Vehicular Suicide

Both of our cars are acting up lately, and I feel a bit betrayed since I was praising my 12 year old Camry just recently on the blog.

The Camry, a 1996, has 145,000 miles or so, and it's never needed anything but routine maintenance. It's been a great car. No serious issues.

Two weeks ago, though, the trouble began when the starter burned out. Then last night it started making this moaning noise when you turned the wheel. It sounds like a humpback whale. Turns out now it needs a power steering pump.

So now, nearly $1000 later, I'm starting to wonder about this car. These repairs are in the bag, so I guess we will hang on for awhile, but now I feel like it might become a money pit. It's been our "family" car since we bought it, and it's what we use on long trips, because the other vehicle is a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse which is not exactly passenger friendly in the back seat. I bought it about six months before we found out we were having a kid, otherwise we might have made another choice.

The Eclipse was a fun car for awhile, but now I just get annoyed cramming my big ais in that little tuna can. Plus, it being a two door, I have to really squeeze to get in and out of it in the parking garage downtown, where the spaces leave you only about 3 inches on either side.

There's nothing wrong with it, mechanically, and it only has 54,000 miles on it, but there are a few things that drive me nuts: the radio pops and crackles, the driver's side window freezes shut, it's really low to the ground and somehow gets water up inside it whenever it rains hard - thus leaving a mildewy smell that lingers for weeks, it takes forever to heat up -I'm at work before it's even starting to get warm, and it's a somewhat effeminate blue/green color that I regretted shortly after purchase.

I want to get rid of that car, not the Camry. The plan has been to sell the Mitsu, I'll drive the Camry to work, and for LBB, buy a fuel-efficient small SUV, like a Honda CRX. That's my wife's pick, although I kinda like the Acura RDX. We will probably end up with the Honda, because the Acura only comes in 4-wheel drive, which we don't need (most of you out there who think you need 4-wheel drive are, quite simply, wrong). Also, LBB doesn't want leather seats (for ethical reasons - yawn, whatever), and I doubt you can get the Acura without leather.

I'm still a bit leery of hybrids. Although I'm all for the concept of it, I've heard that if the power pack (or whatever you call it) goes bad, it could be a $7-8K repair. Plus, other than the Prius, the mileage on most hybrids isn't all that much better if you stick with front-wheel drive four cylinder vehicles.

So, any recommendations?