YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

What's your funniest or worst car experience? Did your wheels let you down, bunkie?

I made mention of this in my post on my vehicle history list, so I'll fill in the details for those of you who are curious.

It was January, 1989, and my wife and I desperately needed a weekend to ourselves - we had our first child in May of '88 and hadn't had any 'us' time since. My wife's sister graciously volunteered to watch said kidlett for a weekend.
The weekend before the trip we bought a '84 Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park wagon from the local Chevy dealer. It drove nice. It had all the goodies, including leather, it was (I thought) in good shape, and it was a STATION WAGON! (I've got a thing for wagons)
We took off from "the O.C." about 5 PM. Problem #1 - have to take said kidlett 80 miles (in the opposite direction) to Camarillo, before heading off to Vegas. Problem #2 - It was raining - hard. I don't just mean a hard 'LA rain' (not very much). It was coming down in buckets. Traffic was just a bit congested. We arrived in Camarillo at about 10 PM. (Let's see, class..5 hours to go 80 miles is....Bueller?)
The weather let up as we headed up I-15, but it was very cold. Let's turn up the heater, OK? - Problem #3 - no heat (I guess you could say it had dual A/C).
We finally got in to Vegas, freezing legs and all about 3 AM Saturday. Saturday was a good day - nothing happened.
We woke up Sunday morning in the hotel room looking forward to a cup of coffee and a good breakfast. Drove the MGMCP over to a Carrow's restaurant down the block. As I pulled into the parking space, the car kind of bucked on me, and I thought I may have hit the stall curb thingie. Some 'steam' came out of the gaps around the hood - I thought that maybe some water had overflowed from the coolant bottle and splashed on the engine. I wasn't concerned - didn't even look under the hood. My wife and I were walking to the restaurant door when I heard Problem #4 - "Hey mister, your car's on fire!" The busboy who alerted me grabbed a fire extinguisher and we got it out, but not before most of the engine wiring looms were done for.
The MGMCP was towed to the local Ford dealer, never to be driven again. We had to rent a car to drive home (and I had to take the rental back to Vegas 3 weeks later to avoid the drop off charge, but that's another story.)
I may not be done with MGMCP's, either. We'll see.
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Do you have a good one? Let's hear it.

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

My stories not that great, but it is useful info...

Dumb me left headlights on at the walmart parking lot causing battery to die. Went into walmart and purchased a battery, took outside and jumped myself. Put the cover back on, and returned the battery no questions asked! Moral of the story - Wal-Mart will return ANYTHING!

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

But when you really needed your next battery, where did you get it?

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

I had a fuel pump malfunction and destoryed my engine. that was a blast. (literally)

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

well luckily I've never had any other battery related problems. Guess that's what AAA is for.

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

I supressed the memory.

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

That's OK. But wouldn't you feel better if you could share?
(Actually, we just want a laugh at your expense.)

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

Oh, it's a beaut. I posted about it last week, I think. Long story short, car backed out of the garage (not me driving) ripped off the front bumper and creased the front left fender. $1500.00. Aaaaannnndddd, they still haven't fixed the head light washers. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

Oh, yeah. I read about that one. If I had joined sooner, I could of helped you with your collision repair issues (I'm in the biz). Sorry.

RE: YOUR FUNNIEST (WORST?) CAR EXPERIENCE...
 

What exactly do you do? As it is, I'm not very satisfied with the work. In addition to the head light washer issues, the fender isn't fitted correctly. The clearance between the fender and hood on the right side (repaired side) is noticeably greater than the left side. I suppose I can adjust that myself, but I shouldn't have to do that for $1500.00.