I have horrible luck with cars.  Terrible.  Actually Tim and I both do.  He gets in accidents perpetually which are totally not his fault, and all my cars suck up incredible amounts of money.  I thought it was just because I had used cars, but I bought my VW Cabrio 4 years ago brand new.  It had bizarre problems before I paid it off:  a leak in the roof, the door handle fell off, but once I paid it off in March, the problems began in earnest.  Tim told me to sell it when the A/C compressor needing replacing at $1500, but did I listen?  No, I loved my car and didn’t want the little crap bucket that was the only thing we could afford at this point.  Then there was a problem with the coolant system leaking and it was another $400-$500 to fix.  Then it was two new tires that was $250 (that’s a maintenance item, but still).  And there was some other miscellaneous something that cost $400, I think.  Oh, the ignition switch.  Now the penultimate insult.  The ABS Control Module is shot.  This little crappy asshole part that controls the brake system and is therefore mandatory costs $795.  Then it costs $176 in labor to replace.  Then they have to “flush the brake system”.  So I get to spend $1233.44.  That brings my total of car costs SINCE MARCH to about $4000.  Whoo-hoo!  And I was so excited about SAVING money because I didn’t have a car payment.  I’ve been paying my old car payment PLUS approximately $71.33 a month in car repairs!  Argh!  And I can’t even get that much out of it.  $10k if I sell it myself and $8k if I trade-in.  Sigh, this is so frustrating.  I really wish I’d listened to Tim.  He’s right, you need to always have a car payment, otherwise your car goes south immediately.  Now I just have to sell my beloved Allison and get a crap bucket (the Scion xA is the crap bucket I’m looking at because it’s cheap and a Toyota, so maybe it’ll last a little while).