Sometimes it seems like there are cars that don’t want to be fixed. We’ve been working on one lately that’s driving us nuts. We had the engine rebuilt by a reputable shop and we had the distributor redone by a specialist. When the car went back together, it should have run like a clock.

Instead, we’ve encountered nothing but problems. It runs hot. It pings when we shut it off. When we pulled the spark plugs, the front three were fine and the rear three were black and sooty. This car used to keep the power on until it hit 6000 rpm. Now, the top of the power curve is 4,000-4,500 rpm.

With a freshly rebuilt engine, we thought the car would be humming, but instead it’s shaking. We’re sure that the problem or problems are nothing major, but we are honestly beginning to think the car doesn’t want to be fixed.

If you read classified ads, you run across cars that don’t want to be fixed all of the time. One online ad we saw tonight was trying to sell a car that wouldn’t idle properly. The seller said it ran OK at highway speed, but that several shops couldn’t get it to run good at idle speed. He didn’t even mention the year, make or model of the car; he just said, “I’m sure someone can fix it!”

We wonder if he wants to bet on that? To us, it sounds like he has a car that doesn’t want to be fixed. In fact, his classified ad just backs up our theory that some cars prefer to be broken. After all, if a car can’t run, it has a lot less stress in its life. A broken car doesn’t have to bring home the groceries or take the kids to school. All it does is sit in the driveway and relax.

Have you ever had an old car that didn’t want to be fixed? Chances are you have. We’d love to hear about it.