She’s Been Rode Hard

Joelle said in the late morning on January 13, 2008

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’d know that Judy, my ‘95 Chevy Cavalier, has always given me a bit of trouble.  From replacing the starter twice in Dallas and again just recently, to having my steering column catch fire and then recalled and repaired, to my rear-view mirror falling off when the weather turned Africa Hot and dangling from the windshield while I drove.  Two months after I got the car, it was sideswiped in my friend’s driveway and the dents live there still.  Three months after moving to Texas, a garbage truck took off the driver’s side mirror and I only replaced it 4 years ago when a junkyard happened to have one lying around.  The trunk light doesn’t work, there’s rain damage in the back, the driver’s side window lost it’s seal from several encounters with a Slim Jim, the seats are falling apart, I’ve replaced the brakes and tires more times than I can count and the alignment… well, that word doesn’t mean anything to Judy.  Judy hung to the left.

But still… through all that, Judy held up.  I got her gently used in 1998 after I drove my (just paid off) Geo Metro under a ‘78 Chevy van at 35mph.  I didn’t choose Judy… she was assigned to me.  At that time in my life… 24 years old, my credit wasn’t great, my income wasn’t either and the only car I could get was Judy, so I overpaid for her and vowed that once she was paid off, I would never buy another car until the engine fell out and I had to power her with my feet, like the Flintstones.

Well, she was paid off in 2003 and yesterday, the engine almost literally fell out the bottom of the car. In fact, the mechanic told me that if I had gotten on the freeway, as I was intending to when my car stopped accelerating, he said that it could have dropped out and potentially killed me.  So… good thing I didn’t get on the freeway.

On my way to IKEA yesterday morning, I noticed her knocking a bit, but she’s been making weird sounds for a while, so I wasn’t too worried.  But when I left IKEA, she was really knocking a lot. As I was making a left-hand turn to get on the freeway, she just wouldn’t go. She’d putter a bit forward, then just coast. I finally got her to give me a enough juice to make an illegal U-turn, then I revved and coasted for about a mile and a half with my mechanic on the phone the whole time.  As I coasted into his driveway, he looked at me through the windshield and shook his head, solemnly.  This wasn’t good. 

When we turned on the car (after we were able to get it started again) and opened the hood, i was shocked to see the engine banging all around in there.  He said that whoever my mechanic was before did some kind of hack work on the engine block and it’s not been secure. He said that even if he repaired it, he couldn’t say for sure how long the car would last.  He also said that it would be at least $1600, but that if he got into the engine and it needed replacing, it would be a lot more.  In his words, “I hate to say it, sweetheart, but I think she’s a goner.”

He let me park it on the side of his lot and I called GFI to come get me. We hit Shakespeare’s Pub where I knocked back a Guinness and a fish taco and tried to sort things out. I’m sad to lose Judy… we’ve been through so much together, but I also think this was timely.  My insurance had just ended, I was due to make a costly repair on the car so it would pass the smog check, then I would have had to reinsure it, re-register it and then what? It would have died anyway, most likely.

I panicked at first, not so much because I don’t have a car right now, but I was concerned that all the money I’d saved for the travel I want to do would be eaten up by a down payment and subsequent costs.  I really don’t care to be pressured into purchasing a car simply due to circumstance and I’m not sure what I’d like yet or if I even want to strap myself to a car payment straight away.  I don’t know what I want yet, so I’m just going to take a bit of time to figure things out.

I’m fortunate enough to work from home, this is a beautiful city and I do have two feet, a trolley, a bus system, FlexCar and I could always get a bike. I know mikey would loan me his car if I need to get groceries, so instead of freaking out like I would normally do I’m just trying to think of all the reasons why this was a good thing.

Like I said, I’m sad to lose Judy, but she had a long life… much longer than most Cavaliers, I think.  She had close to 150,000 miles on her and had driven me across this country more than once.  She was a trooper… and will be carted off by Ecology Auto Wrecking tomorrow afternoon.  I keep picturing her atop a floating, flaming barge, like a Viking.

Adios, Judy.  May your parts be sold to nice people and the rest of you cubed neatly for recycling.