IDon'tLoveYouSinceYouAteMyCat'sDog

After we thought we had the 2000 Saturn LS Sedan finally fixed, $1000 worth, 2 days later it threw a fan belt because the idler arm shattered. Another $125 at Sears because that's where we managed to drive it to before it overheated. So. We went car shopping. Almost thought we wanted a Cobalt or Astra (same car, actually) I didn't like the feeling of being cramped. We couldn't quite make payments on a used Aura. Then we bumped into a Chevy HHR LT2. It was a copper color, which I loved. It had RUNNING BOARDS. Which I loved. It was slightly used, ex fleet/lease car in nearly showroom condition. Then I drove it. It was FUN. From there on, everything fell into place. Somebody will be left to honor the warranty. "Mr. Obama, can you help me bail out my car?" And he will send a bucket.

Restoration of Service Announcement, WorldWide Release Dear World: The United States of America, a quality supplier of ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located, and the parts responsible were replaced Tuesday night, November 4. Early tests of the new install indicate that it is functioning correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional by mid-January. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage, and we look forward to resuming full service --- and hopefully even to improving it in years to come. Thank you for your patience and understanding. The USA

Ah, the 2000 LS300 failed, again, this year. I hang onto it because it's paid for. $500 for some sensor. Car broke again that night on my way to work. Got into the parking lot on "reduced power" (that's 15 mph floored) Back to Saturn the next day. Needs new "throttle body" $1100! And you didn't find that problem yesterday because...? We threw a financial hissy at them and "suddenly" the offer was $250. AND when the car was returned, someone had cleaned out the rear of trash, neatened up all the rest into tidy packages. Saturn used to do neat little things like that years ago. Then they became just another GM car and that all went down the highway. Now they're rediscovering it when the brand is still probably going to be an orphan in a few months. Sigh. When the 2003 is paid off in June, we have got to go car shopping. ...shudder..