A Final Resolution to My Car Problems

Most of this post was written months ago.  I waited for the final resolution before editing and finishing the story.

Back in October, my car began acting up.  Here's the car in a 2022 photo.

Update on Autoimmunity, Selling, Reading, and Car Trouble

I had this issue in October where the check engine light kept coming on.  The check engine light was on because the battery wasn't receiving enough charge.  This resulted in a battery cable being replaced (in hindsight a battery cable that should not have been replaced).

I got the car back at the end of October, and the check engine light came back on intermittently.  In December, I finally took the car back in to be checked.  The check engine light was displaying for the same reason as previously.  They were stymied, since the battery cable had been replaced.  The battery was still good, and the alternator was in good working order.  They contacted General Motors, eventually sending my vehicle's diagnostics to the head engineer at General Motors. 

General Motors reported that a "handful" of Chevrolet Malibus display the check engine light erroneously due to an error regarding the battery's charge.  They hadn't figured out why.  Unfortunately, my vehicle was behaving differently than the rest of the handful of vehicles so they had even less of a clue regarding mine.

The service department spent a week running every diagnostic test possible on my vehicle while in communication with General Motors, ultimately telling me that my vehicle was in perfect running order and that nothing bad would happen.  I was told to keep driving it and that I should ignore the check engine light. 

It should be noted that the reason I took the vehicle in during both October and December was to avoid something bad happening.  You just never know what a check engine light could mean and how bad it might be.  I didn't want to experience something bad...

On the afternoon of February 1, the check engine light displayed briefly and for the first time since it was in for repairs in December.  Around 20 minutes later, the car turned itself off at a red light.  I was able to shift into park and get the car back on.  I drove home without anything else happening.

The car started as normal on the morning of February 2, and I didn't see the check engine light.  As I drove, the radio volume began fluctuating.  The power steering felt off at one point.  And then the car turned itself off at a stop sign. 

This time I had to try for several minutes to get the car started again.  I tried to get to my destination, which was just a few miles away.  The car turned off at a red light and would not restart.  I couldn't turn on the hazard lights, so this was a dangerous situation.  The car was completely unresponsive.  I had to call a tow truck.  

The car was towed to the dealership.  It started just fine for them, and they were not able to reproduce the problem.  Can you believe that?  They were in contact with General Motors again, and nobody knew what the problem was.  They all agreed that something was wrong, and they did find what they called "strange error codes" referring to problems with unidentified computer modules. 

For me, the car was toast.  I wanted nothing to do with it.  Even if the vehicle were fixed, I would never trust it again.  I could not risk driving a vehicle that could turn itself off at any intersection and render itself unresponsive to where the hazard lights couldn't be activated.  

I vowed never to drive the vehicle again, regardless of whether it was fixed.

Due to my autoimmunity, I like to stick with what I know, which is why I continue to purchase Chevrolet Malibus.  This has to do with the Spoon Theory.  Please read the link if you don't know what that is.  I need my life to be as easy as possible so that I can maintain a job and sell books online while dealing with a serious autoimmune disease (thyroid) that is only partially controlled.  That is why I continue to purchase the same make and model car. 

Note:  You might have heard that the Chevrolet Malibu will be discontinued in November.  I've already figured out what I will purchase in five or six years.  It will most likely be a Chevrolet Trax, which is a very similar vehicle.  So, back to the story...

While they worked on the vehicle, I decided that I was done with it.  I looked into getting a new Malibu.  The problem was that none of the Malibus in stock had a satellite radio.  Several solutions were presented, including a dongle for the satellite radio (nope, since I know how that would work), or getting a satellite radio from another vehicle and putting it in one of the Malibus on the lot.  They offered to pull one out of a 2022 Malibu and put it in a 2024 Malibu.  I declined.  I should get a new radio, right?

We ordered a car from the factory.  Meanwhile, my Malibu left the shop in March, and they claimed to have fixed it.  Maybe they did, but the check engine light was still coming on.  I refused to drive the car other than driving it home.  I had another vehicle to drive, so I waited patiently for the new car that I wanted.

I won't go into all the details of this saga, which includes failed dealer trades and two order attempts.  The upshot of it is that the car order fell through for various reasons.  In the intervening months my original salesperson left the dealership as did the sales manager who ordered the vehicle.  This resulted in a break in communication which is a large part in why this process has taken so long.

In late May I ended up with a second salesperson who should have kept an eye on the order for me.  He didn't seem too interested in the situation.  I'm going to skip the details.  He didn't value that I was a guaranteed sale, or perhaps it he took it for granted.

Fast forward to now.  I needed to get this resolved.  It was on July 28 that I searched the inventory of local dealerships, as I had been doing all these months.  Finally, I found the unicorn.  A dealership in a nearby city (25 miles away) had the exact Malibu that I wanted.  

I had decided in February that I would settle for nothing less than a red 2LT Malibu.  The nearby dealership had one.

The next day I went into my dealership to verify for certain that the car order was gone.  I will tell you that I was tempted to just drive to the nearby city and buy that car, but I like to do the right thing.  I wanted to make certain that there was no longer a car order.  Besides, I really hoped they'd negotiate a dealer trade for me.

I did mention the second salesperson's name to the third salesperson who greeted me at the door.  Fortunately, the inept second salesperson hadn't arrived for the day, so I didn't feel guilty at all to take up with the third salesperson.  He verified that the order was gone.  I mentioned my unicorn that I had found and that I had almost driven to that dealership to purchase it. 

The salesperson got the sales manager, and I said that I'd prefer to purchase the car from them but that I was prepared to drive to the other dealership to get it.  They knew I was going to purchase that car one way or the other.  Within 15 minutes, a dealer trade had been negotiated.  By late afternoon, I had my new car.

This car was assembled in June.  The other dealership had only had it for a few days.

And my silly black Malibu can annoy someone else with its intermittent check engine light.  That's why I don't purchase used cars.  I don't want someone else's problem.