poor satan saturn

My poor, poor Satan Saturn (aka Katina-mobile Mark 1)...it's sick.

The A/C stopped working this last weekend and I can't figure out if it's because the system has no freon or if there's something more serious wrong. Mostly because I can't find the damn sight glass. But at least I figured out where the air compressor is. And all this time I thought that it was the alternator. I should have guessed that the tubes leading into/out of it marked R134A would have indicated that the thing was the air conditioner, not the alternator. But what can I say, I'm a girl... Never mind the fact that I used to do calculations utilizing R134A on a daily basis back in college.

Also, I need to have Transmission work done. From what I remember from the conversation with the mechanic last September: "Blah, blah, blah...transmission....blah, blah, blah... bare wires in fluid...blah blah blah...take your car to a transmission shop."

AND

The passenger side speaker is blown out. The dome light isn't really attached to the ceiling anymore, it more or less just hangs there. The fuse panel door doesn't fit over the panel any more. And the clock (part of the radio) doesn't light up when I turn on the lights because the little light is busted.

Oh yeah, and the car has started losing oil. Though it has been better since I had it at the shop last September (before I was going through an extra quart of oil every 1500 miles. Now it's more like a quart every 3000 or so miles, and hey! that's when you're supposed to get the oil changed anyhow! Woo!).

So yes, my poor little saturnmobile is starting to keel over slowly. And now the question is whether we should have it all fixed, or how big of a band-aid we should put on it before just breaking down and getting a newer car for me.