Study: Toyota door handles cheap, flimsy.
I had a midterm exam yesterday morning at 8:15. That\’s early, especially when you haven\’t done the readings (can\’t do the readings if you don\’t own the book).
So I got up at 6:45, thinking I would shower, eat a good breakfast and still have a little time to look over my class notes.
But when I got out to my car, the key wouldn\’t turn. The locks were frozen stiff.
Why were they frozen stiff, when it is March and it wasn\’t even very cold? I don\’t know. But they were. And my tube of lock de-icer was right where it shouldn\’t have been; inside the locked car.
After kicking the door several times and jiggling the key around for five minutes, I was able to unlock the door. But an unlocked door and a locked door are equally useless when the door itself is FROZEN SHUT.
Kicks and jiggles didn\’t help. I tried breathing hot air on the seam, but that probably made things worse.
Fortunately though, my trusty Tercel was built with cheap plastic door handles that can break easily. I knew this when I started pulling on the handle, but it was getting late and, somewhere in the deep part of my mind, I think I wanted to tempt fate.
Well, she was tempted. The handle snapped off like the unlucky end of a wishbone. The deflated feeling I had at that moment was almost comic, until I ended it with a loud obscenity.
Realizing didn\’t have time to lament my tragic door-handle fate, I walked around to the passenger side. There I found, also, the lock and the door frozen. But no exam-induced impatience could cause me to yank at the fragile door handle.
No, instead, I did what I should have done the first time. I rubbed the door-seams with my hands, warming them. To speed things up, I even rubbed my body against the door a little. Just a little.
Someone walking by would have seen me crouched beside the empty car, arms spread, face against the window, seemingly humping the passenger side door.
There is no end to the humiliation my car inflicts on me.