to another vehicle. My Saturn has been a pretty good car, by and large. It has always started, always got me to where I need to go. It's got a couple of annoying little quirks, like the way the hydraulic struts on the hatch have a tendency to fail and whomp down on your unsuspecting back while you are unloading groceries. Ouch. But when the warranty ran out last year, other problems began to pop up. More expensive problems. A little leak in the power train steering column. $ A bigger leak in the air conditioning system. $$ Last month, an interesting rattle started under the car that may or may not be related to the exhaust system. But the car could always be driven. Still got me where I needed to go.
Until last week. Pushing the gas pedal seemed suddenly to have not much response. Acceleration was minimal, it took about a mile to get up to highway speed and I barely made it up a small hill on the way home from work. Uh oh. This felt expensive, maybe a fuel pump or something. Um no. Worse. Diagnosis was a plugged catalytic converter. Estimated to take three days to get the part and almost $1500 to replace. And hopefully there is no damage to the engine from being driven with a wonky catalytic converter. My mind is just reeling from this. I really have no choice, since the car cannot be driven without the work being done. But it's only six years old! It's not fair!! I could probably buy a used car for the amount of money that I have to give the dealership. I still can't quite believe it. And of course, I am trapped out here in the country with no vehicle. Sigh. It certainly brings home how dependent I am on a car.
Might be time to go shopping.
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