Money Pit

Have I ever mentioned that my van is a money sucking death trap? Well, OK it may not be a death trap (yet) but it eats money like Americans eat potatoes. Stupid thing broke down on me again on Wednesday (of course I had somewhere to be as is usually the case when I am in the damn piece of crap van. The misbehavior was rather familiar and I got to thinking it was the exact same problem it was having about this time last year. Andrew convinced me to call the dealer and find out if it was still under warranty - it was exactly one year ago TO THE DAY that they did the work. The service tech was kind enough to open the ticket for me that night, even though I couldn't get it in until the next day - thus keeping it within the warranty period. If the problem is the same they will cover the cost of fixing it but if not I pay  $100 diagnostic plus whatever other fix it might need. We decided to have a dealer take a look at it to see what they will give us for it on a trade in....still waiting to hear back from both the dealer and the mechanic. Part of me (ooh goody something new!) hopes that it is bad enough we have to trade it in. The other (sensible) part of me doesn't want to deal with a big problem or trying to add a car payment into the already thin budget. I suspect I am just going to sit here and wait for the phone to ring and burn cross that bridge when I get to it. I need to do some research on when the best time to buy a car is (I am thinking it is close to the new year) and hope we can hold out until whenever that is. There is also the possibility that the economy is bad enough that the dealer will be needing a sale badly enough to really work it. Again, new car may not even be in the picture for now but I am trying to have all of my options laid out before I get to them.
I think I'll go warp the loom...