The End of an Era

OK, so my car’s been giving me trouble. LOTS of trouble. I mean, I’ve had it for a number of years, it’s paid off, and suddenly, one thing after another is wrong. So there I was in Firestone this morning, waiting to see what the latest problem is and how much it’s going to cost.

The bottom line is that *right now* there’s nothing wrong, so they re-set the “check engine” light and sent me on my merry way, 45 minutes late for work. The next line up (from the bottom line) is that there’s “the beginning” of an exhaust leak at the front of the system where it meets the engine, and this could be causing a vacuum leak and hence the rough idle when the engine’s cold, so “we’ll keep an eye” on that.

The very next line is…

“That’s a lotta miles for that car, and you might want to think about…”

GASP!

“…another vehicle.”

He’s the second person in 3 days to say that to me. The first was my dad when I told him I’d had the car in the shop 3 times in the past month. You know dads, though – took that one with a grain of salt, I did.

But that said, I’ve been perusing used car websites as well as the Saturn and Kia new car sites. I want a VUE or a Sportage or something else along those lines. Girl-child wants to go shopping with me because she says the car “has to be comfortable.” Oy. I’ll let you all know how it goes.