Ailing Erv

So Big Erv (my car) is at the doctor's and it doesn't look good. We're talking timing belt, bare minimum. I could commit to do the timing belt for $1,100 only to have him get in there and find the problem is something else that would then jack the cost up to $3,500. That is obviously too much to pay in repairs for a 1995 car no matter how much you have bonded with it. But I wouldn't be able to find out without committing to the $1,100. So I could pay $1,100 and still have to get a new car. Also, given his advanced age and mileage, I could do all these repairs and some other major thing could go bad two months down the line. Conrad said it best, I am basically playing Russian Roulette, automotivally speaking.

So this day, all day, has been spent weighing my options and looking at cars online. Good thing I didn't have any work to do today.

Man oh man, it was nice not having a car payment for.....a whole year? One-point-five? (Sigh).

UPDATE:

So the decision has been made to let Big Erv go. This is tough to do. I realize it sounds ridiculous to be emotionally attached to a machine, but tell me you didn't get misty when they lowered Arnold into the molten metal at the end of Terminator 2. It happens, folks. I would venture it's even more likely to happen here in Southern California where we spend half our lives in our cars. A bond forms, damn it. Big Erv was the first car I ever bought on my own. I made for every cent of him with my own hard-earned dollars. I washed him. I changed his oil. I took him to Vegas. We're carpool buddies. I know this is temporary. I haven't thought about my car previous to Erv in ages. I know when I get the new car, whatever it may be, I will be swept up in the romance of new car love all over again. But right now, it hurts.