Last week I managed to slice open the sidewall of one of my tyres. Never a good idea, an even worse idea when your tyres cost almost R1400 each. Yep, that’s right, I have a scarily rare and expensive tyre it seems, which is still cheaper than buy 2 of the more common ones. The supplier only had one left which probably contributed to the insane price for a silly piece of rubber — much to my chagrin that is.

So off I went to have the thing replaced and after bleeding through every orifice I got my credit card back and drove off with a shiny new tyre. So now I have 2 tyres that are 35k km old, 1 that is 15k km old and the one I just replaced which doesn’t even have 50km on it yet. So there I am measuring my tread depth with my key (always an accurate way to do it) to determine how best to match them. Obviously the 2 old ones should be paired, I just had to check which ones they were. So soon I’ll be going off to get everything aligned and have them rotate the wheels at the same time… and while I’m at it I get to cough up another R150. Is there anything that’s a bigger waste of money than a vehicle?

In other news the water pump on my car failed. It’s a warranty part, which I thought was great! I’d only have to pay for the antifreeze and get the rest for free. No such luck unfortunately, it appears that the dealer I bought the car missed the service interval and voided the warranty on my behalf. Never mind that when they sold me the car they assured me that it was all good and even signed over the (nonexistent) warranty into my possession. Now they tell me “sorry, can’t help”, well that’s terrific. So I phoned ford, and now I’m waiting for a response, which I doubt I’ll get.

Ford quoted me ~R2800 to change the part and have the car back to me. I phoned them a few days later, spoke to their workshop, and the guy quoted me ~R800 for the part. R2000 for labour and fluids? That boggles the mind considering they told me it was a 2 and a half hour job. Since it looks like Ford are unwilling to honour the warranty I guess I’ll be doing it myself.