Mike and Sandi and the Saga of the Phoenix

This post has two purposes. The first is to expound upon Sandi's short post (see below) and to allow you, the reader, to know what "The Phoenix" is. The second is try let my mind wander a little bit after an already hellish week studying for second semester finals.

First, the term and name of our beloved Altima, the Phoenix. Sometime when we were still dating, Sandi thought that I called the Altima, "Phoenix" and the name has forever stuck. It has faded in and out of usage, but it is still with us today.

Second, the saga. Shortly before we went down to Rexburg for Spring break, our car had a sudden increase in oil consumption. A LOT of oil consumption. We didn't know when we would be able to get it in, so we decided to wait until Spring break and take it in to Ron Sayer Nissan in Idaho Falls. We left Moscow with a full thing of oil, and we were out (at least to our knowledge) by Dillon. Our hand was forced and with some trepidation, we took our car in the following Monday. We had read online a few horror stories with symptoms similar to ours and the need for a new engine. crap. We are struggling students and we cannot afford such an expense, so we were somewhat leery when we took the car in. 2 hours later, our worst fears were realized. The catalytic converter had disintegrated and been ingested into the engine causing damage to it, required a new engine. However, since our car had less than 80,000 miles, everything would be covered under the emissions warranty (since that was the part that malfunctioned). Pretty sweet. Not so sweet is that it would take 10 days for the parts to come and we had to be back in Moscow for school/work. So, basing our decision on a previously pleasant visit to the Nissan dealership in Lewiston, we took the Altima back to Moscow, thinking that all would be well.

Well, it wasn't. The dealership in Lewiston was not as helpful and wanted to just give us a new catalytic converter (even if they gave us a sweet Taurus for a loaner--note the sarcasm). They did not see the same problems and yada, yada, yada,they didn't want to give us a new engine and basically if the engine died after we had the CC replaced, we would have been out of luck because the evidence of the malfunctioning part would have been gone. Not wanting to do that, and after much deliberation through out the process we took our car back down to IF. Seeing more luck there, we took a shot. Nissan Corporate had recently changed their policy and therefore they required pictures of the damage before they would grant the claim under the warranty, so we went down without really knowing how it was going to turn out. We had planned to leave the car there and bring back my parents' Explorer which was just taking up space in their driveway. However, it had problems itself, so we currently have my mom's Pilot, thanks to their extreme generosity and kindness. today we were told that everything was ready (new engine, new CC, etc.) and that the car was fixed. We are really blessed and thankful for the support of everyone involved.

That is the saga in somewhat of a nutshell. And probably the last that you are going to hear from me until Sandi and I are separated. okay, okay, I'll be going to Boise after finals working for Idaho Legal Aid for the summer and Sandi will be here in Moscow in school, (hopefully) for only part of the summer. It isn't the best situation, but we've got to work with what we've got, you know? So, I'll see you on the other side.