Drive your own car. I’m not up to date on Malibus, but you are getting close to needing some routine maintenance. Water pump, timing belt, transmission fluid change. Stuff like that although maybe not exactly that. Talk to your mechanic about stuff like that. I want to be clear this is stuff that is going to need to be done soon if you take the trip in your car or not. Go ahead and get that kind of stuff taken care of then drive your car.

I have ever only tracked one car without power brakes and hated it. It was a thunder roadster and it was set up right, but it had a wide brake pedal because it damn well needed it. The manual brakes were one of the reasons I didn’t buy the car.

So a lot of other people have made good suggestions, but if I had a car that I routinely let sit for a couple of weeks at a time I would put a battery maintainer on it for while I was gone. Lots of good cheap ones out there.

My question is have they already done the work and you don’t want to pay? Or do they say the work needs to be done? Two different situations.

If the work has already been done be prepared to be sued in small claims court. The shop can also file a mechanic’s lien and take ownership of the vehicle and sell it to reclaim some of their costs. Don’t expect anything they sell the vehicle for to come off what you owe though because it will be racking up storage fees while they go through the process. I know you said you aren’t trying to be edgy, but just to be clear if this first situation is the case then you are a severe dick.

If it is just at the point where they have given you an estimate and that is more than you want to pay then call the shop and talk to them. Sign the title over to them and maybe you can walk away from it.

It is a 16 year old Hyundai. Not worth saving.

Unlikely. Unless they put in a new clutch or something when you had your last service. This just goes under the category of cars are expensive sometimes.

This looks likely to be either leaking brake fluid, a bad clutch slave cylinder, a worn through clutch line (which would leak the brake fluid) or something similar. Shouldn’t be horribly expensive to get fixed, but probably is going to need a tow to a mechanic if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself.

If it is cheap and reliable then rock it.