The Great Debate, part 176

On Monday as I was driving home from the store, I noticed that my passenger side mirror was in a strange place.  I tried to move it, and I could hear the motor trying to move the mirror, but it was jammed.  Shortly thereafter, the mirror fell off all together, and now I have a dangling piece of plastic off the side of my car.  Excellent.  Three cheers for the fellow citizen who plowed into my car with their cart.

The issue at this point is how to reattach it.  The Hubs read online that the mirror itself will work fine once the plastic housing is back in place.

And it looks like there's just a broken plastic rod inside that was holding it together.  Three cheers for Japanese craftsmanship.  Surely all we would need to do is glue that part back together and it would be as good as new.


But wait!  I present to you, Exhibit B: The Driver's Side Door Handle (and me, giving a thumbs up to my own reflection).

This handle snapped in half in 2009.  The Hubs and I have tried everything to put it back together, including, but not limited to, hot glue, super glue, monkey glue, apoxy, and HubbaBubba Bubblegum (dried oatmeal leftovers, TBD).  In this quest for reunification, I have thus proved that Toyota Camry plastic is impervious to all forms of adhesion with the exception of the magic fairy dust they used to originally assemble their vehicles.  I'm sure it's sold by the ounce at a rate slightly above gold.  I was in a fury on  Facebook for a week over this, but have since surrendered my middle and index fingernails to the trials and tribulations of car ownership.

As my wallet has an aversion to the dealership, I have come up with a possible solution...

Duct Tape!!!

How easy would it be to slap on some duct tape and keep that rickety P.O.S. on my car FOREVER?!?!  

And here we have the great debate.  Am I really ready to be THAT person (not to be confused with THAT Barbie)?  If I tape my car, will my next step be cling wrap for a window replacement?  But can I really bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars on a lame plastic housing?!  What is the studious thing to do - keep my car as nice as possible OR not waste money on a cosmetic part of the car? Or, the third option, should I let it be and just include it as additional percussion while I thump along to "We Be Clubbin?"

To tape, or not to tape: that is the question:

Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them?