The Car

In a post a few weeks ago I told you all about a car we were lent by some friends. We had an opportunity to buy the car because our friends are leaving for Madagascar in a couple of weeks. We decided to turn down the offer and now, after what happened to me earlier this week, I'm glad we did....

Early Tuesday afternoon I asked Jeff if I could use his car to run a few errands. He was doing some work around the Centre and didn't need it so he said no problem. Off to the store I went. Somewhere b/t our home and the store the car must've got a flat tire because on the way home I noticed that the car was not driving quite right. A few people even alerted me to the fact that the car had a flat tire.

So, I pulled over at my first opportunity and proceded to attempt to change the tire. I couldn't because the spare tire was frozen into its "slot" in the trunk. Yes, it was frozen! Somehow water had made its way into the spare tire compartment in the trunk and now, because of the cold weather, it was frozen to the body of the vehicle.

Well, I then decided to walk home and find Jeff, get money for the meter, and then get the tire changed. Unfortunately, I couldn't find Jeff so I grabbed some change and proceded back to the car. I fed the meter, put the ticket in the window, and made my way back to the Centre. After about 20 minutes, I found Jeff. I told him what happened, and then we proceded back to his car along with another student. Thankfully, Phil had a car so we rode in it.

We got to Jeff's car, and after about 10 minutes we were able to get the spare tire out. We then located the tire iron. (Yes, almost home free!) Well, the tire iron was too big. Ugh!
We then tried Phil's tire iron. Too big. Rats! But, while trying Phil's tire iron I noticed one of the lug nuts was missing. Instead, there was a nub of sorts with a couple of indentations on it. (It looked more like one of the lug nut was replaced by something else.) Neither Jeff nor I knew what it was but Phil did. He said it was an anti-theft lock that is put on custom rims to prevent theft. Not a big deal except Jeff didn't have the key. He said the kid he bought the car from never gave him one nor did he mention it.

Now, 3 days later Jeff tells me that no shop in town has the appropriate key and that to get replacement rims from Nissan will take at least 7 days. Now, the only way to get the rims off is to torch the anti-theft lock and forcibly remove the rims... all of them.

For the time being, the shop cut off the bad tire and sort of forced a new one one. Jeff can drive the car for the time being but needs to get it taken care of for the new owners who will take possession of the car sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Jeff told me he's glad this happened now instead of after he got rid of the car (the people buying it are class mates of mine) but that doesn't make me feel any better. I feel responsible for it because I was driving it when the flat happened.

This all just goes to show us that life here in France, just like in the States, is full of surprises.

Have a great day.

sf