Saturn SC2 Last Ride
At 7:45am this morning my car died while driving to Boston on Route 2 near Waltham. This is the famous car that got me to and from California. It appears the problem might be the transmission, and I'll have to make a judgement call to decide if its worth fixing or is it time to buy a used car.What Happened
It sounded like something hit under the car, and all of a sudden some smoke appeared from the engine and I could see lots of smoke in the rear-view mirror. I was in the center lane and there wasn't that much traffic around me, so it was pretty easy to quickly pull into the breakdown lane. I didn't notice that the car was not accelerating when I stepped on the gas. This would have been a problem if I was in an area where there was no breakdown lane.
Car Towing History
This is the third time my 1993 Saturn SC2 required towing. The other two times happened when I was in California. Once due to an alternator problem in 1998 after leaving the Gilroy Garlic Festival, and the other because of a dead battery in 2001.
Could have been much worst
A car failure never happens at a good time. I was on my way into work to begin a very busy work week, and a dead car wasn't in the mix. However it would have been a lot worst if it happend any other time in the past 48 hours:
- Sunday Night on the Sagamore bridge during heavy weekend traffic
- Friday Night on 93 in downtown Boston during the evening rush