My Saturn's getting old

[javasaurus]

A little here, a little there, the Saturn never needs enough repairs to call it quits. Well, it just failed its emissions test. In thirteen years, it's always passed. Even now, it only failed the hydrocarbons, suggesting that it's simply not burning all its fuel (that's what the failure report said, anyway). That could mean it needs a tune-up, which is cheap, or a new catalytic converter, which is not cheap.

What's really irritating is that it just had a tune-up (my Mr. Tire adventures back in April, grrrrrr....), which only confirms in my head that the Mr. Tire in Annapolis couldn't find their lugnuts with a socket wrench.

However, we found a local mechanic, mostly by accident, that seems OK. This will be a good test case for him.