I got my car back. $2,754 later... ugh. Holy shit. The mechanic dude showed me my old valves and crankshaft and I don't know much about cars, but even I could tell something was wrong. The valves were all bent out to the sides and the crankshafty thing was like... not cranky enough. And then my timing belt was chewed to shit. Had like 20 teeth left on it and it's supposed to have roughly fifty billion. And then my water pump had leaked into my engine or something so...

I'm glad to have it back, I think. I am worried about it... I mean, I had a crappy Mazda I never took care of and it only died like twice (but they were small fixes), and this car, I change out fluids and oils and all kinds of stuff and it dies on me two years after I bought it. And everything for it has to be special ordered or is stupidly expensive for the same shit BUT it won't run on normal shit and UGHHH I don't know. 3 more years left on my loan, I just hope it doesn't die again. Then my ass is getting a Jeep. *nods* I can only pray that nothing else is going to go wrong. Puuuuhhhlease, VW gods, smile upon me!

I drove it around and got some gas in it after I got it back. Then I gave it a poorman's carwash (ya know those squeedgies at the gas station? Took full advantage of them!) and took it home. The mechanic guy said I should do all these things and tests and said I shouldn't have too many issues cuz it's a manual. Then I got lectured on how my car is going to drive differently and how timing belts work and how every 50k-60k you should check that damn belt.

CHECK THEM GODDAMNIT.

I'm happy I don't have to drive around that cargo van everywhere now. It's huge. I tower over everyone. Now my car feels like a friggen go-kart or something. It'll take some getting used to, I suspect. :P