Car update

If you read the last two weeks worth of Not Me Monday posts you may recall that I am having a bit of a car problem. I bought my '99 Saturn in October of '04 with 93k miles. Now, 4 years later, it has about 160k miles on it. This was the first car that I ever owned myself and it has been a great car for me. Throughout the years it has had some repairs: muffler, new engine head, brakes to name a few.

The Monday after Christmas my car started acting up again. The reverse was very slow as well as the car thunking when I was accelerating after being stopped. The day after New Year's we an appointment at a local car dealership. After they checked it out they said it was the 2nd cylanoid that needed to be replaced. That meant that when the car was shifting gears it was going from 1st gear to 3rd gear. The 2nd cylanoid was also what controlled reverse. They estimated about $600 for this repair.

Once the part came in and they put it in the Saturn the shifting problem was fixed but the reverse still didn't work. I guess there was a leak in the transmission. If it's cold it would be OK but as the car warms up the leaks get worse. Can't drive a car without reverse!

We then had to decide if we wanted to stick $1700 into the Saturn to get a used transmission or just get a new car. After several days of tossing the idea and switching plans every few hours we settled on just fixing up the Saturn. It will be pricey right now but at least we can avoid the monthly payments that would come with a new car. I didn't want to have to go out in the freezing cold and try to decide on a different car. Hopefully the Saturn can last me until summer and then I can start looking for something else.

We are extremely grateful that the dealership that's fixing my car gave us a rental car to use. All we have to do it pay for the gas and return it with a 1/4 tank of gas. They gave us an '07 TrailBlazer to use and John has enjoyed driving something other than the Explorer for the past 2 weeks. I, on the other hand, am getting a little tired of driving the Explorer. It's great that I am getting out of my Saturn shell and trying something a little different and bigger. However, I'm tired of getting out by jumping out of the driver's seat and getting in by pulling myself up with the steering wheel.

Overall, I am glad we're fixing up the car and hope it at least lasts me until the summer. If it lasts longer than that, bonus! Hopefully I can get my Saturn back early this week!