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#1: Norma Dee (norm0908) on Aug 25, 2024

My step-father-in-law and a good friend of his opened a car repair shop probably in the late 40's. One of his favorite dumb driver stories was about a woman who thought she had purchased a lemon because when she tried to drive the car it would stall after just a short distance. She called and they towed the car in to take a look at it. They could find nothing wrong with it but the next day she called again with the same problem. After going over the car with a fine tooth comb they still found nothing wrong. So my step-father-in-law decided to have her drive it while he rode as a passenger. The first thing she did before inserting the key and starting the car was to pull the choke knob all the way out and hang her purse on it.

Some of you may be unfamiliar with a manual choke knob so here's a brief explanation: Pulling the choke lever provides proper fuel-starting mixture when the engine is cold. When attempting to start a cold engine, pull the choke lever outward to close. Slowly return the choke to the open position as the engine warms.

Norma, that is hilarious but perfectly understandable. A few years ago I read a letter to the editor of a car magazine where a guy said his girlfriend, having recently purchased a brand new car, complained about it because it kept making this strange loud noise driving to work. The mechanics found nothing wrong, but it bothered her so much she traded it in for a different car (at a substantial loss of value, as new cars plummet as soon as they are driven off the lot). She complained to her boyfriend that his car did the same thing! He drove it himself, found nothing wrong. Exasperated, she drove with him in the car (for the first time), and quickly demonstrated what the annoying noise was.
She was driving over the rumble strips!

As the story was being told I could so picture a woman doing that. Back in those days a women simply did not leave home without her purse. Which could easily double as a small suitcase. If you were the driver, finding a place to put it if you had passengers could be a real problem.

And it seems that the problem of what fluids to put where will always be with us.

We bought one of the early Datsuns sold in the US. Sadly the users manual was of little help. Apparently someone sat down with a Japanese to English dictionary and just literally translated it by the book. Some parts were hilarious and others just didn't make any sense.

Diesels still have the choke as part of their design. I drove a diesel VW Rabbit back in the '80's, and forgot to choke it while driving out of a campground at Joshua Tree, and apparently tried to smoke everyone out as I left! I didn't keep it out for very long, but it was needed when it was cold.

Back in the 80s, my boyfriend used to pull the choke on his truck whenever someone was driving too close behind him. Never failed to make the other driver back off quickly and stay back. Great stories, everyone. lol

When someone was driving too close, Jan and I used to swerve around in our lane like a drunk person. It's amazing how fast people back off when you do that! We were of course stone cold sober, and thought it was hilarious!

He, he Valerie. I got rid of a too close car one time by turning the parking lights on and off which made it look like I was applying the brakes every few minutes.

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