Miracle Car

Our faithful white steed, ElCarro (aka, our 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix) decided to take up smoking this week. I was very disappointed with this decision, since my car goes to church regularly and should understand the Word of Wisdom by now. It reminds me of the young men I grew up with that spent most of their time in the church parking lot and thus picked up similar vices.

I immediately parked it, called work to say I'll be late, and towed it home via my $300 van. I must say my wife, ElGirlo, who came to my rescue with our two boys, ElBoyo and ElKiddo, did a fantastic job driving the car as I towed it. She has never felt comfortable in towing situations like this, and we have situations like this fairly regularly since we own vehicles like $300 vans. I was only an hour late to work, thanks to my resourceful wife.

My dad and I checked the car out after work, and determined it needs a mechanic's touch. I found a good mechanic in my hometown of ElTowno. He checked it out and called back with the sad news: ElCarro is dying, and must be on very expensive life support. Not only was the radiator leaking, but also, the oil was leaking in 3 different places. In addition, the rear brake was grinding (this I knew, but it had only been grinding a couple of days, and I knew it was shot, so I had planned to get it fixed the next day anyway. For anyone wondering how I could let my brake start grinding before taking care of it, please understand that the brakes on this car give no warning. The first sign of trouble is the grinding sound of doomsday. And it costs A LOT to repair. STUPID BRAKES!) But I digress. The total bill would come to about $700-$800. The car is not worth that much.

Incredibly, We debated long and hard over whether we should junk our poor excuse for a vehicle or replace it. We finally decided to do the latter. I told the mechanic who laughed and said, "you know, there's a lot more wrong with this car than what I quoted you. I just told you what it would take to get it running again." This I knew. The air conditioning pump went out on it years ago, the turn signal had to be held in just the right way for the blinker to work, the driver's side door had to be opened from the inside, etc... But our hearts were still heavy when we finally drove the smoking bomb into the car graveyard and left it to be picked apart by the automotive vultures. ElBoyo sighed, "I'm sure gonna miss our car, Daddy!" ElGirlo and I felt the nostalgia. We'll miss the old girl too.

Why would we miss such a piece of scrap? Well, that was our miracle car (not to be confused with our tithing van, the $300 beast mentioned above). This car truly was a miracle. ElCarro replaced the Subaru that gave up the ghost when it’s little transmission that could split right in half in a valiant effort to reach $250,000 miles 5 years ago. I had to call in late to work that day, too. We had no more than $2,000 to spend on a car at the time. And that was really pushing it.

We found ElCarro on a used car lot in Fruitland Idaho, near the Oregon border. She was a picture of health for a low-cost car. The AC, door handles, turn signal, radiator, and engine were all systems go. She barely had 100,000 miles on her.
ElGirlo and I knew we must have a car that would last a while, so we prayed sincerely to find out whether we should buy it or not. The answer was an overwhelming “yes.”

Using my amazing haggling skills, I insisted we buy the car for no more than $2,000, including dealer and doc fees. The final invoice was $2,000.01. I was kinda disturbed about the penny, but what can ya do? We drove the car off the lot on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and thanked the Lord for His goodness.

The following Monday, ElGirlo drove the car to work. Well, that is—halfway to work. She had to pull over when she heard a knocking sound in the engine area. We figured this could only mean one thing—a thrown rod. This was confirmed by two different mechanics who said, “don’t even bother bringing it in. It’s shot.” We called the dealership and told them they’d sold us a lemon and insisted they take it back. They utterly refused.

We were devastated. How could we have felt so right about buying this car? We had no money left. We needed a vehicle. Truly, our faith was tested. We wondered, “do we really know how to recognize answers to prayers?” We returned to our knees with questions. But we felt at peace. We also felt we should take it to a mechanic anyway.

We did. The mechanic thought it was fairly fruitless to look at it, but we insisted. He discovered that the knocking sound was not a displaced rod at all, but the lifters on the engine. A coolant hose had come off, causing the engine to overheat. It was repairable and affordable. We were thrilled.

We returned to our knees again, this time with deep humility and gratitude for a Heavenly Father who not only answers prayers, but tries our faith through poignant life lessons.

So when we left ElCarro in the auto cemetery, we thanked the Lord again for 5 years and 70,000 miles of a miracle car and a lesson in faith that we were reminded of time and time again as we drove our faithful white steed.