Thursday, April 03, 2003
The clutch is going out in my car. The last time I spoke to my mechanic about the clutch, he said it would cost me a couple of grand to replace it. This being because she is a mid-engine vehicle. Now, if you know me at all, you know how much I love this car. If you don’t know me at all, then know that her name is Sheena, and she’s this cute little 1988 MR2, and she makes me feel *so* very happy and spunky whenever I climb inside of her and start her zippy little engine. It therefore saddens me so to feel the amount of play in her clutch getting longer and longer each day.
My quandary is that I didn’t pay very much for my sweet little girl. I have to decide whether she is worth putting more money into her than I paid for her. Of course, the practical answer to this is, ‘No way, it’s not worth it.’ But if you’ve ever truly fallen in love with a car, you’ll understand how hard it is for me to accept that answer.
One idea I’ve had is to take the couple of grand that I would use to put a new clutch into Sheena and buy another 1988 MR2 in good shape (preferably with a newish clutch) with less miles on it. I could park Sheena and salvage her for parts. She would kind of be like an organ donar, living on in another similar car, and I’m sure I would enjoy this new MR2 just as much as I do Sheena.
Second idea: Use the clutch money to buy a motorcycle. I won’t bore you with the details on how much my previous bike meant to me, but it was much more than a bike. It was a symbol of freedom and independence. And it was cool as hell. I looked at used bikes last weekend and found that a decent sized rice burner built within the past five years runs in the neighborhood of 5-6 grand. So I figure for that amount, I could add a couple of grand to the figure and look at Harleys. The local shop advertises several in that price range on their website and I started getting pretty excited about the whole prospect. I mean, just *think* of me on a Harley! Wow! Makes me shiver.
Then I calmed down a bit. And realized that for the amount of money that I was thinking of putting into a fair weather vehicle I could buy a pretty damn nice used car. Damn. Foiled again.
Luckily, I called my brother the other night. Even more lucky for me, he’s a mechanic. He said that I really shouldn’t have to pay more than a couple of hundred dollars to replace Sheena’s clutch. Cool. But there go my Harley dreams. Again.
My quandary is that I didn’t pay very much for my sweet little girl. I have to decide whether she is worth putting more money into her than I paid for her. Of course, the practical answer to this is, ‘No way, it’s not worth it.’ But if you’ve ever truly fallen in love with a car, you’ll understand how hard it is for me to accept that answer.
One idea I’ve had is to take the couple of grand that I would use to put a new clutch into Sheena and buy another 1988 MR2 in good shape (preferably with a newish clutch) with less miles on it. I could park Sheena and salvage her for parts. She would kind of be like an organ donar, living on in another similar car, and I’m sure I would enjoy this new MR2 just as much as I do Sheena.
Second idea: Use the clutch money to buy a motorcycle. I won’t bore you with the details on how much my previous bike meant to me, but it was much more than a bike. It was a symbol of freedom and independence. And it was cool as hell. I looked at used bikes last weekend and found that a decent sized rice burner built within the past five years runs in the neighborhood of 5-6 grand. So I figure for that amount, I could add a couple of grand to the figure and look at Harleys. The local shop advertises several in that price range on their website and I started getting pretty excited about the whole prospect. I mean, just *think* of me on a Harley! Wow! Makes me shiver.
Then I calmed down a bit. And realized that for the amount of money that I was thinking of putting into a fair weather vehicle I could buy a pretty damn nice used car. Damn. Foiled again.
Luckily, I called my brother the other night. Even more lucky for me, he’s a mechanic. He said that I really shouldn’t have to pay more than a couple of hundred dollars to replace Sheena’s clutch. Cool. But there go my Harley dreams. Again.
idyllicchick, 9:58 PM
