Yes, for God’s sake why do people do that? Okay, ONE honk if you think the person just hasnt noticed the light change. But after that first honk WTF does the honker think is going on up there? And how the hell is continued honking going to help? And lets not even get into the retards WAY in the back that are honking (yeah, the five people in front of you aren’t moving just because you haven’t honked yet).
I can report the '99 model isn’t bad - worst I got out of the fender-bender where my car’s front punched in the whole left front panel of the other car was a wheel-well-shaped slight indentation symmetrically on the front of the hood, a bent license plate, and the frame ever so slightly touching the radiator. I had the garage bend the frame so they weren’t touching any longer, and didn’t even make a claim on my insurance.
Worst I had was overheating in mildly heavy traffic on a Chicago expressway; I pulled over and some guy was nice enough to stop and fill my radiator with the coolant and water both he and I had in our trunks. Wherever you are - thanks, man.
Yes, and it is the most frightened I have ever been.
I was in the 4 lane of the 405 freeway going north from Long Beach home to the San Fernando Valley. The car (an Audi - I forget the model) died doornail dead with no warning. No electrical, wouldn’t turn over - dead. It was late enoughto be dark out. There was a slight decline so the car was still rolling forward but I couldn’t signal so no one was letting me over to the shoulder.
People FLEW up behind me, brighting me as if I had just decided on a whim to park there.
What made it the most terrifying for me is that I was completely unfamiliar with the area and in the car with my less than a month old son. Once I was able to coast to the shoulder (probably took a minute and a half but seemed like an hour) I felt like I had a better shot at not getting him killed before he had a chance to do anything and felt a little better.
I don’t remember now how I contacted them, but my brother and sister-in-law rushed to my rescue. They brought the baby and me home. My husband and his dad drove down to tow the car home a few days later.
As a side note, my wife moved to Memphis several years ago for a new job (before I met her). She told me that one of the most depressing moments in her life was when her car broke down in traffic with two of her children, and she realized that she knew absolutely no one that she could call for help.
I had my old '83 Peugeot die on me on the 110 Freeway near Pasadena. I had the very good fortune to have a California Highway Patrol officer come up on me almost immediately after the car quit. He threw on his lights and blocked traffic. It was in a fairly dangerous place, and he asked me if I minded him pushing me off the freeway, and I told him to please do so.
So it wasn’t exactly like having the pit maneuver performed on me, but I can say my car’s been rammed by a law enforcement vehicle. 
I live in fear of being That Guy and I was That Guy for months. I used to drive an old Corolla that did the same thing. Stalled at lights, at stop signs, in traffic…it was horrifying to have to restart and go knowing everyone’s pissed at you. Luckily an accident totaled that car and with the insurance money, I got a new one
But before that happened, that same car blew a tire in the middle of traffic while I was coming home from school. The next few seconds probably saved my life. I was in the lane right next to the carpool lane and had to decide going 55mph whether I could wing it right across 3 lanes of traffic or stop in the center median of the freeway. I chose the median.
An hour later I’m squirming and thinking really bad thoughts cause I was literally full of shit; I had to go to the bathroom and the pressure was just building non-stop. Any longer and I would forever be known as the freeway shitter. Luckily a patrol car saw me and called a tow truck who took me to the nearest gas station to change my tire. I annexed that station’s bathroom for 20 mins dropping my brown children off at the pool. It was simultaneously the worst and best I’ve ever felt up until that point. I think I gained an real understanding of gay sex after that because the feces flying out of my rectum was just such a magical experience, like a little kid going to Disneyland and shitting in Mickey’s hands while on Space Mountain.
On I-70 headed out from Denver to ski my car stalled in the left lane when the traffic came to a stop. I could start the car in neutral/park, but as soon as I put it in drive it would immediately stall again. I tried revving the engine a bit, and then dropping into drive, but it would jerk and then stall. I was pointed up a steep hill, which I’m sure made the problem worse. Eventually I revved up to about 4000 rpm, and dropped it into drive and it peeled out. Of course I spent the rest of the trip bouncing between neutral and drive whenever I had to slow down. Not fun in stop and go traffic in the mountains. Now I drive a manual. It turns out a solenoid in the transmission was broken, occasionally preventing the lock up torque converter from unlocking, or some such.
Not so much in traffic, but in the same car, I was coming back from skiing, almost to the Eisenhower tunnel, when a coolant hose cracked. Steam came out and the idiot light came on, but I was able to pull over to the shoulder without impeding traffic. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, except this was during the Super Bowl, when the Denver Broncos were playing. The tow truck driver couldn’t make it out there for “at least 4 hours.” I did not argue. Fortunately I got a ride to a bar in Georgetown to watch the game, and then a ride home. The next morning the car was at the dealership in Boulder. I never met the tow truck driver, otherwise I’d have given him a good tip.
NinetyWt, you should be familiar with this area. We broke down on Highway 80 in Jackson, in the turn lane onto Ellis Avenue. This is a horrible intersection: one of the top ten in our area for accidents. It was after dark and we were sitting there in the turn lane with our blinkers on. It was pretty darn frightening. Finally somebody stopped who noticed we had two little kids in the backseat and had turned around. He used his truck to push our little car out of the intersection and into the gas station parking lot on the corner.
ETA: My husband calls those hoopties “cars with character.” I despise cars with character. Cars should not have character.
OH GOD 5;15 pm, chicago, freeway, toll booth at the end of the interstate spur, im lost, was at visiting gf’s family in michigan. just trying to get home, right as I get to be next in line to go through the booth my car starts sputtering, nurse it up to the booth and spuh! it goes and dies, toll booth lady is freaking out cause my car died, im freaking out cause this … person … is actually accusing me of doing this to HER on PURPOSE (at this point my inner chimpanzee is ready to attack the …person…) heh got the car started enough to get out of the booth to the break down lane toll free
Holy cow! I won’t go to Highway 80 and Ellis in the DAYTIME without a pistol, much less after dark ! :eek:
Atlanta, GA.
6 pm rush hour. Coming back from Six Flags with a carload of kids up I-85.
All of a sudden, the car starts slowing. A quick glance and assessment reveals that we’re dead empty on gas. Dammit. :smack:
I throw it into neutral, hit the red strobes and my turn signal, and Frogger my way to the right side of the road.
We had been in the HOV (far left) lane doing somewhat more than the posted speed limit.
We made it through and got to the right lane, and still had some speed a 1/4 mile from the next exit ramp. The kids were all yelling encouragement and we continued to roll and roll, and made it up to the RED light. Luckily, no one was coming, and I was able to hang a right, still doing 15mph, then down the hill 40 yards, and pull a left turn and bounced into a gas station and coast to the pump.
We all cheered at the amazing luck and my quick reflexes that brought us here safely.
They’ve all been kind enough to ignore the fact that it was all my fault in the first place…
It was 1987 and I had just bought my second 1979 Toyota Celica. Driving north in one of the middle lanes on I-5, just south of Tacoma, my car suddenly lost the ability to accelerate. I had to coast across a couple of lanes of traffic to the right shoulder. Started walking up I-5 with my 3 and 4 year old daughters. Luckily a nice couple stopped and gave us a ride about a mile to the next exit. Spent a couple of hours at a gas station waiting for a tow to a shop. 15 minutes and one accelerator cable clip later, we were back on the road.
October 1988. Driving south from Washington DC about 5 PM on a weekday. On I-395. Car stalled suddenly in a non-shoulder lane - no opportunity to get it out of the middle of the road. Cars whizzing past on both sides (well, as fast as any car can whiz on 395 during evening rush).
I had a pretty terrifying few minutes until the car un-stalled. let me tell you :eek:.
Not exactly a break-down, but I was once involved in a multi-vehicle hit-and-run accident during stop-and-go traffic on the Central Expressway in San Francisco. This was about 20 or 25 years ago. (The Expressway doesn’t even exist anymore, it was torn down a few years ago.)
I was stopped in the traffic and some guy way behind – I think he was about five cars behind me – didn’t slow down in time so crashed into the car ahead of him. There was a chain of collisions and my car also got hit. Then the first guy (who, I found out later, was in a rental car), got around us somehow and sped off down an exit ramp.
Excellent use of “Frogger” as a verb. Well done!
Except now I’ve got that tune in my head…
I haven’t had any major car problems in awhile - knock on fender!
The most recent thing that happened to me was when my Ford Ranger started cutting out here, there, anywhere. I’d be driving along, whether on a side street, city street, or on the freeway, when the RPM would fall off, and the engine quit. It turned out that the fuel cutout switch was failing. Ford added this gizmo to shut off the electric fuel pump in the event of an accident, to keep a healthy thump from turning into a road-side weenie roast. Each time, the fix was to stop the truck, lean WAAAAY over to the passenger footwell, push the reset button that was located near the passenger’s right little baby toe (the one that went weee-weee-wee all the way home), and then restart and be on my way. But when this happened twice in one week while on the freeway, I finally took it in to get fixed. After $150, it never happened again.
Although I can’t contribute directly to this thread since I’ve never broken down near any other traffic, I will say this - I’ve been reading the SDMB since 1999 and it’s posts like this that keep me coming back. 
Just found this site and some of these posts are hilarious ! I’m sure it wasn’t when it happened.Breaking down in rush hour traffic can be a horrific experience ! I had to learn the hard way a POS vehicle does not belong in rush hour traffic.I have broken down in and out of rush hour more times than I can remember.One of the scariest was after dark on 75 in Atlanta. A tire blowed out and I pulled over to the emergency lane. Before I had time to turn the flashers on I heard tires squealing and and a horn blasting and could see in the mirror a car followed my tail lights off the interstate. He swerved back in his lane and was almost hit by a large truck in the process.The post about the asshole in the huge travel trailer rig sounded like karma to me. Some of my close calls could be also but if that guy drove a rig like that in rush hour Atlanta traffic he wasn’t very bright either.Those things are death traps under normal circumstances (think high wind hitting a billboard on wheels) much less having to drive 80-90 mph just to stay with the flow of bumper to bumper traffic. Famous last words " I have been doing this shit all my life just chill the fuck out". That’s usually right before the high pitched scream by the passenger "LOOK OUT !!
When I lived in Boston, I had an old VW bug that broke down on the Tobin bridge.
The same car broke down on the Mass Pike when we (my boyfriend and I) were driving home for the weekend. We had all of our dwarf bunnies with us: Mom and dad and 4 baby bunnies. My boyfriend had a ski boot bag with him since he was going to do some skiing when we got home. We took out the boots and put the rabbits in the bag, and walked to the nearest exit (Chicopee). We got a hotel room for the night, and the person at the desk never did mention the wiggly ski boot bag I was carrying. We put the bunnies in the room, and went out for a nice dinner. We dealt with the car the next day.
What can you do? we made the best of it. We had a wonderful dinner, and laughed a lot. It was an adventure.
Rush hour, big city, my newish car broke down turning right into a hugely busy avenue. I haven’t finished cursing my luck when a cop tapped on my window to ask what I thought I was doing blocking the traffic. I rolled my eyeballs all the way to the nape of my neck.
- Officer, I am enjoying the view and fresh air!
He must have gotten a blow job from his wife that morning because he laughed, told me to out the car in neutral, and pushed me into the parking lot right there.
It was a fricking fuse!