It might be another hot summer
I haven’t had air conditioning in my car for many years now, which wouldn’t matter much except that it typically hits the 100’s in May and stays that way until October.
When my AC broke years ago, I didn’t have the money to get it fixed. Since then, I’ve been procrastinating on even getting it looked into since I hate taking it into the shop. (Among other reasons.) But I finally called this week and got a very broad estimate. I’m looking at anywhere from $300 to $1200 to get it fixed, depending on what the problem might be. And they won’t know what the problem is until they get into it.
So I’m not sure what to do. $300 I would probably do, but $1200, or even $600? I’m not so sure. That’s a LOT of money for a luxury; a luxury that I would use for a maximum of about 2 hours per week for 6 months. Let’s say I use it for a total of 48 hours this “summer”. That would cost me between $6.25 an hour and $25 an hour for AC. Of course, if it lasted more than one season the per hour cost would go down, but I got it fixed once before and it only lasted one season, so I’m not too optimistic.
I think for now I’ll pass on the AC for another year, unless we get our business going and it actually takes off. THAT would be a nice reward — driving in coolness in the summertime. At least I finally checked on the pricing though. That feels like an accomplishment.
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February 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
That depends on the how much you value your comfort in the summer. Personally I would pay a bit of money to be cool in the heat of summer – though the amount of money would depend how quickly I would do it. The 1200 would be a bit much.
February 15th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
My old car had no AC & I almost had a mental break down because the heat was so bad one day and I was stuck in traffic. No problem when the car is moving because you just roll down the windows, but once I was stuck, it was awful. Of course, this was in south Texas, so it may be better where you are at! Good luck :)
February 17th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I moved to Phoenix, AZ several years ago from Denver, CO, in May. My car a/c went out right before I moved and I took it to some random fixit shop in CO. They told me it would cost $600 to fix. I drove without A/C for a year and a half in Phoenix, through two summers–hot doesn’t begin to describe it. When I finally felt I had enough money to get it fixed, I took it to a mechanic recommended by a friend. It needed a small switch or something, and cost $50 to fix total! Last year my a/c went out again in my car, and one shop told me the compressor was shot–several hundred dollars. I eventually took it to a friend-recommended mechanic and although the diagnostic said I needed a new computer for the system, he just didn’t think that was it and kept digging…discovered an hour or so later that the problem was a stripped wire. A $5 part, replaced in about two minutes once found! A second opinion is not a bad idea. :)
February 17th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Good point Angela. Plus actually taking it in and having it diagnosed instead of just calling might be helpful ;)