I guess I had a pretty lucky run. In the 21 years since I began driving, I never had to pay more than about $800 for a car repair. Until now.

On the way home from a one-night rock ‘n’ roll road trip to see Green Day in Omaha last week, my beloved LeSabre began acting strangely. As we pulled into a gas station somewhere in the middle of Iowa, the car jerked a little as I was accelerating. It happened again as I was merging onto the freeway after refueling. I didn’t think much of it.

Unfortunately, when we hit stop-and-go traffic about an hour from home, the problem became more pronounced. Each time I accelerated, the car jolted us a bit. I began to silently worry we wouldn’t make it home without a stall. Just a few blocks from home, the service engine light clicked on, but we made it.

After unloading the cooler and our bags, I headed to my usual mechanic to check out the problem. By this point, I assumed the problem was transmission-related, as the jerkiness seemed to occur when the car was shifting gears. Sure enough, when the mechanic checked the diagnostic code, it pinpointed a problem with the torque converter clutch, which is apparently part of the transmission. He directed me to a different garage, which specializes in transmissions. Following a more thorough examination, the transmission shop determined the tranny has an internal leak and gave me the bad news: Fixing it requires a complete overhaul, estimated at $2,000. Lucky me.

The LeSabre has only 60,000 miles and isn’t even paid off yet, so there wasn’t a question whether I would shell out the money. What really bothers me about a $2,000 car repair bill is that I won’t have anything to show for my investment. We’re having a new garage door installed in a week or so. While I’m not thrilled about spending $1,200 to replace my old, busted door, at least I’ll have a nice new door to show for the money.

Would it be weird to ask the guys at the transmission shop to give me the bad transmission parts in a big jar of formaldehyde?