Car trouble.

I got my driver's license in early 2003, and until, oh, early 2007, I never had any car trouble. However, since then, it's come at me with unparalleled fury. My previous car, a 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo:

worked without fail from the time I got it (October 2006) until January-February 2007. After this point, horrible, horrible things started happening. Lights were coming on, belts were breaking, things were heating, things were shutting off, the car was shutting off, sometimes it wouldn't start. Finally, last August, it starting emitting terrifying noises. My dad, who is a mechanic by nature, took a look under the hood with me for maybe the 2, 564th time. After pulling a bunch of things out, we found chunks of metal in places they didn't belong. Chunks of important metal that belonged in other places. The Monte Carlo's last hurrah happened late August, when I was driving it to my mom's house. It started SCREAMING at me, and the RPMs went way high, and it was smoking, and it was decelerating, and all the screaming.

Good Heavens, the screaming.

I pulled it off to the side of the road, and eventually it was towed away.

Then, last September, I bought a used 2000 Saturn LS2,



which immediately starting giving me some minor problems. Long story short, sometimes it shifts really hard for no reason (it's an automatic), and lately it's been shutting off randomly while I'm driving. Some lights come on, my power steering stops working, and I have to actually turn it off and start it up again.

"Please stop, man." This is what I say to my car. "Just please stop doing that." It ignores me. It does what it wants. I don't understand. I treat my vehicles (and always have) with respect and integrity. I get oil changes every 3000 miles. I make sure fluids are at the appropriate levels. I air the tires. I rotate them. All that business.

I think this Saturday I'm going to call CarTalk on NPR.