Jayne,
How sad that a car which is serving you well can no longer be driven. How will you manage without it?

We don't have routine vehicle inspections up here in the north or my car would have suffered a similar fate long ago. I was warned by my mechanic that if the police stop my 1978 Ford Fairmont wagon for any reason, I would likely be given seven days to repair everything on it. That would be impossibly expensive. Thirty-two years of driving on roads that are heavily sanded and salted in winter has taken it's toll.

I love my old car, but last week, exactly twenty-five years since I bought it, I made the tough decision it was time to retire it and get a newer vehicle. I found a promising candidate in an online ad and decided to drive over to the dealer to have a look. The car that I'd been driving all over town two days earlier made no response when I turned the key. I didn't know whether that was a sign that the Fairmont refused to be traded for a newer car or that it was relieved to finally be allowed to rest and was not going to move again?

I'm hoping that the only problem is a battery that was severely stressed by the -28 C weather and that I'll have a hope of getting it going again with a "jump start" on a warmer day. It's still occupying the space in my carport while I've been checking possibilities for recycling it. It appears that any options which include the possibility of me getting some money for it also require that it be able to "start and move". I hope that I won't have to pay someone to take it away? The replacement vehicle took all my savings and more.

rags