She’s a ‘97, with over 140,000 miles on her.  Most of that (probably at least half) was probably accumulated in the first two years we owned her… as she was our only car, and we drove a good 30 miles one-way to work… then it went to about 40 miles one-way before we were able to get a second car (at that time, a Nissan Xterra).  She then became the back-up car since she had more mileage.  Definitely not economical in the gas sense, since the Xterra got about 20mpg, but he was new, so he got preference.

(I know all cars are typically considered as “female”, but in my opinion, small cars are “female”, larger trucks & SUVs are “male”.. that’s just how I see it).

Anyway, back to the little Saturn.  She’s not been in an accident the entire seven years (it’ll be 7 this August..) we’ve owned her, although she has her share of knicks & chips in the paint.  And a big black rubber smear on her hood as of a few months ago (flying chunk of tire).  The windshield has held up, it’s rather sand-pitted and has a minor crack at the bottom, but hasn’t had to be replaced yet (*keeps fingers crossed*).

She’s taken us to California and back a couple of times, and to Vegas and back a couple times (also where a good chunk of her mileage came from).

The only “major” issues we’ve had with her have been the brakes (although I think that’s more on the fault of Saturn’s crappy brakes rather than her), and the engine mount wearing down & becoming loose (it rattled pretty badly).  Oh, and a couple years ago, she got touchy about her gas gauge.. the light works, but the sensor is tweaked… So while the gauge correctly reads “full” when the tank is filled, and goes down to “E” like it should when the tank is low, the sensor doesn’t send the “hey, you’ve only got like 1.5 gallons of gas left!!” signal to the light to turn it on. 

We found this out the hard way (or Josh did, rather), when I took the VUE in for service and Josh followed in the little car.. and it ran out of gas… no light!  I thought it still had at least above the minimum before the light goes on, since, well, the light hadn’t gone on yet, but that wasn’t the case.  Dry as a damn bone.  And it was summertime, so he was stuck in a residental area (on a street that is nothing but a mile of fence walls as there are no houses facing the street), out of gas.  Fortunately we both have cell phones, so he called me… I had just pulled into the service bay and was about to surrender the VUE to the service guys when he called.  I had to borrow a gas can (5 gal. I think) from them with the promise it would be brought back (well, duh, I was bringing the VUE in for service, so of course I’d bring it back).  I filled it up, drove it the 1.75 miles to where Josh was stuck at the side of the road and we put the gas into little Saturn.  Fortunately that is what was wrong, it was out of gas.

I think when we took little Saturn to have the gas gauge checked out, they said that sensor alone was going to cost over $200, not including the labor costs… which those would be rather high since the sensor is IN the gas tank itself so they’d have to take it apart!

We haven’t had it replaced yet.  I just watch the trip meter and try to go no more than 340 miles on a tank (little Saturn gets great gas mileage… 33-40mpg, depending on the weather).

So anyway… today cost me $200.  “$200 for a battery?!” you might ask… Well, yes, and no.

The battery was pro-rated because it’s only been about two years, maybe less, since the last one was replaced.  On the paperwork, the cost of the battery was $53 and change.  I was told that “normally”, their batteries cost around $120.  🐛

Then, they also had to replace the battery cable.  Apparently it was corroded by battery acid (this has happened before.  In fact, I think it happened like that last time).  The cable was almost as much as the stupid, pro-rated battery.  $47 and change.

So the tally now is right about $100.  Can you guess where the other $100 is?  Why yes, that would be labor costs!  Actually, only $80 of that is actually labor costs.  $30 to replace the battery 🐛, and $49 to replace the cable.  I asked why so much to replace the cable?  They said, because it has to go all the way to the starter.  So, I guess it’s not exactly an easy thing to replace.

The rest was taxes, and a $10 oil change (‘cause she needed one).

If it weren’t for the damn corroded cable, I would’ve just taken little Saturn to AutoZone or Checker and had them replace the battery.  They probably wouldn’t have pro-rated it (since it was not purchased from them), but even still, I’m sure it would’ve cost less, and they don’t charge to put it in, as far as I know!  Or if they do, it’s minor compared to what Saturn picked out of my pockets.  Fuh.

Of course, a simple battery replacement wasn’t without more bad news.

The temperature sensor has cracked (again?!), and the engine mount is starting to wear down (again?!).  The engine mount I could give a fuck about, I don’t hear any rattling yet, so it’s gonna wait until I can hear it.  The temp sensor can be a problem, but really only if I’m stuck in traffic (since it won’t be able to tell the fan when to turn on when the engine gets hot, until nearly too late).  They also said it can affect how the car starts (misreading temps and causing mis-starts..).  That part itself is almost $100, and that isn’t including labor, either.  I was told that their new temp sensor is made of metal (the other one is made of a hard plastic or resin of some kind) so it won’t crack anymore.. it won’t necessarily prevent it from going bad, but at least it won’t crack.  Meh.  I’m not driving my car very much, so I’m not too worried about that part right now, either.

That was all the bad news for today, though.

The only other “serious” issue that may arise with continued driving, is the clutch.  Of course, they told me, what, sometime last year, maybe a year ago, that the clutch needed to be replaced ASAP.  I’m holding out on that for as long as I can, considering that bugger is going to cost us, at minimum, $500 to replace (over $1000 if I have Saturn replace it).  My car is barely worth $1500, so having to pay one to two thirds of its worth to replace a part, just doesn’t sit well with me.  I will nurse that thing along for as long as physically possible.  Or until we can get me a new car. 😜

Well, I have a couple trouble tickets to work, and a colleague is gettin’ antsy to play some poker (I don’t know why.. I cleaned him out last week)... so now that I’ve written a virtual novel here, I gotta git.