"The car's engine needs to be replaced."

"The car's engine needs to be replaced." Ever heard this before? Yeah, it's bad news. Our Saturn finally died last week (Thursday). A piston popped off a rod and bad things happened. The mechanic advised us to just get a new car because that would be cheaper than paying for a new engine on a car will probably need more work soon.

So I spent most of Friday and Saturday shopping for a new car. Saturday afternoon, I was able to limp the Saturn to the Tynan dealership in Ft Collins and get $100 for the trade. Knowing what I know now, maybe I should have asked to a straight across deal.

I traded it for a 2002 Dodge Neon. I noticed that the engine light came and asked them to take care of that. My mistake. I should have shunned the car. But I gave them the benefit of a doubt. After all, they gave it to me in writing that they would fix any issues with the car. If it couldn't be fixed, they would reverse the deal.

So begins the real adventure. On Tuesday, I dropped it off at the appointed time so they could take care of the engine light. They gave me a loaner so I could get to work. Around 3pm I called them (I hadn't heard from them yet). They said that the wiring and spark plugs needed to be changed. They had been pretty busy and had not completed the work yet though. I would be able to pick it up the next day.

I call them late on Wednesday afternoon (again, they didn't call me). After talking with about 4 people who didn't know anything, someone in the service department promised to call me back after they figured out what was happening. When he called back about 15 minutes later, I got the news. They had replaced the plugs and cables. They still saw some issues and did some testing. The compression on the first 2 cylinders was fine, but the third cylinder was very low. They checked that out and found water in the cylinder. They also found leaks. Then came the phrase that was all too familiar. The car's engine needs to be replaced.
So, they're going to replace the engine. They've told me that I should get it back next week sometime. So in the first 10 days that I'll have owned this car, I'll only have it for 2 days. I just hope that this isn't a trend.

It's only Thursday, but I'll let you know what happens next!