The Car Care Thread

[kostgard]

anyone who's looking for a reliable car should check out the Eclipse, or its mechanical twin, the Galant

My current car is a Galant. It is a 2001 I bought right out of grad school, I've had it for five years without a problem. I think that's why it ticked me off when the "service engine soon" light flicked on. I was all, "You're reliable! What's this engine light nonsense?" It was like finding out your straight-A student has been dealing pot.

[spider]

I had an Eclipse. I bought it for $500 off a guy who had it in the mountains, it was abotut 7 or 8 years old and had god know how many miles and dents. Also a bunch of ice had slid off a metal roof onto it giving it a sort of attacked by shotgun weilding maniacs look. The first thing I did was crash it into a snowbank but it forgave me and I named it Squeak and we had several happy years together. Despite the abuse, the rattles and the lack of suspension I drove it everywhere, up the mountains, out camping, skiing, everything. I used to leave it parked for months at a time and it always started right up when I came back. Then finally when I was off traveling my neighbours Dad backed over it with his big Dodge truck and squashed the radiator. I was heartbroken when my insurance company totaled it. I drove it for another 6 months (apparently Mitsubishis don't even need radiators to run perfectly fine) then I had to let it go. Poor Squeak- you were a good car

The car I have now could take a few lessons- it is a Nissan that has been lovingly maintained and bits fall off it with alarmingly regularity. I feel that it's heart isn't in being driven. I only drive about once a week though so I can't justify replacing it.

[Sunnyhorse]

Oh, Spider, that's so sad -- I hate to see a faithful car come to a bad end! (But I'm glad that the next two people who posted after me had generally good things to say about their Mitsubishis -- I'd have felt like an idiot if people started coming out of the woodwork to tell me how much theirs sucked!)

ETA: My first car was a 1978 Buick Century station wagon -- belonged to my parents, but I got to drive it as long as I kept gas in it. I hit a deer in it on my way to school.

The first car with my name on the title was a 1981 Chevette that had belonged to my college roommate (and her parents before that). She sold it to me when her parents bequeathed her a nicer car. Her father was gadget-happy -- apparently when he got Fred (that was the Chevette's name, bestowed by the roommate and continued by me and everyone else who knew the car), he immediately went to AutoZone and bought every @#$^&* gadget he could find: volt meter, CB radio, tachometer (for a Chevette, which redlines somewhere around 500 rpm!), anti-theft door-lock pegs, mudflaps, extra mirrors, a graphic equalizer for the crappy stereo, and (I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out), I shit you not, curb feelers. Unfortunately, when wiring all of this stuff into the car, the dad didn't bother to cut and splice the wires to make them shorter, and so the first time my dad got under the dash and started rooting around to repair something, a bushel's worth of wadded-up wires secured with twist ties fell out, causing him to respond with his favorite interjection: "Son of a bitch!" Fred inspired a lot of cussing by my dad, who preferred working on big old American cars whose engine compartments he could physically get into.

[Brookie]

I shit you not, curb feelers

Curb Feelers.

On a 1981 Chevette.

Yep, that's the ticket. It's hip to be square. ;D

[Sunnyhorse]

I really wish that I could remember everything Roommate's Dad installed on that car. (I can tell you that before I took possession of Fred, he sported a Yoda figure on the dashboard where most people have a glow-in-the-dark Jesus (my roomie, whom I've known since we were 8, was -- may still be, for all I know -- a Star Wars freak). My boyfriend and his buddies howled with laughter when they saw those curb feelers poking out from under the car.

Fred drove me fracking crazy while I owned him, but at the Ford dealership, buying my first new car (a 1988 Mustang, the worst car buy I ever made), I watched and cried as one of the dealership guys got in and drove him around the corner of the building to do the appraisal. I never saw him again.

[magazinewhore]

That's so sad, Sunnyhorse. I had to say 'goodbye' to my car,--the totaled '97 Corolla, last week as it lay crumpled and mashed at the auto shop.

I'm still adjusting to my new (as of Friday) 06 Corolla. I'm still scared to drive it though.

[Sunnyhorse]

magazinewhore said:

That's so sad, Sunnyhorse. I had to say 'goodbye' to my car,--the totaled '97 Corolla, last week as it lay crumpled and mashed at the auto shop.

I'm still adjusting to my new (as of Friday) 06 Corolla. I'm still scared to drive it though.

I understand your grief, Magazinewhore. If it's any consolation, your new car (I just looked it up) is quite handsome. (I can also understand your trepidation at driving the new one -- getting used to a new car is so weird, as I rediscovered this week.) Enjoy!

[lpatrice]

Yeah, I feel like I have my own thread. I just recently got a car, 96' Pontiac Sunfire secondhand from my older sister. It appears that I need new shocks and struts and a coolant flush. I was curious about standard prices for this type of work. I tried google, and it was just too much junk to sort through. Does anybody know of any websites or resources for determining standard pricing for car work.

I am young woman, and I will admit I am not that savvy about cars. I don't want to get ripped off!! But a friend of mine from work gave me a good tip. She said that sometimes mechanics (clearly the dishonest kind) will sometimes not replace a part you are paying them too. Simple solution: If you are ever getting a part replaced always ask for the old part. I thought that was sound advice.

[Deleted]

lpatrice -- Now it makes sense. Last year I had to have my whole transmission replaced, and after they made the diagnosis, the guy brought out the ruined one to show me. I am not at all car savvy and I was wondering why he was displaying it for me. It could have been the hub cap for all the difference I knew. I wondered if I was supposed to conduct a moment of silence for the transmission. But after reading your post, I realize he was just proving that he was replacing a bad part with a good part.

I'm in premature mourning for my '97 Subaru. It's been a good car. There aren't any major problems but I'll hate when I have to eventually give it up.

(I have a friend who said she actually cried a little bit when she saw her Volkswagen Rabbit being towed away for the last time and knew she would never see it again...)

[sleepy]

I have never gotten rid of a car that I wasn't happy to see go.