My wife's Impreza spontaneously sorta died on the highway yesterday

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 01/30/2018 at 17:32 • Filed to: None

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Yesterday afternoon, my wife was supposed to go visit her mom, who lives about 80 miles from us. At least that was the plan, until I got a frantic call from her saying her car had died and she was stranded on the side of the road.

I tried to get her to explain what was happening, but she was pretty flustered. Best I could tell, she was driving along and the car decided all of a sudden that it didn’t want to move under its own power anymore, blinked a bunch of warning lights at her, and that was it. She pulled off to the side of the road but this was a busy 2-lane state highway that she was on and she didn’t feel like she was in a safe spot.

I tried to calm her down, and I had her share her location with me in Google Maps. She was about 2/3 of the way to her mom’s, near a little town called Elkhorn. I called Subaru roadside assistance for her. Originally their plan was to have the car towed to the closest Subaru dealer, which was the one in Janesville, about 45 mins away from our house in Madison.

I called my wife back and she was ok with this plan, where either she’d get a loaner car from that dealer and drive back, or I’d pick her up. A loaner would be more desirable since my car is stick shift and she doesn’t drive stick, but she was all stressed and probably wouldn’t have been thrilled to drive a loaner from Janesville to Madison after her little ordeal.

I also tried to talk her through putting the car in neutral and seeing if she could get it to roll further away from oncoming traffic, but she couldn’t get it to budge. I told her to leave the engine running so she could at least have heat but after a few minutes of idling the car got pissed off at having to idle and started beeping and throwing more warning lights at her, so she shut it down.

One thing I didn’t think of was to call some kind of local law enforcement to help her, but thankfully a county sheriff deputy showed up and helped push her car away from oncoming traffic.

At some point after that, I decided I’d call Subaru roadside assistance back and see if they would have the car towed back to the local Subaru dealer here in Madison so we could avoid a bunch of back ‘n forth to Janesville. They said they could tell the towing company the new destination but Subaru only covers the first 41 miles worth of towing so we’d have to cover the difference. That was fine, the extra cost was worth not having to schlep to Janesville, and my wife was very happy to be going directly to the Madison Subaru dealer.

The sheriff deputy stayed with her until the tow truck arrived, let her stay warm in his car, and took her to a gas station nearby to get some coffee while the tow driver loaded her car on the truck. She said the tow truck driver was a nice guy who used to be some kind of motorcycle stunt rider and his family owns a big motorcycle dealership and he drives a BMW M235i.

She was like, “my husband drives some kind of BMW too,” and texted me a couple questions about my car, the answers to which she shared with the guy. He approved. At the end of the ride she tried to tip him which he declined with some kind of comment like, “you’re too cool for me to accept that.”

My wife is nice, people like her and are nice to her.

She’s got a Forester loaner, and she’s already commented to me that she kinda likes sitting up higher. This, even though when we were shopping for her Impreza, she picked it over the Crosstrek because it was lower. “I don’t like driving big SUVs but this is basically just a wagon.” Such is life.

This afternoon I called the Subaru dealer where the first time I got transferred to service, they picked up and hung up, the second time I called I got their voicemail, and the third time (after waiting for like 10 minutes before calling back) everyone in the service department was very ready willing and able to repeatedly put me on hold until some other random person picked up the line and I had to start all over again with them. Finally after a total of 14 minutes I left my name with whoever the dude I was talking to was, for the service advisor to call me back when he was finished with the customer he was helping.

When they finally called me back, they said the car hadn’t been looked at yet, and it will be another day or two before it is, because they’re booking appointments a couple weeks out in advance and have to fit in the tow-ins when the techs have free time.

When I first talked to them yesterday, the Janesville Subaru dealer happened to mention they probably could get the car fixed sooner than the one here in Madison, because they’re less busy, but still, I really just didn’t want my wife to have to deal with driving a loaner car back to Madison from Janesville after all that nonsense she went through.

All this stuff is covered under warranty, so whatever. We’ve got the Forester for the foreseeable future, until maybe the dealer gets around to, you know, actually looking at her car. Hopefully it’s nothing too crazy wrong with it.

BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 17:42

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I like this tow truck driver

WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 17:55

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That sucks, but glad she’s ok and got a good loaner. If you’re over that way again, Holi Cannoli up 12/67 from Elkhorn a few minutes rocks. Best arrabiata sauce around.

Textured Soy Protein > WilliamsSW 01/30/2018 at 17:57

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Haha we drive past Holi Cannoli on the way to her mom’s and I always say “HOLY CANNOLI” with a stereotypical NY mobster voice.

Textured Soy Protein > BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo 01/30/2018 at 17:57

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At least I didn’t send her a pic of my car to show him, maybe I should’ve?

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo 01/30/2018 at 17:58

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WilliamsSW > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 17:59

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haha - my dad is in Williams Bay, and my mom recently moved back from Lake Geneva to Brookfield - but my mom and her husband will *still* make the drive out to Holi Cannoli once in a while.

BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 01/30/2018 at 18:02

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I’m on mobile. I have no such luxuries.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:17

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RIP CVT.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:18

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There’s nothing like waiting several days for a repair that takes about 15 minutes.

cluelessk > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:30

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You shared her email. Might want to get rid of that.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:38

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You missed out on a potential bromance

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:46

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I find this lack of service... disturbing.

Unless you’re cool with what is happening, which may be the case since you have a loaner you like, you should be able to talk to corporate and let them know you’re not being treated great by the dealer. You could even couch it as “they seem really busy and might need some extra help” (which I realize is not corporate’s job) if you didn’t feel like complaining directly.

diplodicus forgot his password > cluelessk 01/30/2018 at 18:48

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I think that’s a stock image. I’m fairly certain Madison doesn’t have a Korea Town or hells kitchen lol

Rico > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 18:52

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Glad she was alright! Being stranded anywhere sucks, especially a busy highway. Hopefully the issue is minor but still totally unexpected in a car as new as hers.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 19:44

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Back in the summer I saw a guy with a very new CrossTrek stopped on the side of the road, a few blocks from where I live. I pulled over to see if I could give him a hand. It had basically done something similar - everything died. No luck turning it over, and nothing obviously broken. I tried poking around to see if it was a dead fuse, but I wasn’t able to check anything. He tried starting it up again, and it seemed to run okay. I wonder if it was something similar.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 21:03

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um sure you want to dox your wife

Textured Soy Protein > cluelessk 01/30/2018 at 21:09

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Yeah that’s a stock image off google image search and not a screenshot. She was in the middle of Wisconsin, not Manhattan.

Textured Soy Protein > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/30/2018 at 21:11

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Ehh, not worth the inevitable sitting on hold with corporate. She doesn’t do a ton of driving, she has a car to drive, it’s under warranty, and we’re not paying for any of this. Sure they could be faster response but not very high up the list of things I feel like spending any energy on.

Textured Soy Protein > BaconSandwich is tasty. 01/30/2018 at 21:12

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Supposedly the only guess without actually scanning any codes was alternator. If it were me I’d have multiple ways to scan it on me but she doesn’t know how to do that stuff.

Textured Soy Protein > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 01/30/2018 at 21:12

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If you’re talking about the email address that’s a stock image from google image search.

Textured Soy Protein > cmill189 - sans Volvo 01/30/2018 at 21:15

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I’m fairly certain it’s going to be a not-insignificant repair. Just would like them to actually, you know, look at the thing.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 21:28

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nevermind. last week had a customer take a whole bunch of screenshots of his laptop for a presentation and doxed his all his funders. coworker hits mute “um does he relize hes showing all this?” “um idk”

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 21:29

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Sucks you had to go through all that, and on top of it deal with a unhelpful dealer.

Keep us posted on what happened with the car, for a car that new that sounds really odd.

wafflesnfalafel > Textured Soy Protein 01/30/2018 at 21:30

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Hope it goes well - no idea what the deal is?

My Subie/wife story - we got my wife a beautiful hyper blue Crosstrek a couple years ago and last winter I get a frantic call from her. She was driving around in our neighborhood and it was icy. No issues with the ice, but she says something is very wrong with her brakes. I talk through what happened - coming up to a stop on slick road, foot the brake then pulsing and weird noises. I very tactfully explained that was her Subie’s antilocks saving her a$$ from sliding. She absolutely loved it - her little blue baby is watching after her even when she doesn’t realize it.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo 01/30/2018 at 22:16

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Fair enough. At some point all of the formatting tools were available on phones in landscape orientation but that seems to have gone away. Kinja!

BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 01/30/2018 at 23:29

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Pepperidge Farms remembers.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > Textured Soy Protein 01/31/2018 at 10:57

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What I meant was if it turns out the be the alternator. It really is 15 minutes on a Subaru.