70,000 miles

It took that much usage on top of the milage it had when I bought it before my car finally succumb to the big breakdown. I was on I-295 somewhere in Virginia when the warning lights started to light up, oh oh. Then the cruise control disengaged, the cruise control light went out, then the speedometer just dropped to zero although I was still cruising at around 65 mph, then the engine starts losing power. I decided to get to the shoulder so I could figure out what's going on. I turned off the engine, bad idea. Engine wont crank up again although you can hear the sound of the starter trying to churn. Definetly not the starter, could be the battery. But I just got the battery two weeks ago! Oh oh please don't be the alternator. I called for a tow truck and was ready to wait for them when I tried to start the engine again. It starts! I cancelled the tow service and tried to drive my way to a service area. This part of Virginia is full of small towns with probably only a couple of mechanics around. I tried to push my luck and drove some more and was able to go 100 more miles all the way to Durham, N.C. All the way I had to stop every 5 miles or so as the engine kept on losing power. Took me almost 3 hours to travel 100 miles. Got to Durham finally and crashed into a hotel, by this time I have probably lost 5 pounds after sweating it out without air-conditioning for 100 miles. I figured a college town would be a better choice to get this thing fixed as there should be a lot of service centers used to students with tight budgets. I finally got it fixed and had a new alternator installed the next morning. I think I provided a not so trivial economic stimulus for Durham residents :) Flyingroc had a better ending to his car trouble story.