"Uh, this car looks like it's been driven up North... like New York. You're looking at about $1000 in brake work. I don't want to worry you, but this will be a lot easier to explain when you come in to the shop. I can show you exactly what I'm talking about."
Up on the lift, with the tires removed, the brakes looked as though we had driven through wet cement and parked for about, I don't know, a thousand and one years. The mechanic couldn't rotate the front driver's side rotor without a pry bar for leverage. We laughed nervously and asked, "Is it safe enough to drive home?"
"How far is home?" he asked.
Well, we drove it home. And then, we drove it 119 miles more to trade it in at a Toyota dealership, with Whitney clutching my arm anytime the distance between us and the car in front of us shrank beneath the length of a football field. Her anxiety wasn't entirely unfounded. You could literally hear the rusted rotors grinding as the break pads made contact. People were staring.
Now for the happy part. We arrived safely, obviously, and purchased our newest family member. (Wow, that sounds awful!) Meet Flip. She is a 2009 Toyota Yaris 3-door hatchback. The pictures say everything...with help from the captions.
