For years now, I’ve been convinced that my car is on its last leg. I drive a ‘97 Saturn which I purchased in ‘96. The first few years with my Saturn were happy years: we went everywhere together! I had done my share of research before purchasing a vehicle and felt very pleased with my choice. It was relatively good on gas (I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was somewhere around 30 miles per gallon), it was rated well in Consumer Reports and it was a stick shift which I enjoy much more than automatic transmission. The car was also famous for its unique material: it was made from some kind of fiberglass. In theory, I could take a baseball bat to it and the car would simply pop back into shape without a dent or sign that anything had happened. The fiberglass was also impervious to rust, a big plus! This was clearly the car for me.
But let’s take a slight detour to look at previous vehicles I’ve owned and my experience with them. It will help you understand my misgivings about cars and car dealerships. My first vehicle was a bicycle: it was a great mode of transportation, extremely fuel efficient and required very little maintenance. I had to give up the bicycle as my main mode of transportation because of the many miles between work and home. It simply took too long, and bad weather would often create a problem for me. A car seemed like a better option at the time.
The car I purchased was a small Pontiac T1000. I bought it used for around $300.00. Not a bad deal, I thought at the time, even if I have to put in a few dollars here and there for maintenance or for an occasional repair. At the time I was in college and couldn’t really afford much more than that. My little T1000 lasted a good six months before things turned sour. I’m no mechanic and my knowledge of cars in general is rather limited, but I was extremely impressed with how many components my T1000 had in it! I became a regular at the local car shop in Goshen, learning, almost every other week, a whole new set of part names my car needed to continue functioning. I secretly suspected that the name T1000 was chosen because that’s how many parts the manufacturer knew would have to be replaced over the life of the car. Even after the repairs, if I drove with 2 or more passengers, the car couldn’t make it past 45 mph. It was an ongoing joke back then: musician Sammy Hagar had released a song called “I can’t drive 55″ and it became the theme song for my car. I couldn’t drive 55 either. My little T1000 died a dishonorable death: the engine locked up, and repairs would cost more than the car was worth. I was glad to be done with it.
Right after the T1000, I drove a used 1984 Honda Accord. It was a great little car – 2 door, fuel-efficient, stick shift. It got me to where I needed to go and it was low maintenance. I was very happy with my Accord until the engine fell out from under it. It turns out that the Accord (unlike my current Saturn) was not impervious to rust. I should have paid more attention to the signs: at one time, the whole gas tank area rusted and more or less crumbled away. I took it to the local Honda dealer and found there was a recall on that particular section of the Accord. All the repairs were made, fortunately, free of charge. During the winter and more so during the spring I noticed my shoes and pant legs were often wet after driving around. It didn’t take much investigating to find the problem. The floor in my Honda was rusted out and was slowly but surely crumbling away. After some time, there was a fairly large hole in the floor of my car where water easily splashed up and got me. If I wasn’t careful, I could also put my foot right through the floor. The problem was easily taken care of by placing a mat over the hole. The mat concealed the problem but Alas, it also gave me a false sense of security. I could no longer see the hole and as the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. It was only a matter of time before the rust gave way to the engine’s weight. This was a slightly harder problem to ignore. In the end, Saturn took my Accord as a ‘trade-in’ and in return gave me $500.00 towards a new car. I remember the Saturn salesperson telling me that ‘those Honda engines will run forever while the rest of the car rusts away.’
Today, my Saturn has nearly 170,000 miles on it, it burns oil all the time – enough that I have to add a quart or so almost every other week – and the shift stick gets stuck half the time. I often have to wrestle with it at the most unfortunate moments, just to shift into another gear. Before the car hit 100,000 miles I had no problems at all with it. I took it in to the dealer for regular oil changes and followed the maintenance plan they recommended. Soon after reaching the 100,000 mile mark, back in 2002, things started falling apart. My ‘check engine soon’ light came on regularly and every time I took it to the Saturn dealer to see what the problem was, they told me a part needed to be replaced – often an expensive part – for the car to continue running as it should. Over the next 6 months I put in close to $1200.00 in ‘necessary’ repairs. Saturn finally told me I needed to have the engine rebuilt. The car, they said, wouldn’t last much longer otherwise. That’s when I stopped going to the Saturn dealer.
Six years and 70,000 miles later, and my Saturn is still running. I took my Saturn to a different auto shop where they didn’t tell me the engine had to be rebuilt. Instead, I’ve replaced the oil regularly, replaced the brakes, put in a new starter and purchased new tires. The ‘check engine soon’ light is always on but I really don’t notice it anymore. Every summer for the last few years I think: “if only I can get the car through this coming winter.” And so far, the car just keeps on going. Today, just like last year and the year before, I’m looking at the new cars on the market: in particular I’m looking for a car as fuel efficient as my old bicycle, low on maintenance, with an engine that will run forever and a body that won’t rust. With all the new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars hitting the market today, I’m sure my next car will be a winner!
