Car Designs

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I'm sure a lot of thought goes into the build of a car, but sometimes I really gotta question the logic behind some of the mechanisms. Like, how my husband has to take off the left front wheel in order to access the car battery. I know this wasn't just an oversight, because the engineers added terminals accessible from under the hood, so that you can still jump the battery without having to undo some lugnuts. But there are some things that you don't find out until you are in a specific situation.

Like getting to your car after work, realizing the battery is absolutely dead--no lights, no sounds, nothing--and you need to get to your jumper cables in the trunk, but discover that the "pop the trunk open" button does not work without battery power, and unfortunately the trunk doesn't have a keyhole. And it's a compact car, non-hatchback.

Thankfully I was able to reach the cables by accessing the trunk through a small opening in the back seat--a secret hole that appears when I lever one of the seats forward. It was tricky, especially because the trunk space was not lit. Not sure it mattered much, though, because the random Good Samaritan and I could not get my car to start despite jumping it. There's still a happy ending, though: Mark came to get me, and strangely, by using his jumper cables, the engine finally turned over and we could drive home.

Maybe there's some logical reason why his cables worked and not mine--like maybe they're better at carrying a stronger current, or some such stuff. Even so, it felt like one of those times where things don't work until Mark shows up and then suddenly it's fine.

He must have an aura.

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