My car is died and Detriot is not looking too healthy either.

Since 1988 I have been driving a 1986 Mazda subcompact. It was a hatxhback, not flashy but, reliable transportation and very good on gas. One August night in 2007 I was driving it home from the Ronkonkoma train station. I turned a corner and the car died. It cranked fine but, just never started again. Since it had only 66,000 original miles on the odometer I knew it still had some life in it even if the body was starting to show it's age. I was planning on buying a new car anyway but, I thought I try and use it for one more year. I had it towed to my house thinking I would try and revive it. I never did make much progress or really spend much time on it. This week I donated it to a children's charity. It was sad to see it being towed off. I knew it still had a few miles in it. But, the reality is I did not have the time to work on it like I thought I would. I had bought a new car brand new which if my driving remains the same may last me until I die. Only a few months before I had spent $600 for a new muffler system for it to keep it going. It nows looks like that was money that was wasted. Meanwhile in Washington the Federal Government has granted billions of dollars in loans to the big three U.S. car makers to keep them going. I just hope that will not be money that was wasted too.