Well, I guess I’ve heard of stranger things being submitted to the Guinness Book.
I’ll tell you what, after adding the 1st quart of oil and still not having it show on the dipstick, I dropped to the ground fully expecting to see it running out the bottom. But it was completely dry. The 2nd quart only got it to the very tip of the dipstick. And the 3rd brought it about 3/4 way between the low and full marks.
I don’t mean to over-dramatize this, but I’ve been working with cars since I was a drag racing teenager (I’m 62 now), and I know what 1 quart of oil for every 140 miles means. It was just so unbelievable. Now I better understand what the word surreal means.
I left a bit out of my story to reduce the verbiage, but it was actually my daughter, working with me, who had purchased the van from Craigslist after having a pre-buy inspection done on it at a Toyota dealership. Now it is apparent why the selling dealer was asking $1000 below Book.
I think what made this experience the worst was trying to think of the least-shocking way to tell my daughter the bad news. But I managed on the 2nd day on the road after confirming it was in fact using that much oil.
But what made this experience worth it, I guess, was when I got to tell her that a $10 part fixed the problem, and in fact she had made a good deal.
For a 33-year-old woman with a husband and 3 young children, it was a pleasure to see worry change to relief.
Yes, now she and her family are Happy motoring.
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