Mechanic Malfunction

Last week my "check engine soon light" came on. I figured that 2 weeks or so qualified as "soon." But then I pulled out my manual and it used some pretty scary terminology telling me that it indicated there was a "malfunction in the emission system" and if I kept driving it would lead to serious problems that would cost a lot of money to fix. At which point I realized that I had put 1000 miles on the car since then and was probably pushing my luck.

I went into the Saturn dealership today and they informed me that there was a diagnostic charge for determining what was wrong. But I waited the hour, and they came in to tell me the results. Apparently I failed to tighten my gas cap once and that caused the light to come on. But they checked all the systems and everything was fine. The bottom line; it cost me $89.95 for them to tell me "next time tighten your gas cap." Luckily for me they would waive the charge if I agreed to get work done that they found through the free safety inspection. I agreed and the grand total was $261.00.

At first I assumed they were ripping me off, which ticked me off since I have always loved Saturn. But when I came home and talked to my dad, he thought that was not a bad deal, considering I've had the car 3 years and never had work on it. They flushed my fuel system, changed my drive belts, my brake light, and the oil, and did some other technical junk. He pointed out that with all the driving I do (I've put 60,000 on it in less than 3 years) it's lucky that that's all the damage.

And I take pride in the fact that I still have 85% of my tire tread left, on the original tires. They told me I'm a good braker. I'm thinking of having that printed on a t-shirt.