All About Automobiles

Check out the new wheels!

Well, a person should not gloat about the miles on their car, when their car has a quarter of a million miles on the odometer. I had been noticing a menacing rattle in the engine of my Escort for awhile. It was so very intermittent that I hoped it was nothing. I did take it to the mechanic, but somehow they mis-heard what I was wanting to have looked at, so skipped looking at the engine, and instead diagnosed it needing new tie rods. So some $300+ later I had new tie rods on my car, only to have that rattle turn into a clank, and a clunk, and a very large chunk, and then all my idiot lights came on, and the car died. I was on my way home from school two weeks ago when this happened. Fortunately it happened about a 1/2 mile from home, so I didn't have far to walk. I also had enough momentum to roll into a parking lot and out of the way. In the past month I've been a couple hours drive away from home. My old car gave me good service, and died in a faithful kind of way. I had it towed the next day, and it sat at the mechanics for awhile. They turned the engine over, and listened, and agreed that I had blown something major, and that it would not be worth the expense to repair it. This last Saturday I sold it for scrap. *sniff*

Last weekend my friend Mike took me on a drive down one of La Crosse's major roads, and we stopped at every used car lot and looked a lot of cars over. I saw quite a few that fit the category of what I was looking for (about $5,000, less than 100,000 miles, preferably something manufactured after 2000). There were lots of cars that fit this description. Most were economy American made. But this little truck above caught my attention! I came back two more times on Monday and Tuesday with various friends, and ultimately decided I'd give it a go. I got in touch with the Tomah Area Credit Union and got my loan request working. I also did a CarFax on the little truck. It is a Ford Ranger, 2001, with just shy of 70,000 miles. NICE!! It was a company car for its first 10,000 miles. It then lived in Wonewoc for a couple years, and its final owner was a little old lady in Prairie du Chien. Really! It is very clean and tidy inside. It's perfect! I probably won't get as good gas mileage on it, but now I have a vehicle that can haul stuff. I'm also anticipating I should be able to make my initial jump to wherever I go after school (hopefully Oregon) by loading up just my essentials, and maybe pulling a little U-Haul behind. I've a loan for 3 years. So much for being debt free!
Here I am saying 'Good Bye' to my old faithful car in the mechanic's parking lot! It's been my travel companion for a good many years and a heck of a lot of miles. I wish I had the resources or contacts to have it rebuilt, but instead it's been sold as scrap, and is going off to have its parts pulled and sold piece by piece. Someone's going to get almost brand new tie rods!!

Good Bye Escort!!