He was actually pretty fair with me. First, he didn't charge me for assessing what was wrong with the car, there wasn't even a $50 inspection fee. The car had 220,000 miles on it. He said the price he was giving me was the worst case scenario in case everything fell apart when he dug in there. You can't just buy the bearings, there's a whole unit that has to be installed. In addition to all that, the car had been leaking coolant for a long time, needed new tires, and only had 1/8 of a tank of gas. It needed $1,000 in parts and labor. Even if the bearing deal got taken care of for half what he thought (and he said that was possible), the car still needed $700 in work. If I saw an '04 Subaru on Craigslist with 220,000 miles on it for $1,000, I wouldn't buy it. Therefore, I elected to get a new car.

I wrote another story on Runner's Life about how people who stay in shape get overlooked by doctors who are used to treating typically obese Americans. Stay healthy!