For those of us with older vehicles, the quirks are many. I drive a 1996 Toyota Camry and just wanted to give you a brief rundown of how my car behaves.
1. The radio antenna is broken. It's an automatic one that's supposed to rise and fall when the car's turned on and off. For some reason it won't rise. That doesn't mean it won't try. Because of that I'm treated to a very loud grinding noise every time the car is turned on. It lasts for about 30 seconds. The best part is seeing the reaction of people who get in my car for the first time.
2. The electrical lock system works...for the most part. Something happened with the driver side...meaning I can't unlock the doors from my door. But on the bright side, the passenger side lock button still works.
3. My odometer is malfunctioning. Instead of a mile turning forward on the zero...it does it on the six.
4. Perhaps 7 times out of 10, when I turn on the car, a thick, blue smoke puffs out of the exhaust pipe for about 30 seconds. Yes...my car burns oil...and lots of it. Great for the environment. I'm adding oil every month.
5. I have no right, front turn signal thanks to a car accident in Bozeman back in December. (Special thanks to the idiot who decided to run a stop sign causing me to run into him. On the bright side...you should have seen his car).
I guess that's it. Theoretically, I guess I could afford a new car. But when you have one that works fairly well, why spend the money. At this point, a Prius seems like the only good option because of the high cost of gas. However, I'm soon gonna need new brakes and tires. Come this fall, I'm going to have get the turn signal fixed so I can pass inspection. So should I put all that money into a 12-year old car that has 150,000 miles on it? I don't know. We'll see. For now, I'll keep driving the gold beast...waiting for the latest quirk to pop up.
4 comments:
wow- I can sympathize. We once had an Escort with what seemed like hudreds of thousands of miles on it. The driver's side door often would stick, so my husband would have to crawl across and then kick open the door later- plus, it would overheat in warm weather so he would drive with the vents open to cool the engine...and burn our feet.
Oh! It was a 5 speed, and it wouldn't start for a period of time, so he'd have to push it down the small incline at our corner, and I'd pop the clutch then he'd catch up and he'd drive off...why we drove that thing for so many years is beyond me- but we saved enough to afford our downpayment on a nice house and new cars- so it all worked out in the end...and I have great car stories to tell :)
I had a couple "older" cars that had plenty of quirks. Including motorized headlamps that popped up out of the front. The motors on those headlamps always had to be replaced. They were awful. Then I finally got a brand new car. Trust me: you won't miss the quirks of an old car once you have a new car.
Who hasn't had a car with quirks? Oh the stories I could tell about my first couple of cars. I got a Civic about 10 years ago and I'll always buy Honda from here on out. They rock: good gas milage, with minimal work needed on it, etc.
The next one will be a civic 4 door hybrid.
Dude I say run that thing until you need to new tires and brakes and then get a new car. Since you know it is coming before long just save for it and by the time you need to get it fixed you will have the money for a new car. If your luck is like mine you will get new tires and brakes and then the engine will die... then you have wasted money on a shitty car when you could have had a couple months payments on a new one.
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