[Beethoven]

Just a few words after I've thought about the whole affair with the assistance of a few pints of good German ale.
Clearly, the dealer backed off their estimate when I said that I would pull the car, and when I displayed some sense of mechanical knowledge (borrowed, of course, from my Chicago friends). That doesn't make him less despicable, but it makes it less painful.
When the car broke down I had other options. I could have had the car towed to Fisher, where I usually have work done. But that would not have allowed me to get back to work in time for a very important meeting. Was that meeting worth $500? Yes. And I didn't know that the dealer prices would be so brutal. Lesson learned.
When I bought the Porsche last summer, I wanted it as a daily driver. I thought of getting a beater for the winter and for repairs, but I decided not to. Yes, I'm exposing the car to very inclement conditions, but I'm doing my best to keep it as clean as I can, and look after it. An alternator failure in a 16 year old car doesn't change my confidence in its engineering. We're all getting older, and the cars with us--the difference being, of course, that spare parts for them are easier to come by. But I'm not the type of car guy who wants to keep all influences of time out of his garage.
I also have chosen the location of my appartment in Chicago in such a way that should the car need to be laid off longer, I can easily go to work on a train.
The other argument against a beater was that I would be spending four or five months of the year in a car I didn't like. Going to work in the Porsche and returning in the evening--these 40 minutes are among the best of my day. I don't want to deprive myself of that.
I think that even though I'm a mechanical ignoramus and, at the moment at least, not in a position to get into DIY, I'm set up pretty well to run this car on a daily basis, what with AAA de luxe, Fisher, and of course, the fellas always at the ready.
Yep, that's what the German beer told me last night.