My car is a ’92 with 86,000 miles on it. I get the question how does that happen? Well, it was my grandmother's car that was passed down to me. I’ve had it for almost seven years now, but, along with a free car came a lot of free car problems. So I’ve decide to talk about the issues I’ve had with my car and how I’ve survived them.

Eats Gas like it’s Free

My car is old, so it gets maybe 15 miles per gallon. I deal with that fact by having a budget, and I try and be careful about how much I drive. Target is half a block away from my work, so if I know I need something from Target, I will go before or after work instead of making two separate trips.

My Car is Loud

My car makes many loud noises and can be heard indoors when parked outside. This one is a little harder to deal with. At one point, it was so loud I got it looked at, and it turned out that there was a small hole in the muffler.

Stalls and Labors

My latest problem, and what seems to be an ongoing one as well, is that my car stalls. Not only does it stall at intersections, stop signs and small hills, but also in reverse. Yes, it is winter, yes, I live in Duluth and yes, my car is old, but I also just spent a small fortune fixing it. I got new spark plugs, new spark plug wires and a slew of other things fixed to try and prevent it from stalling. That was a month and half ago. It’s not allowed to stall again.

How I deal with it is, I stop further back at intersections to have room to give my car some gas. When it starts to labor/idle, I do the same thing and get it moving a bit. I give it room in hopes it won’t die on me.

Electrical Shortage

I have no idea how this happened- I'm pretty sure my grandma bought it this way, but my car has this habit of shorting on its bulbs, especially the driver’s side front and back. Because of this habit, I’ve gotten really good at changing out my bulbs super fast. I prefer this habit to occur in the summer rather than winter.

No Radio/Aux Port

I’m thinking because of the electrical shortages that occur, my old-school cigarette lighter port doesn’t work. I cannot plug in a GPS, iPod or phone charger. How do I deal with this? My phone has an extra portable battery and a Google Maps app. I am also very used to listening to only the radio and not my songs on my iPod.

Trembles

For as long as I can remember, my car has trembled. Like it really rattles and quacks: the entire car frame shudders, the lights shudder and buzz when it’s parked, and the steering wheel is the worst. I’ve had to shake out my own hands because of constant convulsion of the steering wheel. I have yet to figure out how to deal with this. I laugh about it a lot and warn people who ride with me that it’s totally normal.

Frozen doors

In the winter when it’s really cold out—like a normal Minnesota winter, basically—my car doors become frozen. I have old turn-key locks and not press button locks, so the only way to unlock them is my key. When my locks and doors become frozen shut, it makes unlocking them difficult. This one time I was on a second date with a guy, and I knew my doors were frozen shut, so I had to climb through my trunk… we still went on a third date. That’s still how I deal with cold winters.

NO ABS Brakes

One thing I really don’t like about my car is that it doesn’t have ABS brakes. It’s a little scary on the Duluth hills but I manage. What has come from not having them is that I’ve gotten really good at pumping my own brakes. I also drive glacier slow during the winters.

Brakes Died

At one point, my breaks went out. The line literally broke and spewed all over the brake parts. The pads were worn, one of the calipers shattered and there were a few deflated tubes, so Midas had to basically rebuild my entire break system. That cost me well over a grand. But because Midas had to rebuild them, I have a lifetime warranty on them. So that’s great.

Bad Alignment

I always thought my grandma was an OK driver, but apparently I was misled. I say this because there is a huge dent in the back of my car that was not caused by me. I’m thinking it was a light pole, and when I received my car the alignment was off: so much so that I was told to hold the steering wheel 10 degrees off to the right for the wheels to be aimed straight. I have now learned not to be surprised when other cars are off alignment.

Struts/Shocks Giving up on Life

I probably have the worst shocks out of anyone I know. The shocks weren’t great when I received the car but now, over time, they have gotten worse. You can feel every bump, every hole and every stick I go over, as if there was no car beneath you. Because of this fun feature, I try and avoid all non-smooth obstacles. It doesn’t always work; I’ve hit my head few times.

I have spent well over the worth of my car on trying to keep it alive. I’m not sure it’s worth it at this point. It has so many problems that get more expensive as the years go on. I think it’s time to retire this guy to a pasture.