Broken Down Observations

i could only smile to myself today as my car died at the intersection of alison rd and anzac pde, one of the most busy set of lights in the eastern suburbs.

i pulled to the side lane and raised an arm in the air to signal to other drivers i was in trouble as i have no hazard lights. the guy behind me got the message and pulled out around me, as did a few others. it was the porsche driver who raced up behind me, came to a complete stop before sounding his horn, like i was doing it on purpose! he soon got the message too that i was not going anywhere and gave me a filthy look as he raced out aorund me. cars were pulled up beside me at the red lights but no one would help me get her off the road. too busy i suppose.

it was a garbage truck who eventually stopped and gave me a hand to push her over the gutter and onto the foot path, they left wishing me good luck.

i sat their with my bug for a good 20 mins, trying to sort out the problem. in that time i made a few more observations.

old people on buses smiled wen they saw the car, young people laughed.

a guy in a ute called out from 50 metres away "UPGRADE!"

a transporter driver stopped and told me VW village was not far away and asked if i was ok.

a new golf gti owner saw me, did a u turn and pulled over, got out and gave me his business card in case i felt like selling the car, thought it was the most gorgeous oval he'd ever seen.

eventually the guys from vw village came out and got me going so i could limp her to their workshop. its all sorted now, nothing too serious, but as always, breaking down today was a good time to reflect. my observations didnt mean anything, just observations.

Only ever broken down twice, one i stripped the splines in the rear hub on my oval and had it taken home on a tray.
The other was cooked a motor after the fire wall card fell against the fan inlet hole. LOL
Still the best thing is atleast you can work on them ,not like cars these days.:thumb

Your observations show most people are rude idiots.

Last weekend I was driving into the local shopping center and there was a small traffic jam type thing on the little road in. It turns out a young lady was broken down, and everyone was just driving around her and giving her dirty looks. So I pulled off the road (up over the gutter and onto the grass cos I drive a Baja), and got out and pushed her down the road and into a car park out of the way. I did this with infected sinuses and on medication and everything. At least one other guy stopped and helped me once he figured out what was going on.

Then I parked my own car and went to see if she was ok and if I could help.

It's a pity the minority of people are helpful, rather than the majority.

i think you'll find more people will help a female over a male. attractiveness obviously plays a large part. not to say you aint pretty sam 🙂

just out of curiousity - what was it that failed? the coil?

nick

:o damn that intersection wouldnt have been fun to break down at...
good to hear you got going eventually though
my car hasn't been running too good lately, maybe its a good thing that i dyed my hair blonde today :P

apart from running on 2 cylinders there was a blockage in the jets and it was needing a tune. the car was running perfectly until i leant it to a film crew the other day for a role in a short film, wen i got it back it was running terribly. not sure if it was their fault or just an old car but its all fixed now so im cool.

bond wrote:i think you'll find more people will help a female over a male. attractiveness obviously plays a large part. not to say you aint pretty sam 🙂

nick

sad thing is this is so true

the perfect example was the model they got to drop her shopping trying to get it into her boot,
guys were lining up to help her
an hour late same woman with heaps of padding shallow hal style same thing only everyone was too busy laughing at her to help out

-Joel

We helped a couple the other week that had left their lights on and had a flat battery. They had asked a few people and were waiting for us to come up with an excuse when they asked for a jumpstart. We went and got the beetle. They were blown away when they saw what we were driving, and even more surprised when they saw we had to take out the rear seat to get to the battery. They were very apologetic and could obviously see there was more involved to getting to our battery than a regular car. Even the fact we drove up on the gutter to get close enough to get to their battery.

Unfortunatley most people don't give a shoot these days.

i was driving a newish holden up collins st in the city once, and it died right in the middle of the road while i was stopped at a pedestrian crossing... the battery just collapsed without warning, so i had no hazard lights... i figured that putting the bonnet up would be an obvious indication that something was wrong, but oh no... several drivers sat there honking their horns and abusing my empty car while i watched in astonishment, and my personal favourite was one f***wit in a subaru who saw me standing there and yelled out to me "THATS A STUPID PLACE TO PARK.. IDIOT".... so i just yelled back "YEAH IT IS ISN'T IT!... I TRIED TO BLOCK THE WHOLE ROAD BUT THE CAR WASN'T WIDE ENOUGH!"...

idiot still didn't get it, but at least some pedestrians had a chuckle 😉

I'm reminded of a time in Collins Street in Melbourne back in 1969 when I was working for a stock broker and had on my new regulation blue 3 piece pin striped suit. I looked into a newly dug hole in the road where some workmen were obviously having some trouble keeping a flood of water from a burst pipe from causing a collapse of the walls of the hole. They were knee deep in mud and slush. I decided that my suit was too valuable to risk. A man in a very expensive Italian silk suit, leaped into the hole, grabbed a shovel and helped them to shore up the wall. He finished up covered in mud, His suit was ruined. He didn't care. He turned out to be a senior partner in a stock broker's firm. Sometimes help will come from the least likely places. Sooner or later a Good Samaritan will appear.

I've only broken down the once surprisingly now that I think about it.

I was heading to a buggy do in the Barrington tops from Dubbo and the coil died on this lonely strip of seal north of Merriwa. I was 27k's from town and it was 8.30 at night. Chandler (who was 7 at the time) and I waited up until 11 but not a single car went past. No wood around for a fire so we wnet to bed and woke at 7am. Still no traffic. Ah, to live in the country. I had a phone but there are parts of Australia with no reception and this was one of them.

About 8.30 a hilux came down the road loaded with about 9 dogs and a husband and wife in the front. They were going into town so I slipped then a note foe the NRMA with the coil type and model of the car. He returned an hour later with the wrong coil. Anyhow we got going again about 10.30 after returning to Merriwa. My keycard died so the parts and extra fuel to get to Newcastle was written down until next time I cam e through a week later.

Sydney V's Country NSW - Well things might happen slower out west but at least the people are friendly. Oh except for the guy in Wolf Creek 😀

The Bronze.

yeah, i have gotten someone wonderful eventually each time i have broken down. mostly people in the industry, had a legend in Brisbane. died in the right hand lane after turning not far past Storey Bridge in peak traffic. within seconds a guy in an old beaten white van pulled up behind, helped push me across the busy road, did his best to work out what was wrong, left me with a can of aerostart and one of wd40 cos he had to get to a job, came back 40min later and spent about 1/2 an hour trying to get me started. now I'll help out anyone who obviously needs it, like a poor towie the other day who had to push some newish sedan uphill out of its carpark so he could line it up to hook it up. every towie i have met has been a champ, they deserve any help they can get.

sam I was down that way you should have given me a shout.

Got a T3 wedge bus now that is like a modern car more than up for a bit of towing and its got a tow bar too.

we were in the national park the other week and saw a couple of cyclists out with a wind coming up so we did a u turn and asked if they were alright. if they wanted a lift.
I guess being a cyclist is not like being a motorist ;-)

BUGBOY wrote:Still the best thing is atleast you can work on them ,not like cars these days.:thumb

I carry a laptop and a basic set of tools in my 2000 S3 . 400hp and more reliable than my 150hp beetle ever was . Only advantage with aircooled is you can fix it easier on the side of the road than a watercooled . But watercooled are definately more reliable

thats no good sam least uyou got help in the end :thumb

Sam sorry to hear about the car troubles mate.
Last week at a really busy intersection there was this poor ol bloke with a large van broken down right in the middle of the Right Hand Turning lane. Cars were all pulling out and wizzing around him and he was waving at them trying to get some help. I pulled up behind him and put my hazards on. Jumped out and was glared at by the car behind me. I started to help the guy push this huge f'ing van off the left hand side to clear the turning lane and seriously almost got run over 3 times by inconsiderate f'heads. Not good. What is going on in the world when you yell at and speed past someone who is helping some one who needs help.

Any way I got the old boys van onto the left hand shoulder and walked back across this busy road and got in my car and drove away. Took 5 mins outta my day. Good deed done. To all the f'heads who almost ran me down. Karma will come soon.

too many ppl have no time for others, then wonder why no-one helps them!