Re: (westy66)
Fortunately, I managed not to get my feet burned, but I think my mom did (not badly, thankfully). I just got a suntan...
I was checking out new cars on Princeton VW's lot on a hot Sunday afternoon in July, and when I got back into my Passat and started the engine, I detected the distinct smell of coolant (which I recognized immediately due to the several cooling system problems I've had in the past). As I pulled out of my parking space, I noticed a *huge* puddle on the ground where my car had been parked.
I got out, put the drivers side floormat on the ground to save my knees, and looked under the car to see coolant pouring out from near the exhaust pipe.
"Hmm..," I said to myself, "there aren't any coolant lines back there, are there?"
So I popped the hood to take a look, but I couldn't see where the coolant was leaking from.
"Well, it's a good thing I'm in the parking lot of a VW/Audi dealership," I thought as I went to replace the floormat so I could pull back into the parking spot, "at least I can get my car fixed up here tomorrow without having to pay for a tow."
That was when I noticed the coolant in the footwell. Remembering that my mother's Passat had had the same problem only two months before, it wasn't too hard to figure out what was going on, and I'd seen the bill for the repair work.
"Bollocks!" I exclaimed, "this is going to cost me a pretty penny!"
Of course this all had to happen just as I was thinking about trading in the damned beast. Oh, well--easy come, easy go. Unfortunately for me, there was no shade in the lot, so I ended up sitting in direct sun for three hours until I could contact my girlfriend and she could pick me up; she was still returning from a Long Beach Island weekend with friends and didn't have a portable telephone.
There was a gas station and convenience store a half mile up the road, but I only had enough money in my toll change bin for one quart of Gatorade, which didn't last long. At least I could contemplate in frustration the ironic similarity of color between Gatorade and G11 coolant while my brains baked.
There's nothing like sitting in the sun for a few hours on a 95 degree day with no shade, no ride, and nothing to drink, especially when no one knows where you are.