I really should have taken some before photos, but it would have been too embarassing to post them. Most people's cars get gross after they have kids, but mine was almost too gross to subject a gooey projectile vomiting kid to, and that's not exaggerating. There were no floor mats, though you probably couldn't tell. There was more dog fur than Norm is currently wearing. And at some point an entire package of silver thumb tacks spilled everywhere and I continued to find them for years. So it was definitely time. And I was scared that whatever was probably growing under the seats could be hazardous to my daughter's health.
So the car went in, with the plan being have the trunk fixed (it stopped locking...which made it a guessing game whenever you put something in there - would it fly open and spill all over the highway? Would someone come along and realize they could just lift the lid and help themselves to my belongings? Not good) and splurge on a detailing.
And of course, it all went wrong from there.
The trunk problem was more than the latch, it was also the struts. And then the wrong struts came. And then only one of the right ones came, so they had to wait again. And my brakes were gone. And when they took apart the brakes to replace them, the knuckles were stripped so that had to be fixed or the car couldn't go back together.
This is why I avoid regular timely car maitenance, it always spirals into a giant disaster and I am traumatized. Which only means I save up even more problems for the next time. Viscious cycle.
Eventually they got it all put together, and I had to give back the cushy courtesy car we'd been tooling around in for over a week, along with a nice big chunk of $$$ that was certainly NOT in the budget at this time...
But the car is clean. And The Cupcake is safe from mutant french fries, thumb tacks, and whatever else was making a cozy home in the rubble.
P.S.
If you google image search "car detailing," you get a ton of half naked ladies washing cars. Guess I had no idea what was going on when I dropped off my little family car.
