Napkin Notes: Goodbye, Essie

Essie, our beloved Ford Escort of eleven years, is in her death throes. It’s hard to say when her downward spiral started.  That infuriating red “check engine” light came on forty thousand miles ago and just never went away, no matter how many times we took her in for a check-up, but we learned to live with it.  Over the years, she occasionally needed this or that part replaced, her brakes repaired, or her tires aligned, but it was never anything serious.  About six months ago, the lights in the dashboard went out, leaving us to guess how fast we were going anytime we traveled after dark, but it was a minor inconvenience at worst. We were (mostly) faithful about her quarterly engine service appointments, and, in blatant denial of her Ford-ish origins, we were somehow convinced that she would keep running for years to come/ Katrina , Notes on a Napkin. More here .

Question: How long do you put up with a dying vehicle?