My 2000 Mazda Protege is — for all intents and purposes — practically dead, even though it only has 68,000 miles. Let me clarify: It is running — but a little too easily. Last week, after lifting my foot off the accelerator pedal and without hitting cruise control, my car started accelerating on its own. I hit the brakes, but it didn’t stop my car. That freaked me out. Compounding the whole situation was the fact that my two-year-old was in the backseat. Luckily I was on the freeway and not in a parking lot, or in a school zone, or in traffic. I exited the freeway to a street that I knew would be practically abandoned. I put the car in neutral. That finally slowed the car down, but it was revving at 5,000 RPM in neutral. So, I turned the engine off. Shaking, perturbed and worried for my child, I called AAA for a tow.

Just why my car just suddenly started accelerating on its own has been a mystery to the two mechanics that I’ve brought it to, so far. The codes for this problem are not coming up on the computer. Wasn’t there a time when mechanics were able to diagnose a problem without computers? Anyway, the only clue that my car — which has since stopped accelerating on its own — can offer is that it “sails” on its own for a couple seconds when I lift my foot off the pedal and idles high — about 1,000 RPM — in park. I’m bringing it to a third mechanic tomorrow. And if he can’t figure it out, I will bring it to the Mazda dealership’s service department, even though my warranty has expired (5-year, 60,000 miles — they know how to time it really well, don’t they?).

I have been hesitant to bring my car to the dealer because the last time I did so, they charged me $60 just to hook the car up to a computer when my check engine light came on. What was the problem? The gas cap needed to be screwed on tighter. It cost me $60 to learn that my gas cap needed to be screwed on tighter. Sure, I should have tightened my gas cap. But, given that I had been using them and wanted to keep using them — they are the Protege experts, aren’t they? — they could have chosen to cut me some slack or offered me a bit of a discount, especially considering the fact that it’s pretty easy to hook up a car to a computer diagnostic device (I’ve since seen it done three times — it takes one minute and the computer is hand-held). But, they didn’t do the right thing. They charged me $60 to perform a one-minute procedure.

I wanted to like Mazda. I bought one, after all. I wanted my car to live to the ripe old age of 20. I wanted it to be the car that I used to teach my daughter to drive. But more than likely, it will end up in a trash heap before the year is done. I can’t comfortably drive a car that spontaneously accelerates on its own.