Is It Winter Already?

We had snow last night in my area of New England. Not a lot, just some flurries and it was sticking to the deck at work. The sun has come out and it's melting, but sigh, I really wish it did not snow soo early in the season.....

I am sticking to my plan of not watching American National News. It's been blissful. I turn on my local news to get the weather, then I turn it off. As I said before, I can pick and choose the news I want to watch via the Internet. I'm not being oblivious to what is happening in the world, I am just being selective.

My Escape is in for it's ABS tone ring repair. I'm not thrilled to pay a $410 (with tax) repair bill, but it is what it is. I did my research and hopefully this type of repair won't crop up again in 20,000 miles. The Ford Escape forums were very helpful.

I just don't have a great vibe about this dealership. I have this feeling they were a bit put out that I did not cave in to their pressure to have extra service done to the vehicle. They also are trying to up sell folks on various additives for the various car fluids. I'm not buying that up sell. I did speak with my own mechanic and he quoted me a price a bit less than the Ford Dealership and did confirm that the Escape can have this particular repair. The difference in price was about $50 and I'd prefer to have the $50 in my pocket instead of Fords, but I really wanted to see what the dealership was like. Regretfully, it's nothing special and the up sell attitude does not make me want to go back for even a regular oil change.

My old Saturn dealership and repair service was great. I never got an up sell, they had a nice customer lounge and I got a complimentary car wash and vacuum, even with the oil change. If I had to fork over a lot of money, at least I had free coffee, tea and donuts to placate me!