Gift Horse

I may have mentioned that until we get our new car, I'm driving my parents' old minivan. It's kind of an extra car, which they keep around mainly for the utility -- it's an extended Aerostar, which is mini only in name (I sit at eye level with full size pick-up trucks), so it's great for moving furniture or lugging around my mom's pottery.

I really appreciate my parents' loaning it to me, but boy is it worrying. First of all, it's a gas guzzler: I'm filling the tank just as often as I did with the Golf, but the tank is twice as big. Secondly, three of the four tires have slow leaks, especially for front pair. Lastly and most importantly, it's making some scary sounds when it starts up and when I'm idling at a light. Sounds that make me wonder how much longer the transmission is going to last.

Now this wouldn't bother me that much if I were only driving the Aerostar for a week or two. But I could have it for as long as two months, which might mean driving out to Columbus at Thanksgiving in it. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm a total auto-hypochondriac -- I turn little car tics and creaks into major problems and expensive repairs in my mind -- so the thought of breaking down somewhere in rural Indiana has me a little tweaked.

When we put down our deposit, the salesman said it'd be as much as a two-month wait for our Prius. Then again, when we came in for our test drive the following week, he offered to sell us one of the models they had just gotten in (they didn't have the package we wanted, so we declined), so there's hope for us yet. Three weeks till Turkey Day: come on Toyota!