Does your car talk

I broke a promise to the 67 this week. I promised that I would not subject her to the god forsaken road salt on the streets of Rochester this year. Then it happened, on the way home from work the dreaded Trac Off and Anti Lock lights lit up like a Christmas tree on the dash of the Alero. A quick call to the dealer and the Mass Transit Machine could be dropped off for warranty repairs. It was a cold morning the next day when It turned out I had to go to the plant, a couple of wayward projects needed some final touches. Turning on the lights in the garage I slowly rolled back the soft cover, walked around admiring the bright red shine and the sparkle on the bumpers. Popped the lid, checked the oil, turned around and lifted the garage door open. A blast of sub zero cold air filled the garage and sent a chill right down to my very bones. Inside the bug I gave pause, apologized to the old girl and asked her for a favor. Just one trip back and forth to work, I promise and I will wash every last crystal of salt off of you this weekend. A couple of pumps on the pedal... a turn of the key and sputter,sputter, sputter. Damn no choke Kads. Turn two on the key... Sputter, Sputter, Cough, Cough, and then she fired. Eased the shiny red bug into reverse and crept out and down the driveway. Popped the emergency brake on, went back in the house, retrieved my coffee, closed the garage door on the way out and hopped back in. There is something about the sound of duel carbs sucking down frigid cold crisp air. The 67 is alive and awake once again. A nice fish tail around the first corner, straighten her out and motor down the road plowing through about 3 inches of fluff on the road to the expressway entrance. In the summer time I am use to getting the occasional thumbs up or nod in the direction of the car, but driving on I-390 in the dead of winter wind howling, drifting snow and generally yucky conditions generated more of a look like "Are you nuts?" An uneventful day at work the weather on the other hand just kept getting worse. A full travel advisory was in effect by afternoon. I counted twelve cars of all kinds off the side of the road on the way home, including one of those big Ford SUVs. I wonder what those people were thinking as I passed by. Pulled into my driveway, jumped out opened the garage door, glided the old girl into her spot and shut her down. After buttoning up the garage and right before I retired to the warmth of the house I turned on the light to inspect the salt build up under the fenders, I just shook my head. GD NY State. As I started to shut the door I stopped, glanced over my shoulder and thanked the 67 for a job well done. Just before the door latch clicked shut and I could go about the business of family life I could have sworn I heard the words "Your Welcome" .

Reply to
Steve
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I was always afraid to admit to it...but yes...I think my car talks....

Reply to
Peter Cressman

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 02:19:49 GMT, "Steve" ran around screaming and yelling:

they were thinking the same thing i am....why don't you get a garage door opener? J

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

Beautiful Steve, just beautiful. Damn near brought a tear to my eye. "I love the smell of VW in the morning!!"

Reply to
EuroBug

Nice. This should be a column in the local clubs newsletter.

Max

Reply to
Max Welton

..........This is a scary story Steve!......My bug is telling me to keep that nissan 4x4 truck running all the way through March..........I really am hoping to keep this salt off of my bug throughout this winter.

.................They're using so much salt this year that NY State has white pavement even when these howling winds have blown away the snow. Luckily, all of my other vehicles have been reliable so far this winter........I've been especially worried about the waterboxer vanagon with

210k miles that my oldest kid drives to school..........my bug has been safe in my garage since before Thanksgiving........If the vanagon dies, at least the kid doesn't know how shift gears so there's no chance of him thinking that he could get his hands on my nissan truck or my bug............ Lets hope that this winter doesn't set too many more records up here in the NE.

BTW.................I heard that the south central part of NY State where I live is close to setting an all time record for numbers of days with sub-zero temps for the month of January.

Reply to
Tim Rogers

The Weather Channel, local news stations, and CNBC (talking about oil & natural gas prices) have all said that this winter has been the coldest in 25 years.

=================================

" ..... I ain't no bandleader!!"

Reply to
Jack Woltz

That was a good story, Steve.

Not sure I've ever heard either one of our Bugs actually talk, it's more like they just convey feelings to us.

After both our Bugs sat forelornly out in the side yard all last summer, I decided it was time to do something about it. We have three drivers in the house and six vehicles. Needless to say, insurance is a big expenditure.

My daughter, who technically belongs to the '71, started getting longings for a spiffy two-door Japanese model, seeming to have grown weary of Dad's promises to eventually get her Bug back into excellent running order. So, deciding that I didn't really drive my '69 that much anymore, either, I listed them both on The Samba.

Nothing like threatening to sell your Bug to have it start warming back up to you. Every day I'd come home from work in my warm, cozy, gas-guzzling SUV, my '69 would, I swear, give me a little smile. Kind of a "Come on, take me for a spin around the block" type of thing.

Next thing you know, I'm driving the '69 to work each day the next week. Good old Gus. He always had a way of drawing you over to him to admire the nice shiny beige paint, the smell of the newer upholstery, the cleanliness of a fairly fresh interior redo. I went home one night and pulled his ad off of The Samba.

A few e-mails trickled in about Herbie. The majority of them expressed concern about buying a Bug with stripes and numbers plastered all over the car. So, one night I took to removing the decorations. Removing vinyl stickers from paint is no easy task. At one point, nearly done with the stripe removal, I stepped outside the open garage to catch my breath from sticker removal fumes. I looked back in the garage and I swear Herbie really looked sad.

Well, my daughter had taken to driving Gus (my '69) to work that week. One day before I left work, she called me from her job. She asked how much it would take to fix up Herbie to pretty excellent running order, if it would cost less than buying a three or four year old Honda or Toyota. I told her we'd sit down with some catalogs and get a ballpark figure, which I assured her would be much less than a newer car. She asked if we could keep Herbie and fix him up like new. I said sure and went home to remove his ad from The Samba.

Now, Herbie sits in the side yard most days, but now his interior is gutted in preparation for our first purchase - some various products from POR-15. We've got an entire Excel spreadsheet with needed parts, prices, part numbers, etc. and my daughter is enthusiastically saving her money to start pitching in on Herbie's recovery. Now when I come home from work, if I didn't drive Gus, both Bugs are sitting happily in the side yard waiting for me to come home and laughing at the poor gas mileage my SUV gets.

I think I'll drive Gus to work again next week.

Malcolm '69 Bug (Gus) '71 SB (Herbie)

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Reply to
Malcolm

"Steve" wrote

Great story, Steve. I try not to humanize my cars because it seems kind of silly to me ... but sometimes it's hard not to do that. Occasionally I'll catch myself telling my wife things like, "the bug didn't seem to be feeling well today" .... lol. When I bought a parts car a while back, the first thing I did when I got it home was to wash it. It had been sitting neglected for about four years. It doesn't show in the pictures but it had what seemed like a 1/4 inch thick layer of dust on it.

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after I washed it ... I could've sworn that I heard a sigh of reliefand it just seemed to be happier. Crazy, huh? My wife thought I was nuts forwashing the thing.

-- Scott

Reply to
Scott H

I would have rented a car myself if it was one day. ;)

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

Yep i would probably do the same, no salt air is running through the vains of my beloved car. But then again that's not the issue, i never heart her talk.. but i'd like to think she IS alive... "Treat her well and you will be treated great".

Roger

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Reply to
Bug59

Well written prose, Steve, very well written!

I wasn't gonna get into this thread, but after all that fuss over the noisey ball joints, I have to throw in my 2 bits worth. Bussy doesn't "talk" as such, but he does communicate very well and he does have feelings (You only hurt the ones you love!) As many of you have read my thoughts on starter relays and my solutions, you may recall that I always mention that the only time it's a problem (traditionally) has been when I have abused Bussy and he sees the opportunity to "get back" at me! SO - the times the starter has refused to work were almost ALWAYS when I had parked over a mudhole or the one remaining parking space left there because nobody wanted to park on top of vomit!

Likewise, he is good to me most of the time. Take this ball joints episode. I suspect Bussy has been feeling badly because he was unable to get me a Christmas gift. He has known for some time now that I wanted a right angle drill and I just KNOW that he wanted to get me one! That is the only possible explanation for the noisey ball joints. It was all concocted in order to cause me to go out and buy his Christmas gift to me: A brand-new Makita right angle drill! Bussy has been SO thoughtful of me over the years, like the time he protected me from being crushed by that Ford Probe head-on back in '91! Like the time he kept his cool and flew totally level when the wind lifted us clear of the ground a few years back... Like that little bit extra he gives when we can blow an obnoxious ricer (oops - did I say that? gotta be more careful now with Bussy being a Busaru!) off while climbing a hill, no less!

Yep, my car communicates with me. It aint always that pretty, but it's always there!

- Dave "Busahaulic" Pearson

Reply to
Busahaulic

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