Dec. 14 Weekly Open Thread
As always, this is the venue for discussion that doesn't really fit anywhere else.
I have a story that invites a couple of possible topics. We're helping our friend sell her 2002 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T that we have stored in our garage for the last two years; in fact, this car's impending sale helped prompt my recent $2,5000 Challenge. Well, our friend now lives in Washington D.C., several thousand miles away from her car, so this weekend I invited a bunch of potential buyers over to drive her car. It's always interesting to meet new people through the quantum weirdness of Craigslist, and two experiences especially stood out, one entertaining and one frightening.
The first came when a test drive took us to an obscure corner of my neighborhood, right past a Chrysler-Maserati TC in, naturally, cream beige. You might remember the TC as an Ur-LeBaron Convertible with a Maserati badge, a cynical smear on a great Italian name. It was one of our first-ever Car Disgusts--the post recounted how Maserati and the motoring press recoiled from the TC even at its press launch. Counting the Laforza down the street, the TC makes the second obscure American/faux-Italian orphan that has been left to slowly moulder in our neighborhood. Combined with the worn AMC Eagle and the gorgeous 1974 Buick LeSabre just up the street, I clearly picked the right neighbhorhood in which to live.
The second moment was less entertaining and more harrowing. A nice couple with a one-year-old daughter showed up at our house to check out the Jetta. I took the wife for a test drive first while the husband and their daughter stayed warm by camping out in my house with my wife and daughter. Then the wife and husband swapped places and the husband took the test drive. They seemed like a nice enough couple, and our daughters were playing well together. Then ... well, then the husband went completely insane.
We were cruising through town discussing the car's history, high points, and low points, when we came up behind a funeral procession. A policewoman was bringing up the rear of the procession on her motorcycle, and she caught the test driver's eye. "She's not really a policeman, and they don't really have the right to do that" he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Oh, no kidding?" I asked non-committally, thinking he was just making test-drive small-talk. Evidently, as I was about to discover, he had much more intense feelings on the subject.
It began when the road widened out to two lanes. The funeral procession took the right lane and we took the left, and as we approached the next intersection the policewoman was off her bike, controlling traffic and holding our lane. No big deal, except that my car wasn't stopping. We cruised through the normal braking zone, through the late braking zone, and, with the policewoman screaming at us to stop and my muscles tensing up by the millisecond, we finally skidded to a halt. I sat in a state of shock while he yelled at her that she wasn't really a policewoman while she screamed at him to cool down.
She then moved slightly to the side to wave some cars through, and my test-driver took the opportunity to gun the Jetta through the intersection while she yelled at us to stop. She then got on her motorcycle and drove past us on her way back up to the rear of the procession, yelling out the Jetta's license plate number and "You're breaking the law!" as she drove by.
In retrospect, after the screeching stop and during the screaming match I should have shoved him out of the car, but I think the words that actually came out of my mouth were:
- During the screeching stop: "Whoa ...."
- Then, during the screaming: "Hey, man ..."
- Then, during the screeching away: "Hey, don't ....!"
I should have done more, but frankly the whole thing was so surreal and took place so quickly that I couldn't figure out what to do. After he dashed and I got my wits about me, I did give him an angry earful about how if he wants to be a jerk and needlessly antagonize the police on his own time then that's his business, but he just thoughtlessly and disrespectfully committed a totally unnecessary crime in a car that belongs to somebody else, somebody who lives 3,000 miles away. He seemed chagrined and admitted it wasn't his best moment and that if we got into trouble then just to blame it on him. Yeah, okay, when the citation comes in the mail and the car's owner is summoned to court, I'm sure that'll go over really well.
He then turned back into a normal person, collected his wife and daughter and then left. Oh, and he evidently enjoyed his test drive, because he put an offer in on it. Meanwhile, I was calling the police explaining what happened and apologizing for the disrespect shown to their policewomen.
The moral? I have two, actually. The first is that shopping for a used car is infinitely more fun than selling one. The second is that people are totally, completely, inevitably crazy.
--Chris H.
ERIC D on December 14, 2009 at 04:22 PM
That sounds exactly like what I would have done. With people you really do have to expect the enexpected and that is impossible. I'm glad you are o.k. though! you could have ended up on the news or something haha . I really do not know how you could have avoided that. besides not letting the guy drive the car. and that wont solve anything.
jjd241 on December 14, 2009 at 06:40 PM
I have not had the pleasure of a Craig's List experience yet. I have done some browsing but not made contact with a seller yet. Don't forget the case this last year of the Craig's List Killer! I think he was targeting "escorts" (not Ford), so you were probably safe.
Here is a link that is related to both the Cable Car and the Great Race posts. It is a great video of SF traffic CA 1905.
http://www.choppedanddiced.com/blog/2009/11/30/prepare-to-watch-the-coolest-video-ever-made.html?lastPage=true#comment6592561
That Car Guy on December 14, 2009 at 07:25 PM
My only suggestion is, if this ever happens again, to pull over, make the test driver get out, and leave his (or her) ass on the side of the road to walk back.
You are totally within your rights to do this.
That Car Guy on December 14, 2009 at 07:45 PM
Thanks, jjd241 for that footage! I stayed on that street, Market Street, my last 3 nights there at Hotel Whitcomb. The building was under construction when the earthquake hit, survived the quake and fires, and was used as City Hall until 1916.
I'm not going to say that my room was small, but for $150 a night, I should not have had to share it with a mop!
David Colborne on December 14, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Considering how he was the one in front of the steering wheel when this went down, I'd say you did everything you could have done without making a very bad situation much, much worse. Physically attempting to remove him from the driver's seat probably would've just landed you and your friend's car in a ditch somewhere. Then again, there's no way you would've known at the time that he wouldn't have thrown you and the car in a ditch anyway, so, if you had the means and the confidence to escalate things a notch, I wouldn't have begrudged you that, either. Under the circumstances, I'd say things resolved themselves about as peacefully as they could have.
Interestingly, it's because of people like the guy you had to deal with that I decided not to put the Cthulhubu on Craigslist. Considering the kind of people that show up for a $2000+ used car, I shudder to think what kind of person would show up for a sub-$500 non-functioning one.
Anthony Cagle on December 15, 2009 at 03:10 PM
See, it's not really that I looooove my 1978 Mustang so much that I have had it since 1990; it's because I dread, dread, DREAD the process of buying and selling cars. AND THIS LITTLE STORY DIDN'T HELP THAT.
Of course, if my mechanic ever quits I'll be totally up the creek without an oar.