Pre-Vacation Car Adventures

I was in the process of buying another car while planning our trip to DC. I set things in motion several weeks beforehand when I asked my mechanic to track down another used Subaru Legacy wagon for me. Our current model needed brakes, a new timing belt and was leaking oil. The Check Engine light had been on for over a year, and you could feel the springs in the seats. But when I visited him, I saw something on his lot that I liked much better -- a gleaming silver Audi wagon. As I approached it to check on the price, I jokingly told myself I'd buy it if it was under $6000. The price? It was $5990. But then I saw that it had 160,000 miles on it, so I stuck to my guns and ordered the Subaru.

A few weeks later, no Subaru, but the Audi was reduced $1000. So I asked about it. One thing led to another, and I borrowed it to drive home for the night. It was the most responsive car I ever drove. It accelerated and cornered like it was reading my mind. But the braking was spotty. And a few times I actually had trouble bringing the car to a full stop.

I drove it back the next day and complained about the brakes and a few other things, one of which was that the key would sometimes not turn in the ignition. He said he'd fix that in time for me to drive it to NY on the weekend. But when I picked it up the night before the trip, the brakes were even worse. So I drove it back, and I drove the Subaru to NY.

He finally got the brakes working better, although they seemed to pulse a bit from the rear. He ended up replacing both rotors in the rear in time for my trip. But when I went to pick it up again, the key wouldn't turn in the ignition! It was the night before my trip, and I was stuck in my mechanic's parking lot when I should have been driving home to pack and get to bed early. Fortunately, the mechanic was still there, and it wouldn't turn for him, either.

So I wound up driving home a loaner -- a Volvo S70. It was actually a fairly nice car, despite having 87,000 miles on it and a somewhat stinky interior. The morning of our trip, we loaded our stuff inside, and I turned the key and ... nothing happened. The battery was dead.

Fortunately, this was a Thursday, and I quickly jump-started it with our Ford Escort and then drove to the mechanic. I called ahead, so he had a battery all ready to drop in. Then after another ten minutes to obtain the code for the stereo, we were finally off. And that was the last car problem during our trip, not including the trouble we had on Tuesday and Wednesday finding a parking space at the Park and Ride.