My (sometimes) trusty old VW Jetta has had it.
I’ve had this car since 1999. It was my very first car, actually. One that I paid for all by myself, and got when I moved from the east coast to Los Angeles. She’s been with me through a lot … moving up to the bay area, driving back and forth to Orange County while I was going through the admission process of a teaching program at UC Irvine, then finally moving back down to SoCal, and a few road trips back north for weddings and concerts.
However, it always seems like there’s a problem with her. Last week, after a belated baby shower thrown by my coworkers, she died on my way home. Thankfully, I managed to coast off the freeway and onto much safer ground. Her battery was dead, and the alternator was kaput, so $344 later, she (supposedly) got new parts.
Well, the other day she died again, this time on my way home from a medical appointment for the baby, when we stopped by CVS to pick up a prescription for him. Desperate, I decided to put the baby in the stroller and hike up to our house, which is about a mile and a half away from where the car died. A mile and a half is nothing, except when you’re going uphill with a stroller that’s carrying a car seat, an 8+ pound baby, a diaper bag, an apnea monitor, and a bag of things purchased from CVS. There were moments when I wanted to cry, and I found myself trying to tell the (crying) baby that we’ll be home soon, and that I had to just make it.
The car is back in the shop, and they tell me that they had no problems starting it. I swear I didn’t imagine the damn thing stall on me, but whatever. They’re continuing to look for what could be wrong, but at this point, if it’s anything major, I’m ready to just trash it. Well, even if it isn’t major, I just don’t feel safe and comfortable driving her anymore. Not now, especially when I have the baby with me. We need something reliable.
So I’ve been looking for replacements. My family is a big Honda fan, and we’re fond of Toyota (mostly because of our Prius). My husband wants to go big(ger) with a Pilot, but I think we could do with something like a CR-V or a RAV 4. While I dislike the idea of going for bigger, to be honest, it’s not like the Jetta was all that fuel efficient. It sucked, actually, and probably gets the sale mileage as the current models of CR-Vs. The reason to go bigger is we need to fit the stroller AND other things in the car. Currently, the Jetta will hold the stroller and a few things in the trunk, but that’s it. I can’t really use it to go grocery shopping if I have the stroller in there. My husband wants a bigger car so he can fit his model airplanes in there, and when we’ve occasionally needed to lug home large purchases to avoid ridiculous shipping costs.
If only Honda made a hybrid CR-V …
Categories: transportation, cars
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