He's Dead, Jim

The Cadillac is finished.

The past couple of weeks, things have felt a little flaky. On the way to the Selma council meeting that was so ill fated, on the way over the Pacheco Pass, I almost pulled over since I felt I had no power. On another recent trip, with DMP and GMP, there was some strange shaking and more feelings of power loss.

I scheduled an appointment with Smitty, our mechanic, for today.

Last night, I was driving home from another Selma council meeting. It was around 10 PM when I reached Santa Nella, things were feeling sketchy. When I got to the big uphills, things went wrong. Pushing the gas pedal revved the engine, but it didn't go to the wheels. I downshifted to see if that would catch, but it helped little if any. I continued moving forward, but speed was slow and slowing. I turned on my hazards, and kept going.

I reached the top of the mountain (safe back in Santa Clara County), and decided to keep going. I picked up a bunch of speed going down, but not enough to fix the problem. When the road leveled off again, I was back at 30 MPH. I reached Casa De Fruta, and decided to keep going.

At this point, the road drops to one lane in each direction. So, I cruised at 25 MPH for the 13 miles of one lane road. About 10 cars were stacked up behind me before I pulled to the shoulder.

I got home a few minutes after midnight and went to sleep.

This morning, I started the trip to Smitty's. 25 MPH to Morgan Hill, but I got there eventually.

$3000 to replace the transmission. The Blue Book value of the car is $2000. Math dictates that I get a new car.