Retirement

[edg]

(For those who don't know, the Blue Behemoth is my car: a 1983 Volvo 240 station wagon, with a little over 220,000 miles on her engine.) I love my car to death, but I'm afraid that's where it's going; to repair everything that's wrong with her would literally cost more than buying a new car. (The problem with the driver's-side defrost vents alone would cost several thousand dollars, since getting at the ventilation system in this car requires disassembling the entire dashboard and control assembly.)

• The driver's-side defrost vent (and the standard fan vents, if I have them open) blows some kind of viscous smoke for the first five minutes or so of operation; this proceeds to coat the inside of the windshield and only goes away after half an hour of having the fan on full-blast. (The temperature of the vented air doesn't seem to matter, although the problem happens with more frequency in the colder months.)


• The knob has come completely off the gearshift; not only does this mean that I occasionally cut myself on the bare metal, but I no longer have access to the car's "fifth gear", which is really a glorified overdrive but still makes driving at 55+ MPH less of a chore. Also, a knobless gearshift just looks weird.


• The rear gate is missing a piece of the latch, which means that I have to climb through the back of the car and use a screwdriver to unlatch the door before it will open. This can be complex when the back is full of stuff.


• The front passenger door doesn't lock properly; not only does it not lock with the rest of the car, but it doesn't lock from the inside. I have to lock it from the outside - and the lock sticks occasionally so that even that can't be done.


• The upholstery on the seats is going very, very bad, and while I've stopped having a problem with it - my sister gave me a springy seat-cover for my birthday - the passenger side is thoroughly disreputable.


• The gas gauge almost never accurately reflects the gas left in the tank, and in addition varies wildly if I'm on a slope of any kind.


• The headlight dial is finicky; if I turn it too far into the On position, the headlights turn off again.


• It's twenty years old and has 220,000 miles on it.
  

All in all, I think it's time for a new car. I've been weighing my options, and while I do like having a station wagon - ease of transporting large objects, if nothing else - I really liked driving undauntra's sedan this weekend, and I'm really, really tempted to get one. I'm also really tempted to get an automatic transmission; a manual is more fun to drive, in my opinion, and gives me greater control over the car, but getting used to a new transmission in addition to the rest of newcardom would be... unpleasant. Besides, an automatic transmission lets me have a hand free, although I do have to remember to put the thing in park before I turn it off...

So. Right now I'm looking at Saturn sedans, since - like I said - I really liked undauntra's, but I'm willing to give pretty much anything at least a look.