Understood, but, here's my question, if my uncle, who's a mechanic and the mechanics at a trusted professional garage cannot seem to correctly diagnose it, how do you expect me to?
I'd rather not have to work on a car, yes, but I'm not opposed to it. I worked on my Grand Am back in the day and did most of the work on my Millenia whenever it needed it. I think you're just confusing the situation with the Cutlass where I actually can't work on it because I have to drive it to work nearly every day without having another car to drive. I barely had time to change the sparks last year (course, I wasn't expecting to be an hour plus job). If this were the summer, however, I would have the option of using a motorcycle, so it could sit in the garage and actually be worked on whenever I had free time. But it's not, it's still quite cold out there.
My situation with the Millenia is that I don't want start putting money into while all my money is going towards the Cutlass in gas and random little things that never fail to break. Perhaps I worded it in a way that wasn't clear. I'd rather start working on it when I have something reliable and easy on gas to drive so that I actually have money to fall back on besides my savings. Know what I mean?
Yes, though, that is basically the plan if I go the beater route. To me, a granny car is a beater. It's undesirable, it's cheap, and holds no emotional value. Thus, a beater.