R.I.P. You Piece Of Crap.

In 2001 (I think, maybe 2000), I walked onto a Saturn car lot with my mother, and I purchased a 1997 used Saturn. It was the first time I had ever bought a car so I was excited about it. My lack of knowledge and anticipation to FINALLY have my own car were SEVERE handicaps because, without thinking about it or looking anywhere else or talking to Paul about it, I bought the first car I test drove. I was a car salesman's dream. I even bought this (new to me) used car for a ridiculous price - a price I could have purchased a new car for - with no argument, no attempt to dicker down to a reasonable price. I bought their story that the woman who owned it before was a frail school teacher who never went anywhere and just traded it in for something a bit newer - They ACTUALLY said that to me. hahahahahaha!!!

I think it was 30 days later, right after the tiny warranty they give you when you purchase the car was expired, it broke down and the dealership wanted me to pay them $800 to replace the alternator and battery. Apparently, they were dead. I hadn't purchased a new warranty, so nothing was covered.

I cried.

Isn't that was girls do? I sobbed actually, and in public, right there at the dealership because I did not have $800. In fact, I was in debt - with credit cards - and was living paycheck to paycheck at the time. It was my fault really - for being so naive and stupid. The sobbing got the price cut down to $400 and I was able to put it - where else? - on my credit card.

I think it was a couple months later some kids playing with a basketball threw it out into the road while I was driving by and shattered my windshield. I stopped, very angry, to talk to them and ask them to pay for it, and they ran. I even followed them to their apartment and told them what happened, and they said they'd pay for it. I never heard from them again.

There was a stretch of time when I actually didn't have any issues with the car. I got my oil changed regularly, things were going pretty well.

In 2002, Paul and I got married and we drove the car to Tennessee on our wedding night. It drove just fine. Here and there we had issues. Sometimes ridiculous and big, sometimes small. We paid for them. But all in all it was a pretty good car, until the last year or so.

Problems every other month. Most of them Paul could fix. He actually learned quite a bit about my car.

Have you ever seen that commercial for car insurance where the car shakes really loud and ferociously and then falls apart while the man is sitting in it??? It's an older commercial. The car in that commercial is the exact model as my car. That commercial was NOT an exaggeration in the least.

For months now, my car has been leaking all kinds of fluid. Paul has been able to fix most of them problems, but a few days ago, transmission fluid began leaking out all over the garage floor. Paul replaced the plug, but the next morning it was STILL leaking pretty bad. So we took it in to a garage to have it looked at, and apparently there is a large crack in the pan or container that holds the transmission fluid. They want to charge us $1500.00 to replace that container. $1500. FIF-TEEN-HUNDRED-DOLLARS. ONE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. That's a lot of money.

So we're probably going to say goodbye to the Saturn. The lining to the ceiling inside is falling down. She rattles like a Moroccan band, it takes 30 minutes for the A/C to get cool but hey, we've had good times. We've also had extremely irritating, horribly, bad times... She lasted longer than I thought she would though, so there's a positive note. I've had her 8-9 years. She's over 12 years old - that's like 88 in car years isn't it?


So, now it is on to something better. Something with good mileage, air conditioning, room for babies, and is reasonably priced. Let the search begin.