When does the lifetime of a car really end?

My BMW needed a little work and we decided to take it the place that specializes in working with BMWs - Just BMW. The guys were really nice and even hooked me up with a Loaner - at least that's what I thought until I saw it. It is a 528e and looked to have been around the block many times. When I got in, I felt like I was in a museum, sitting in a historical piece of work. I checked the odometer - 215,643...Wow, I thought to myself, please don't fall apart on me today.

The Loaner got me to work ok, then I realized I had to go out and do some emergency shopping. Of course, I needed to visit a store about 25 miles away. Into the loaner I went and headed onto the freeway - that was when I realized how much I took heat for granted. As I started picking up speed - 30 mph, you could start to keep the car cool off, as though though someone shut off the heat. Then, I climbed to 50 mph - and I thought someone had rolled down my window and it was only 25 degrees out today. By the time I got to my destination, I could not feel my fingers or my toes - this wasn't helping the fact that the Flinstone BMW didn't have power steering. I promised myself once I was done shopping, I would swing home to grab a scarf, socks, and boots before driving the 25 miles back to work. It was helpful but I could still not feel my fingers and toes when I returned.

I was sad to find out at the end of my day that they had not finished the work on my car so I had to drive the Flintstone BMW back up to Mason. I wasn't used to a toogle switch to turn on my headlights - I kept thinking how I missed pushing buttons? digital display? temperature control? cup holder? and then I was actually welcoming rush hour traffic so that my fingers and toes could get small blasts of warm air every so often to revive it. As I neared home, I was curious to see how many miles I had put on this poor car and all I could do was laugh. The odometer still read 215,643....I can't wait to get my car back!