Friday, August 20, 2010

One euro for fixing the car


Field, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Fallen, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Spiderweb, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

While driving to Lappeenranta on Monday, a blinker lamp burned out in my car. This was the first time with this car, so I had to read the manual to find out how to replace it. Fortunately, this was easy, and the new lamp only cost 1 euro.

It is good to have a bit older car, as there are still things you can fix by yourself. I wonder what needs to be done in such a situation in the newest cars - replace (in an authorized repair shop) "a light module with built-in computer" or something like that.

However, when the lamp burned, the yearly vehicle inspection was also approaching, and I was a bit worried. The Toyota Avensis is now ten years old, and thus there might have been all kinds of things wrong in the car.

But today, after work, I managed to get the inspection done even without reserving a time slot in advance. I got my car inspected right away, and 15 minutes later it was done. All was good, and the car was said to be in excellent condition.

(But the price of the inspection had gone up - once again. I remember when they said it would get cheaper when the previous governmental system was put to the open markets. No so, now the inspection cost 80 euro, and probably more next year.)

My trust in the quality of Toyota cars hasn't been misplaced so far. In fact, I have been surprised about the fuss that has been happening in the USA regarding Toyota cars. Might there be a kind of protectionist attitude going on there?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if your LX3 can pass an inspection; not because of the years but because of the mileage :)

I like image #1.

Have a great weekend!


Art

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Sven W said...

It's a pity Toyota don't make cameras. I'd definitely buy the Lexus point-and-shoot!

Juha Haataja said...

Well, the LX3 seems to be a really tough little thing, not minding my sometimes rough handling. A quality thing, even if it is made by Panasonic and not Toyota.