Yesterday I got stuck for the ump-teenth time with my brand-new Yaris. This has been the winter from Hell, but I’ll admit that the Yaris wasn’t a wise choice for me. I knew it in the beginning, but figured that 40-mpg would be well worth the trade-off.
Full disclaimer: I live on a steep, one-lane, dirt road with a hairpin turn right in the middle of it. That’s not all. The only way to access our little road is by way of another dirt road. The other dirt road is one of the main thoroughfares through my town, but because up until recently we only had a two-man road crew to maintain 70+ miles of road… Imagine months of deep snow, ice, slush, and now mud, and you too will understand that my little Yaris wasn’t built to travel on roads like this.
Today, kitty litter was the savior. But it didn’t protect my undercarriage from the large, irregularly-shaped, frozen slush balls that I had to drive over. Somehow during my struggle to exit the driveway, one of my front mudflaps was ripped and I discovered later that the other is altogether missing. Most troubling of all, there’s now a rumble coming from exhaust which I assume was jarred during my backing over and getting stuck on top of a wad of ice. Cliff was kind enough to hack said chunk-o-ice to pieces with his ice scraper, but the damage has just begun. First to my car, tomorrow to my bank account.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my Yaris. I just don’t love where I live. I’m SO ready for Spring. Hell, right now I’d be willing to forsake the crocuses, daffodils and lilacs completely for the hard, washboard-ridden, potholed, yet dry roads of summer.
[Update: It was only a bent heat shield, but a wake up call nonetheless. Time to start parking on the pavement and walking or carpooling home.]
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