Question Of The Day: What Is The Worst Situation You've Been In Recently?

Jonny Lieberman
by Jonny Lieberman

Greetings from Pennsylvania! That’s right, I’ve left the warm (enough) confines of Southern California and journeyed east to meet the fiancee’s parents. It’s going fantastic, thanks for asking. Only thing is, they aren’t exactly what I’d call “car people.” Well, my future father in law’s OK enough. 2002 Jetta with a stick. Not a GLI with the VR6 but salty. Decent. Respectable. Her stepmother, however… Picture it: downtown Philadelphia, six people in the car. Me at the wheel because, “You drive cars (hic) for a living — you drive!” And after half a mile everyone starts noticing how poorly the car is riding. “These old streets are lousy in the winter.” Then it gets worse. “Well,” I say, “The Chevy Venture is one of the reasons why GM is circling the drain.” And when I park — yup — it’s a flat tire. And it’s 26 degrees out. And windy. And it takes 20 minutes to get the jack unstuck. So now there’s a mini-spare donut on the right front corner and the dash reads “AWD Disable.” But, we make it back, no sweat. The next morning (today!) we need to be in Quakertown and it’s 14 degrees and icy and the one tire shop has a “two hour plus” wait. We need to go, so we schlep 40 frosty miles in a hobbled minivan on one pretty alright tire. We live, but not my finest automotive hour. You?

Jonny Lieberman
Jonny Lieberman

Cleanup driver for Team Black Metal V8olvo.

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  • Pb35 Pb35 on Dec 23, 2008

    Great. I cold plugged one of the 19" tires on my Volvo 2 weeks ago (with the brown plugs, thank you). I'll be driving 180 mi. to Dallas tomorrow so I'll let you know if I have any issues! You guys have me all concerned now...

  • WildBill WildBill on Dec 23, 2008

    This wasn't me but happened to some dear friends from Michigan (he's a retired GM employee).... They were on their way back from a convention in Virginia and their GM crap-mobile quit deep in the hills of West Virginia. One of the good ole boys happened by and gave them a lift to a nearby garage. The garage towed it to the shop and discovered it would take a few 1,000s of dollars for the parts and repair to the engine and take them a week or so to get the parts and get it done. Being a nearly-worthless-when-it-runs Buick or Chevy something he didn't want to put the money in it and couldn't wait anyway because they both had to be back at work (and a tow to MI would be outrageous!) so he just gave the car to the guy in exchange for the tow. They caught the bus by standing along the road in a certain place (ride provided by the garage guy) and thus began the real adventure... took two full days to get back to Pontiac, MI on the Dog. At one point they had to get off the bus at a station and the driver wouldn't let them back on because they didn't have any receipt for the fare they had paid because none was available from the driver. Finally convinced the guy he really had gotten off that bus and made they it home, and sent the garage the title to the vehicle. It was funny on the retelling, not so much for them at the time.

  • WildBill WildBill on Dec 23, 2008

    Another given away vehicle story, different friend... she came over to our area (Central Ohio) from the Indy area for a function and had a major enging breakdown to her Buick. Repairs were much more than the car was worth and being a crap-mobile she didn't want to put the money in it. Tried to give it to a charity or sell it to a junk yard but they couldn't take it since is was an out of state vehicle. Had to give it to the garage. Her husband drove 4 1/2 hrs. over then back to get her home.

  • CoffeeJones CoffeeJones on Dec 23, 2008

    @Flashpoint More recently, I took my S550 to my Benz dealer for winterizing and they let me drive a Smart car (the MB in Manhattan near the tunnel). People were fkin laughing at me. :-( It's not like it was painted bright yellow and had "Mercedes of Manhattan - Courtesy Vehicle" banners on it, right? Worst situation I'd been in? Too many times panic braking on snow. :( @blankfocus Driving our 2009 GTI ... sub zero tempratures Ever notice how the LCD (LED?) screen doesn't function very well in extreme cold (-10 F)? The time it takes for each pixel to go from on to off is a few seconds so you get nothing but a semi-visible display until things warm up.

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