The 50 Least-Rotten shows offer made me think of my favorite stupid caller of all time: In 1986 or 87, a guy called in about his Isuzu I-Mark. He’d bought it new, he said that from the start he’d had no problem getting to 120MPH, but recently he had to strain to barely reach 100. T & R basically said “You’ve ruined your engine, and please stay off any highway we might want to use.”
Why do I have to put the air cleaner stuff back on to pass a smog check?
The most common one is “I ran out of oil, and the oil light did not come on to warn me of low oil level. The oil needs to be changed at 10,000 miles and I’m nowhere near that figure.”
Or the blonde who lost her “710 knob” (OIL upside down)that screws into the top of the engine where the mechanic puts the oil in.
My favorite stupid question is:
“My Check Engine Light is on. What is wrong with my car?”
I would have to say mine is one of the most common questions asked on this forum. It usually goes something like this: “I just bought a 2010 Acura TSX (or any other premium performance luxury car) and it says I have to use premium unleaded. Is it okay to use regular? I don’t want to pay the extra money for premium.” These kinds of questions make me wonder how someone can not flinch at spending $40k+ on a car and whine about an extra $2 or $3 per tank of gas for the proper fuel for it to run properly. Would that be a perfect example of being “penny wise, pound foolish”?
how about
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Can’t you just fix half of it?
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Can’t you just pound it out? ( headlamp and fender are missing and the bumper is hanging off).
Do you have such-and-such a part for my Ford Fiso truck? (F150)
Funny…
how about the guy who came in and wanted something for his Pontiac Gooste (Pontiac 6000 SE)
I once wrote on a used car check-out “all brakes Good”, the advisor came to me and asked “what is six-hundred d”? (he thought my capital “G” was a “6”
My neighbor came to me with a problem with her new 80’ model Civic that she had just bought. She asked me why it had “no power”. She had taken it to the dealer several times and the answer was always the same, “no problems noted”. I took it around the block and on to the interstate for a short drive. It drove fine. I finally asked her to drive it while I went along for the ride. I saw the problem right away. Since the Civic was an automatic (actually semi-automatic) she was shifting to “2” and driving away. A quick lesson later and she realized the problem. The semi-auto had to start in “1” then it was shifted to “2” around 25mph. She was right in one respect…the Civic was a slow dog with no power if you drove it in 2 without shifting.