The afore-hinted-at car trouble really had pissed off on Thursday and Friday. The transmission gave out. At 47,000 miles?!!? We had to get a rental car for Friday (it was snowy so Ryan's car would have been dangerous). I was expecting I'd be faced with the options to either 1) pay $2000-$3000 to have it fixed or 2) trade the car in as-is and get a lot less than it would otherwise be worth.

However, when the dealership called after looking at it, they said it was covered by the 70,000 miles powertrain warranty. Whew. There's a $100 deductible, but they're taking the whole transmission apart, so I'm very curious to see how much it would have cost otherwise. Serves Dodge right- if they're going to make lemons, they should have to pay the consequences. Curiously enough the car was fine during my first year owning it, while it was still under bumper-to-bumper warranty, but they didn't make the powertrain warranty short enough, it seems, to make a killing on crappy cars.

Considering how much aggravation this car has caused over the last few years, I've decided (with Ryan's input, of course), to get a new one. We're only going brand-brand new if we can get 0% financing, but I think our chances are pretty good. So, the plan is to get the Neon back from the shop and advertise it on Craigslist (and if necessary, the newspaper) to see if we'd get more than it'd be worth as a trade-in (which is highly likely). If the Neon sells, then we'll buy the new car ASAP. If the Neon doesn't sell after a month or so, then we'll just trade it in.

I already know what kind of car I want; the kind I wanted after graduation, but was too poor. More surprising to you may be that I don't want a blue one! My first choice is black so that it'll match Ryan's:














Aren't they a cute couple? 3 and 8, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes road salt on the undercarriage.