[MBZ] "Way, way wrong"

[BillR]

Subject: Re: [MBZ] "Way, way wrong"

On 5/1/06, David Brodbeck <gull at gull.us> wrote:
>
> I was remarking to a friend the other day that when I'm shopping the 
> bottom end of the used car market, as I tend to do, any search for a 
> car tends to involve test-driving at least one example that's a 
> genuine threat to life and limb.  I bet we could have a whole thread 
> of people relating their experiences with scary mechanical defects in used
cars!
>
I hate to admit it, but the scariest car I ever drove was not a test drive,
but my own 170k mile rust bucket 1972?? Subaru wagon.  I was in grad school
at the time, living in rural Indiana, wife at home with 2 babies.  When the
sheet metal holding the front shocks rusted away I used two notched 1X4
boards to stop them from collapsing toward the middle.  It actually worked
pretty well for almost a year, but there was this slight front to back
motion they developed after a time.  Sold it to a welder who wanted his son
to use it to learn how to weld, though judging from the other work he did he
could have used the practice also.  It actually drove pretty well, but I
always knew my well being was dependent on those boards staying put on the
highway.  That was a long-term scary ride.  I became an volunteer EMT
partially as penance for endangering the public like that.
BillR
Jacksonville FL
1981 300SD  EM  275k miles, currently undergoing a full rebuild of the
rusted area under the rear windshield so new front and rear windshields can
be installed.