Dodgy car repairers

I have been surfing the net for possible cures for Joan’s lack of appetite. It would seem that the people who suggest the fixes have not had a serious problem with lack of appetite.

This morning I tried a Ginger Tea made by boiling fine strips of raw ginger in water and adding a bit of flavour to the tea with honey and lemon. No go: the ginger burned her throat. Chemo damages the quickest growing cells of which the throat is certainly in the race.
Ginger tea is reputed to both help restore appetite and dampen appetite for weight loss....which one does one believe? Probably neither!

Tomorrow we are going to ask the oncologist if there is something he knows that works. All the other questions I have put to him receive the, did that come from the internet smile.

This morning I rang Consumer Affairs seeking help with a dispute I am about to have with a car repairer. Our daughter’s Mazda 626 had started to blow lots of white/blue smoke at startup in the mornings. Once running the engine doesn’t smoke which suggests that the piston rings are not the cause. The repairer suggested it would almost certainly be valve guide seals missing or worn out. They suggested I leave the car with them and they would do further investigation. Next day they confirmed that replacement of the valve guide seals would fix the problem and I reluctantly agreed to an all-up cost of $1450.00. The job was done, but the oil was still getting into the cylinders and creating a warship-like smoke screen at morning startup.

Now the repairer has the car still and wants $1450. for a job that didn’t fix the problem.

Hope Consumer Affairs can help me.

The repairer now suggests that the only fix is to replace the engine with a secondhand one they have in stock....the total cost which included the valve seal repair job is to be $3,500. The car is only worth about $3500.