Among Friends

[Carmie]

Many years ago, my father bought a FORD Granada that caused him trouble almost every day.  He kept taking it back to the dealer, but they would fix something and something else would go wrong.

It got so bad that my dad wanted them to take it back and get a different car.  The dealer wanted him to trade it in for less than he paid.  My dad had it less than a month.

My dad insisted the dealer take the car back...the dealer wouldn't budge, so my dad went to a graphic printer and bought two signs to fit on either side of the doors with a big yellow lemon on them with the words...I bought this lemon at -------FORD.

He drove the car around the block where the dealer was located for about two days.  The newspaper took notice and interviewed my dad.

The dealer called by father and agreed to exchange the car for a new one with no depreciation. He didn't want bad publicity.

After that, my father went back to only driving Oldsmobiles.

My husband bought a used Matador for me to use as a second car.  I hated that thing.  The doors wouldn't open.  I once had to crawl through the window.  The trunk would not open when you wanted it to, but would pop open while you were driving.  The car would stall in front of the school while dropping the kids off to school and wouldn't start, etc.

The TV Commercial used to say " what's a Madator."  My answer...a piece of junk.

I finally traded it in.

[FastDogWalker2]

Yes, back in the '80's - it was a Mazda GLC.  It was NOT a great little car!

[jubilant]

@Shanus Yes, and it was a Suburu. Our garage always smelled hot and it ended up being some problem that they never could fix no matter how many times we took it in.  DH became "fed up" with taking it in so we got rid of it.

[Roz in Rancho Mirage]

I've had two Subarus, a Forester and a Crosstrek Sport.  They've been the best cars I've ever owned!  Dependable, good gas mileage, stylish, and reasonably priced.  It's difficult to think of any Subaru being a lemon.  I've had cars since the 1950's.

[Teddixat]

@Roz in Rancho Mirage  . Apparently Subaru has a great reputation, but these things do happen to every car manufacturer.   Sometimes it's a bad chip.

[Lucky Charm]

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@Shanus wrote:

So happy it's no longer my problem. The downside is it took me forever to learn everything new on there, buttons, gagets, GPS...my 17 yr. old BMW had a real key to unlock the door, now the keys stay my purse....Crazy!

Now I have to learn an entire new set of buttons, set up GPS, radio stations, settings for which doors I want to open when I open driver's door (?!?!) and even a setting for leaving Molly in the backseat so she doesn't set off motion detectors.

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Just bought a new vehicle last week.  Keyless.  I've driven keyless rental cars many times.  No problem.

But on my new car, you can't see the Start button.  You have to duck your head and look behind the steering wheel.  To Start and Stop the engine.  Fine.

But within one hour of owning this car, I put it in park and went into Lowe's.  When we came out, my husband said, 'the engine's running'.  I hadn't hit the Start/Stop button.  Maybe if it was above the Park button (something else I need to get used to....).

I've only mentioned this to one person who I know has a push button Start and she told me she's done this a lot.

So now my dilemma is, if my keys are on the dining room table and not in my handbag, and my car is parked out front, right outside the window/door, will I be able to push that Start button to start the car?  (I have gotten in my car before and realized my keys were in the house and had to run back in to get them.)

Because if I drive away, park, shut the car off, I have no way to start it.  I don't even think AAA could help me with that other than towing it home....

I'm going to try this in a few minutes to see.  I'm dreading the outcome.  I need to get out of my pajamas first though, don't I?