no going back now

I stepped out at lunch to run an errand. Just a quick jaunt down to Cliff's for some silliness to send to my niece at camp, stop by the Castro post office, then back. I found parking across the street, pulled parallel, and flipped the shift into Reverse. Rev rev rev. Silly me, I must be in Neutral.

Nope.

No more Reverse.

Hmm. This sinking feeling in my stomach is my spider dollars-and-cents tingling. This instant is going to result in an enormous suckage of time and money.

I could still drive forward, so I drove to my neighborhood garage, careful not to park anywhere I could not pull forward out of.

Crap. Crap crap crap. My transmission is shot. Again. And Cole Garage, the one shop I trust, doesn't do trannys (insert joke here). So I had to get AAA to tow it over to the shop they recommended down in SoMa: Bryant Transmission Repair. Kids in the shop are guessing it will run me $2,500.

Well, shit. I felt better about spending the snowballing sum several months ago by justifying that an amazing new stereo was cheaper than getting a new car. And I blew my recreational savings after Christmas on, well, Christmas gifts, and the subsequent IMAXing of the apartment and installation of the Command Center.

Sure, I would love a new Beemer. Just don't have the cash for it. And as UC employee with salary cuts and furloughs, it's not like I can add a car payment to the budget. I'm turning 40 next month and had started considering buying a home. I'd rather since the savings I have into real estate than transportation.

I did the whole new-car-versus-carshare/taxis debate last time, and with my schedule of spontaneity, Sundance, and socializing, I decided that car share or zip cars wouldn't work for me. Should I bail on the car thing altogether and just be confident in calculating my annual taxi expense to be less than my auto payment and insurance expenses? Although that would make those increasingly frequent trips to Marin a hassle.

I bought Linda in July 2006 and have put less than 20k miles on it. Right now it's at 78k and change. Should a BMW's transmission fail this soon?

Any suggestions as to what new car to buy? Any reputable dealers? Hybrid? I loathe car research and car shopping. I am open to suggestions.



Update: The new tranny ran me around $3,500, and the other maintenance this week added another $1,000 to that, and in six months I'll need new breaks and an O2 sensor. The birthday party/new computer/savings budget is pretty busted.