Dear List Members,
Quite often, I post a cheery, perhaps thought provoking, Sunday morning
message. My mother always wanted me to be a minister, so maybe there a
residual sermon effect. However, this post is not one of these.
It is with shock and sadness and frustration, that Announce the absolutely
fabulous 1992 Chrysler LeBaron I acquired last Friday, from a nearby list
member, was in a wreck yesterday and will, quite possibly, be totaled out.
Having just sold my VW, I shall now have to promote the 1958 Imperial to
service as daily driver.
In passing about the accident, no one was hurt. Road conditions were at
their most treacherous, a light drizzle on roads that have been dry for
weeks. I was using due diligence approaching a stationary line of vehicles
at a red light, but the wheels locked up and I slid the last few feet into
the rear of the last car. It was a low speed impact which did not deploy
ant airbags. The best I could do was aim for a corner to corner impact, my
passenger side to the other car's driver side. It is turning out to be very
expensive. So far a $300 wrecker ride home plus a citation for "Failing to
control my vehicle's speed." Sigh. Due to the vehicles age, and depending
on frame damage, I think the car will most likely be totaled out. I await
the proceedings of next week with despondent curiosity.
In the short term, therefore, I will need to be using the 58 as my daily
driver, something I am loathe to do. Much as I love the car, it's
mechanical track record of unreliability hangs like the sword of Damocles
over the car. When I was underneath it last week, I noticed one of the
front tires was scrubbed down to the metal on the inner section of the
passenger side front tire and not looking good on the same place on the
drivers side. It was this that led me to take the Chrysler on the cruise
yesterday. That and the prodigious smoking from the blow by tube.
So I had two replacement tires put on it yesterday. I did not have time to
get it aligned, so that will have to wait till Thursday, and my next pay
check. I dumped out all the old oil, which was an amalgam of multigrades
and some snake oil "Stop Leak" I mistakenly put in, and replaced it with
good old straight 40W. I should never have listened to the so called advice
I received from various parties. As they say in the army, If it ain't
broke, don't fix it. By the time I got back to the house, in heavy rain,
the car was smoking about 90% less than before. This is my only good news
of the day!
The engine is making some mysterious noises over and above the obviously
leak in the exhaust which I intend to track down today. I figure if I can
keep the car running for another month I will get over this hump and then be
able to pay serious attention to the car's problems.
There is a biblical saying: "My god is a jealous god." I think Mrs.
Blueberry does not accept the indignity of being passed over for any group
occasion with equanimity. When I was planning to work on our '73 Imperial
last year, she broke down, in spectacular fashion. This time, when I took
out a much younger, better looking distant relation, she is determined to
make me suffer.
I remain convinced - call it ego if you like - that the accident would not
have happened in the VW or the Imperial, if only because I would have been
driving them a little more circumspectly. Maybe I was over confident in a
car I was all too unfamiliar with. The brakes on the 1992 may just have
been better than I was used to. Neither of the other cars ever locked up in
all the years I drove them. I would have been able to get into the adjacent
lane for the supermarket turn off in either one, I am sure. Oh well. That
killer phrase - 'What might have been.'
On the way home yesterday, with the same two girls aboard the Imperial from
that morning, in lashing rain, I was driving along the freeway with maximum
caution. As I approached the turn lane to get onto the connecting freeway,
I was keeping a huge distance between me and the car in front. Naturally,
some cretin had to sneak into the line at the last moment, into my safety
zone, at speed, and then slam on the brakes to slow down. That car did lose
control. The Imperial did not. I slammed on the brakes and the car stayed
true. I did have to manouver a little to the left to avoid contact with the
fish tailing idiot in front of me, whom I desperately wanted to see ram into
the wall, to be honest, and the car remained completely under control. No
lock up. No slide. And still able to steer.
In my dreams last night, I replayed both events. In the latter, despite
being un-belted in an old car, the two girls and I sailed though a nasty
incident with ease. In the morning, at a routine traffic stop, we ended up
in a nasty accident. Go figure those imponderables.
Hugh
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