First – my daughter has a jinx when it comes to cars that thus far cannot be broken. I used to tell her that her vehicles had a bullseye on them because of the frequency with which they were hit. One got rolled up on the curb in South Side from a drunk in a truck, the insurance company refused to total it and it never ran right again. Another got pushed partially up on a curb in …. North Side? (Pattern here?) She had not been in the car either time. Next she got rammed from behind while sitting stopped t a red light. Her neck and back have never been the same. After that one I told her it was *her* that the bullseye on the back of her head.

<Insert various other weird calamities only one of which was her fault> When I got my car last August we gave her the old one (a habit started by my parents, when we buy a new one of the kids get our old one). It was also a Malibu, ran fine, body in decent condition, no extras. It immediately starts to reek of gasoline while driving it. She gets that fixed. It stays mostly fixed. Then a few weeks ago it starts accelerating madly while stopped at red lights and when in Park. She drove a mile including some of it uphill from a red light w/o ever hitting the gas. Niiiiiice. I teased her the thing had an identity crisis and thought it was a Toyota. 

I made an appointent to have it fixed at the dealer where I take mine as she was between mechanics as the most recent one seemed rather lame based on multiple people’s experiences. I explained the Toyota complex to the mechanic. He thought he knew what the issue was. I get a call the next day asking when the car did it because they could not make it repeat the action. I explained when/how to the best of my knowledge (daughter was out of town at a wedding) and he said he’d mimic the way she drives it and see if they could cause the problem. A week goes by…..

Today they call. After puzzling over the thing (they did manage to make it go VROOOOOOMMMM!!!!!) they could not find a cause. In a WTH move they cleaned out a whole bunch of whatevers (air intake valve maybe was stuck?) and finally after 2 more days of running it crazy to make it vvvrroooooooommmmmm without the gas pedal it appears to be fixed. ^5 to perseverance on the mechanic’s part!

Cost? $90.59. 

Exceedingly grateful.

Now to smudge the thing and try to remove the jinx ……

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