Clearing the air

I don't do New Years resolutions, but if I did, one of them would be for my blog to be less boring. No one wants to read boring crap. This means I will have fewer, more meaningful (hopefully) posts.

Having said that, I've gotta do one more lame post to resolve the last one that I did. Then I'll be done (again, hopefully).

So, what ended up being wrong with my car?

Nothing.

After a week of trying, the mechanic couldn't get any violent shaking to happen. Not even a little. We both concluded that the probable cause was snow and ice buildup that temporarily caused the suspension to freak out. He wouldn't accept any money from me - real nice guy.

During this week of waiting, I had an interesting development. If my car had a major issue, would it be worth it to dump more money into fixing the problem when I already know that my engine will slowly deteriorate due to the excessive oil burning, possibly before I get done paying off the car? Or, would I be better off putting that money into a different car? The idea about getting rid of my car began snowballing in my head.

A couple days later, after checking out a couple dealerships, I ended up trading in my Corolla for a brand new 09 Pontiac Vibe. A couple words might come to mind, such as "whoa," "frivolous," "unnecessary", or "expensive." Well, turns out the payments on the Vibe wouldn't be that much more expensive than my current car payment, plus I had been overpaying on my student loans. It was peace of mind, ending the stress and worry about how much oil was in my car at any given time. Plus, it's an awesome car.

If I can give you any advice, it's this:

If you plan on buying a decent car, decent being something less than 5 years old or something over $5K, don't buy it from a stranger. You have no idea whether or not they're lying to you. Even if you get the car inspected (which I didn't - another lesson learned - yes Heather you were right), mechanics don't always discover all the potential issues. Buy it from a place that's going to give you a warranty. If I had a warranty on my Corolla, even as small as 3 months/3,000 miles, I wouldn't be writing this right now.