The '97 Chevy Lumina I've been driving for the past few years has been having issues over the past year and a half that have been steadily growing worse. It would do this thing when I'd turn it on and the engine would rumble; make noises that seemed like some valve was clogged and it would only get air or gas or something in intermittently, so it would go VMMvmVMMvmm until I drove it for a bit and then it would stop, though it wouldn't accelerate (just refused to, even if I floored the gas pedal) faster than 15 or 20mph for 5-10 minutes.

Weelll we finally got it checked out today (after I got stranded in the Target parking lot last Monday after buying some presents for a friend's baby shower) annnddd it's the gas pump, like my dad suspected (he thought it was finally getting clogged up - when you drive the car until it's approaching red, the pump can inhale dust and dirt along with some of the air it would pull in along with the gasoline).

So the gas pump is having problems and is due for a replacement. Except in order to replace that, you have to take out the gas tank and pretty much the whole gas system, which is something we HAVE to get done at a garage.

Cost of fixing: $1,200. Which is probably about or slightly less than the worth of the entire car.

Yiiikes.