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Everyone who has owned a car knows how reliable it is to break down. How stubborn it is in its own special way.
The good thing is that with time comes nostalgia, and nostalgia can fix memories that have been bugging us for a very long time, allowing us to laugh at wedding disasters, beach fails, and even all the annoying car issues we've been through.
For the newest "Hashtags" segment on The Tonight Show, its host Jimmy Fallon asked his viewers to share their worst car stories, and it was just like always: people responded to the prompt on Twitter, the showrunners picked the funniest entries and they got a feature on live television. And, just like every time, they were hilariously entertaining, too.
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According to experts, taking care of your car starts with three rudimentary things you should be doing every other fill-up to ensure it stays in tip-top shape.
First, clean the windshield. A dirty, bug-splattered windshield is a safety hazard (it obscures your view of the road), so give it a regular cleaning. Using the spongy part of the gas station squeegee, soak the whole windshield with the cleaning fluid. Then pull the squeegee tightly from the middle of the windshield to the sides, finishing off the remaining streaks by pulling it top to bottom. If your headlights are dirty, give them a squeegeeing too.
Next, check tire pressure. Maintaining this department will keep you safe and even save you a little money. Improperly inflated tires — and this means both over-inflated and under-inflated — don't handle or stop as well as tires with the correct pressure, and they are more likely to suffer a blowout. Plus, tires with the correct pressure last longer and increase your fuel efficiency, even if very slightly.
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Lastly, check the oil level and top off as needed. Motor oil is your car's blood and is essential to its performance. It lubricates all the moving parts in your engine so they don't grind and tear themselves into a disaster. It also transfers heat away from the combustion cycle and traps and holds all the nasty byproducts of combustion, sending it to the oil filter. If your engine doesn't have enough oil, your car is at great risk.
To ensure your car always has enough oil, you simply need to keep regularly checking it. Your owner's manual might recommend that you do this at every gas fill-up but every other is usually sufficient.
Checking your car's oil level is very easy. All you need is a clean paper towel, adequate light, and a few minutes. But before you start, make sure your car is on level ground so you get an accurate reading. Then, locate your engine's dipstick (it typically has an image of an oil can or just says "OIL"). Pull out the dipstick. No laughing. Wipe it clean with a paper towel (gas stations sometimes have them available near the pumps). Put the dipstick back, making sure it goes all the way in. Pull the dipstick out again, (don't turn it upside down to look at it—this makes the oil run upward and ruins your reading). It will have two marks at the bottom. The oil level can be read by looking where the oily part ends and the dry part begins: if the oil line is between the two marks, you’re good to go. If it’s below the bottom mark, you need to add some more oil. But never add more than a quart at once without driving and taking a new reading of the oil level. Too much oil isn't good for the engine too.
All you need to do now is follow the maintenance schedule suggested in your vehicle's owner's manual, keep the car clean and it won't break down. Much.
#10
Linus Nilsson 3 years ago
And here I live in Sweden were cars would be illegal to drive long before reaching this state
#13
Dan Buczynski 3 years ago
You're a boss. I got driven to a party once in a hearse and I felt like a super badass the whole night.
Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
That is BRILLIANT !! I had a friend who converted a Volvo hearse into a camper wagon many years ago and painted it in rainbow colours (actually invited us over to his place, got us all drunk and issued us with spray paint, enamel paint and brushes ... bloody good party even though many of us took weeks to remove ingrained paint from places that paint shouldn't have been..... ). As an aside, apart from that, the only other time I had dealings with a hearse was in Worthing (UK), when my Bond Bug 3 wheeler (I'll post a pic, but best you Google it) wouldn't start and I got a jump start from a nice man with a coffin in the back of his car ..... Once got a jump start on the side of the M20 on New Years Day from a nice man in a Model T Ford as well - happy days ! bug-60181c...ae7b13.jpg 
InfectedVoice 3 years ago
Love this and would happily do up the outside a bit and drive around in it.
Laura Waddell 3 years ago
I wanted to buy a used '66 Caddie Hearse when I was 20 & still living at home with my mom. When I told her about it, she said absolutely no way would she allow me to park it in our driveway and/or on the street in front of our house. I was told if I bought it to move out. I was working full time & a full time college student at the time. I did not want to take on the responsibility of renting a place on my own, so I passed on the Hearse. Still one of my life's greatest regrets over 30 years later 😭
Luther von Wolfen 3 years ago
It's truly terrible when classics like this fall into the hands of people who don't want to learn how to restore/maintain them. All new drivers should be issued a Yugo.
Joshua Topash 3 years ago (edited)
And here we find the one person taking this post seriously XD.
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PikachuTwoKing 3 years ago
At least it looks good. That one looks like it is only good as a decoration lol.
#15
#17
No you didn't 3 years ago (edited)
Apparently you should have held the beams midway between high and regular 🤷♀️
#18
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
Those are the inconspicuous cars that drug mules like... Did you check all the hidden panels?
#20
Marcellus the Third 3 years ago
Not that strange really. I've had a car drive (at say 5MPH) over my foot and it doesn't hurt; the suspension and tires spread the weight. The flatter the object the lesser the impact.
#24
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
Who installed it without sealing it? I would have gone back and told them to do it properly or else you could have just bought a tube of sealant and done it yourself, it isn't hard.
#27
Tabitha L 3 years ago
Waaaaait a minute. Didn't someone from Sweden say in the comments that this would be illegal in Sweden? I'm shocked that despite laws preventing this behavior, it happened anyway. One might be inclined to believe that there are irresponsible people all over the world. But that can't be right.
#29
WilvanderHeijden 3 years ago
Not that hard. The cassette recorder got more or less power depending on the speed. So it either was the battery or the alternator at fault.
#30
#34
MRSS 3 years ago
Well Ford can't make a door latch to save it's life. Started from day one and still can't perfect it. There are so many recalls for door latches on such a wide range in years, makes, and model's. It will absolutely blow your freaking mind how many door latch recall parts I have in my parts room. And supplements recalls (revised parts or updated inspections) for latches and rods and plates. Mind blowing!!!!
#35
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
You just described my first BRAND NEW car off the lot. The $4995 Hyundai Excel. The big selling feature was that the rear window defroster was included in the base package. Ran mine through 170K miles then sold it to my mechanic.
#39
Tiger Pearl 3 years ago
And someone’s dad from another post put an engine in it for her... and the cycle repeated itself!
#42
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
Ahhhh.... The Vega.... Aluminum block... That way there wasn't too much weight to move the thing. If it had been a stainless steel block, she'd have been lucky to pass 30MPH.
#47
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
Push starting a manual transmission when the battery is dead.... So many experiences that the new generations will never have.
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What do you think ?
Caffeine72 3 years ago
I had an '81 Toyota Corolla fastback in high school. It had a really sticky choke and would randomly stall out at red lights. I kept a screwdriver and can of choke cleaner in the passenger seat and could jump out, pop the hood, open the carburetor, spray and pop the choke, close everything up, and get back moving in a minute or less. Also, if you turned the radio on it would make a horrible buzzing sound and then kill the electrics.
Tamera Gardner 3 years ago
My sister used to have to crawl into her mint green Gremlin from the back hatch.
Kimzi ZiCeta 3 years ago
When I moved to South Florida where it liked to rain at some point almost daily, I had a 1980-something brown Corolla that had a leaky sunroof inly when I made a left turn. I had to cover my car seat with a garbage bag and change out beach towels every couple of days and every time I turned left, I had to lean up on the steering wheel as far as I could to try to avoid getting a stream of water down my back. Always wondered how my position appeared to fellow drivers.
Ann Abdelzaher 3 years ago
I think my worst car was just cursed. When my Taraus Sedan seemed to be on it's last legs I traded it in on a Green Taurus wagon. the wagon was about 4 years newer but not new by any means. When I bought it the dealer said there was a power steering leak but to bring it back the next week and they would fix it. well the leak was AWFUL. During the week I had it before they fixed it I went through 3 bottles of power steering fluid. But that is not why it was cursed... 3 months after I got it I am sitting waiting to turn into work.. not a very busy area but the traffic wass faairly steady when work let out. Sitting waiting to turn left with turn signal on when I get slammed from behind... Mind you this is a huge dark green station wagon (called Hulk) and this little 87 VW Jetta slams into the back of me. Just dented my bumper... 6 months later car is hit parked in a hotel parking lot... 6 months after that I was rear-ended while waiting at a traffic light...that time they totalled it.
Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago
Not my story, but my 8th grade history teacher's: His old car was an ugly shade of yellow, the radio would occasionally switch to Spanish, sometimes the front seat randomly went down, three of the doors would freeze shut in winter, and it always smelled terrible. I don't think this is a complete list.
Michelle Brandt 3 years ago
I drove a 1990 Geo Metro that we had for almost 20 years. It was so old, the headlight and wiper controls were buttons on the dashboard instead of a toggle on the steering column. The main "on" button for the headlights was so old it would pop off when you pushed the off button. I would literally have to put my hand over the button because it would fly off under the seat and I wouldn't find it for a week. Also, the keylock for the trunk rusted so bad, whenever I needed to open the hatch I had to crawl in through the backseat and pop the emergency latch. It was the best car tho because we claimed the car made it's own gas(the needle would jump around when the tank was low), could run on empty for a week and it was so rusted that was the only thing still holding it together!
David Retsler 3 years ago
My 1973 Ford Pinto. It was puke green and had such a weak engine, a friend of mine jogged up a hill faster than that piece of crap would go with the pedal to the metal. It was a real babe magnet... meaning it repelled women with its ugliness. I was able to put about 15,000 miles on it until it seized up in the middle of the road. I said "f**k it" and rode my bike- not motorcyce- BIKE- for the rest of my senior year of high school.
RoseTheMad 3 years ago
I truly don't understand why on earth people would continue to drive cars like these. It's a danger to yourself and others. How these cars can be road legal is absolutely beyond me. Here in the UK you'd be fined and possibly even arrested for driving cars like this that clearly wouldn't pass their MOT tests.
Daniel Marsh 3 years ago
My folks had an AMC that always thought there was an unbuckled passenger. The seatbelt warning was a buzzer that never shut off. Strangely, buckling an empty seat didn't work; you had to put weight in the seat.
Kelley Clough Mountain 3 years ago
My husband had a Corvair, the engine fell out as he was driving.
Rachel Reynolds 3 years ago
My dad likes to talk about driving home from California in his 1968 Chevy Panel Van. Somewhere around Ohio he stepped on the gas and the pedal, along with most of the floor panel fell out onto the highway. Since it was the late 70's at the time he pulled over and attached a rope to the cable, allowing him pull it to accelerate and thus drive home (mid-Michigan).
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
This brings back so many good memories. My first car was a VW Golf almost the same age as me. Rain leaked in so bad, I had a friend drill holes in the floor so the water could drain back out, otherwise the inside of the car was wet the entire winter. My speedometer only worked sometimes. I replaced the driver door latch so many times, eventually I just gave up and used the passenger door. Once I was on a first date and the guy walked me to my car afterwards. When I walked up to the wrong door, he was worried for a moment that I was drunk and shouldn't drive. I had to explain to him that that's the only way to get into the car. The engine was 100% though, up until my mechanic got lazy and started cutting corners. I ended up selling it, but I still see the new owner driving it around town 🤣🤣❤
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 3 years ago
About 20 years ago I had a car that decided it could not go in reverse. Had to park in back of lots so no one would park in front of me. Switched with my mom for a day and she went thru a drive thru. Passed the pay window, couldn't back up, and had to go around and get in line again. The people in window thought she was crazy.
JessG 3 years ago
Lol! But couldn't she just pay at the next window instead? Or was there only one window?
Load More Replies...
Spork420 3 years ago
Back in 2001 when I was 17, I had a green 1972 Pontiac Catalina. It was massive. I loved that car. Everyone loved that car. You could easily fit 8 people in there and clam bake it, or 3 could lay on the hood and it wouldn't wince. However, everytime you would drive it somewhere, once you shut it off, it would dump it's entire cooling system out through the overflow tank. Gallons of steaming hot coolant/water. It was embarrassing to go somewhere and have the car purge it's bowels all over the ground. I had to keep gallons of water on hand to refill it before I left. In addition, it developed a ground issue where everytime you would step on the brakes, the headlights would go out. They'd come back on once you released the brakes though. It was an experience to say the least.
Carol Emory 3 years ago
Best and worse car was my Dad's '71 Nova. Tranny goes out at the mall with a full car of friends. Brakes go out in the middle of rush hour traffic in Seattle. On the bright side, she flew down the freeways and her construction protected me when I t-boned a pick up truck that made an illegal left turn in front of me.
Hooked 3 years ago
Funny stories. But I don't understand how it is possible that cars like that are even allowed on the streets. Isn't there something like an annual check up/test for cars in the US that the car has to pass to be allowed on the street for another year ? We have that here since 1981 for all cars older than 4 years.
Yagi-chan 3 years ago
The US has some weird car laws. In Japan, the oldest car a person can buy is less than 10 years old. The cars are recycled (crushed) and if they are older than a certain year, the road tax goes up exponentially. Had an 8 year old VW Golf in Japan and it was one of the oldest things on the road. Back to the US, we’re in a state that slaps “Collector Vehicle” plates on old, broken down cars and trucks spewing noticeable emissions. They are exempt from smog checks. Save for a few perfectly maintained or restored vintage cars, it’s time to do away with this practice. People are also driving around vehicles in all sorts of disrepair.
Load More Replies...
BonnyDK 3 years ago
My mom bought a car I was supposed to share with my sister when I was in high school. I told her anything but a Ford. She bought a Mustang. Insisted it wasn't a Ford. It was a Mustang. 1965 in 1973. Had at least 15 different coats of paint on it cracked all the way to the metal. You could literally count the different colors. Broke down once a month every month. We walked more than we drove. I sold it after about a year for what she paid for it only to see it on the news in a flooded ditch with just the bumper above water. New owner got it out, broke the engine completely down and cleaned it proper then drove it across the country with no problem.
Caffeine72 3 years ago
I had an '81 Toyota Corolla fastback in high school. It had a really sticky choke and would randomly stall out at red lights. I kept a screwdriver and can of choke cleaner in the passenger seat and could jump out, pop the hood, open the carburetor, spray and pop the choke, close everything up, and get back moving in a minute or less. Also, if you turned the radio on it would make a horrible buzzing sound and then kill the electrics.
Tamera Gardner 3 years ago
My sister used to have to crawl into her mint green Gremlin from the back hatch.
Kimzi ZiCeta 3 years ago
When I moved to South Florida where it liked to rain at some point almost daily, I had a 1980-something brown Corolla that had a leaky sunroof inly when I made a left turn. I had to cover my car seat with a garbage bag and change out beach towels every couple of days and every time I turned left, I had to lean up on the steering wheel as far as I could to try to avoid getting a stream of water down my back. Always wondered how my position appeared to fellow drivers.
Ann Abdelzaher 3 years ago
I think my worst car was just cursed. When my Taraus Sedan seemed to be on it's last legs I traded it in on a Green Taurus wagon. the wagon was about 4 years newer but not new by any means. When I bought it the dealer said there was a power steering leak but to bring it back the next week and they would fix it. well the leak was AWFUL. During the week I had it before they fixed it I went through 3 bottles of power steering fluid. But that is not why it was cursed... 3 months after I got it I am sitting waiting to turn into work.. not a very busy area but the traffic wass faairly steady when work let out. Sitting waiting to turn left with turn signal on when I get slammed from behind... Mind you this is a huge dark green station wagon (called Hulk) and this little 87 VW Jetta slams into the back of me. Just dented my bumper... 6 months later car is hit parked in a hotel parking lot... 6 months after that I was rear-ended while waiting at a traffic light...that time they totalled it.
Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago
Not my story, but my 8th grade history teacher's: His old car was an ugly shade of yellow, the radio would occasionally switch to Spanish, sometimes the front seat randomly went down, three of the doors would freeze shut in winter, and it always smelled terrible. I don't think this is a complete list.
Michelle Brandt 3 years ago
I drove a 1990 Geo Metro that we had for almost 20 years. It was so old, the headlight and wiper controls were buttons on the dashboard instead of a toggle on the steering column. The main "on" button for the headlights was so old it would pop off when you pushed the off button. I would literally have to put my hand over the button because it would fly off under the seat and I wouldn't find it for a week. Also, the keylock for the trunk rusted so bad, whenever I needed to open the hatch I had to crawl in through the backseat and pop the emergency latch. It was the best car tho because we claimed the car made it's own gas(the needle would jump around when the tank was low), could run on empty for a week and it was so rusted that was the only thing still holding it together!
David Retsler 3 years ago
My 1973 Ford Pinto. It was puke green and had such a weak engine, a friend of mine jogged up a hill faster than that piece of crap would go with the pedal to the metal. It was a real babe magnet... meaning it repelled women with its ugliness. I was able to put about 15,000 miles on it until it seized up in the middle of the road. I said "f**k it" and rode my bike- not motorcyce- BIKE- for the rest of my senior year of high school.
RoseTheMad 3 years ago
I truly don't understand why on earth people would continue to drive cars like these. It's a danger to yourself and others. How these cars can be road legal is absolutely beyond me. Here in the UK you'd be fined and possibly even arrested for driving cars like this that clearly wouldn't pass their MOT tests.
Daniel Marsh 3 years ago
My folks had an AMC that always thought there was an unbuckled passenger. The seatbelt warning was a buzzer that never shut off. Strangely, buckling an empty seat didn't work; you had to put weight in the seat.
Kelley Clough Mountain 3 years ago
My husband had a Corvair, the engine fell out as he was driving.
Rachel Reynolds 3 years ago
My dad likes to talk about driving home from California in his 1968 Chevy Panel Van. Somewhere around Ohio he stepped on the gas and the pedal, along with most of the floor panel fell out onto the highway. Since it was the late 70's at the time he pulled over and attached a rope to the cable, allowing him pull it to accelerate and thus drive home (mid-Michigan).
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
This brings back so many good memories. My first car was a VW Golf almost the same age as me. Rain leaked in so bad, I had a friend drill holes in the floor so the water could drain back out, otherwise the inside of the car was wet the entire winter. My speedometer only worked sometimes. I replaced the driver door latch so many times, eventually I just gave up and used the passenger door. Once I was on a first date and the guy walked me to my car afterwards. When I walked up to the wrong door, he was worried for a moment that I was drunk and shouldn't drive. I had to explain to him that that's the only way to get into the car. The engine was 100% though, up until my mechanic got lazy and started cutting corners. I ended up selling it, but I still see the new owner driving it around town 🤣🤣❤
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 3 years ago
About 20 years ago I had a car that decided it could not go in reverse. Had to park in back of lots so no one would park in front of me. Switched with my mom for a day and she went thru a drive thru. Passed the pay window, couldn't back up, and had to go around and get in line again. The people in window thought she was crazy.
JessG 3 years ago
Lol! But couldn't she just pay at the next window instead? Or was there only one window?
Load More Replies... Spork420 3 years ago
Back in 2001 when I was 17, I had a green 1972 Pontiac Catalina. It was massive. I loved that car. Everyone loved that car. You could easily fit 8 people in there and clam bake it, or 3 could lay on the hood and it wouldn't wince. However, everytime you would drive it somewhere, once you shut it off, it would dump it's entire cooling system out through the overflow tank. Gallons of steaming hot coolant/water. It was embarrassing to go somewhere and have the car purge it's bowels all over the ground. I had to keep gallons of water on hand to refill it before I left. In addition, it developed a ground issue where everytime you would step on the brakes, the headlights would go out. They'd come back on once you released the brakes though. It was an experience to say the least.
Carol Emory 3 years ago
Best and worse car was my Dad's '71 Nova. Tranny goes out at the mall with a full car of friends. Brakes go out in the middle of rush hour traffic in Seattle. On the bright side, she flew down the freeways and her construction protected me when I t-boned a pick up truck that made an illegal left turn in front of me.
Hooked 3 years ago
Funny stories. But I don't understand how it is possible that cars like that are even allowed on the streets. Isn't there something like an annual check up/test for cars in the US that the car has to pass to be allowed on the street for another year ? We have that here since 1981 for all cars older than 4 years.
Yagi-chan 3 years ago
The US has some weird car laws. In Japan, the oldest car a person can buy is less than 10 years old. The cars are recycled (crushed) and if they are older than a certain year, the road tax goes up exponentially. Had an 8 year old VW Golf in Japan and it was one of the oldest things on the road. Back to the US, we’re in a state that slaps “Collector Vehicle” plates on old, broken down cars and trucks spewing noticeable emissions. They are exempt from smog checks. Save for a few perfectly maintained or restored vintage cars, it’s time to do away with this practice. People are also driving around vehicles in all sorts of disrepair.
Load More Replies... BonnyDK 3 years ago
My mom bought a car I was supposed to share with my sister when I was in high school. I told her anything but a Ford. She bought a Mustang. Insisted it wasn't a Ford. It was a Mustang. 1965 in 1973. Had at least 15 different coats of paint on it cracked all the way to the metal. You could literally count the different colors. Broke down once a month every month. We walked more than we drove. I sold it after about a year for what she paid for it only to see it on the news in a flooded ditch with just the bumper above water. New owner got it out, broke the engine completely down and cleaned it proper then drove it across the country with no problem.
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