My new car!

I took Baby Blue, who is a Corolla just shy of 100K miles (like 300 miles shy!), to the shop this morning because while it had been revving sometimes when we accelerated lately, a certain husband of mine was feeling lead-footesque this weekend on some big hills and the smell of the burning rubber was not so happy. Then it became hard to go up hills at all and we were slowing, slowing, slowing.

So they're putting in a new clutch. Plus the brake light was on because the rear brakes were pretty much toast. $1100+ for the clutch, $250+ for the brakes. Better than I figured it would be. Considering I haven't had any brake work done on it at all since we bought it 40K miles and 4 1/2 years ago, it was due.

But it won't be ready until this evening and I have those pesky kids to pick up from school and haul to and from karate and no other vehicle, so I rented a car for about 24 hours. It's a brand spanking new Camry - smells new, even - with so many buttons and levers to adjust the seats that I had to go back into the rental place so someone could show me how to scoot the seat back so I could even drive it. It then took me a few miles to figure out how to lower it so my head wasn't scraping the ceiling. I'm still not positive about the angle of the windshield and how it feels like it's obscuring the top part of my field of vision. That would only be a problem for a very few stop lights and for spotting low-flying aircraft.

Anyway, gimme one of these, maybe in a hybrid. Definitely in a more exciting color than Standard Silver - though if it's used, then silver's fine, too. In a couple of years this specific car will be up for grabs, I am sure. By then, Baby Blue will be ready for more major repairs which will cost more than the trade-in value.

DH seems to think he's going to need his own car in the not too distant future. I am thinking he can have mine and I get the Camry ;)