Count your blessings

My car had been flashing its oil light at me sporadically in a random plea for attention or checking the electrical circuit, so I had planned to take it in to be looked at, and to get some rouutine maintenance while I was at it. Really, I had. Perhaps it didn't believe me. Perhaps it was pissed off at the garage-door scraping thing. Perhaps it knows I just finished paying it off, which is a license to misbehave. Perhaps it likes the commute less than I do. Perhaps the deer or the snow did more damage than I originally thought. Perhaps, at 110K miles, it just wants a vacation. But whatever the reason, last night on the way home, it started puttering-stuttering loudly and shakily, then turned on all of the warning lights -- battery, engine, etc. I pulled off the side of the road and turned it off, then attempted to restart it. It wouldn't, though the electric (radio,etc.) would come on.

My cell phone did indeed have charge left, and AAA did in fact take my call, and I was only about 15 miles from my usual service station, close enough that the tow truck was willing to take me there with suitable application of a moderate additional amount of money and a willingness to let him stop for coffee first. It wasn't the middle of the night, I hadn't stopped in the middle of the road at rush hour, I wasn't 3/4 of the way to boston, needing to leave my car there for days. There wasn't a real need to get to anywhere in particular last night. There's really nothing involved here that isn't really a money/hassle issue. If it's something major, it may not be worth fixing it, and I may decide to push up my plan to buy a new car later this year to now. We'll see.

I need to go rent a car for work now, which gets me there 2 hours late or so, likely. But the good news is that I'm making enough money to actually make that be worth it anyway.

So, I'm counting my blessings in a cranky, sleepy, annoyed sort of voice. Things could certainly be a lot worse.

Ding Dong

...the car is dead. Apparently the warning light about the oil was actually trying to tell me something. The engine has seized entirely, making it more or less useless. Even with a used engine, the cost of replacing it would probably be $3K or so, which with a blue book value of perhaps $2500 isn't really worth it.

Sorry Julia.

I'm trying to decide if I can actually convince myslef to take better care of the car I've been thinking of buying myself for a while, since the Prius is likely to be pickier than average, or if I'd really be better off buying something used and cheap but sufficient to get me to work safely. I can technically afford the new car, but it's unclear whether I should go that route.

Sympathy and car-buying suggestions encouraged. Any comments on what I should have done with my other car distinctly not encouraged.