15 minutes and $185 later, no more giant windshield crack.

I am pleased. The shop used all OEM parts and washed and vacuumed the car, too. They are billing Allstate (the other guy’s insurance) for the extra cost and parts they had to order. Allstate’s estimate didn’t include the tow hook covers nor did it include my bumper guard. And the OEM bumper was only a few dollars…

This little car has lived a hard, hard life. 38,000 miles in just under two years as a rental. Yikes.

Enterprise promptly handed me the key to this:

Took Jolene the Sunbird for a cruise tonight before putting her back in the garage for the week. She usually comes home on the weekends and stays in my friend’s four car garage at his place during the week. 56,400-something miles now.

I am beyond impressed with our little CX-5. We’ve driven it just over 1,000 miles since Thursday (to Detroit and back) and it hasn’t missed a beat.

Heavy traffic. Truck in front of me stopped short. I stopped. Car behind me didn’t. Boom.

My wife and her family and some good friends of ours packed up my mother-in-law’s Town & Country van and the Sunbird and went about 45 minutes north to Indiana to camp at my father-in-law’s cabin this Labor Day weekend. It was a great time and the car handled the drive just fine.

Taking Jolene the Sunbird on a little trip today. About 45 minutes to my in-laws’ cabin in Indiana for camping. I’m so nervous it’ll break down...but it hasn’t given me any indication that it will.

I got a new/old cassette player (from eBay again) installed in the Sunbird and my grandma gave me a collection of old tapes she had. Literally a briefcase full. I was jamming to some old school Dolly Parton today. The stereo is loud as can be when playing a tape. It’s literally just the radio that is quiet. So, it is…

Swapped cassette players with the one I got on eBay. Promptly broke the eBay one with a junky tape adapter that fell apart inside it. Deconstructed both the original broken and unplugged cassette player and the eBay one to see how they work and if I could fix either of them. Negative.

Jolene lives. Got her out of the garage this evening for the first time since last Monday. Replaced the cracked coolant reservoir. Got my replacement radio and cassette player in the mail today, too. Hopefully, those can go in this weekend.

Haven’t laid eyes on the car in over a week. I parked it in my friend’s 4 car garage on Monday of last week. Meant to get it out this weekend and swap radios and coolant tanks and ended up not having time. So, it just sits.

Getting an OEM radio and a new coolant reservoir for the Sunbird from a fellow J-body enthusiast (yes, there is more than one of us) for $30.00 shipped. Yay!

Spent hours detailing the Sunbird yesterday and she rewards me by puking antifreeze all over the garage floor. I think it’s coming from the reservoir. Either that or the hose attached to the bottom of it. The radiator is new and all of its attached hoses are bone dry. Literally everywhere is except for the circled…

I spent literally half the day detailing Jolene the Sunbird. This thing was FILTHY.

I forget just how small this car is until I park it in areas like downtown at the courthouse (transferred it officially into my name today).

She handled the 45 mile drive home like a champ. I ran her through the touch-free car wash just to get the initial grime off and she celebrated by dying on me in the car wash bay. Haha. Started right back up, though. Just idles a little slow and lopey at times. I’m hoping some fresh gas and some driving will help.…

Some nice older gentleman called me about it and drove it tonight. Offered me $2,300 on the spot. I shook his hand, smiled, and said “Sold!” as fast as I could.

Just showed the S10 to a guy. He called me at work so I took an early lunch break and raced home to show it to him.