I got turned down for that auto loan that I applied for on Wednesday. The woman at the credit union must have mailed the denial letter out as soon as I walked out the door, because it arrived in the mail yesterday morning. So now, I'll either have to find somebody else who'll finance me, or start saving my pennies.
This morning, I took the Subaru in to a repair shop to get fixed. I was going to fix it myself, but my father-in-law had some body parts for an old Firebird that this guy at the repair shop wanted, so he traded them for $100 worth of parts and labor towards fixing my car, which should more than cover fixing the exhaust bolt holes. The repair shop looked like a scummy little place, and they probably won't do any better of a job than I would, but at least (well, hopefully) if something goes wrong, their warranty will cover it.