Only because I had to do it

About a year ago I suppose it was, I needed to add some oil to my car's engine when the hood release lever broke off. I decided that since the car was so old that I wouldn't get it fixed - that I would just use pliers to pull the wire to open the hood. Two weeks ago I needed to open the hood to add some oil and I could not do it. I tried so hard that I actually broke off most of the wire. I could tell that the engine was low on oil because I could hear the engine ticking. Yesterday I was forced into actually getting the hood release fixed or risk seizing the engine.

When I brought the car in I told them to fix the hood release and also change the oilthey told me they would call before they started any work. When they did call they told me they couldn't open the hood and would have to do "surgery" to get in and weren't sure how much damage they'd cause. They also told me that they would bill me by the hour for the labor (at $77 an hour!!). Since I had no choice, I told them to do what they had to do.

Turns out they had to go thru the grill to open the hood and it took them an hour to do it. The part cost about $55 and an hour to install it. Then
add in the oil change and the total bill came to $242 and change. But the scary part was when they took the oil dipstick out - it was dry!!! I had almost no oil in the engine.

I really hate sinking money into that car....