Owie...car repairs

Charlie's cars have always been...for lack of a better word...adventures.

Before we ever met, he bought a 1970 Mustang that was on its last legs, in the hopes that he would develop some heretofore unsuspected mechanical talent and renovate it himself. My first exposure to this car was listening to his sister's chronicle of traveling around Las Vegas in a rattly death trap with no air conditioning in June in Las Vegas. The next I heard, he had to stop for gas every 30 miles without fail driving from Vegas to New Mexico because only two cylinders worked, and those poorly. He turned the car into some magic mechanic in New Mexico who put his kid through college solely on the work required on that car. Slowly but surely, with my amused tolerance swiftly turning to not so amused annoyance, he did manage to get the car to the 90% mark of being a fully restored vehicle within six years.

Well, then we got an assignment to Alaska. We had already been looking at selling it because we were pretty sure we were getting a DC assignment and fuel efficient that monster was not. But Alaska! Oh jeez, no airbags, no traction, muscle car in the -50 degree weather? What's not to love? So we sold it to a guy in Canada who was looking for a rust free vintage car and bought Charlie a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee instead.

It had low miles, beautifully maintained (as it appeared anyway) and no mechanical problems readily apparent to the people we took it to. Bang, cash on the barrel, it's ours. Well, it was one thing after another dealing with the former owner and the paperwork...the guy was a chronic inebriate and tried to fleece us for extra money several times...but finally it's ours free and clear two months after the initial purchase. Whew, we thought.

Then the radiator blows up. Then the tire needs replaced because at some point the drunk pranged it and it only becomes apparent when it shimmies at exactly 46 miles an hour. And now new tires so Charlie can drive across Alaska without fearing for his life. And then...and then... But Charlie loves it, it's basically sound, we're good to go with at least one car paid for and with four wheel drive. No problems for four months.

And now...the window regulator blows. We knew that it had a radiator issue of some sort...we had all the hoses replaced, temp gauges replaced, etc but still the thing overheated if you left it to idle for more than five or ten minutes -- a distinct problem when you need to preheat your car to drive it nine months out of the year, or if you became stranded and the only thing between you and icy death is your car's heater. So we decided to bite the bullet and have it checked while we got the window fixed.

Well, it turns out the Jeep's electrical harness was blown, which in turn was frying electrical components all over the car...the window, the fan and was about to do something sinister to everything else in the car. We fixed it all...to the tune of $1300. OWIE. Oh well, we didn't need to eat this week right? We had the money but not the will to part with it. Sigh. Oh well, no one at Jeep needs to worry about recessions when the Freels own a Cherokee!

Begone, car gremlins! Away from this family! I swear, I'll buy a Prius or better yet, tame me a moose for riding and sell the cars if you don't leave us alone!