It's Always SUMTHIN VI

You long-time Gentle Readers know that I'm in love with my car, AKA The Green Hornet, so named by a friend of mine back in SFO a short time after I acquired her.  The car, not the friend.  And she IS a beauty, is she not?

You long-time readers also know I'm prone to brag on her a bit, being especially fond of saying I have not had one single problem in the 9 years, 8 months, and 21 days we've been together.  (I know it's exactly that long coz I went here.)  But she IS getting long in the tooth and old ladies begin to develop problems in their old age.  Allow me to make a short story longer, if you will.

I got a letter from Mazda Motor Company of America (or whatever their formal name is) about two months after I purchased TGH informing me there was an "optional" recall in effect... said recall having to do with defective clutches on 2001 Miatas manufactured between certain dates and with certain Vehicle ID Numbers... and my honey-baby fell into that range.  I immediately phoned the Miata store, being the concerned sort I AM, and inquired about the recall.  The service manager asked if I was having any sort of problem with my clutch and I replied to the effect that "No, I was not."  "Well, don't worry about it," said he.  And like a fool I dismissed the subject completely.

Bad move.

About a year ago I noticed TGH would shudder noticeably when I let the clutch out from a dead stop, but only when she was cold.  After she warmed up to operating temperature the problem went away.  And that's where it stayed... up until our recent long trek.  She began shuddering and juddering ANY time I let the clutch out from a dead stop... so much so that we held our breath whilst crawling through Atlanta's stop-and-go rush hour traffic a few days ago.  Shorter: the clutch is not long for this world, and this with only slightly more than 50K miles on her odo-clock.  I've NEVER replaced a clutch on any of my previous auto-machines, some of which had in excess of 120,000 miles on them when we parted company.  And have I mentioned TGH only has slightly more than 50K on her clock?  I think I did.

So.  The good news is we shall have a new clutch come this Thursday or Friday.  The better news is the repair isn't going to be as pricey as I thought, what with only costing a tad more than 600 Yankee Dollars, parts and labor.  And that's at the local Mazda store and not at Bubba Palmetto's Shade Tree Lawn Mower Repair and Automotive Emporium.  I'm funny that way, in that I want Mazda guys working on my Mazda, Beemer guys working on my Beemer, or Chevy guys wrenching on my Chevys.

DIL Erma, on the other hand, is disappointed.  She REALLY thought I needed to be in a new Caddy CTS or Camaro... two vehicles I've been on about, more or less... for the past two or three years.  Or so.  But I'm still in love with that mild-mannered mean green machine.  And will be for quite some time.