First car... wow. 1970 VW Bug. Never tried jumping a curb, but it DID have a mind of it's own. It used to start honking the horn on it's own, blow fuses at will - boy did I get good at changing fuses, it would pop the tailpipe at will, I had to keep track of my miles because the gas gage fuse used to blow... if I had passengers in the back, the fender rubbed the tire... but all in all I loved that car - paid $1500 bucks for it and got every dime back out of it when I sold it 10 years later for a used 1987 Kawasaki Ninja... I used to pick up my girlfriends on that thing... parents LOOOOVED me! Still have the dang thing! NCTomatoman - wasn't a olive green pontiac tempest in My Cousin Vinnie??

I still have my '95 Chevy Lumina 3.1 sedan. 167,000 miles and counting. About a year ago I had the manifold intake gasket replaced. Its always been a great runner, so I figured it was worth the $700 repair. Its been very reliable. My son got his license last March, and he's been driving it since. Still going strong. No experience with a head gasket repair. Does it cost more than a couple grand? On the practicle side, I would assume the value is less than that.

Actually, zinc_man, there are many cars which come from the factory able to run ethanol ("E85"). Their mileage on ethanol isn't as good as it is with gasoline, but it's an option for them. As for your earlier comment ("Gas could go up to 5$ a gallon and people are stupid enough to pay for it.Boycot it for a few days and it will come down but no one wants to sacrifice and are to comfortable in there everyday lifes"), that simply is not an option for many people. Live a fair distance from work? Maybe that was a choice -- or maybe, courtesy of America's mania for corporate mergers and reduced "headcount," you now live quite a ways from your new job. Many good-sized metropolitan areas have pretty poor mass transit, too, so that's not much of an option unless you have a lot of free time. Vehicle choice is similar. You can opt to make an SUV or pickup or a high-performance car your daily single-occupant commuter. In that case, you pay the freight -- it was your choice. Or you sell it for what you can get and move on. But there are people who need the power of an SUV or pickup for towing, or work in rough terrain, etc. It's a shame that the cost of doing their business goes up because the price of fuel skyrockets, but it is a cost of their business just as everything else is, and unless they can find some magic way to do without it, they'll pay the price almost no matter what it is. More correctly, we'll pay the price, since we buy their goods and services. I think that, at a time when oil companies are announcing record profits, there's something fishy going on. But not buying gas on Tuesday when you'll just have to buy it on Wednesday isn't much of a protest, and some folks just don't have the choice.

I can't help but laugh about the irony of this thread and the one that worm started. Here we are talking about the results of not taking proper care of a car, and his thread is all about intentionally doing just that. There is no magic oil that can be run "forever". "Consumers" at large truly don't know what auto technicians are up against these days, and what the very near future holds. The sad part is, I don't believe a large number of them care about us at all. A few weeks ago I contributed to an article that was in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette written by Don Hammond. Even this article falls short of just what is going on. Yesterday a local bodyshop that buys a lot of totalled cars, and rebuilds them showed uphere with a 2006 Jeep Liberty. This thing had 69 miles on it. He had six things not working correctly. With all of the money I have spent through the years to have tools and equipment, there was nothing that I could do for him, yet. My Chrysler DRBIII (The factory tool, same one the dealers use) does not work on the CAN system. I have $9000 invested in just this one tool. I have to go buy a "Star Scan", or "Star Soft" to have the factory tool to work with this newer Chrysler product. That's another $5000 for just one Chrysler dedicated tool. Then I'd still have to pay for a temporary subscription to the Chrysler factory website for the service information, at $20. for three days. Multiply this situation by virtually every manufacturer out there, except for GM, and you have a good picture of whats going on. More than any other manufacturer, GM provides me with easy access to service information and tools, and parts to help me care for their customers. The $7000 that I have invested in GM specific tools, are the most reasonable expense I have to bear. Honda for instance, as mentioned in this article has their factory tool price around $9000, for less than 3% of the potential work that I can do, and continued subscription for the software is required ($1400/yr) or else the tool turns off! BTW GM is slated to switch to a new tool for the 2009's but will continue to support the Tech II at least until 2015. Toyota is slated to continue to share their platform with GM, at least that is the word that I heard last. Same base tool, just a different software cartridge. Here is a link that might be useful: Post Gazette Article