The CHECK ENGINE!!!!! light has been going off on my car for some six months now. I have conjured up various reasons (lack of a credit card to rent a car to get me back and forth; my usual mechanic being very reasonably priced and a great mechanic, but extremely unpredictable; etc.) for why I haven't taken it in to be fixed.
But the truth of my resistance finally revealed itself to me a few days ago: I need to just bite the bullet and get a new (to me) car. My rationale is this: I got the car for free anyway. And true, it's a landshark, but I've managed to get great mileage from it by driving like a granny, coasting down hills, never braking too hard or putting the metal to the pedal unless I simply have no choice (as is common when being pursued by dualies hauling trailers full of horses).
Alas, I simply can't stand it anymore. I have almost 125,000 miles on the car, and I can already tell that the entire thing has been pre-programmed to explode once that odometer turns over.
Thus, I'm polling you, fellow dKossians, on your cars.
What I'm looking for:
- totally awesome gas mileage, preferably a minimum of 33 mpg highway driving;
- a relative degree of stylishness to match my new Spice Posh hairdo, but not too much - I am in education, after all;
- a back seat amenable to hauling around an obese Labrador and his miniature hound friend, as well as the occasional goat or maybe a chicken or two, should push come to shove;
- something that doesn't automatically self-destruct before it hits 250-300,000 miles.
Suggestions anyone?