I got my car back this afternoon! It's quite a bit happier and so am I because I paid absolutely nothing to get it fixed. It turns out that a recall notice that I got in the mail last week had everything to do with what's been wrong with it. It had something to do with the spark plugs so the engine was misfiring or something. I knew about the recall but I honestly didn't connect that the notice and my car problems were in any way related. The recall came up when I took it in to the dealer to get it fixed though, and once they fixed everything it's working much better.
Unfortunately they also found a list of 4 other problems that will cost me a lot of money. I declined to get them fixed for the time being though, since this is a new dealer I want to get a second opinion from our "old dealer". Actually we still go to our old dealer so they're not really old, they're just 45 minutes from our apartment now. Alex usually gets his oil changes and stuff done when I work on a Saturday, he just drives me to work then he hangs out at the library when he's done, the old dealer is only about 15 minutes from my work.
It would be nice to get a new car and all, but in a year or so my car will be paid off. Not only will it be paid off, but the balance on my loan has been lower than the blue book value of my car since the day I bought it. It's not that much of a difference, but it's nice to actually see your car as an asset and not a constantly depreciating piece of metal. I only have 140,000 miles on it, which sounds like a lot, but for a Honda it means that I could put another 50,000, maybe more, with little problem. I sold my last Honda at 170,000, I even sold it with bad brakes. I can't remember what we got for my last Honda because my dad took a huge cut from that, but I think it was around $1000 or so. I often wonder if that car ever made it to 200,000 or not...I would consider it an achievement to be able to get my current car to that. We do have Alex's 2003 Civic that we'll probably eventually buy out of the lease...Alex wants an Accord and he has an automatic; I only like to drive manual now...plus I don't prefer his model either so I would much rather keep my 10 year old Honda than inherit his 3 year old one. The only real reason to buy a new car would be because I want one and not because I need one, and that doesn't seem a compelling enough reason for me.
