Who was the stupidest car owner you ever saw?
 

I saw two of them.

Years ago when I was working weekends at Napa Auto Parts, a guy came in and asked if we had a radiator hose in stock for a Saab. Sure enough we did. The guy said "thank god, I've driven all over town looking for one." Didn't think much of the comment until he came back in and said his car wouldn't start. Out in the parking lot was a nice new Saab with a seized engine complete with cracked block.

Number two was a young college girl changing a flat tire on her BMW. The bumper jack was hooked under the fender next to the front tire. She couldn't get the tire off the car with the jack in the way. I don't know what her problem was, she bent the fender enough there should have been plenty of room to work.

What is the worst you have seen?

Any Corvette owner.......and some Porsche owners.......

I knew a fellow once who oiled his fan belt to stop the squeaking.

Tom W

we had of all things a college professor come in my dads shop one october day and ask us to activate his anti-freeze for winter!

A former coworker owned a VW Golf that had a manual transmission. He took the car to a quick oil change place and upon leaving his clutch began to smoke and deteriorate very rapidly. He limped the car back to the oil change place to find that the 'tech' who 'serviced' the car saw a plastic cap near the transmission. He removed the cap and for whatever reason thought that some sort of fluid must need to go into the opening. The cap was an inspection hole for the clutch........the idiot dumped a bunch of brake fluid in the hole.:knife: It got a bit ugly with the manager, but the guy got a new clutch in the car at the expense of the oil change business. That is enough to keep me out of those places.

Who was the stupidest car owner I ever seen?

Sometimes when I look in the mirror; after breaking something while "repairing" my car.:stupid::dunce:

Me.



When I passed on my Dad's offer of a '68 Galaxy (in '73), in favor of the $250 '68 Toyota with 110K miles, which I sold for $25 6 months (and much aggravation) later. My first car.


More dumbness to follow (too numerous to count), but that's the easiest.

Well, I'm a mechanic so...

This week alone has had:

Cust (1996 C220) "My car is lacking power and not accelerating, it won't kickdown."

Us (after having spent over an hour driving the car on two seperate occasions and observing no problems at all) "Are you pushing the pedal all the way to the floor and engaging the kickdown switch?"

Cust "No"

As well as:

Cust (BMW E36) "My taillights keep going out, the bulbs burn out, or don't work or something. I keep putting bulbs in, but they don't work."

Us (after examining the rear lamps and assemblies) "These are the wrong bulbs"

Cust "Yeah... But they don't when I put them in..."

I'm sure I can come up with better, but that's just this week. And it's been a holiday week. And a slow one at that.

MV

I know a kid who's car wouldn't start due to a bad battery one night, and he told his dad he thought it was out of starting fluid.

Is this a trick question? Can we name more than "just one?"

Helped a guy jump start his BMW one wintry morning. Upon inspection of his battery terminals, I had noticed that about an inch from the negative terminal, the ground strap slowly morphed into duct tape, and then a 24-gauge lamp cord emerged from the other end of the duct tape!!! That end was loosely wrapped around a chassis bolt in the engine compartment.

I noted to the owner that the telltale cooked insulation on the homemade ground lead was an indication that an impending engine fire would result if not dealt with immediately. He actually balked at the $6 quote I gave him for a new ground strap!!!

What a Tard. I get customers like that who will shop around for the best price on wall plates wich cost a whopping .24 cents.

I knew a girl who waxed her new Mustang with <gulp> rubbing compound.

The PO of my VW is a girl, not to be sexest but girls seem to trash cars...;)

Anyway lets see, she ran the drivers side into a building because she sucks at driving, body shop fixed it, ran the passanger side into something, body shop fixed, ran the drivers side into something again, father said I'm done paying for repairs just drive it.:rolleyes:

All 4 wheels are bent/have chunks missing, every time she parked the thing she must have rammed it into a curb.

Maintenance whats that? She just turned the key until that didn't work anymore.

driving not fixing, but just as dumb
 

I was visiting the corporate motherland in Maynard, MA heading to Logan airport during the mid 80's. This was on the Mass Pike when the speed limit was still 55. I'm in the left lane doing 70 trying to catch a flight on Friday afternoon. I see a state trooper coming up behind me - fast. I merge into the center lane, trying not to be noticed. The trooper flies by, probably 85-90 mph.

Right on his bumper is a '70 Buick Electra 225, all 30' of it, tailgating a Trooper at speed limit +30 or better. They were both on the side of the road talking about it 2 miles up the road.

Chuck