Our car died last week. Yes, I really mean died.

My husband had borrowed his parents car last weekend when he went up North to Muskoka for a big party and later to his sisters cottage in Holland Landing. Our car, a Ford Contour, was 14 years old and he just didn’t trust it for a big drive.

So his mom had our car and while she was driving it last weekend the car let out a loud groan like sound and lost power. It turned out that some plug in the bottom of the transmission fell out and all of the transmission fluids came out with it.

Once the in-laws finally told us that our car had broken down (last Wednesday – five days after it had died) we decided to have the garage order the part for the car and fix it …. but once they put it in on Friday the fluids still leaked. I guess the casing around the transmission was pitted so we’d actually need a whole new transmission. They figured putting in a new transmission would cost us close to $3000 and we didn’t think it was a good idea to put that much money into a 14 year old car so we started looking for new (used) cars on Friday evening shortly after we got the news.

Of course the last thing we needed to do right now was buy a car! We’re going to have a very tight budget over the next few months. Groan.

As it turns out the garage where our car was taken (in Brantford and we’re in Toronto) also has a used car dealership on the lot. So we took a look at their selection of cars and finally picked out a used 2006 Pontiac Pursuit.

We couldn’t finalize anything until today when the licensing office would be open, so my husband hitched a ride back to Brantford yesterday with his brother who was visiting from Chicago and early this morning he went back to the dealership to test drive the car once more (test heater etc) and then buy the car.

Our old car is going to be junked. We got a 100 dollars for it. Shame, because it was a good car and wasn’t giving us any trouble until this happened.

My husband transferred everything from our old car to the new car before driving back to Toronto. I think his mom must have left some things in the car though … because there’s a book about healing foods and a pamphlet for HCG diet Austin that she must have picked up when she was traveling two weeks ago. I guess we’ll return those things the next time we see her or maybe give them to our nephew if he comes to Toronto to do Extra work as he has been doing every week so far this summer.

Once Chris got home with the new car we took it out for a drive – and to get groceries. It’s very nice – nice smooth drive. Oh and the radio shows what song is playing. Our old car didn’t do that – I wonder how it knows?

Anyway I guess it’s too late to ask my readers if their familiar with this car and know of any problems … but still, if you do know of any problems with this car (a Pontiac Pursuit) I guess I’d still like to hear about them.

Now to read the cars manual to figure out the car alarm etc …