Holy Cow. You’re absolutely right! I wonder how I drove this car for a year without noticing that.:smack: Then again, I didn’t lock the car for most of that time. So that solves one problem, hopefully. Thanks!
And you explained the Clifford light. It must have been disabled, though, because I didn’t have an alarm on it. But, I bought that one used as well. Thanks again.
I could see that being annoying/embarassing. I have a friend whose alarm goes off for 2 or 3 seconds everytime he turns it off. But if he doesn’t turn it off 1st, than it reallygoes off, locks the doors, kills the ignition, all that business. It drives him insane.
Well, eh, how about a little red Leicester?
I’m sorry for your troubles, but this made me smile. So does most talk of cheese, but this was extra-special.
First you’re too hot in the car. Then you’re too cold. What a complainer. ;)
Sami41, I take it that you live in a jurisdiction that doesn’t require periodic automobile inspections?
Long, mild cheese is my favourite kind.
How about a little Wensleydale? 
All things being considered, your thread seems to belong in MPSIMS. I’ll move it for you.
And to think I thought *my *first car sucked! (It was held together largely by rust; if you slammed the door bits of it would fall off. It went through 4 litres - an engine’s worth - of oil per week.)
Beautifully crafted story, **Sami41 **- brought back a lot of memories and gave me something new to laugh about, too.
Named cars -
In high school, my sister drove a beater Suburban, with over 200k miles on it, and on it’s third engine. She named is Chuck.
Why Chuck, you might ask? No, none of her boyfriends were named Chuck. It was so, when trying to get out of the very steep driveway, in March, with lots of snow, she could yell “UP CHUCK”.
Gotta love high school humor.
At least you could check road conditions without opening the door. Just look through the rusted holes in the floor.
Mechanically, except for the dead battery, it’s fine. Passed the smog inspection with flying colors. It’s just the electrical system that doesn’t pass muster.
Yeah, I almost put it here in the first place. I started writing it as a Pit thread, so that’s where I put it, but I generally just don’t have the anger for the Pit. I suppose that’s good. Thanks.
But what’s the recipe?
Cheeseburger Meatloaf. It’s, I suppose a standard meatloaf recipe. Then you roll the meat out, layer the cheese on top and roll it up, so that the cheese is in every bite. It wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible, but probably not worth all the trouble.
Darn. I was all excited after the first sentence (I love meatloaf), but then the last sentence was a letdown. 
Maybe if I added bacon to it… ponders
Reminds me of the first car my parents bought me. While it had no rust when we bought it, it must have been kept undercover and had long since lost its rustproofing. It rapidly rusted though just above the rear window (among other places). Eventually, this led to water leaking into the roof. A lot of water. SO much water that when I braked I could hear the gentle slosh of the water running forward and then the gentle slosh of it rolling back again when I accelerated, sometimes accompanied by rusty water pouring down the back window. Naturally, this buggered up the overhead light which had some kind of domino effect screwing up the rest of the cars electricals.
I love that car. I called it The Tank, cos it was big and green and couldn’t steer worth a damn.
My '06 Focus has door locks that are electrically activated. The key lock on the door handle is only an electrical switch with no mechanical link to the actual lock mechanism. And of course the hood latch needs to be released from inside the car.
You can see where this is headed. If I let the battery die just once, I will have to break a window to get in, so I can unlatch the hood, so I can jump the battery. All that so they could save $1.39 on a peice of bent metal inside the stinkin door. I’m planning to install a couple of lugs under the grill so I can jump the battery without all that.
The other unique feature is the ‘security’ system. When you turn off the engine, a blinking red light comes on in the dash to indicate that the security system is armed. Reading through the owner’s manual revealed that the security system consists of… a blinking red light. Gotta love it.