posimosh
Int'l man of mystery
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2013
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 1
Pretty sure an oil change won't help a car with a blown head gasket, a bad efi system/sensor, an electrical problem that would cause a spark plug not to spark (and thus dump raw gas in to the exhaust manifold where it would be turned in to smoke), or if its burning oil because of a blown seal or a crack in the block (and its smoking constantly) you can be pulled over for this reason and this reason alone... And contact with cops is never good... ever... if you are in contact with a cop, you are that same cop having a bad day away from spending the night in jail.Regarding the rag in the tailpipe.
Suggestions indicated that Fred told his daughter to stuff a rag in there to stop the exhaust from smoking. If Fred knew anything about cars he would have told her to have an oil change instead. I'm not going to bombastically say that stuffing a rag in there would kill the engine, because the rag would have to cover the pipe completely to do so. Or maybe the pipe had a leak further inwards? No way of knowing.
But Fred said that the reason for buying her a new car was that the Saturn apparently ran on only 3 cylinders and had a wicked smoke coming from the exhaust. These two problems are not related and tells me that Fred didn't know a whole lot about cars. Also it appeared like he accepted the 8-10k in damages at face value, not investigating that further.
I'm sure with Maura's recent interaction with police, she would have rather avoided any further contact (thank you very much), and seen as though any major engine repair (like what would be needed to say... I donno... fix a car that smokes constantly) would have cost far more than the car was actually worth, a rag in the exhaust sounds like a perfectly reasonable stop gap measure until the upcoming catastrophic failure which would finally coax her folks in to getting her a new car.
What if the current car would cost more than the current car is worth, to repair? Sounds like it's time to cut your losses and encourage your daughter who had recently resorted to stealing in order to cover basic expenses, that things really are going to be ok. And that you are proud of her for making it like 90 percent of the way through one of the best nursing programs in the state.Fireweed said:I do not believe Fred at all that he was up there to buy Maura another car. It beggars belief that a man who grow up in Fred's time and in his social class would plunk down $4,000 for a car when the current one just needed to be repaired.
I can tell you, in 2001 I was commuting 3 hours to college, weekly, in a 1968 camaro with no AC, a whine plagued Saganaw transmission, and vinyl seats that stuck to you when it was the least bit hot. The passanger door didn't open and I had only lap belts and my wits to keep me safe if a semi-driver fell asleep on the other side of Hwy 99 while I was commuting Friday and Sunday nights to and from school. Anyway, I surely wasn't going to get out of anyone's way in my camaro because I would have been too distracted by how frikkin hot it was with the big *advertiser censored** hole in the floor where the transmission had been "fit" (I use this word in the loosest possible way) through the floorboard in order to be able to operate the increasingly vague linkage on the transmission, to be paying any attention to oncoming traffic. Oh, and there was the oversized front tyres I thought "looked cool" coupled with the lack of power steering which made turning impossible... And the fact that, occasionally, when it got hot, the car would just die... Which was only slightly better than when it rained, because, of course, the windshield wipers didn't work, and the headlights and brakelights worked "occasionally". Suffice to say, I identify with Maura quite a bit.
Long story short, I had never been given anything from my parents except love, food, and a roof over my head. But after a night or relatively minor bad choices which landed me in jail, I freaked out. Primarily because I couldn't believe they actually took you to jail for being "drunk in public" in Chico, California on Halloween... Point is, the next time I came home I lost it... because of stress. That same day I sold my Camaro, and my parents bought me a 2 year old jetta that started every time, had A/C, and everything worked (and had a warranty!) I got $2.5k for my car and my parents covered the other $7k, so it is not out of the realm of possibility that Maura had a few drinks, bumped a guardrail, and her dad concluded that she needed a little encouragement not to crawl in to a bottle every time things get tough... This would explain her coming to the hotel late at night... Put yourself in her shoes... What would you do if you could run to your pops?