Broke down and bought a battery and insurance for my little orphan PT Cruiser.
The trans is in perpetual "limp mode", and I'll have to drive it some to get it to set all the codes I need to pull out of its brain.
I've been putting random batteries in it to warm it up every couple of weeks, but every time I disconnect the battery, it loses the codes...so I need to leave a fresh one in it that has enough beans to not discharge fully if it sits a while.
Far as the insurance goes, I can't drive it to diagnose it it it's not insured, and with the expired tag, it's just screaming to get pulled over and impounded...BUT, if it's insured I CAN drive around some for diagnosis, aven on an expired tag.
Happily for me, it only takes about 30 seconds online to add or remove a vehicle from my policy, and they only charge me for the days it's on.