Corolla LS V4

• Manual transmission
• 88,000 miles

I have had no real troubles with my car until now. As a back story, I bought my corolla used from a dealership about two years ago. It had 50K for mileage and I have added a substantial amount of mileage in the past year due to a much longer commute to work. For a while now, I had noticed the sound of the engine was much more pronounced/loud then when I first bought the car. I assumed it was related to the car getting older. I have taken care of this car and felt I was safe. I took comfort in the fact that I had arguably the most reliable / everlasting car in the industry. I was apparently wrong. I was in fifth gear yesterday heading to work when all of a sudden I heard some sort of noise and before I knew it, there was a loud grinding noise and vibration that I could feel in my stick shift. That was the death of my transmission.

Long story short, I needed an entirely new tranny and opted to replace the clutch as well. The overall costs were $3,000 and change. The repair tech said it was like a grenaid went off inside the transmission. I still cannot believe this just happened and at a time where money does not exactly grow on trees. I truely am at a lost for words and I am sure anger will soon set in if it has not already done so.