In November of 2006 I leased a Scion xA for 24 months to be my commuter car for work.  I live approximately 24 miles from work.  The final lease payment was November 11th, so my wife Laura and I decided to trade her 2000 Olds Alero in and buy the Scion.  We spoke to the dealership and worked it all out.  They got the paperwork all together for us to sign and we made plans to go in and take care of it the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The Friday after Thanksgiving I was getting ready to go hunting.  I started my Jeep to let it warm up while my dad and I loaded our gear up.  We hopped in and as I was about to put it in gear it shut off.  *poof* Like I turned the key.  After checking some obvious things I got my scanner out and plugged it in – no link.  My scanner could not link to the ECU.  Nuts.  We promptly moved our gear to my dad’s truck and went hunting anyway – priorities you know.

I tried in vain to get the part but no auto parts stores in the area carry it nor can they get it.  The closest Chrysler dealership wanted $656 for the part and $400 to program assuming I save myself $100 by installing it myself.

Saturday morning we arrived at the Toyota dealership to give them the Olds and title for the Scion.

Saturday afternoon I was driving my new 2008 Toyota Tundra SR5 double cab 4×4 with TRD off-road package and 5.7L iForce V8 in Desert Sand Mica.

Obviously my Jeep wouldn’t start and we estimated $125 to tow it from our house to the dealership.  So, I swung by my mom and dad’s house on the way home and borrowed his draw bar, then stopped at the U-Haul store and rented a car dolly.  We went home, winched the Jeep onto the dolly and used my new Tundra to tow it to the dealership.  I’m sure that was a first for them.  I’m also pretty sure that our sales rep earned salesman of the year for moving a pick-up in this economy.

I did my part to stimulate the economy.

Cheers,

goody