Recently, my mother-in-law rented a Honda Odyssey. She returned it the next day after she skidded another driver while changing lanes on the 405.
Fortunately, no one was hurt and the damage was mainly cosmetic. Her mother-in-law looked very apologetic. She was almost relieved that none of it was my fault.
I reassured her that her chest pain was just a traumatic reaction to her message being interrupted by the sudden appearance of my rear bumper. The paramedics she insisted on calling said the same thing.
that was Last year, it was my fault for gouging a huge jagged scratch in the passenger side sliding door. My 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser refused to restart. My portable jump starter was too weak to restart. I had jumper cables and the Toyota was parked next to his wife’s 2016 Tesla Model X.
In a moment of weakness and lack of confidence, I momentarily considered calling AAA. The moment passed quickly.
DIY disaster
The Honda was parked directly behind the Tesla at the bottom of a short, gently sloping gravel road. All I had to do was put the Toyota in neutral, release the emergency brake, and stabilize it as it slowly rolled downhill a few feet until I was parallel to the Honda.
It turns out Toyota needs a little push to move forward. That would be simple enough. Granted, I was nimble enough to jump into the driver’s seat before the truck really started rolling. Closing the door was another matter, but so was I. I got caught by Honda. I’ve always been impressed by the sheer ruggedness of the Land Cruiser. Now I saw it made a deep impression on my daily driver. They really don’t make it like they used to.
The Honda had undergone major repairs a few months ago. While I was stuck in start-stop traffic at Sunset, a woman in her 30s in a VW Beetle rear-ended me with enough force to deploy the airbag. We were both unharmed, but she seemed convinced that she was about to die from a severe heart attack. It took her 10 minutes to coax her out of her car (which has become a major bottleneck) and to the relative safety of the sidewalk. Meanwhile, I observed her Ms. Pac-Man seat cover while commuters hurled insults at me.
I reassured her that her chest pain was just a traumatic reaction to her message being interrupted by the sudden appearance of my rear bumper. The paramedics she insisted on calling said the same thing. After another 30 minutes of emotional labor (I get it, ladies), I managed to pull out her insurance information and get her interested in my insurance information.
The damage was extensive and due to supply chain issues, my car was sitting in the store for months waiting for parts. So I reluctantly started renting a Tesla. There are many everyday experiences that cause me disproportionate irritation. For some reason, Los Angeles traffic isn’t among them.
PC load letter
Except when I’m driving that Tesla. The cryptic “error messages” that pop up on the big display screen make me feel more like bulk printing mailing labels or importing Excel macros than trying to get my kids to soccer practice. . I also don’t like that the motor is hidden. When you open the hood, instead of the expected hoses, valves, and other accessories, you’re faced with the same eerie blankness of a Ken doll’s crotch.
Compare this to the Land Cruiser, which I also started driving more regularly. They lack heat and air, are tricky to start, and have terrible fuel economy, but their interiors are on display for everyone to see. I don’t know what they do, but it was nice to learn.
And I learned a little bit. Owning an old car opens you up to a vast online community of other people who own the same car.It was so I’m a fellow FJ2 owner. He showed me how to remove and clean the idle air control valve. When that didn’t fix my truck’s recent tendency to stall at traffic lights, another compatriot showed me how to repair cracks in the intake hose with duct tape. It worked.
under the hood
It was a small victory, to be sure, but it was enough to make me feel part of what Matthew B. Crawford called the internal combustion engine’s “unique story of engineering progress.” As Crawford writes in his book, why we drive:
[The internal combustion engine has] We are the beneficiaries of the ultimate wiki, the most sustained and widely distributed practical experimental project in human history. Today’s cutting-edge technology is the result of more than a century of back-and-forth between trained engineers and shade-tree mechanics, illegal street racers and environmental regulators, high-priced motorsport and cost-conscious automakers. It is.
Wanting to learn more, I stumbled upon Alex Muir’s elegant work.car mechanismWhat started as a collection of illustrated articles (still available for free on the website) was made more comprehensive by Muir disassembling a Mazda MX5 Miata, modeling everything in 3D, and then reassembling it. It has evolved into something.
As a result, the 14-hour video course that Muir is currently offering for $25 as “lifetime access” patiently explains every aspect of automotive engineering. Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” explaining why modern shamans, known as auto mechanics, are so skilled at obliterating our money. doing. It doesn’t hurt to remember a few of his own tricks.
