After finding themselves totally submerged in the muddy water, the occupants had to make their way to the rear hatch and kick the glass out in order to escape. Nobody was seriously injured in the incident but the Golf is much worse for the wear. Certainly makes the potholes of Detroit look like baby stuff. [English Russia via Carscoop]

A warm spell over the past two weeks allowed Southeast Michigan residents a brief respite from this winter of Detroit's discontent. But, knowing potholes are made during just these interludes, the Auto Insider and I took to the not-so-mean-as-much-as-vacant-of-all-life Detroit streets to catalog what this brutal winter had wroth.

Detroit highways are well known for speed limits more in keeping with a "suggested target" than a hard ceiling, so we kept our picture-taking to surface streets for reasons of safety. Still, what we found surprised us. While a plethora of suspension-wrenching, tire-puncturing and axle-bending potholes were part of our highway drive downtown, we were impressed to find recent work by Detroit's Department of Transportation over the past two years had rendered many of the bone-jarring problem areas we'd cursed in years past non-existent. In fact, the most eerie thing we saw was block upon block of perfect, manicured side streets down by the riverfront, surrounding plots of waist-high weeds and grass colored brown from industrial seepage. In many ways, those streets are a sad testament to much of what the City of Detroit's done in recent years — dressing up their gaping wounds with a clean, pretty band aid that does nothing to staunch the flow of blood.

But we digress, we were here for the potholes — and despite the decrease in number, we still found plenty — all waiting for a fleet of GMC Trucks paid for with whatever meager infrastructure-directed stimulus dollars Metro Detroit's able to get to fix them. Here's some of the worst:

Think you've got Detroit beat for sad roadways, drop your pictures in the comments below or e-mail pete@jalopnik.com and he'll get you straightened away with an account.