Let me first say, I desperatley love my husband and daughter more than anything. Then there's my car...to some, it may be nothing, to me it is so dear. It is the nicest and most expensive thing I have ever owned, I rent and have moved often. I have lived in 3 states (Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Minnesota) and been through some terrible weather, and a bad accident with it. It has survived. My baby is a black 2 door 1985 Buick Riviera with 70,000 miles. Yes, you heard me, 70,000. was a collector car with 40,000 when I bought it. Beautiful motor, minor rust just started on passenger door. Very quiet and depedable. I could go on and on. Anyways, here is my agony. When I was in hospital delivering my baby 2 months ago, EVERYTHING just started going to hell with the car. Minor things, brake lines, wires, etc (obviously I'm no mechanic, not even close) and we ended up paying out about $700, with probably about $400 left to fix that we couldn't afford at the time. So everything was ok for a while (and with just having a new baby, $700 really put us in the hole! We are poor people!) Now a week ago, the car wasn't shifting right...like going into gear, but not, just sitting there reving. So knowing it could be transmission, but hoping it wasn't we got transmission fluid, it worked, for a half hour until I went to kwik trip, put car in park and turned it off to go inside, and it rolled backwards! Nearly hitting a gas pump!!! I was scared to death. And devestated. we barely can afford rent, this was our only car. Now it sits in parking lot, not shifting into gear AT ALL. My husband goes to get a junker today, so he can get back and forth to work. What to do, what to do? We've been told to get rid of it, have it towed and junked for basically nothing...and we've been told to hold onto it, move it with us and repair it next year, when we can afford it. Am I holding onto something I should let go? Listen, I'm not being silly, I KNOW it could be so much worse, my daughter or my husband or both could have been in the car, it COULD have hit gas pump, it might have, it could have, etc. I know I'm lucky. I'm just very dispondant at the thought of getting some crap car when ours is in such good shape, but we are too poor to do the repairs that are a long time coming. I know it's the transmission. That's totally expensive, right? I just want to know what others would do, what would you do? And I really only want to hear from those who really really love their car, you know who you are, and I hope you can understand my pain...I want to do what is best for me and my family, i want to not give up on something i believe in. Sorry for the long-winded-ness and passion for a piece of metal, like i said, this is harder than giving away my cat i had for 10 years. Please help. Need non-judgemental opinions. thanks:car:

I thought I was the only crazy person in love with their old car. I have a 2002 Toyota Avalon. It has 215,000 miles on it. I have taken very good care of it and it looks much newer than it is. However, I know she is an "old granny" now and may have a cardiac arrest at anytime. I dread the day I have to replace it. I drove my daughter to her first day of preschool in it and my dream is to drop her off at college in it. She is a junior so it just needs to last another year and a half.

I think whenever I get a new car and have to drive away and leave it behind at the dealer I may cry.

I feel your pain.