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came on.
When I was in High school, my parents had a minivan that didn't like winters, and when you turned left in the winter, you had to turn off the radio and defroster, or it would die. In summer it would sometimes die while stopped at traffic lights. The only way to get it started again was to shift to neutral (Park and Drive didn't work), start it back up, and then shift back into Drive. Though this led to a few awkward car-honking experiences, as long as we used the tricks, the car worked great.

Ourtwo had a funny problem with his front drivers-side door. It was caused by someone breaking into him (I can't imagine why they would break into such a pathetically cheap car one with no CD player, tape player, or even radio). The hard plastic inner lining of the door would catch on the door-frame every time you opened the door. When it stretched far enough, it would come loose and snap back with a startling bang. That was annoying enough, but it became more of an issue in parking lots when we'd get out of the car. Anyone walking by would see the door open and hear a loud smack, as if the door had slammed into the neighbor car. Soon we discovered that if you opened the door to the point where the lining was just about to snap back, then close it partway again, the lining would usually snap back quietly, saving the driver the embarrassment of explaining the problem to a complete stranger.
Finding unique methods of dealing with your car's quirks will make your car manageable and entertaining. Plus it's kind of cool to be be the only one who knows your car well enough to drive it.

Ourtwo was a good hunk-of-junk. He served us well for almost 3 years. We planned on taking him in for major repairs one morning before going on a small road trip, but running short on time, we decided we'd wait till after we returned. On the way back, however, Ourtwo mashed into a moose, and both were killed. We miss him, though our bank account doesn't.
Now we have Lilo, a shiny 1993 Mazda 626 who thinks she could contend in Nascar not for her speed, mind you, but for her roar. She won't let us fix her muffler.

Learn more about this author, Chas Hathaway.
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