Several years ago, our family was on a road trip when the kids asked us to list off all the cars that we have had - an interesting exercise. We started listing them off, saying how long we had a certain car and why we had to get rid of it (usually because it broke down and wasn't worth repairing). It was somewhat surprising how many cars we went through. Partway through the list, a young Robbie said, "Dad, you've got car issues." :-) "Well, son, when every car you buy has more than 150,000 miles on it, you're gonna have issues."
Robbie and I, along with our friend Bani, trekked to Germany to try to hunt down a cheap used car for our stay in Albania (not a good idea to buy a car in Albania for a host of reasons I won't get into). We were blessed to stay with some of Tanja's German relatives, Simon and Simone Lang. They not only hosted us but were an incredible help with the not-so-simple process of buying a car and getting it registered for export to Albania.
It is safe to say we had "car issues" on this 5-day turned to 2 week adventure. The first car we bought broke down the next day, thankfully, before we set out to return. After many days of trying to get it repaired and failing, we finally got our money back and ended up purchasing the 2002 Nissan Patrol in the picture above. It has been around the block a few times and has a LOT of miles but got us down through Austria, the Alps, to Florence for an overnight stay with my brother, on down to Bari, Italy and onto a ferry and over to Durrës, Albania. We are home with a vehicle! One that should be well made to travel on rough Albania roads. Now we get to engage in the complex process of trying to get a car registered here, hoping and praying for at least a short break from more "car issues".