So I brought the car in on Monday knowing that 1) it quieted down a bit on Sunday -- even though I did feel something a couple times -- after a very rough Saturday and 2) I might be pissing off The Other Mechanic Around The Corner. As I feared, they didn't find anything. That might mean the problems are gone and I can drive it anywhere I want, like I pretty much did on Sunday. Or he might have missed something and I will get into a car accident on my way to or from work today, in which case I am mad at my car for hiding its problem when I want it to get fixed.
These guys have been tremendously generous with my use of their two loaner cars. I think this year is the first time I have not only used their loaners, but loaners other than the one given by the dealership when I still went to them. They have two. I once used their Santa Fe, which is a nice car, but in the several times I've dropped off my car with them I have been given their Camry, which is kind of ironic since my car is considered to be a glorified Camry.
It's a solid car. There's a weird wheeze when I'm accelerating, but other than that it works just fine. In fact, even though I sensed it before, it was only yesterday, stepping into its cloth seats, smelling the cigarettes smoked by either previous loanees or the mechanics themselves, seeing the stains on the floor mats, etc., that it was really, really nice to have a car that, even though it had some years and some, uh, "experience" with other drivers, I didn't have to worry about. Mainly it was because I had a car that has given me too many problems, too much anxiety, for a long time. But it was also good to use a car that wasn't mine. I love my car, and (this is just as important, although it may sound weird) I feel the need to stay loyal to my car as a matter of principle. But the older I get, the more I think that the "joy of ownership" is bullshit.
Now, there is pain of ownership, the constant worry that something you've relied on is crapping out on you, and that you'll have to spend a ton of money to get it better, and there's a possibility it still won't, and you'll wind up despising something you once loved. But joy? Conservatives talk about it all the time, and they are either liars or crazy. One of the main reasons I stick by the car that I have now, and sink so much cash into it, is because I don't think it's better for me to buy another car when its payments and insurance may be just as high as the one I've had virtually my entire driving life. So I will hope that it doesn't stall in front of traffic -- either when I am done with this blog post and go to work, or come back from work, or any other time I drive my car in the future. Because at this point I don't want to burn all my currency from the guys who now might think I'm paranoid. This problem goes away, or this problem acts up and I have the time to bring it in again, or it gets bad at a bad time and I get into an accident ... at which point I might pine for a car that has no problems, like this lived-in Camry.
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