What's Your Biggest Automotive Embarrassment?

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When I graduated college, I took out a $2500 loan for an Audi 90 Quattro 20v. It was a 15 year old car, and I was at the start of my learning to wrench journey. That was my car through my first couple of jobs, and generally, I wasn’t embarrassed by it. I’d pieced together the fuel system in my rental house driveway so it ran well, and it generally looked OK. It was fun to drive and suited me just fine.

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But early on in my second post college job working for an insurance agency, I joined a group of executives on a private flight to an auto show, which meant that after the flight, a couple of them got to watch me do the little “unlock passenger door, crawl across passenger seat, unlock driver door, exit car, walk around, open driver door, enter car” routine that I’d invented thanks to a sticky driver door lock.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have been embarrassed. I was a broke kid; if they wanted me to drive an S-Class, they’d have paid me S-Class money. But in the moment, I was mortified. I bought a brand new GTI and sold the Audi for a pittance. I’m pretty sure I’ve spotted it around town since.

I’ve certainly had more embarrassing moments since, certainly parked some cars down the block so people wouldn’t see me getting out of them, but that one sticks out.

Anyway, when have you been the most embarrassed by your car, how you drove it, or what you did to it?