Loss for words...

There are some things in life I just don't understand.

I just got off the phone with my mother. I am pissed.

Those of you who know me well know the recent issues I have had with my car lately. When winter came, and the temperatures fell, my 2000 Nissan Maxima started acting funny. When I first started the car it would jerk a little bit. The entire car. If I would put it in drive and sit idle, it would jerk a lot more, bigger jerks..back and forth. If I let the car sit and warm up about 10 minutes, all would be fine. It would drive smoothly just as it always did.

This problem continued and I did nothing about it for about 2 or 3 weeks. I never had time to take it into a shop since I needed it for school and the mechanics do not work on weekends.

Then the temperatures fell some more. To the single digits in fact. The first morning I went out to start my car and it immediately died. It ran about 3 seconds. I continued to restart it and have it die about 10 times. I eventually began starting it and giving it gas. I had to do this for about 15 minutes to get the car warm enough to stay running. I decided it was time to get it fixed so I took it down the road to Marion Nissan.

Marion Nissan had the car for 10 days. They told me with absolute certainty that the problem lied within the Mass Air Flow Censor. A part that I had had replaced in the car not 3 months beforehand by a mechanic at home. Since the part was under warranty, the part was free. I did have to pay $180 for computer reprogramming and whatnot. Problem solved... Not.

I drove to Mississippi. Car ran great during the drive, the week we were there, and the drive back. (Keep in mind the weather was in the 50's the entire week.) Once I arrived back home to the mid 30's weather, the car once again would jerk when it was not warmed up. I was on the phone with Marion Nissan immediately and told them they did not fix the problem. This conversation occurred on December 26th and the car went back into their shop on December 28th.

They. Still. Have. My. Car.

They have no clue what is wrong with it. They told us the battery needed replaced. They did it. No improvement. They say they have done every possible test they can to the car and still do not know what is wrong. HOW CAN THIS BE?! How can a car have such an obvious problem and mechanics not be able to diagnose it? Can someone explain this phenomenon to me?!?! I am at a loss.