Published September 02, 2009 05:22 pm - Lately I’ve been hearing those “real American heroes” commercials in my head.
Even when car running smooth, it isn’t A ROBERT LEBZELTER column
Star Beacon
Lately I’ve been hearing those “real American heroes” commercials in my head.
You know, the Bud Light beer commercials for the guy who totes around a 20-gallon picnic cooler for 16 ounces of macaroni salad and a quart of baked beans. Or how about the guy who proposes to his girl via the baseball marquee and hopes she isn’t in the bathroom.
Well, I have another “real American hero.” It’s Mr. Check Engine Light Inventor.
Heaven knows since the first car any of us have bought, there have been mechanical troubles.
I got early hints my car needed work when I would go out and it wouldn’t start. Or there was the 53 DeSoto that landed me in court as a high school student because I was afraid to stop at a stop sign for fear it would stall out.
I can remember waiting to get into a Rolling Stones concert in Pittsburgh, listening to Stones music on the car radio (since that’s all classic rock stations play when the Stones are in their city) when the car completely died.
I knew there was something wrong.
When the car had no lights, I knew something was wrong.
When I switched gears but the car acted like I didn’t, I knew something was wrong.
But what happens when the car runs smooth, it takes me where I want to go, no fuss, no muss? Am I permitted to simply go my merry way, figuring all I have to do is put gasoline in the thing once in awhile?
No, no, no. That’s where Mr. Check Engine Light Inventor comes into play.
Even when nothing tell-tale is wrong with the thing, it is running smoothly, there is no exhaust noise, the vehicle starts right up, you always have the potential for Check Engine Light.
At our home, we have two Subaru Foresters. For the most part, they are good cars. They both have more than 100,000 miles on them. Living out in the country with a driveway longer than some small communities, it gets me out and going, even after a big snow storm.
But shortly after buying the first vehicle, like the next day, Check Engine Light was on.
Now this was fairly new to me, sort of like the Internet in 1990.
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