My Car Has It Out For Me

My car has been turning off. While I'm driving. It's very inconvenient. Until last week, the inconvenience and a slight curiosity were the only issues I had with my car pressing pause as I was fast-pacing down the highway. However, because of the nature of my job, it was inevitable that I would begin realizing liability issues.

To bring you up to date, reader, this trouble began several months ago. When it did it the first few times, I was idling at a red light or I had just pulled into a parking spot. The car felt as if I had lifted my foot off the clutch a bit too early, it shook and then died. I took it to the shop and was told it was my battery. Problem solved, or so I thought.

A couple of months later, the sporatic halts began again. Only while I was idling, never while in motion. I imagined it was just old age. Sure, I could take the car to the doctor and get her all fixed up, but I could also deal with the age issues and save a ton of money in the process. I opted to save. But when all the lights on my dashboard lit up and my power steering went out a few weeks ago while I was running at a brisk 55 miles per hour, I decided that a tune up wouldn't be so bad.

The mechanic diagnosed a faulty sensor that was telling my car something was wrong and that it needed to turn off. They changed it, and I went on my merry way. Last week, just as I was driving down the same stretch of dark county road, my car shuddered and turned off again. I sighed as we coasted for a second, then turned the key and restarted her up. Now, I should have immediately taken it to the shop. However, real life does not work that way. I still needed a vehicle to get around.

When the car turned off as I turned into the post office, and the power steering shut off so that I had to put all my weight behind the wheel to turn and roll into the parking lot, glancing behind me hoping to heaven that no one was barrelling down on me from behind, I realized how bad the situation was. If my car's bad habit were to result in an accident, guess who would be at fault...

The good news is that I got it into the shop first thing this morning. The not bad news is that I drove it when necessary over the Thanksgiving weekend without even the slightest incident, no shudders or shut downs at all. Especially no wrecks, no insurance companies wagging their fingers at me, and no law suits. I guess that's something to be thankful for.