car wars

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile now, but I've been pretty busy so needless to say I'm just now getting to it :). At the beginning of Christmas break, my mom told me that I was going to have to start driving her car, especially when I go back to school. Hers is 10 years younger than mine and doesn't have all of the problems that come with an older car. Now, let me explain: there isn't really anything wrong with my car. It runs great, it's reliable, and the gas mileage is outstanding. I love it to death. Over the past four years, we've bonded a lot. There are only two minor problems. The first is a squealing/jingling sound when I back up. This is most likely due to a leak I have on my axle and I can get that repaired for about $60. The second problem is an issue I've had since I bought the car. It has a leak coming from an unidentifiable place. It most certainly is coming from behind the dash and in order to fix it, I'd have to cough up $1,500 for a mechanic to pull the dash off and repair the leak. The leak hasn't been much more than a minor pain the butt, but recently it's gotten pretty bad. The whole passenger side of my car is sopping wet and smells of mildew. Last weekend I took it over to my boyfriend's house and he used his shop-vac to vacuum around two cups of water out of my carpet. Not too bad. I then went to Wal-Mart and bought a clear rubber mat to go over the carpet and some Febreze for the smell. I didn't put the mat over the carpet because it needed to finish drying some more. I did Febreze it though. Anyway, the mat still isn't down because guess what? It rained before the carpet had a chance to dry out a little more. I haven't been inside my car since then, but I know that it is freaking wet in there since it has rained really hard for the past few days. Also, there is an enormous condensation build up on the inside glass and I can't see into my car. Blah. I really wish I could get this fixed because I love my car and I want to drive it. I don't want to get a respiratory disease from inhaling mildew/mold though, and I want to be able to see when I drive as well. My car has a tendency to fog up pretty badly because of how wet it is inside. So until that's fixed, I have to drive my mom's car to Chapel Hill and she gets stuck with mine :\. I feel really bad about that because she doesn't need to drive my piece of crap to work everyday. True, she only has a five-minute commute versus my hour and fifteen-minute drive, but something about the situation just doesn't gel with me. I wish there was something I could do, but until I get a steady source of income, I can't trade my car in for something else. Until that day comes, I'll have to battle with the leak and hope for the best.