Alas, Poor Julie, I Knew Her
Jan. 9th, 2026 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aToday Julie the Benz went in to get her "check engine" light checked and it was sadly bad news.
The check engine light actually was not a big deal. It's the engine thermostat. Which would be somewhere between $500 & $1000 to replace, I expect, with standard Benz markup. Irritatingly, this is the second time it's gone bad.
The bigger problem is that I asked them to look at Julie's rough ride, which has been an issue since at least last year some time. They said that the mechanic had managed to get her acting up and that the problem was somewhere in the transmission, which would require a full rebuild of said transmission to fix. Which was kind of what I thought might be going on. The mechanic looked up the cost, and just the transmission would be something like $7000. (Standard Benz Markup.) Plus shipping. Plus labor.
So we were both totally on the same page that this was not worthwhile. The mechanic suggested that it wasn't worth dealing with the thermostat either when Julie was already on her last legs, and assured me that she was totally safe to drive and that I should go ahead and do so until the transmission issues worsened.
So, our loyal car, Julie the Benz, the first car I've owned in thirty years, is sadly dying.
I'm not in a rush to replace. The hope is that I might extract a last year or two from her. But I am now officially on the lookout for a new car.
My ideal would a 5-year-old car (to give it more runway than Julie, who started having problems a year or two after we got her, and has been in the shop once or twice a year), preferably a Toyota (they have the best reliability by a long shot), preferably a SUV (though I am somewhat uncertain if that's a real requirement), and preferably with a trailer hitch (to make transporting my bike and locking up my keys while swimming easy).
We'll see. I did some looking today, but there was nothing in that sweet spot. I probably need to add it to a weekly or biweekly schedule, hoping something perfect drops in my lap before Julie gives out.
And ugh, cars have gotten expensive in the last several years. (We saw new car prices spike up during COVID, which carried through to used cars, and now I presume that Trump's tariffs are entirely wrecking us with new car taxes.)
Kind of a weird feeling walking out of Destination Auto, who has always worked on Julie. I felt like we were saying goodbye forever. Especially since they don't seem to be doing Safety Checks at the minute. But it's also kind of freeing to know that I don't need to worry about Julie repairs any more. I just hopefully can find the perfect new car before she heads off to automobile heaven.
The check engine light actually was not a big deal. It's the engine thermostat. Which would be somewhere between $500 & $1000 to replace, I expect, with standard Benz markup. Irritatingly, this is the second time it's gone bad.
The bigger problem is that I asked them to look at Julie's rough ride, which has been an issue since at least last year some time. They said that the mechanic had managed to get her acting up and that the problem was somewhere in the transmission, which would require a full rebuild of said transmission to fix. Which was kind of what I thought might be going on. The mechanic looked up the cost, and just the transmission would be something like $7000. (Standard Benz Markup.) Plus shipping. Plus labor.
So we were both totally on the same page that this was not worthwhile. The mechanic suggested that it wasn't worth dealing with the thermostat either when Julie was already on her last legs, and assured me that she was totally safe to drive and that I should go ahead and do so until the transmission issues worsened.
So, our loyal car, Julie the Benz, the first car I've owned in thirty years, is sadly dying.
I'm not in a rush to replace. The hope is that I might extract a last year or two from her. But I am now officially on the lookout for a new car.
My ideal would a 5-year-old car (to give it more runway than Julie, who started having problems a year or two after we got her, and has been in the shop once or twice a year), preferably a Toyota (they have the best reliability by a long shot), preferably a SUV (though I am somewhat uncertain if that's a real requirement), and preferably with a trailer hitch (to make transporting my bike and locking up my keys while swimming easy).
We'll see. I did some looking today, but there was nothing in that sweet spot. I probably need to add it to a weekly or biweekly schedule, hoping something perfect drops in my lap before Julie gives out.
And ugh, cars have gotten expensive in the last several years. (We saw new car prices spike up during COVID, which carried through to used cars, and now I presume that Trump's tariffs are entirely wrecking us with new car taxes.)
Kind of a weird feeling walking out of Destination Auto, who has always worked on Julie. I felt like we were saying goodbye forever. Especially since they don't seem to be doing Safety Checks at the minute. But it's also kind of freeing to know that I don't need to worry about Julie repairs any more. I just hopefully can find the perfect new car before she heads off to automobile heaven.