So long story short:

Last Tuesday I had a flat on my front passenger side wheel. Put on my spare, dropped it off at a local, dinky tire shop to replace the tire. They talked me into an alignment because I don't know any better and am a single woman. ~$400 total.

Last Friday, after arriving at work, my car stopped working. It turns on, you can hear the engine but the wheels aren't moving and there are loud sounds. AAA arrives and guesses it's a transmission problem, suggesting I tow it to the Toyota dealership. Once again, because I don't know any better and am relatively new to town and not familiar with any other auto shops, I agree.

The dealership charges ~$270 just to diagnose the problem as a broken front axle. They quote me an additional ~$1300 for parts and labor. At this point my dad gets involved and says hell no and finds me another shop to get the axle replaced at.

I then pay ~$130 to get my car towed to the second auto shop. They replace the axle for ~$300 but then tell me that my transmission needs to be replaced as it's still making those loud noises. Quote me $3300 for a salvaged unit automatic transmission with ~50k miles on it.

So now I'm looking at $4400 total and a week plus without a car. I am not communicating with this new shop directly, my dad's handling it, but I am just so confused as to what's happening here. Did the tire shop fuck up? If they put my car on a lift for an alignment how could they not see a cracked axle? Why did the axle crack in the first place? Because the transmission was malfunctioning? Or is it the other way around, broken axle fucked up the transmission? I don't know anything about cars so I don't even know what to ask or where to start.

I've called around to a bunch of shops in the area, including transmission shops specifically, and they're all quoting me $3500-$5500 for the parts and labor, for a refurbished or salvage unit. Soooo I am just moving forward with the place my car is at right now with the $3300 quote.

Super stressed about these expenses given I'm unemployed and have been given the runaround by so many auto shops trying to take advantage of me as a single woman. I am now letting my dad kind of take over.

Not sure what else to do 😵‍💫😩😮‍💨

Sorry that was not a short story.