Malibu blues

Yep, here's the star of this story of sadness and squeaks. My little Malibu, lovingly christened "Prunelope" by my youngest sibling, has been causing me some grief and stress over the last few days. It seems that the car has taken it into it's computer programmed brain that i am too heavy and has decided to start me on a weight loss program of guilt and annoyance. Over the past few days, it has steadily but stealthily increased the amount of pestering that it was doing.

First a little squeak under the seat, barely audible to the inefficient human ear, but most likely most readily audible by the average house mutt. Then steadily increasing the decibels of the squeak. At first, i had much difficulty determining from where the noise was proceeding but after much bouncing up and down on the seat at stoplights (much to the amusement of my fellow drivers!) and peering under the dashboard at most inconvenient times, i figured out that it was indeed the seat. What a cheeky little vehicle! I even had my dad test things out but of course as soon as he settled into the seat, the car shut right up. I kinda feel that it's like a tease, possibly doing its best to cause insanity, occuring only when i'm alone and there's no one to audibly witness the problem and then hiding under the bushes when anyone is near to hear it.

But eventually it was outed and i decided to teach old Prunelope a lesson and take her into the dealership to have them work on her. Hah, you think you can outwit and outthink your driver? Think again, you, you,... car! Anyways, there i am at the mechanics desk this morning, outlining my problems to the poor fellow behind the counter, who is probably already thinking "oh great, another girl who thinks she can diagnose problems that we go to mechanics school for for fourteen years and she wants to tell us the car is squeaky? Give me a break, i've got to go for my morning break and can't wait to tell the guys about the live one i talked to this morning! Yep, she came in with a list as long as her arm of squeaks and wierd noises,

half of which have no basis in reality!"

Anyhow, i did manage to explain myself to the guy and he duly wrote down my "problems" and then i left old Prunelope to his mercy. It apparently takes the entire garage staff a whole day together to figure out the squeak problem. It wasn't until late this afternoon that the fellow from the garage finally called me back and admitted that they hadn't really heard any of the other noises i had complained about (it's running rough, it whines when i use the gas) and now for sure they think i'm hearing things. And they used WD40 under the seat - something even i could have come up with. Oh well, so far so good, no squeaks have reared their silly decibular heads at me. Mercifully, the car is still under a blanket warranty so my little squeakie friend did not cost me any money... today! Ach, the joys of owning a vehicle!

p.s. as i tried to leave the parking lots with the mechanic fellow so he could hear the noise i was talking about, Prunelope protested with a beep. Brilliant me, i tugged my seatbelt on and i attempted to proceed. With little success, the persistent beeping was actually due to the parking break being engaged... so much for showing off my girly prowess with this vehicle. Humiliated, i sunk down in my seat and did my best not to make any more overt mistakes. Oh well, we have to provide amusement for other people sometimes too eh???