After a long road trip, I noticed engine bogging, then surging. Basically running erratically. I had to take it to an unfamiliar shop since I was hundreds of miles from home.

Mechanic basically told me the oil was very, very, dangerously low. He did not see any oil leaks. He noticed I had just had an oil change and suspected that the previous shop had not added the correct amount of oil since "there was no way to consume that much oil in 1000 miles"

Needless to say, I spent $280 and was without a vehicle for a day while traveling, but had it back in working order in time for my trip home.

After my Traverse began to misfire and the check engine light came on registering code PO300 (multiple misfire), I decided to change the plugs myself since it's about 80% cheaper. Changing the plugs, I noticed that there was a little bit of oil in a couple of the plug wells. With a little research, apparently that seems to be a trend among later model vehicles and cheap, rapid assembly. A common problem caused by leaking valve cover gasket or when an O-ring weakens or loosens. Seems like a never ending cycle...

The car sputtered (skipping). There was heavy rain throughout the week so I assumed it was just super wet and caused it to skip. After the rain let up and the Texas sun came out, it continued sporadically. I went to Cavender Oldsmobile off of Loop 1604 and Shaenfield in San Antonio, Texas and was told it was an ignition coil. Cool. Replace it. They also noted the the misfire caused some blockage in the left side catalytic converter. I didn't have the money to replace that ($800) so I let it slide, especially since they found and fixed the root cause of the misire causing unburned fuel to get into the catalytic converter, right? Nope.

Fast forward 3 months nad same thing, only more exaggerated. Take it to Part store to check the codes, and they said it was 2 different cylinders misfiring and a catalytic converter. Ok, buy some Cataclean for $25 and it says it'll clean it up and I won't need to get it replaced. BULL$H!T, but $25 is better than $800. Fastforward again and I get cut off doing 65mph. I slam on the brakes and the car dies... I pull over, restart it but this time, it dies everytime get go into Drive from Park. Get it towed back to Cavender and the diagnosis begins with "You must replace 2 of the 3 catalytic converters ($1600+) then we can find out why they got clogged; we cannot use the codes listed as they become irrelevant once the backpressure caused the car to stall/die. Ok, replace 'em. Done. "Sir, you need 5 coil packs (there are 6 - other was done in February) and the 3rd catalytic converter is clogged. If you don't replace it, you'll only get to about 50mph." F*ck me. Replace the coils and plugs, but I'm cutting out the f*ckin' rear catalytic converter.