. I also know that Art belongs to the East Hill Flying Club here in Ithaca, because we had once attended a pancake breakfast fundraiser at his invitation. Art said “Sandy [his wife] says that flying is a very expensive hobby, but it’s a lot cheaper than seeing a Psychiatrist.“ Thanks Anna and Art. Between the two of them, I left our conversation with the decision that one way or another, I would be driving a C30, and that was okay. 

Waiting for the ferry back to Bridgeport, CT

P.S. After an Art’s diagnosis of the C30, the Volvo shop agreed to repair the exhaust system without charge. It’s not going to the junkyard just yet.