The Green Machine Limousine

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Green Machine was in the shop for a pre-planned visit while we were in Central City, but I never did get around to telling you all about that. Now, the rest of the story.

Several months ago we had to make some decisions concerning our car. It had to have some work or it had to be replaced. It was riding like a buckboard wagon with metal wheels. It felt like it was beating us to death driving it a few miles to town. Longer trips were now preceded by dread at the thought of every expansion joint on the interstate.

The Green Machine is a 2006 Scion xB that we purchased in May 2012. It had a little less than 74,000 miles on it then. It checked off nearly everything on our list. It is roomy, sits up high enough that we do not have to crawl into it, it holds both wheel chairs and it gets good mileage.

Here is is in May 2012.

It is obviously not a luxury car and was not intended to float down the road like a Lincoln Town Car. After we lost the bigger rims and low profile tires in the pictures above, it rode very good for a small car.

Since that time, I have done almost nothing to the car. Besides tires every 20-24 months, I have replaced the battery, alternator and belts. That is about it. The suspension and front end had not been touched.

When I took it to Eaton's Tire and Auto Repair in Mt. Vernon Indiana the odometer was showing 183,000 miles. That does not include the 100,000++ miles it has rolled behind the BoggsMobile and the 50,000+ miles it has bounced around inside the tent trailer.

When you add those numbers, it has nearly 300,000 miles on the suspension and rolling parts of the car. It is little wonder that the Green Machine was riding like a buckboard wagon. 

Something had to be done so Kelly Jo and I put a pencil to it.

1. We like the car

2. We did not want to find and finance another car and we did not have cash to really get serious about looking for one without financing.

3. We figured we could get the Green Machine whipped into shape, including new tires, for around $2000 - $2500.

4. $2500 would barely make 6-8 months of payments on a newer car.

5. OR we could spend $2500 on a replacement car, spend $500 more to get it ready to tow behind, but could we expect a $2500 car to be as nice as we already had?

That gave us the answer. I called Bro. John Eaton and went through all of the above with him. He knows cars and I value his opinion. Bro. John thought our reasoning was sound so we made an appointment to take the car to him while we were 90 minutes away in Central City.

Bro. John and his crew at Eaton's Tire and Auto Repair took good care of the little Green Machine.

They checked everything underneath and replaced whatever was needed. The list includes the shocks and struts, both axle/CV joint assemblies, brakes, tires, spark plugs, a few other miscellaneous items and gave it an alignment.

It still does not ride like a Lincoln Town Car, but my oh my it rides like a dream compared to the way it rode when I took it in! It is well over 12 years old and I dare say it rides nearly as good as it did when it rolled off the assembly line.

Hopefully we can get at least two more years of good service from the Green Machine. That would really be groovy!

That is all for today. Thank you for stopping in.

Davy