Dead Battery - Part II

After the dead battery debacle at my sister's place I decided I would go to Canadian Tire to replace the battery on Saturday when the weather warmed up. I didn't want to take a chance in going out when it was too cold and getting stuck again.

I checked the prices and availability of batteries that would fit my car on Canadian Tire's website. They had some starting at around $110 at the Laird and Eglinton location which was closest to me. I was planning to go there and buy one and have them install it. I figured it would be relatively simple to install and shouldn't cost much more.

I went down to my car which was in the parking garage early Saturday afternoon. Maybe around 1:00 p.m. To my disappointment my car wouldn't start. Again.

Instead of calling CAA to make an appointment I thought I'd try doing it online because I thought it might be faster. Well, it probably wasn't. I had to input so much information that it actually took a fair amount of time.

I typed in my location, my year, make and model of car. Instead of requesting a boost I thought I'd purchase a battery from them. My father had done that in the past and was charged about $150 in total. Even though I thought it would cost more to go with CAA I figured it would be easiest. Just have them come and change the battery and get it over with.

After I had entered all the relevant information I was notified that my wait would be 300 minutes (or 5 hours). Nothing left to do but wait. Thankfully Naomi and Markus decided to have lunch at Echo and invited me along. I actually had had a hankering for sushi and was looking to go. So that would help me kill the time.

Lunch was good. I didn't overeat like I sometimes do. I believe I got back shortly after 3:00. To my surprise the CAA driver called to say he was at my condo not long after. We went down to my car and he proceeded to assess the battery. I'm not sure what he was doing.

He confirmed I needed a new one, which I already new. He told me it would be $155 for the battery and to have it installed which was fine with me. He then checked the back of his truck which had quite a few different batteries then discovered he didn't have one that would fit my car. So, after all that, he gave me a boost and I drove over to Canadian Tire.

But, of course, now it was late in the day and as I feared Canadian Tire wouldn't be able to work on my car today and I would have to return next morning. On top of that I found the battery was $110 which was the same price as stated online. But, to have it installed would cost around $50 more. I believe the total price (I'm assuming after tax) would be $177. More than CAA and more trouble.

You would have figured that since I told them my year, make and model CAA would have sent someone with a battery that would have actually fit my car. I'm not too happy about that.