I'm not helping the cause of women drivers much...

Or me, when I bought a 1974 Yamaha RD-400. it was a friend of mine's. Took it out for a ride and the guy says, don't forget to put gas in it. I had ridden it before and always put gas in it. I get about 10 miles from home and it dies. Kicking, kicking, kicking; the starter lever shot up on one kick and gave me a nasty scar. Would go 1/2 mile and stall again. OK, he meant it NEEDS gas!

I'm filling it at a station where another friend works, and telling him the story and he reaches down and flips the Reserve lever...

Natalie

Didn't you notice that your Echo had some power for a change when you went up a grade?

mike hunt

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I also had the noise from the revving, but I had to look at the tach to see what the trouble was. Then, I had to follow that up with a check of the shift lever to see why there was so much noise, and the tach needle was creeping up on the red part. Duh! I hadn't made a change of the gear selection since I was doing 5 mph, now I was closing in on 80.

"Jeff Strickland" ...

OK *you* win the Doofus Of The Year Award...

Natalie

Well, apparently I'm in some pretty good company.

Thanks!

I think...

Natalie

Hey Natalie,

What did you do? The light on my gear selector works now when the headlights are on. It had quit doing that before.

Damn! I'm going to have to have you do some more of that voo-doo that you do so well. Old Blue likes it. . . .

Charles

well, we women have so much more on our minds whilst driving...I drove my darling '87 Corolla standard for so long, that when I decided to take a road trip to New Brunswick & Nova Scotia, I rented a mid-size something, fully loaded, no clue what all the buttons & bows meant. I learned quickly about the OD button on the shift, never had one, didn't need one, but apparently I hit one, sounded like we were going to explode; quickly figured it out. My lovely '03 Corolla has one of those OD things, I stay away; also has cruise control...must look that up.

Someday I'll tell you about how I couldn't start my VW squareback because the steering wheel was locked, no one told me I had to turn the wheel, then the key...back in the day, this was all new...a steering wheel that locks?

We had a couple of cars that if you got the steering wheel locked in a certain position, you could not turn the key at all, you had to wiggle the steering wheel a bit and then the key would turn.

The very first car I operated did not have an interlock on the clutch or gearshift when starting. But then, the reason I was out there operating it was to keep the motor running to get it warmed up, the automatic choke didn't work very well. (63 Chevy II 300, with the 194(120hp) six and three-on-the-tree. I think the carberetor was from Carter?)

The first car I actually drove anywhere did not have a Park gear, just R-N-D-L and make sure the handbrake was set! (62 Corvair 700 w the 80 hp engine and Powerslide, I mean, Power(less)glide.) It did have an interlock to where you had to put it in Neutral to start it. It was the first car we ever had with two-speed wipers and a windshield washer and backup lights. It was the last car we owned that did not have a right-hand outside mirror. It was also the last American car my father ever owned.

Charles of Kankakee

My dad's '54 Ford was the first car we had with electric wiper motors. Our earlier cars had vacuum actuation. Heavy acceleration in the rain was lots of fun as the wipers would stop.

Pat

I've seen a few of the old vacuum wipers in the rain. We always had electric wipers as far back as I can remember. I don't remember the 55 Belvedere station wagon, though. We sold it when I was not quite 6 and replaced it with the Chevy II.

Charles of Kankakee

"Charles @ Kankakee" ...

The light on the gears has always worked fine. I just wasn't paying attention.

Huh?

Natalie

LOL Iove my OD switch! Gives you a nice push when you need it! Especially on icky roads.

Oh, you *have* to tell that story!

Natalie

EGAD!

Natalie

I don't know what you did but after we discussed that my selector light went out on the Corolla here, it came back on again the other night.

Charles

I can give you what's likely a better one Nat...friend of mine had just taught his wife to drive and had warned her in no uncertain terms about not running the engine if the oil pressure light came on...(I'll just bet that a sharp gal like you is about two steps ahead of me by now).

He was on a trip to Europe for a week and she had called a tow truck to haul her car to the shop where they couldn't find any problem and delivered it to her driveway. She called another tow service next day (etc etc). apparently the total bill was a couple hundred bucks (this was years ago)...hubby was not highly pleased...

Oh gawd, whatta maroon

Natalie