Last night’s drive home from work started out very uneventful, but things quickly fell apart as every warning light turned on as my ability to accelerate went away about 7 minutes in to my trip.  Thankfully, I was able to get over to the shoulder and, eventually, off the tollway.  After an initial stop at the local Meineke, I found a nearby Toyota dealer that was able to squeeze me in.

A few hours later, after having gotten a ride home, I got a call with the news: the auxiliary battery needed replacing, for the low, low fee of $500.  If you had asked me the day before if the car even had an auxiliary battery, I would have told you no.

This brings the grand total of car charges in the last month or so to $1500, which seems kind of excessive.  I was hoping to make it to at least 200,000 miles, which hopefully will be possible with all of these expensive fixes out of the way.  If things continue down this path, though, then it may be time to start looking for a new car.