If at first you don't succeed... break the engine and start over?

So as I mentioned in my last post, our car has recently gone under the wrench and emerged looking 5 years younger.  I thought while writing the last post that the car saga was over, I thought wrong, in fact I have never been so wrong in all my years of being wrong, and I am wrong a lot just ask Chad.  So to preface this I would just like to say that we thought our car was acting funny when we first moved here, but when we took it into the shop they couldn't figure it out and sent us on our way. Now for a little recap:

One Sunday morning our car wouldn't start and we were forced to walk to church, that was over a month ago.  Into the shop it went, to a Pep Boys that I can only assume is full of drunks wielding wrenches.  At first everything was on the up and up, they found a couple things and fixed them up (after a few tries, buying the right parts is tricky), and while they were doing that they noticed that our timing belt could use replacing.  Thanks boys, we wouldn't want that to break, that could have destroyed our whole engine!  Crisis averted.  While they were changing out the timing belt they accidentally dented something and so that had to be replaced, so they got that fixed up in a jiffy started her up, and oops, two pistons collided.  Turns out they didn't put the timing belt on wrong and basically destroyed our engine.  So in an effort to save our car they sent our engine away to be repaired at a specialty shop.  That took a week.  When they got the engine back they tried to put it back in, but didn't have the right gear (buying the right parts is really REALLY hard) at this point they decided to get us a rental car, it had been a week and a half after all and we had been very understanding and that kind of behavior should be rewarded.
So we had a rental car, a Tahoe, it was huge, we could barely fit it in our garage.  Finally we got word that our engine had been successful installed in our car.  Great!  Unfortunately it was still broken.  Not so great.  But since they broke it they were kind enough to replace it with a newer one at no cost to us!  So generous, no really, they thought they were being generous.

"We got the new engine in and its running great!"
"Yay!"
"Also your engine coolant had a leak, we fixed it up free of charge."
"Aww, you guys!"
"So, we kinda spilled oil on one of the belts."
*good feeling gone*

  So they sent it home anyway and it made the most awful screeching noise that you have ever heard in your life.  "Just drive it" they said "it will dry out" they said.  At this point we had returned our rental car and were completely unsatisfied with our car so off to the Chevrolet dealership we went.  We picked up a Malibu that I have been waiting months to own and all was right in the world, until we had to drive the Santa Fe home screeching all the way.  So on Monday morning our dear sweet Santa Fe went back in to the shop.  They replaced the belt, hooked up the wiper fluid that they forgot the first time (oops) and pronounced our battery dead.

"Hey, aren't car batteries supposed to last longer than 3 years?"
"Ya, but sometimes sitting for a long time can drain a battery"
"Oh, like if a car was sitting in a shop without an engine for 4 weeks?"
"Ummm... We already replaced the belt free of charge, we wont cover the battery"
"Seems fair, I mean you already replaced the engine you broke and the belt you ruined, what reasonable person would expect you to replace the battery you killed too? Nah, we'll pay for it."

So it was done, all fixed and ready to go!  While Santa was away at the spa for her month long vacation, her registration expired.  Here in Utah cars have to pass a safety and emissions test.  Our car had just been in the shop for over a month, so we were feeling pretty confident, they could't possibly find ANOTHER problem, Could they?  They could!!  Our coolant hose was leaking (of course it was, pep boys "fixed" it) and our front axles had to be replaced (unrelated issue, but I still blame Pep Boys.) So we took our sweet Santa Fe to a shop that was less peppy and full of trained MEN!  It went in on a Friday and was ready to be picked up on Monday.

"I got your car all fixed up and it will be ready on Monday"
"Great!  A week from Monday!
"No, Monday..."
"You mean Monday a month from now right?"
"Monday, like three days from now."
"Is 4 weeks not a standard time frame for car repairs?"

So today we are officially done with all of our car repairs (well except for the cruise control that mysteriously stopped working) , and officially really really broke, just in time for the holidays!