For all practical purposes, I've been driving the same car for almost twenty years. I bought my original Saturn Coupe in November 1996, and drove it for more than 100,000 miles before it met its end in a freak 2005 accident while it was being serviced. By another strange twist of fate, the dealership just happened to have an almost identical car on its used lot - five years newer and red instead of green, but otherwise a perfect match. I've driven it ever since, and now it has 253,000 miles on it.

But now I'm at a crossroads. My Saturn still runs great, but it needs some work done and will need new tires by the end of the year. Do I want to put more money into it and try to keep it going for a couple more years, or is it time to find something new?

Here's the problem with that question - There's very little new out there that I like. There are no more Saturns. After the 2002 model, GM moved them out of their original Spring Hill TN factory and started treating them just like any other GM brand. The quality went away, the sales tanked and GM ended up getting rid of the brand when they restructured. It's very hard to find a stick-shift any more, unless you want a sports car or a muscle car, and that's not my style. But the hardest thing for me to believe is that just about anything new on the market would cost me more on gas. Yes, my 2002 Saturn with 253,000 miles on it still gets better gas mileage than most of what you can buy new.

At this point, you may say, "How about a hybrid?" Good suggestion! That's where I've been looking. But there's a problem with that, too - one that's more cultural, really. A Midwesterner like me has been raised to think that it's your patriotic duty as an American to buy American cars. I can still hear my grandfather even now. But Americans don't build small cars any more - just big cars and SUVs and trucks. Even the American car companies build their small cars in Mexico or Canada or overseas. So I guess I don't really have a choice about it, do I? At least there's that.

Anyway, after a lot of internet researching, I have an appointment to go check something out this afternoon. Either I'll like it or I won't, at which point I'll go ahead and get my Saturn fixed up. I can try again in a year or two and see if anyone has come out with something I like better.

Stay tuned.