Most of the time, the daily drives of our lives go nice and easy. But sometimes you have one of those moments that make your butt clench and your eyes bulge. What’s your biggest oh shit moment while driving?
These moments can come in the form of anything, really. Perhaps an animal darts out in front of you and you have no time to stop. Maybe your car experiences a mechanical failure on the highway or on the track. Maybe you did something stupid like try to show off at a car show and forgot to use a digital gauge to measure your BMW’s tire pressure.
For me, it was driving in the snow.
Good tires are super important. It’s a lesson I learned early in life when my parents let a much younger me drive a rental 2008 Chevy Aveo in a snowstorm.
I tried to carefully brake down a snowy hill and the car started sliding almost instantly. I used the tricks I learned in Driver’s Ed, but they were futile against this icy road. We slid down the hill and through a red light, narrowly missing a plow truck. The whole scenario was maybe 30 seconds but it felt like 30 minutes. I shook all over like a scared chihuahua.
My parents didn’t understand why the little car was so trash in the snow but the reason made itself apparent right after the major ‘oh shit’ moment with the plow truck. The Aveo had four almost completely bald tires. The car was returned the very next day with an apology from the rental company in the form of a refund and an upgrade.
Do you have something worse? Do you have an ‘oh shit’ moment that taught you a lesson like that one did for me?