Ruminations on a car...
Jan. 30th, 2002 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clockworkpixel"So as I have mentioned repeatedly before The Cat's transmission is self-destructing, and with 239,5xx miles on it, it will need to be replaced/rebuilt.
Now as much as this sucks, the ford taurus transmissions are mediocre, with '91 (The Cat's year) being the worst. Their typical lifespan is 80K-100K, so having more than doubled that I really have little cause to complain that it is now dying.
This has however left me with a quandry...
(updated at 3:15pm with pictures!)
I have never been under the delusion that The Cat will last forever. It is possible to keep a car running forever, I however do not have the combination of time, skill and money to hold back automotive entropy. And now I am left with the need to replace a major component on an 11 year old car with a huge number of miles on it.
Lets establish some baselines. The cheapest I could prolly get a rebuilt (no one sells new ones, not even Ford) is from These guys. It's $700, plus ~$105 shipping, another $250 core charge (which would be refunded when they get my old transmission), and the cost of shipping my old transmission back to them (prolly another $105). My mother had the transmission replaced in her '95 taurus by Ford (I believe) in 1997 for about $2,200. A transmission shop would be cheaper, but still well over the $1,500 mark. And I don't know that I nor my friends have the time, skill or tools to replace it ourselves.
I've got effectively no money at this time. I have a few hundred, but with no job I can't earmark that for The Cat right now.
Proof:
November 1998(earliest pic of completed text)
Today January 2002
I worry that I have locked myself into one piece of artwork and one image, and left myself without any room to create anything new. I'm regularly coming up with new artcar concepts, but rarely with new ideas for The Cat.
I am known in lots of different groups in lots of different places as 'that guy with the car'. Even with people who met me during the year The Cat was parked and I was driving a plain white car. After The Cat was back on the road and they met her I've heard them using that or simmilar terms on me. Yes that car is an extension of my personality, but I don't want it to be my personality. There's a quote somewhere about 'never wear a hat with more character than you.' what if I'm driving a car with more character than me?
Yes I would create another artcar, but it would be a new one, and not the same one I've been driving for 3.5 years.
Whoa, that's a weird realization. I started The Cat jsut before I finished school before, and she started breaking down the day I registered for classes here.
Now I don't want to make you think I don't love or care about The Cat. I rank that car up with my friends in term of importance. that's why all the stress. If it was 'just a car' I'd have gotten rid of her back in '99 when the head gaskets went (ended up spending around $2500 to get her back on the road).
I promised her we were going to 250,000miles no matter what. And I would feel like absolute shit for a long time if I were to go back on that promise. I've done all sorts of stuff with her, and have a huge number of my memories tied up in that car. I also have things I've never done with her. I've never gone cross-country, I've nver done extensive traveling using her as my tent.
I don't know that I could sell her to someone else. Having someone else driving and owning and being able to decide what to do and not do with her.
I know I couldn't put her in a gallery or museum somewhere. To have her sitting there looking like she could go driving, but never again to actually be used for her intended purpose (to be driven, with a side of entertainment :)). It would be worse than her dying, a sort of farce pretending she was alive when she was really dead.
If I was to get rid of her, I would prolly take her apart, cut off all the panels covered in text, remove the landau bars, the cars on the dash, the hood ornament, all the stuff that makes her The Cat and not just another '91 taurus. I'd prolly clean up the edges on the panels then prolly offer them to my friends if they wanted them to remember The Cat by.
Another thing occured to me today with the note I was left. I use The Cat a lot to meet people. And she's overall got a pretty friendly look to her. The artcar concept that I have been thinking most about recently is 'Scar' a post-apolcalpyse road-warrior esq road machine. Lots of batered rusty metal, hard edges, flat black paint and an overall tought evil bruiser look. I'm not sure that this is the only image I want to be presenting to the world (I still want to build Scar, but it was always planned as an occasional rahter than daily driver). Plus that concept is pretty one-sided. Where as The Cat shows many side of me. the kills on the fender, the toy cars on the dash, the quotes of all types, etc. She's as complicated as I am.
The more I think about this (especially when not depressed) the more sure I am that I'm going to keep her. Though the thought processes involved in this are quite interesting and worth pondering on some more. This may end up causing a rethinking of some of what The Cat is to me, and therefore possibly some redesigns or additions to her as a result."
Now as much as this sucks, the ford taurus transmissions are mediocre, with '91 (The Cat's year) being the worst. Their typical lifespan is 80K-100K, so having more than doubled that I really have little cause to complain that it is now dying.
This has however left me with a quandry...
(updated at 3:15pm with pictures!)
I have never been under the delusion that The Cat will last forever. It is possible to keep a car running forever, I however do not have the combination of time, skill and money to hold back automotive entropy. And now I am left with the need to replace a major component on an 11 year old car with a huge number of miles on it.
Lets establish some baselines. The cheapest I could prolly get a rebuilt (no one sells new ones, not even Ford) is from These guys. It's $700, plus ~$105 shipping, another $250 core charge (which would be refunded when they get my old transmission), and the cost of shipping my old transmission back to them (prolly another $105). My mother had the transmission replaced in her '95 taurus by Ford (I believe) in 1997 for about $2,200. A transmission shop would be cheaper, but still well over the $1,500 mark. And I don't know that I nor my friends have the time, skill or tools to replace it ourselves.
I've got effectively no money at this time. I have a few hundred, but with no job I can't earmark that for The Cat right now.
Except that it isn't the money that is stressing me right this moment. Since I'm living and studying (and will hopefuly be employed) o nthe same campus, transportation is not a huge deal. I can stash The Cat at my mom's place for a good long while (she's sat there for almost a year once before). the problem is whether TO fix her, or whether to let go.
I started the Cat in August of '98, and finished almost all the exterior text by that winter. Since then other things have been added, but overall she looks very much like the same as she did then.
Proof:
I worry that I have locked myself into one piece of artwork and one image, and left myself without any room to create anything new. I'm regularly coming up with new artcar concepts, but rarely with new ideas for The Cat.
I am known in lots of different groups in lots of different places as 'that guy with the car'. Even with people who met me during the year The Cat was parked and I was driving a plain white car. After The Cat was back on the road and they met her I've heard them using that or simmilar terms on me. Yes that car is an extension of my personality, but I don't want it to be my personality. There's a quote somewhere about 'never wear a hat with more character than you.' what if I'm driving a car with more character than me?
Yes I would create another artcar, but it would be a new one, and not the same one I've been driving for 3.5 years.
Whoa, that's a weird realization. I started The Cat jsut before I finished school before, and she started breaking down the day I registered for classes here.
Now I don't want to make you think I don't love or care about The Cat. I rank that car up with my friends in term of importance. that's why all the stress. If it was 'just a car' I'd have gotten rid of her back in '99 when the head gaskets went (ended up spending around $2500 to get her back on the road).
I promised her we were going to 250,000miles no matter what. And I would feel like absolute shit for a long time if I were to go back on that promise. I've done all sorts of stuff with her, and have a huge number of my memories tied up in that car. I also have things I've never done with her. I've never gone cross-country, I've nver done extensive traveling using her as my tent.
I don't know that I could sell her to someone else. Having someone else driving and owning and being able to decide what to do and not do with her.
I know I couldn't put her in a gallery or museum somewhere. To have her sitting there looking like she could go driving, but never again to actually be used for her intended purpose (to be driven, with a side of entertainment :)). It would be worse than her dying, a sort of farce pretending she was alive when she was really dead.
If I was to get rid of her, I would prolly take her apart, cut off all the panels covered in text, remove the landau bars, the cars on the dash, the hood ornament, all the stuff that makes her The Cat and not just another '91 taurus. I'd prolly clean up the edges on the panels then prolly offer them to my friends if they wanted them to remember The Cat by.
Another thing occured to me today with the note I was left. I use The Cat a lot to meet people. And she's overall got a pretty friendly look to her. The artcar concept that I have been thinking most about recently is 'Scar' a post-apolcalpyse road-warrior esq road machine. Lots of batered rusty metal, hard edges, flat black paint and an overall tought evil bruiser look. I'm not sure that this is the only image I want to be presenting to the world (I still want to build Scar, but it was always planned as an occasional rahter than daily driver). Plus that concept is pretty one-sided. Where as The Cat shows many side of me. the kills on the fender, the toy cars on the dash, the quotes of all types, etc. She's as complicated as I am.
The more I think about this (especially when not depressed) the more sure I am that I'm going to keep her. Though the thought processes involved in this are quite interesting and worth pondering on some more. This may end up causing a rethinking of some of what The Cat is to me, and therefore possibly some redesigns or additions to her as a result."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Wow.
Date: 2002-01-30 11:50 am (UTC)As for Scar, that sounds like a good idea for an artcar ... but not one that I could see you driving regularly. You do have a "spit in society's face" side, but not one that comes out daily or anything, so far as I've seen. I know I commented that Ecco didn't seem to be very cohesive, but Ecco still seems to portray Xta a lot better for being the way she is. :)
Just some thoughts. *hugs*
Curious -- what have you done with the winged kitty?
Re: Wow.
Date: 2002-01-30 12:21 pm (UTC)Right now the winged kitty is sitting on my computer desk. I haven't really decided what I'm going to do with it. But I'm not going to intergrate it with The Cat right now since I'm about to put her in storage for a long while."
Re: Wow.
Re: Wow.
Date: 2002-01-31 02:44 pm (UTC)Julie
Re: Wow.
Date: 2002-02-01 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-01-30 01:36 pm (UTC)Do you know how much text is on the car? Cars don't seem to be labeled with their data storage capacity.