So my car has been making a funny noise and the service light has been on for the past four days. It needs new tires and takes two quarts of oil every couple of weeks. I'm dropping it off at Riverside this afternoon but just for the sake of discussion, I dropped by the Volkswagon dealership to help myself decide whether I should end my relationship with the Nissan or stick it out. The fact that I've been divorced twice should give you an idea of how good I am at working on broken down relationships.

I had been thinking that a Mazda 3 would be the way to go but last week, I saw a VW convertible parked outside the rowing club. It wasn't a Cabriolet - something different - so I checked out the website. It's an EOS hardtop convertible. This was a good trip actually. My fear was I'd yield to the frustration of constant maintenance costs and make an impulse buy. Instead, I came away seeing the value of "a bird in the hand...".
The EOS, above, would run about $39K list or $650/mo lease. I even took a look at the Beetle convertible which is supercute (for a university student) and rolls in at 32k or $515./mo lease.
I was mulling all this over on my drive back to the garage for the report on my truck. It was completely possible that I'll save so much on gas it'll be worthwhile getting a dependable car. However, that's a lot of money for 4 tires and a couple of doors!
As it turns out, the noises I hear are a cracked manifold and a loose heat shield. Since the crack in the manifold seals itself up as the car warms up, it's not a dire issue and the mechanic feels it can wait until next year. The loose heat shield is, well, just a rattle. I can live with it. I did decide to put new tires on it but that's a minor cash output compared to a new car. So, I'm stuck with the Pathfinder for another year at least. Can't complain. It can carry my boat, store my junk and transport 5 adults on it's leather seats. Might as well get my money's worth!