Car Trouble!

For the better part of our marriage, James and I have only owned one car. We were fortunate that this worked for us in the several states we have lived in (Virginia, Arizona and now Utah). For the first couple of years here in Utah, we were still able to manage with one car despite James working 20+ miles from our house (he either bikes or takes public transportation). However, last March, I was in a car accident (not a story I want to retell, just know that it was my fault and my car had a good amount of damage although the kids and I were fine). James was stranded at home and we were lucky that I was able to drive it home. That was the last straw, we figured it would be practical to break down and buy a second car. This felt horrible because it was now a principle of our lives, a bragging right if you may...but I digress. We looked for weeks, James did lots of research (remember, he's an engineer too) and ended up purchasing this, a Land Rover Freelander used from 2002, only ours is silver.
I never felt great about the decision, but I trusted James. Since we bought it last April, we've had lots of minor little problems with it. I won't go so far as to say it's a lemon but it's not fantastic. Flash forward to yesterday. James calls at 4:45 PM to say he's stuck at work, the car won't start and can I come pick him up with jumper cables? Well sure but I'm stuck at work, still have to get the kids, and then get up to campus. I don't get to leave work until 5:20 and with traffic, make it to the kids school with 6 minutes to spare (they close at 6 PM). We drive to campus and attempt to jump his car. No dice. Unfortunate but we head home and buy a battery tester on the way. The battery turns out to be fine so we're in for something more complicated and most likely more costly.

And to top it off, his parents come into town on Tuesday and he just told them not to rent a car (Murphy's Law at its finest). Lastly, James tells me that his plan was to change the oil one last time and then go look for another car to replace this one. And then this happens! Let's just hope it's not that much money to fix it up...