Comments on: I’m an idiot

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:21:56 +0000

Mine was this morning on the way to work! My nice 22" Chrome wheels on my nice hot rod! I don't even let the rims get too dirty… While driving my phone rings and I have a car bluetooth system so I won't get distracted. Guess what! When the phone rang I looked at the radio screen to see who is calling. Next thing I know, crack, I ram into the median with my front tire! I got out and looked….:-( Chrome rims vs. Concrete median? Median 1, Chrome rim 0! Rim completely scratched. Probably about $400 if they still make it!

By: Michele

Michele — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:17:31 +0000

I wasn't stupid (this time anyway), but after I paid $1500 to replace the air conditioning in my 14 year old car (I live in AZ so 110 degree heat WITH a 4 year old is steps for murder suicide). Not 3 weeks later the door (blend door) that allows that lovely cold air into the car broke… in the heat position (you know when you twist that dial from blue to red and vice versa – that operates the blend door). I was beside myself to kill something or someone. The mechanic shop gave me a quote for 8 hunnert dollas – WTF? It was a $25 part that needed $750+ labor to get to since the dash had to be pulled off. I refused the quote and walked my sweaty self back to the car.

Did a search on Google and found someone that posted a 5 minute fix. I read it, ran off to the store and had cool air in the 5 minutes from start to finish for less than $7 (I had to hack in with a knife but you cannot see what or where since it is behind the glove compartment). Sure, it is ghetto and I will have to open up the "new door" to close the blend door for heat, but that is A-OK! $793 in my savings OK!!

By: Bucksome Boomer

Bucksome Boomer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:31:08 +0000

We all do stupid things. What makes us stupid is if we don't learn from the mistakes. My last car incident was not judging the entry to my one-car garage correctly and scraping the front bumper.

Fortunately, my husband was able to buff it out.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:07:19 +0000

From the comments above Ninja I guess everybody has done something stupid when it comes to cars.

For me, I was always taught to leave my manual car in 1st gear with the park brake on when you switched it off. One day Dad and I were tinkering under the hood and Dad hollers out 'OK son, start her up'. I think to myself, 'That's convenient, the keys are still in the igntion'. So I reached in the open window and fired it up. My old beast of a car then sputtered to life, and since it was in 1st gear it dragged itself up the hill towards my house. Luckily Dad managed to dive out of the way. It finally stalled when it crashed into the garage. I don't cry easily but that day I did, due to the embarassment, the damage to my car/house, and almost running over dear old Dad.

By: TeacHer

TeacHer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:50:03 +0000

Haha, I did almost the same thing, except it was a brick wall, not a fence , and I was reaching for a cigarette, and BAM. Mirror into brick wall.

See kids, smoking is expensive (~$150 to fix mirror), and it can kill you. Just maybe not the way you thought.

BTW - what kind of car do you have?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:37:05 +0000

I had just gotten my driving permit when my mom thought it would be a great idea for me to drive through the take out window at Popeye's chicken. I took off the side mirror on the drive through window while the girl was standing right there holding our chicken out of the window. Ugh, embarrassing.

- Courtney

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:55:30 +0000

I did that. I was maybe 17...my parents were getting a new freezer and had unplugged the old one in the garage to defrost. Before getting into the car, I shut the freezer door enough so that it was out of the car's path.

But I forgot about the mirror. And the freezer door would only go out to 180 degrees, it didn't bend forgivingly backward to uncatch the mirror. By the time I realized what was happening, the mirror had been pulled off.

We ended up not getting it fixed, as it was on the passenger side and the car was only 2 years away from retirement.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:29:09 +0000

Ha, don't feel bad. I took the side mirror off of my car with the garage. I was able to find an OEM part online though for only $80 and fortunately the color keyed shell from the original was still intact. I will tell you what though.. You won't do it again.

By: myprettypennies

myprettypennies — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:18:25 +0000

Awwww that sounds exactly like my first "incident" when I was 16 in my dad's new car and turned too sharp near a pole. Needless to say $350 was a lot of money for a sophomore in high school and my dad made me pay 100% of it all. Lesson learned.

By: kck2780

kck2780 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:27:34 +0000

I've been-there-done-that as well with my side mirror and we did the same thing as you – bargain hunted. My husband, who fortunately is super handy, found the part on eBay for less than 1/2 what the dealership was going to charge us.

Another rip off? Electronic key fobs. We had lost 2 of them for my last car and I called the dealership and was quoted $120/each – WHAT?!?! Search on eBay yielded 2/$30 – we just had to do the programming, which was simple!

Can't believe dealerships rip people off so bad! Wait… yes I can.