Christmas, Part 3
The final chapter to our Christmas tour is one of woe.
We left Mammoth Cave in the afternoon, and drove 5-6 hrs to St. Louis area, with stops for food, gas, etc. We pulled into the driveway, and as I turned off the engine, there was a glugging noise, followed by a hissing, and a column of steam came out from under the hood. Fortunately, this was the driveway of D's favorite mechanic - his dad.
Diagnosis: head gasket.
Prognosis: patient may be rehabilitated, but should be in assisted living.
Solution: He keeps the car, fixes it himself ($100 part, a couple of days of labor, vs $600-800 repair in shop), and sells it to somebody with the clear understanding that they go beyond the city limits at their own risk.
We could keep the car if we wanted, but neither my car nor D's (if rehabbed) is a reliable road-tripping vehicle. If my car goes out on the way to work, someone can come pick me up, but if the car dies when he's on the way to a convention, someplace out-of-state and where he's got places to be and lots of luggage, that could be a problem. So, we had a financial chat with D's parents, and came to the conclusion that since we're going to have to get a "real car" sometime fairly soon, it may as well be now.
Thus, we spent a day worrying, and a day shopping for cars, then came back to Chicago in a rental. After talking the whole thing over enough, we concluded that one of the cars we'd test-driven was just fine, so we may as well buy it as keep on shopping. It's not all finalized yet, but it's pretty much in the bag, we're just zooming paperwork back and forth across the state for a few more rounds. We should be able to pick it up next week. Pictures once I see it again.
This whole thing was really not how I wanted to spend the end of my Christmas vacation. Knowing that our cars are old, and knowing that we'll have to replace them soon, is different from actually having to call D's car dead. Even knowing it'll rise again as some high-school kid's jalopy, it's kind of sad... we've declared it not worthy of our support. Of course, I've been complaining for a year solid now, and I seriously don't enjoy driving my car, so in the back of my mind I've been daydreaming about having a stable enough job future to take out a loan and replace the large American problematic car with a cute zippy small brightly-colored Japanese something-or-other that will not need repairs or have quirky failures. However, it's not my car that died first, so it's not my car that's getting replaced. Nor do I have the aforementioned job stability and plans for the future, that I'd kind of set as a pre-requisite for making major purchases like this. Stressful! Thank goodness for parents.
Now all we need is for my car to survive D's drive to Ohio this weekend (Ohayocon) - keep your fingers crossed for the poor old beast. My car, not my husband, though of course if finger-crossing helps his sales, go right ahead. :)
We left Mammoth Cave in the afternoon, and drove 5-6 hrs to St. Louis area, with stops for food, gas, etc. We pulled into the driveway, and as I turned off the engine, there was a glugging noise, followed by a hissing, and a column of steam came out from under the hood. Fortunately, this was the driveway of D's favorite mechanic - his dad.
Diagnosis: head gasket.
Prognosis: patient may be rehabilitated, but should be in assisted living.
Solution: He keeps the car, fixes it himself ($100 part, a couple of days of labor, vs $600-800 repair in shop), and sells it to somebody with the clear understanding that they go beyond the city limits at their own risk.
We could keep the car if we wanted, but neither my car nor D's (if rehabbed) is a reliable road-tripping vehicle. If my car goes out on the way to work, someone can come pick me up, but if the car dies when he's on the way to a convention, someplace out-of-state and where he's got places to be and lots of luggage, that could be a problem. So, we had a financial chat with D's parents, and came to the conclusion that since we're going to have to get a "real car" sometime fairly soon, it may as well be now.
Thus, we spent a day worrying, and a day shopping for cars, then came back to Chicago in a rental. After talking the whole thing over enough, we concluded that one of the cars we'd test-driven was just fine, so we may as well buy it as keep on shopping. It's not all finalized yet, but it's pretty much in the bag, we're just zooming paperwork back and forth across the state for a few more rounds. We should be able to pick it up next week. Pictures once I see it again.
This whole thing was really not how I wanted to spend the end of my Christmas vacation. Knowing that our cars are old, and knowing that we'll have to replace them soon, is different from actually having to call D's car dead. Even knowing it'll rise again as some high-school kid's jalopy, it's kind of sad... we've declared it not worthy of our support. Of course, I've been complaining for a year solid now, and I seriously don't enjoy driving my car, so in the back of my mind I've been daydreaming about having a stable enough job future to take out a loan and replace the large American problematic car with a cute zippy small brightly-colored Japanese something-or-other that will not need repairs or have quirky failures. However, it's not my car that died first, so it's not my car that's getting replaced. Nor do I have the aforementioned job stability and plans for the future, that I'd kind of set as a pre-requisite for making major purchases like this. Stressful! Thank goodness for parents.
Now all we need is for my car to survive D's drive to Ohio this weekend (Ohayocon) - keep your fingers crossed for the poor old beast. My car, not my husband, though of course if finger-crossing helps his sales, go right ahead. :)