Car Frustrations

Why do car repair facilities always assume women are airheads when it comes to their cars and are overreacting? Or that they don't mean what they say when describing the symptoms that they're experiencing with their car? It is so frustrating!

In the spring my transmission light kept coming on. I took it in to the dealership and they told me it was just a software problem. Didn't really believe that's all it was, but the light stopped coming on, so I was okay. Also mentioned a weird noise that happened when I turned the car off, but they claimed they couldn't hear it. Skip ahead to Monday. On my way to work my transmission light came on again. I hoped it was a fluke. But a few hours later on my way to the airport the transmission light and the alternator lights both came on. That had me a bit worried. I sent the dealership an email and told them I'd be home on Wednesday night and needed to bring the car in on Thursday. Fortunately my car started, but the alternator and transmission lights were still coming on.

I took my car in on Thursday and the guy wrote up that my battery light was coming on. No, it was two separate lights - the transmission light and the alternator light. He decided he knew better than I did and left it as the battery light. I also told him about the strange noise and that it continued all summer. He said that wouldn't happen and didn't even bother to write it up. Fortunately the mechanic came in to ask me if I had problems with my transmission or alternator. He had moved my car and noticed those two lights on. I told him that contrary to what the service order said, I had never seen my battery light come on, but that the transmission and alternator lights were coming on consistently. I also told him about the strange noise that hadn't been written up and asked him if he could look at that too. I think I'd be better off talking directly to the mechanic and cut out the middleman.

They ended up keeping my car for two days. My battery had cracked and some wires got corroded and had to be replaced. Also found a problem with the gear shift cable (or something like that). They told me I made a good judgment call in getting the car in right away. And here he had thought it was just a bad sensor with the battery light (that never came on).  Also needed to have my brakes replaced (which I was expecting). I went and picked up my car after work today and less than three miles from the dealership the transmission light came on again. I was stuck in a traffic jam that resembled a slow moving parking lot, so I called the dealer immediately and told them about the light coming on again. He said they obviously need to take a better look at my car and told me to bring it in on Monday morning. When I turned my car off it made that awful rattling noise again too. So I think I'll have them take another look at that too while they're at it. Sigh...