The Laughlins

Our cars seem to have a history of breaking! Mark's VW Golf died about one year ago, so we have been a one-car family since. We are just trying to get my Maxima to last a little longer, but it has had some big fixes in the last two months. A fuel infector went out in the engine compartment, and the oxygen sensor had to be replaced ($700). Two days later, the radiator exxploded as I drove into a parking lot, so we had to get a new radiator, fluid, cap, etc. ($500). About two weeks ago, our front passenger tire was slashed when we were parked at our friends condo ($11...I had coverage). Finally, yesterday on the way down for Christmas, the electrical components of the car started blitzing out. The windshield wipers slowed edown, the CD player started blinking and stopped playing CDs, and various lights were blinking all over the car. It shut down right as we were approaching an exit on the freeway, so we managed to get in half-way up the off-ramp and off to the side. My parents were driving down too, so we called them and about 30 minutes later (oh, yeah...it was pouring down rain), we were all smashed into a 5-passenger car headed about another 20 minutes down the freeway to the Lehman's house. We enjoyed Christmas and figured that we would spend the night with the Lehmans and buy a battery in the morning, drive it back to the Lehman's, and check the alternator. My uncle happened to be a Nissan mechanic for many years at a dealership, so he knows a lot about my car. We replaced the battery and got it back, but it turned out to be the alternator, so Mark, Marc, and Roger headed off to the auto parts store to buy an alternator. Hopefully we will be on the road in a couple of hours (since Mark has work tomorrow). If you read this, a big THANK YOU to the Lehmans for housing us and taking care of my car, and THANKS to my parents as well for packing up all of our belongings at the house and bringing them down to Sacramento for us!