My car died today!!!

[BAC]

Right at a stop light in one of the busiest intersections of town, the light turned green and I pressed on the accelerator and no acceleration!! So I start to freak out and all the cars behind me are honking and giving me the dirtiest looks as they drive by. Do they think that people break down in the middle of a 4 lane intersection on purpose?

Had to call 911 to get the police to come out because I was in a dangerous location. The police called the "wrecker" to haul it away. Luckily the boyfriend was home and was able to help out.

But SIGH, this sucks. I have 177,500 miles on the car and I think it's time to say goodbye to my lovely little Honda instead of putting tons of money into it. The alternator crapped out we think, which is at least a 300 dollar fix and it needs some body work I think because it veers to the right and the car shakes when I get above 65 mph. So I have to look at the long run.

Anybody else have any horrible accident/traffic violations they would like to share to make me feel better? Not that I get pleasure out of anyone's misfortunes... I just thought I would try to liven up the Coffee Talk section of this website a little.

[spotty4]

Boooo Becky. That's never fun. To make you feel better, at least expense-wise, this past summer I had to get a whole new transmission in my manual Pontiac Vibe. $3000!!! It took me a while to pay off that blow. The car was too young to be having tranny problems. At the time it had ~70,000 miles (and I bought it the year before GM started to extend its warranties). But I've since paid off the car loan so now its MINE! But wait ... isn't that when stuff REALLY starts going wrong!?

[mrs767er]

my mitsubishi expo is 12 yrs old and I love it--7 pax if you count the seats for really short legs--well, it had a major aneurism for over $1500 last fall and we spent the $ because we knew she had more in her--only 150K. she did similar--oil choke out--suffocation, maybe...??
well, it's just a vehicle--but she still goes 75+ and wobbles a bit.I can get an 8ft Christmas tree in it and still drive and we get 25-30 mpg from the old chick (her name is Miss Scarlet, BTW) I like the insurance rate of $500/yr full coverage, too.
Hang in there!!

[Mrs.Alchemist]

So sorry to hear about your car!!! That really sucks!!!

I was supposed to be driving from St. louis to Wisconsin yesterday, but the dinner I was going to attend got canceled... so I met Hubby for lunch at training, which was nice... but afterwards I had nothing to do... so the Good Lord gave me something... hehe I decided to go kill some time at Kohl's, but I ran over a storm drain grate, and killed a tire instead. (It appeared to be a normal storm drain, the kind you drive over every single day. It was in the parking lot, so I was only going like 5 mph, too.) Well, I had something to do the rest of the day while Hubs was in training because first I had to wait for AAA, then I had to wait for the special sized tire to be courriered in from another city... Great... Oh well... It's still not at bad as your situation, that's for sure! I hope that you can find a new car to love!!!

[Kristie]

that sucks Becky!!

if it makes you feel any better... doug's car has been broken for almost a month now and we've been "sharing"....at some point i'd like my car back but until he finds a new one we'll continue sharing mine!

problem is... at the time his car broke down, BMW decided to pull back on inventory....doug's all ready to buy a car but there are NONE to be found....and he's looking for a new and/or used car too if you can believe it...NONE around, we've got 2 dealers working with us and one is trying to rip us off already, the other is just waiting for doug to just pick a car and be done with it... but hell, if you're going to buy a car and not lease it, you need to get the car you want and not just take any car...so we're in limbo

I hope you won't be in limbo as long as we will! haha '

so...with that.. onto happier things! what kind of car you gonna get?

[BAC]

Thanks ladies, for your tales of automotive hell. We've all got them!

mrs767er- I love the name of your car! I find it funny when people name their cars.

Sarah - But 5mph over a storm drain and POP goes the tire?? egh! What kind of puncture/tear could that have made??

Shelley - I used to have a Pontiac (96 Grand Am GT) and I don't think I'll get another Pontiac because the Grand Am only had about 120,000 miles or so on it and it was literally falling apart. I am a trader to my home state, but I don't think I want to buy American anymore... At least until they start making them better!!

Kristie - The boyfriend wants me to get a BMW like him, which I have no objections to! Except that the ones that are in my price range have too many miles on them, so I'm looking at Hondas in the same price range that are newer and more gas efficient since I have a longer commute.

You're right though.. if you're going to buy a newer car, especially a BMW, you should be getting exactly what you want. So they are pulling back inventory? Have you looked in other states as well?

[CapeCodder]

have you looked at the new BMW 1 series? its a more affordable model and very cute

[Kristie]

that is true.. the BMW 1 series is cute!! Europe has had them for a long time now, we're just getting them.

we haven't looked out of state so much since there are more taxes involved if you bring one from out of AZ.

doug's pontiac started having problems at 60,000...i think he's got about 90,000 now and it's ready for the junk yard.

[ccbegay]

OH, that is majorly sucky...

I had a 1990 ford escort manual hatchback...bought it for 1000 and had like a gazillion miles on it...well the heater didn't work, but the faster you drove the more it would blow out of the vents...i backed into a ranger and knocked the bumper half off...the passenger door didn't open from the inside...with the automatic seatbelts, sometimes, they would work or they woudn't...when it would ice up, i'd have to start the car 1/2 hour before I had to go anywhere...my lovely guy friends would 'draw' on the car when it was dirty, one time it had a big male member on the top of it, and it was engraved with "rez rocket"...the car was a hoot, but the best part was I could fill it up with $20 and drive for 2 weeks!

Next thing, i'm car shopping, bought my first 'new' car, 2002 Nissan Sentra and love it! Good luck!

[Mrs.Alchemist]

My first car was an '88 ford escort! They certainly don't make 'em like that anymore!!! Mine leaked, didn't like to start in the rain... The nice thing about having a manual is you can push start them when necessary... and I found it necessary A LOT!!! haha

As for the storm grate... I dunno... I thought that it was just a normal storm grate, but something got the side of the tire wall... and it went flat lickety split! Oh well! (Actually, most of the time I still can't believe I'm married, and that really made me feel like a stereo-typical wife. haha Who decides to go shopping and pops their husband's car tire!?)