Windstar A No Va

Chevrolet couldn’t sell the Nova in Mexico, at least under that name, because “no va” in Spanish means “no go.”

Today was a show day for us, so this morning, the plan was to load up the van and head out with our wares to the local high school for the day. It was plenty chilly, and there was frost on the windshield, so, I figured I’d run the engine and defroster to warm the thing up, despite the fact that it’s been acting up of late.

About 90% of the way through loading, the engine cut out … and it wouldn’t restart. Dead as a doornail. Kaput! Of course, after we got back from the show, the damned thing cranked right over and started up!

I’m not exactly a happy camper, here. We just spent a small chunk of change to replace a part for the emissions system to pass inspection. Now it looks like it’s going to want a large chunk of change just to move reliably.

It’s a Catch-22, of course, being a car. It’s 8 years old, with 162,000 miles on it. In that time, it’s already had the alternator replaced, MAF sensor, a couple of decades worth of front brakes and tires, various front-end work, two serpentine belts and an idler. I know for sure that it needs rear brakes, more front-end work, another serpentine belt and idler, more sensors and goodness knows what else, and at great cost — after which, it could run for another 162,000 miles. Or, it could continue to nickel and dime us to death.

The alternative? I go back to the full-time work world, give up the work that I love at GTV and all of my various projects, and buy something new. More than anything else, it’s a trade-off of frustrations — frustrations with the older vehicle, or frustrations working in someone’s cage.