[Bahlzeron]

Originally Posted by phild1087

I've driven stick myself all my life, one of these days I'll convince my girlfriend to let me teach her, haha.

No. seriously. don't. I like the fact so few people can drive stick.. they don't ask to borrow my car.

Back on topic though, the mechanic probably listened to what she said was going on, maybe test drove it himself and either way checked the temperature of the cat. A catalytic converter runs pretty hot to begin with, but when they get clogged (which does happen with time, typically carbon buildup) they start to get much hotter than they normally should (go on youtube, Eric the car guy explains this quite well). It may not make much sense, but a clogged cat will mess with a transmission's shifting (engine power and all that). It's an older car, it's going to need maintenance, repairs and general TLC to keep it in good operating order. My suggestion, buy it from her.. fix it up and you got a nice lil Oldsmobile compact sport... maybe even make it into a go-fast rice eater.

edit to add: I'm kinda slow.. this post took me over an hour, and two Vanilla Java Porters to do (I'm anal about grammar and spelling and I'm bad at typing)
not my picture, but for reference this beer is freakin awesome