Collect All Three!!!

So, Scruffy is getting a bit long in the tooth. Over 190,000 miles now she has. She still runs good... kind of. In the last couple weeks she had a low idle issue on and off, happened once while I was driving her, and then started again about a week back, more on than off. What's more, the transmission has been acting up a bit. Not a whole lot, but for the last few months losing a bit of fluid, and when that happens, she starts not upshifting. All it takes is a bit more transmission fluid, and she's good to go again. I was able to give the filter almost a quarter turn a bit ago, and it really hasn't had that problem since. Of all the Saturns we've had, this is the only one I've had this issue with, and several times!!! More troubling is sometimes shifting into reverse, it'll not go, then finally do a slam into gear. I've seen this symptom before, and I suspect a bad solenoid, which is fairly easy to do, but at the same time rather involved. Oh yeah, the tires are at the end of their lives, too.

So for quite a while I've been keeping an eye out. Mostly the criteria was automatic, power windows and door locks, and low miles at a decent price. A couple months back I'd seen an ad for a fairly low mile wagon that looked good in the pictures. Ended up not looking nearly as good in person, and I messaged that back to the seller and left without even taking it for a spin. Not long after I saw another wagon with similar low miles. Ad didn't specify if it had power windows and locks, so I'd messaged them and asked, to which they replied yes, come and have a look. I moved money around until I had it in hand, then went out to take a look, planning on jumping on it if it ran and looked as good as the pictures. Got there, and what do you know, no power windows and door locks!!! What, do you think I'm not going to notice that??? Don't waste my time.

Kept an eye out, and one I kept seeing recently was priced on the high end of my range, $2,500, with 90,000 miles. Looked fairly clean in the pictures, and had the bonus of a sunroof. The distinction I'd never heard of was that he had it listed as a "Glenview Edition". Last Friday my curiosity got the best of me, and we went out and looked at it. The mechanical and interior were fairly flawless, and the body wasn't especially bad, but had all the bumpers scraped, a tweak in the lower part of the driver's door down to the metal frame, and a wrinkle on the front of the hood. While we test drove it, he told us of one time he'd come out and found footprints over the top, and on the sunroof!!! After the test drive, I noticed a small dent on the back of the roof that fit the tale. Indeed, it had "Glenview Edition" pinstriped on the side, and was fairly loaded, even having ABS and traction control, but with steel wheels instead of the alloys I would have expected. There was one more about an hour's drive away I wanted to look at with 100,000 miles but only asking $1,750. We headed out, but Friday traffic was too much, and we went home instead, and I replaced the idle control valve that seems to have been causing the low idle problem on Scruffy.

When I'd gotten in touch with the second one on Friday letting them know I wouldn't make it that day, I asked if I could come by Saturday after work. They weren't going to be there, so I'd been planning on going Sunday. As is my custom, I kept looking, and Saturday night I saw an ad down in the farther away section. The price of $1,800 caught my eye, and the miles of 75,000 sweetened the deal. A scan through the pictures showed something that put it into the extraordinary category, white faced gauges!!! The only other ad I'd seen these in was a Red Hot edition coupe that I was never able to get in touch with the seller of. A closer look at the picture showed the Homecoming Commemorative Edition script on the tachometer.

These came with most of the options, and as the Red and White Hot coupes feature, blacked out badges. The interior has leather on the outer edges of the seats and cloth on the center portion, which given the propensity of G.M. leather to crack out, seems like a distinct advantage!!!

Also featured on the Homecoming Commemorative Edition was a pearl Mint Green paint. The paint has seen better days, having quite a bit of clear coat delamination on the hood, trunk, rear wing (also included in the package), and door surrounds. The seller hadn't done the current smog check on it, but I was reasonably confident that it would pass with no issue. It did, with almost undetectable amounts of NOX. I offered $1,600 on account of the lack smog check, and they agreed. Less than a minute later, they said they'd take an additional $100 off for the smog!!! Told my wife, "See, I can't spend more on your car than I did on mine!!!"

I'm seriously considering looking into getting a repaint on her, and there's a myriad of little things that could use fixed. Hadn't realized she has a salvage title, but with those low miles and niceish condition not a big deal. Being 18 years old, I don't think we'd ever get that much as a payout from anyone's insurance anyway, and hope to never find out. I'd like to get the back windows tinted, and a 512 Labs exhaust made up for it, but my wife kind of is enjoying the quietness of it right now. I'm thinking maybe just hack off the last muffler and straight pipe it out the back and see how that goes, or maybe put another resonator out back.

In the meantime, now I've got a wagon to play with!!! I've of course had the idea to sedan delivery her since we got her, and now I've also got the outlandish idea of doing gull wing doors!!! Before I get going on that, new tires are in order, and I've been kind of looking around for some 16" steelies I could wrap in low profile rubber, and I'd probably do a refresh on all the struts and tie rod ends as well as getting those lowering springs. Now all I need is a lot of time to do so.

Once again, The younger boy is pretty excited about it, showing off all the special features to his friends. My wife is thrilled with her new ride, and once again I was able to tell her "Merry Christmas!!!"