Car Talk

April 2006

Dear Tom and Ray:

For years, a friend of mine has been on me about something I did as a young man, which he says is harmful to any car. Many years ago, on the second day of the state of Georgia bar exam, I drove my old beat-up Chevy Vega (I know I am dating myself with this vehicle) to the civic center, where the exam was administered. As I put the vehicle in reverse to park it, the clutch cable apparently broke. I had no clutch and the shifter was stuck in reverse. Being a penniless law-school student, after the exam that day (I was clearly exhausted mentally) I decided to drive the car home, going in reverse the entire 10-mile trip. It was difficult, looking backward over my shoulder, stopping at red lights on a busy street all the way home. Aside from the obvious traffic-law violations, my friend says it is BAD for any car to drive that far in reverse. I say it's NOT, as I got the cable repaired and drove the car for another two years. What do you say about his position versus my position? Thanks. -- Steve

Beat up old car

TOM: Well, thanks for that image, Steve. That's the best laugh I've had all day!

RAY: You didn't do the car any harm. You might have harmed your career, if any future clients had seen you, but the car didn't suffer at all.

TOM: What you did is just like driving home in first gear. Your speed is limited, because the gear ratio is high. But as long as you didn't go too fast and over-rev the engine, no harm was done.

RAY: And because of the difficulty of controlling a car while driving backward (as I'm sure you now know, Steve), I'm confident you DIDN'T go too fast.

TOM: But by the way, Steve, you didn't have to drive home in reverse. When the clutch isn't working, you can still shift gears in a manual transmission if you first turn off the engine. So, you could have turned the engine off and shifted the car into, say, second gear, and driven home more comfortably -- without getting a stiff neck. Remember that the next time this happens to your Vega, Steve!

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