No, not because today is Live Earth today, but rather, because it’s starting to smell a bit lemony, if you catch my drift. After the 1 year mark, it started acting up every 3 or 4 months with some sort of problem that may or may not have required me to go to the garage to get it fixed. Now, I’m not that enamoured of the truck anymore because it’s, well, a little too utility in its driving, but not utility enough in its functionality.

By way of being “too utility”, I mean that it drives a little too stifly and bumpy for my taking. I’m not looking for that expensive car handling that makes you feel like you’re being cradled in your favourite baby blanket while being rocked to sleep on a hammock by the seaside, but even just plain old sitting on the couch type of handling. This thing shakes, rattles and rolls when going over bumps, and I’m not that excited about that. But I knew about that when I bought it, as it is an SUV.

As for the “not utility enough”, I mean that it doesn’t have some features that any SUV should have, namely, an all-ready-to-use roof rack. Now my SUV has these black long things running on the roof that I thought was a roof rack, as my father’s old SUV had something similar, and I used it to transport all sorts of things up top. The black thingys on my SUV though, are decoration only. Can you believe that? In order to actually use the roof rack, I would have to buy these factory-only-available cross bars to screw in to the black thingys. This seems utterly ridiculous to me, and if I’d noticed that way back when, I might not have taken the vehicle. For the second item that annoys me, it’s the fact that I can’t tie down the back trunk and let something hang out the back. They actually reversed the position of the latch and clasp, so that you can’t tie down the truck door. I understand that’s so you don’t let exhaust fumes in, but considering we’ve been doing that for years with all our other vehicles, I find it most frustrating that my SUV doesn’t let me.

The latest saga is the Service Engine Soon light that came on the other day. According to the owner’s manual, when it comes on and stays on, it could mean one of two things: 1-the gas cap isn’t securely fastened, or 2-you have an emissions problem and you should take it into the garage soon for service. Considering I had recently filled the gas tank, I figured that was the problem, so I replaced the cap, and went on my merry way. The manual says that if it’s just the gas cap problem, then the light will turn off after a few trips. Well, after about 8 trips and 4 days, the light has finally turned off! Yay. I was actually going to take the truck in for service on Monday as I figured I had problem #2, but no, my truck was just being a pain in the ass. Sheesh.

Once my lease is over next year, or is it the year after? Gawd, I hope not! After the lease is up, I am most definitely NOT going to be keeping this vehicle. No sireebob!