Bad day today. On the way to lunch with a friend of mine this afternoon, the window on the driver's side of my car breaks. I think the glass fell off the rollers or something. Talk about freaking out. I never drive with my window down ever. People have to beg me to roll down my window, even if it's hot. I just hate wind blowing on my face. I would rather have air come through the sun roof than the driver's side window.

It all started because my friend, who has to have it be exactly the right temperature in the car or she freaks out, couldn't roll her window down. That front passenger's side window has some kind of short in it or something. I've told the VW dealer people about it, but whenever they test they always say it's fine. Whatever. Anyway, the window isn't rolling down, she's complaining like a mother, so I start fiddling with all the windows. My windows ends up rolling up and down a couple of times, but the third time we heard a "kerplunk", like the window fell of the rollers or something.

I'm thinking, damn, it's Sunday and no garages are open, and I can't have a car where the window doesn't roll up. I have no garage space, so I can't store the damned car. I can't leave it out on the street because someone might steal it, wreck, steal the cd player, and the stupid car isn't even paid for yet. In the meantime, we're still driving to the lunch place because my friend is like, "we'll take care of it later." Is she nuts? Is she fbombing insane? I'm not parking my car without a damned window for every nut job in San Francisco to get into.

Luckily she heard the panic in my voice, and I was kind of panicing, and suggests that I take her home, so I can go deal with my car problem. And I'm like, "thank you". If it was your car and the same thing happened, you'd be freaking out too, and you wouldn't for a second be able to sit down to a two hour lunch and leave your car parked on the street somewhere without a window.

So I drop her off and go park somewhere. I had no idea what I was going to do. I thought about calling my insurance agency to report it and get help, but my window breaking wasn't exactly an accident or a break in. I have an AAA card, so I call them but they're no help. Finally I decided to drive my down to the dealers and beg them to keep it for me till Tuesday, when the service department opens. And if they couldn't do it, well, I'd figure it out after I got there.

Driving down the freeway at 65-70 mph with my driver's side window open all the way scare the bejesus out of me. It's something I've never ever done, and it's an experience I hope to never repeat. I had images of thing flying in the car while I was driving and hitting me in the eye or the face, and me losing control of my car and crashing. I know, it sounds whacky, but those are the things I thought about while driving down to my dealer.

I get to the dealers, told them my problem, and the guy I talked to seemed to know exactly what my problem was. Like maybe, I wasn't the only VW car whose front side driver window had come off its roller. Not a pleasant thought. The guy at the dealer was very helpful. He opened up the service garage, and locked my car in for the weekend. I filled out a form, left my key and took two buses to get home.

I could have rented a car, but I decided that it wasn't worth it. I could get myself home on the bus this afternoon, and on Tuesday morning, I could take those same two buses to get to work. Luckily my car dealer is near where I work, so I can go to work on Tuesday and pick the car up in the afternoon. From the what the guy at the dealer told me, it shouldn't take more than a day to fix my car.

Now I'm just worried about the cost. I have a german car, and unlike american or even japanese cars, german cars are expensive to fix. I bought a 10 year extended warranty for my car from the dealer, so I'm hoping it's covered. The factory warranty for my car ended in May. I'm also going to check my car insurance to see if my insurance will cover the cost, if the extended warranty doesn't.

I do so love european cars for their handling, their feel and their powerful engines, but they are just so expensive to fix when they break down. Maybe I need to look at Toyotas for my next car. Japanese cars just don't handle as well or have the same kind of heavy feel to them like a european car. I rented a Toyota once to drive down to LA, and that car handled 90 mph pretty darn well going down I-5. Hondas are good cars, but I've really been impressed with them.

I hate car problems; they depress me. I bought a new car, after years of driving used cars, so I wouldn't have to deal with alot of car problems. I love my VW Golf, but in two years, this is the third time, I've had a problem. First, a check engine light came on and wouldn't go off. I took it and the dealer fixed at no charge, because of the factory warranty. Next I get a notice that the car has been recalled, so I have to take it in so they can fix whatever the recall thing was about. Since it was a voluntary recall, VW fixed it for free. And now, my window falls off the rollers.

Well, there was that other time where my brakes were making a high pitched squeel. When I was in for an oil change, I told the dealer service department about it. Later they told me that my back brake pads were fried, but they replaced those for free since I was still under warranty. Oh yeah, then the light in my visor mirror stopped working, but VW replaced that for free too because of the warranty.

My poor car It's just one problem after another. I love my little green german fat boy car too, whom I call Seigfried or Ziggy for short. My Japanese factory built GEO Metro didn't have half these problems. I'm definitely going to have to think about going Japanese the next time I purchase a car.