The vehicle situation

So we've had quite the experience with cars lately. For those that don't know, we have owned one car for (soon to be) six years. It has run like clockwork the entire time, and has been well worth our money. With the past few weeks we had something interesting happen: We were stopping by Wal*mart to make a return, and the car stalled in the parking lot. It wouldn't start, and we didn't have much idea why. In retrospect we consider it a blessing that we had this little adventure at Wal*mart, and not a day or two earlier when I was riding home at night amidst corn fields with no cell phone. Noah and Frencesca got to stay up well past their bedtime, and here is what Noah had to say:

Come to find out the distributor died. After we had the distributor replaced, the mechanic informed us that the clutch was close behind it. He told us:

If you baby it and try not to let it slip, it will last longer. Essentially it is going to get worse and worse, until it just won't start.

So great. More problems. But that's not the half. It also has an oil leak. And we found out yesterday that it has a gas leak. At this point we would be putting more than the car is worth into repairs. Not to mention that we don't have the money to do so.

Enter the 1991 Toyota Previa that we purchased on Independence day weekend. We really wanted a Toyota, considering they run forever. And we found a place, and a price that was within budget. We drove it home knowing that it needed a windshield and a some exhaust work. We soon found out that it needs rear brakes, exhaust, new tires, various flushes and such. This added up quick, but in the end still ended up being worth the price we paid for it.

Currently, we are making a few within budget repairs on the Previa, and considering scrapping the Corolla for parts (hopefully $500 or so?) The mechanic said you could put an ad in the paper calling it a, "Mechanic's special. Haha.

Through it all, God is good.