Hepcat talked to the great Volvo expert, Lorenzutti on Douglas Street, and now thinks that Goldie can be saved. Lorenzutti says that the car just needs a new gasket and he can do the work.

What that means is that we are having the car towed from Ft. Lee, New Jersey to Douglas Street at a cost of $275 plus tolls and tax.

Then we’ll see what Lorenzutti can do. If it’s super expensive we will probably pass.

Hepcat is quite agitated about all of this. He’s not sure if he wants to THROW more money into this 20-year-old car. Goldie has been an incredibly reliable, great car for the ten years that we’ve owned her.

I first saw her driving down Greene Street in SoHo with her old owner with a For Sale sign on the window. I ran after her and at the stoplight told the owners that we were interested.

A few days later, Hepcat took a bus to southern New Jersey and picked up the car from the owners.

It’s been ten good years with Goldie. Hepcat and Teen Spirit drove her cross country country in the summer of 2001. And what an adventure it was: they drove Goldie to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, the Warhol Museum, the St. Louis Arch, Denver, Colorado, the Salt Flats in Nevada and the beach at San Francisco and many other places in between.

Hepcat’s mother and sister drove the car east a few weeks after 9/11. Because of the New York plates, they were cheered all the way across the country.

But she seems to be on her last wheels now.

It may be time for a new car. Not a new new car, of course. Hepcat only buys used cars. But something a bit more up to date.

What cars do you like?