Jason Crowther’s Blog

With the TV still being a problem, now my car is giving me fits. In the background, I hear the Long John Hunter song Everything’s Broken playing over and over again.

Wednesday morning, it was about 4 degrees out when I wanted to leave for work. There was a little snow on the car, so I did my normal routine. I unlock all the doors, open the front passenger door, drop off my gym bag, leave over to start the engine, and grab my snow brush. Nothing out of the ordinary.

After clearing off the snow, I opened the driver’s door. Crrrrrunch. Him, that didn’t sound good. I looked at the door handle and it looked ok, a bunch of ice in the area, so I wasn’t too disturbed. Man its cold. I quickly hop in and pull the door closed. Thud. Hmm, normally its thud, click. Not today. The latch that holds the door closed is stuck in the open position. Wonderful.

I jiggled both the interior and exterior handles to try to free things up. I popped the electric locks a couple of times; I was pretty sure that wouldn’t help, but I had to confirm it. Great, its freaking freezing and I’ve got a door that won’t close. I briefly considered trying to drive off and hold the door closed manually, but visions of the door flying full open on my trip down 81S told me that probably wasn’t a great idea.

So, I cranked up the heat and chattered my teeth for a while hoping that the some heat might free things up. 25 minutes later and some more monkeying around with the inside latch, it freed up and the latch was working again. Annoyed at the lost time, I beat feet down to work.

Thursday morning, it was warmer by a few degrees, so I kept my fingers crossed that it was a fluke. No dice. No crunching noise, but the same thud without a click. Geez, better get that looked at. I’m already obsessive compulsive about my car, not being able to lock it would drive me over the edge.

I headed to my local VW dealer later in that day. I told them I need an oil change and to check out the drivers door latch and trunk struts (the trunk has been getting harder and harder to open and close lately.)

About a half hour later the tech manager came out to tell me that the oil change was done and that the driver’s door latch was toast and would need to be replaced. Similarly, the trunk had problems. It wasn’t the struts that were the problem, but that the hinges were ceasing up. Fortunately, both would be covered under warranty. They’d get back to me when the parts came in. Argh, a few more trips to the dealer.

Friday and Saturday, I had no latch problems. This morning, it was 3 degrees out. Normal routine of clearing off the winter mix. Hop in the drivers door and slam; thud but no click. Crap. So, I let the car warm up for a bit. Wouldn’tcha know it, the check engine flashes, then goes to full on. Lovely…  things are just getting better and better.
Normally, I’d do the right thing to do, and turn the car off at this point. But, the door latch hadn’t yet reached the magic temperature to free things up yet. So, after enjoying another 30 minutes of winter frigidity, it worked itself free.

I was originally headed to McDonalds for a nice fast food breakfast; after the dose of cold, I figured it was best to just go back in the house and make some breakfast myself instead.

A bunch of fun videos regarding VWs this week:

• VW vs. Toyota Soccer
  Top Gear rocks. See the I-Go vs. the Fox.
• V-Dubsrock Part 1
  Hehe. “This amplifier has airbags…” With Nigel Tufnel from This Is Spinal Tap.
• V-Dubsrock Part 2
  Sweet. Can’t have rock and roll with out Slash.

V-Dubsrock is their new promotion where they’re giving away custom VW guitar with special models that include a guitar input for the stereo. Geez, and me with 2 years to go on my current lease.
Bonus video. Its not VW related, but I stumbled on another Top Gear video about Odd Vehicles. This one will really make you giggle.

Fun article in NYT Drive Times newsletter today: Mascot Madness: VW Pulls a Rabbit Out of Its Past.  Besides the VW Rabbit, they touch on many forgetten mascot cars of the past like the Super Bee (also coming back as specially flavored edition of the Dodge Charger), Road Runner, Duster and others.

The fine folks at Volksbloggin have a great scoop on a suped version of the forthcoming Eos convertible dubbed Highway 1. Despite the almost cartoony 20 inch wheels, its still got a pretty nice look to it. It also has the slick v6 from the R32, so its probably pretty zippy.

I was at my VW Dealer getting my (very expensive; $179) 20,000 mile service done on my Passat. At this place, they have giant lot, so after you’ve checked out, they send some out to pull up your car for you. Kinda nice, until a bunch of folks pick up their cars at the same time.

Sometimes, they also wash it for you. They didn’t wash mine this time, but I wasn’t too busted up since they usually don’t do a good job anyway.

Anywho, while I was waiting for my car, I spotted what a nice shiny GTI in front of the showroom. Wait tic, that looks a little strange. Hey, that’s got 4 doors. Its a Rabbit! Wow, I didn’t think they’d be making the scene so soon.

Have to say that after seeing one in person, I’m not instantly in love. But, it wasn’t really love at first site with my Golf either. I really like the look of the new GTI, but when you throw another 2 doors on it, I think it loses something.

The price is also creeping up a bit too. The 4 door model I was looking was nicely equipped but not maxed (no sunroof) and as just a few bucks shy of $20k. Yar.

Volksbloggin has a gallery for the new Rabbit. See what you think.