::lemon::

Wasn't there a Stephen King book/movie about a killer car? Well, my car isn't so obviously murderous; it's much more cunning. It wants to kill me slowly. Death by poverty.

This car (a Volvo Cross Country) is my dream car. I have wanted a Volvo station wagon ever since I was 14 and babysat for this very cool German couple who drove one. The mother's name was Helga; she and her husband were hip, progressive and had great style. So when I finally got my Volvo station wagon, I even named it Helga in her honor. I bought it from my former sister-in-law for "a steal"; they had had it for three years and loved it, but they have a thing against driving any car with more than 50,000 miles on it. (WTF, right?) Anyway, they'd taken perfect care of it and it was immaculate and I could not have loved it more.

I think my (at the time future) husband might have mentioned something about Volvos being very expensive to repair, but I was blinded by it's creamy leather interior, heated seats and steering-wheel stereo control. I think I said something to the effect of "But honey, it's a Volvo! It won't NEED to be repaired, thanks to it's superior German engineering, silly! I'll drive this car until the day I die!" Which, if this car has it's way, will be sooner rather than later.

Not three weeks after I bought it, the transmission freaked out. I could NOT believe my luck; after all, it had less than 60,000 miles on it!!! My sister-in-law had NO problems with this car whatsoever. And believe me, she could easily afford to pay for repairs. Luckily, that time, all it required was a mildly expensive "software download". Then there was the oil change that turned out to cost $1800. And then it needed very expensive new tires. A few months ago (immediately following the $1800 oil change), I had to admit that I was in over my head and that the car had to go. I tried to sell it; I did....but it didn't sell and then we sort of decided that SURELY we were done pouring money into it and it would now last forever, right?

Guess what? Last Thursday, the transmission died. Yes, it needs a new transmission to the tune of $6000. Unheard of for a car with less than 70k miles on it, right? There's really no explanation other than that the car is possessed. And I have been forever broken of my desire for fine German engineering.

I'm looking at Toyota, Subaru, Honda and possibly Nissan. Anyone have any experience and/or advice on any of those?