| Bought my black Z right before Christmas 2001 and it has been an absolute joy. Before that I had trouble with a couple of cars and ended up driving a 1990 Buick LeSabre - you know, with the grey vinyl top - that depressed me every time I climbed behind the wheel, for about a year. So I have loved every minute of owning the Z, which had 60,000 miles on it when I bought it. It has been relatively trouble free until now. The money I've had to spend on it has been limited to tires, oil changes, 60k maintenance, and having the alternator rebuilt. Now it's got me between a rock and a hard place. The A/C went out at the end of last summer, and I waited until a couple of months ago to have it worked on. The first place I took it did a "check and recharge" of the system for $175 and I got cold air for a week. Took it back and they said the condenser was leaking. (Thanks a lot for that "check" of the system, buddy.) Took it to the place where they did my 60k and I feel like I can trust the mechanic, and they said it was the evaporator core. They replaced that and found that there was also a problem with the ground for the a/c auxiliary fan. Well over a grand in (not counting the original $175) and the cold air lasted only a few days. They had warned me that the system had been stressed by the fan not keeping things cool and the high pressure might have created some other weak points. So on the way to drop it off again this morning, my radio turns itself off and the ABS light comes on - I've seen this before: the alternator's gone. So now I've got to replace or rebuild the alternator (gonna rebuild if it's reasonable, the last time cost about $100 and lasted almost three years, new is like $400) plus spend another few hundred to replace another part in the a/c system, which the shop is going to do for the cost of the part since I've spent so much with them in the last month already. With temps this week hitting the low triple digits with almost 100% humidity here, going without a/c in a black car with black leather is simply not an option. But at this point I've spent close to half of what the car's probably worth on the a/c. I've been hoping this car will just hang in there for another year or two until I can get to a point where I can get another car and keep the Z. What I could get for it isn't anywhere close to what it's worth to me to have it, and the last thing I want is to take on a car payment for a car I don't even like as much as the Z. So I really have no choice but to bite the bullet and pay what I have to pay to get it fixed. Anyway, I'd be amazed if anybody's still reading at this point, but I had to vent somewhere. I will probably love this car all over again when I get back behind the wheel with cold air blowing in my face, but I hate it right now. Those of you who are fortunate enough to have the tools/workspace/knowledgeable friends to do some of this stuff yourself don't know how lucky you are.
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