In 1994, I got my first car. It was a Honda Civic. I chose that because it was small enough for me and it wasn't high maintenance. I would gas up only once a week and I thought that was really great. Until I gave birth in 1997. The car seat was kind of bulky and because I had it set up in the middle of the back seat, I could hardly see anything behind me. I'm not very tall.
In fact, I was thinking about getting a Mitsubishi eclipse at the time but I couldn't see pass the dashboard. Anyway, in 1998, I traded in my Civic for a CR-V. Wow! What a big difference. I could see where I was going! Gas mileage for it was very good. I still filled up once a week. And at the time, gas prices were still good (as compared to now, it was very good).
I hardly brought my car in for service, and when my husband and I decided to join his family in Disneyland, I had to bring it in the day before to have it checked and make sure everything was still in working order. To my surprise, the only thing that needed to be done was change the brake pads. That was it! I paid $400.00, and everything was smooth sailing.
In 2002, my husbands back went out and I decided to give him my car. I felt he would be better off driving that. Instead of having to bend every time he got in his car, I sold his car and gave him mine. Of course, then we had to get another car for me. We got another CR-V. I was so happy with the cars of Honda. They were VERY dependable.
Then in 2004, my mom and dad decided to move back to the Philippines. They had leased an ML500 from Mercedes Benz for five years and they couldn't return it yet. They would have been charged a big fine for breaking the contract. So, I inherited it (so to speak). At first, it was so cool. I had a Benz!
Then, in the middle of 2005, trouble started brewing. When we got back from out vacation, the car wouldn't start! A friend of mine came to the house to start the cars once a week, but for some reason, the Benz would not start. We had to jump start it and left it on for a while. After 20 minutes, my husband brought the car to the car wash. Can you guess what happened next? The car wouldn't start! Again. He called roadside assistance and they changed the battery. O.k., fine, the battery was dead. But then three days later, it died again! C'mon, the battery is brand new! So we brought it in to have it checked. And it turns out, the radio wasn't shutting off properly. When we turned off the car, technically, the car was still on. So they replaced the radio. TWICE!
A week after we got the car back, it happened again. I wanted to return it already but the fine was still too high to pay. The car was finally fixed and we had no problems for a while. Until the SRS light started coming on. Last summer we went back to the Philippines for vacation, and when we got back, my fear had come into reality. The car was in San Ramon and it was dead! AGAIN! The battery wasn't even a year old! So we changed it, again. And after a week, it died again. We returned it to the dealer and we left it there for almost three weeks. The reason? The radio. Grrrr….
That wasn't the worst part. After it was fixed, three months later, the radio went out again. My husband decided to drive it anyway so it wouldn't die on us again. He went to Safeway and he had to pull the car over into the nearest parking lot and called me to pick him up. What happened this time? He smelled smoke in the car! I figured there was a short in the electrical wiring of the car because when I got to the parking lot and looked inside the car, it smelled as if there was something got burnt. We call the dealer the next day and had it towed back to the dealer. We left it there for a whole month.
It turned out to be the amplifier. The amp was too strong for the car and the fail-safe was that if anything happened, it would short out the wiring before the car actually bursts into flame. I think. Then in February of this year, we had to have it towed back to the dealer because the power stearing snapped.
My overall experience with this car is disappointing. We have one more year left on the car and I can't wait to give it back. I found out that one of the main problems with the Mercedes is all electrical. Once something breaks, the problems come one after the other. It is very hight maintenance and you have to use only premium gasoline.
My fifth car is the Ford Explorer. Last May, I found out I was pregnant with baby umber 4 and my CR-V was definetly going to be too small for us. I wanted something different. Something that had a third row. Since my dad has an Expedition, I decided to take a look at the Explorer. I thought it was perfect. Not too big, not too small. It also doesn't have a big trunk when the third row is up. But that's o.k.
I took one for a test drive and I loved it. It's so quiet, and I liked the standard options they had in it. Then again, they had already upgraded some of the options so the car I was looking at was fully loaded. Like the third row was an option. I bought it the next day. At first, I was filling up every week. But then I just realized last week that I haven't filled up in about a week and a half, almost close to two weeks! And the kind of gas? You can either use super unleaded or the premium unleaded. I put super because it's a lot cheaper than the premium and I haven't had any problems with it. And yes, I bring it in for service when the light goes on.
I am very happy with my Explorer. For me, it is just as dependable and as low maintenance as the Honda.
