Road trips are the best! I feel lucky (most of the time) to live in a state that has so much wide open space that travel between major cities involves a good drive. I’ll take any excuse I can to get on the road, sometimes to a fault.
My love of the road does backfire sometimes, like when a relative asked me to deliver the sketchiest car I’ve ever driven to Houston, Texas. She bought an eighth-generation Honda Civic sight unseen from a friend who had parked the car after a rear end-collision. The crash messed up the trunk but left most of the Civic OK so I figured, ah, what the hell. It’s a Honda. It’s a drive to Houston. Why not? I took the car from her friend and spent an hour in the garage trying to zip tie something or rig up ballast to keep the trunk closed. It took something like a whole pack of zip ties and a spare tire to keep it all together.
I set out the next day and had just driven North of the checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, when I was beset by one of the worst storms I’ve ever driven in my whole life. Visibility was low and the rain was pounding. The road I was on, US-281 North, is a truck route. So, it’s a road full of tractor trailers which would come hulking past the little Honda Civic and decrease visibility even more with tire spray. I could hear all of this in the cabin because the damn trunk didn’t close!
It was bad; it was not a very Honda drive. I took it slow and steady and after a nerve-wracking drive I made it to Houston. When I got there, my relative thanked me and her mechanic took the car and keys and drove around the block.
When he got back he asked me how the hell had I driven that car in that storm with those brakes? It turns out that car was badly in need of a braking system refresh and I hadn’t even noticed! I drove the sketchiest Honda Civic, with a salvage title with a broken trunk and (almost) no brakes for nearly 400 miles.
Yea. I’m never doing that again. So, what about y’all? What’s the sketchiest car you’ve ever driven?
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