Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
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Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
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Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#2This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead...
Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints seriously.
Complaints and emotions escalated, until brother-in-law convinced his dad to swap vehicles for a month, so (he hoped) his dad could experience the problem for himself.
After the problem manifested in the parking lot of the GM Technical Center, and the whole crowd of GM engineers surrounding the vehicle couldn't figure out why the heck the electrical system seemed to be dead, my brother-in-law felt pretty vindicated.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#3This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead... Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints serious…
GM cars are notorious for (sometimes) developing strange problems that would have you think they are possessed with the devil. (Despite post-1990 GM cars being near peers to Japanese cars for reliability overall)
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#4The president of Pontiac got involved? An engineer spent multiple days on the problem?
X doubt
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#5This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead... Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints serious…
GM cars are notorious for (sometimes) developing strange problems that would have you think they are possessed with the devil. (Despite post-1990 GM cars being near peers to Japanese cars for reliability overall)
I had a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron that developed insane electrical issues. Windshield wipers would randomly turn on, the radio would change stations by itself. It really did seem possessed.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#6The president of Pontiac got involved? An engineer spent multiple days on the problem? X doubt
I agree it seems unlikely, but it's still a fun story.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#7The president of Pontiac got involved? An engineer spent multiple days on the problem? X doubt
Ford has been known to send corp engineers to dealerships to help diagnose and resolve recurring issues in specific vehicles (has happened to a coworker of mine, and the engineer did end up fixing the issue!) -- I wouldn't entirely doubt.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#8The president of Pontiac got involved? An engineer spent multiple days on the problem? X doubt
Sending mail to the President doesn't mean it was handled by the President. They've got a staff to handle customer service requests.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#9This reminds me of a GM minivan that my youngest brother-in-law drove, back in the '80's. He'd gotten it from his father, who was a career GM automotive engineer - and complained that, occasionally & randomly, it would not start. It seemed like the minivan's whole electrical system was dead... Brother-in-law was known to be "not so good" with cars - so his automotive engineer father didn't take the complaints serious…
GM cars are notorious for (sometimes) developing strange problems that would have you think they are possessed with the devil. (Despite post-1990 GM cars being near peers to Japanese cars for reliability overall)
I learned a lot of things from my father. Unfortunately a lot of them were what not to do. Don’t buy cheap tools that you’ll have to replace three times in the lifespan of one that costs 50% more. And don’t buy GM.
Mechanically they may be reliable, but 90’s GM forgot how to make paint stick to metal and had to pay to repaint a massive number of vehicles that simply pealed if parked outside for too long. How?
And there is absolutely no forgiveness in my soul for the Chevy Citation. I joked when I moved to Seattle that the main problem is since there is no salt, there are still Citations on the road and that is unnatural. Their place in the natural order is the junk yard.
Re: Car allergic to vanilla ice cream (2000)
#10The president of Pontiac got involved? An engineer spent multiple days on the problem? X doubt
It’s an engineering allegory, not a literal historic account. You’re supposed to learn from the engineer who diligently takes notes until they discover the obscure correlation that clues them in to the real problem. The true problem is not always what we assume it to be, but you can’t dismiss the existence of a problem because it seems unlikely.
The included details of the narrative are deliberately fanciful to make it obvious that it’s not intended to be taken literally.
Of all the details people are trying to pick apart, I’m surprised nobody mentioned how strange it was that they drove to the store every single night for ice cream rather than just buying a few large containers and putting them in the freezer. :)