I was in Kentucky with my boyfriend last July visiting his family. We were driving out to the back country to visit a section of the family. The road had two lanes, no shoulder, was very curvy and hilly and was heavily treed. We came around a bend at the top of a hill and at the bottom of the hill there was a car in our lane coming towards us. It was like he was driving in England! We swerved into his lane to miss him and would have been fine but then he swerved (delayed reaction time) back into his lane and hit us head on. We don't believe that he hit his brakes at all. We were not belted (stupid!!). I bottomed out the airbag and slammed my head on the dash and hit my knees pretty hard. I had a lovely bruise in the middle of my forehead. My boyfriend jammed his hands on the steering wheel and couldn't make a fist for several hours. We were very lucky. The driver had eight empty beer cans in the passenger seat, a mason jar half full of wine, had been leaving a bar and going to another one. About an hour after the accident he blew three and a half times the legal limit in Kentucky. He was so drunk he couldn't figure out how to open his car door. We were driving my mom's brand new Taurus. It was nearly totaled. People were very nice though. Lots of people stopped to help us. The first fireman on the scene had just gotten home from his wedding and was leaving for his honeymoon that night.

We were not five miles from our destination when it happened. It was also on July 3rd. My boyfriend likes to say that we are a statistic now. Please, please wear your seatbelts!!

Kathy, 26
Garden City, MI

Not off the top of my head. But I can't imagine life without a car.

Rachel L
Toronto, Ontario CANADA

I am not quite sure what a "car story" is, but the summer of 1999 I went on a road trip with my boyfriend and his friend from Scotland. When we made it to Las Vegas my boyfriend and I got married at the Little White Chapel's Tunnel of Love, which is a drive-thru wedding chapel. We were married in his sisters car.

Kate, 19
Bellingham, WA

Fortunately, no.

Jane, 60
West Linn, OR

It was early afternoon in January 1998. My brother was fixing the starter in my car and when he finished we got on the highway and headed over to my mother's house. There was someone really slow driving in front of us so I switched into the passing lane. I looked over at my brother and asked him what he was thinking. He looked like he forgot something important.

Just then total darkness and a loud crash. I thought somehow we died! I looked over at him and asked him if we were dead. I could see cars whizzing by us out the passenger window but the entire road in front of us disappeared. Then the sky came down and the road fell in front of us followed by another crash and total darkness. What is happening?

The hood of the car was flying up and smashing into the windshield! My brother forgot to lock the hood in place. I switched on my hazard lights. The windspeed bent and curled the giant hood upright. The windshield is solid glass! I looked beside us as cars whirled by. I tried to slow down and get over into the break down lane.

Somehow we made it over. A guy in a white pickup truck pulled up. I  thought he was going to help us but all he said was "Wow man! That was fuckin awesome dude! Later." Needless to say I was slightly disappointed with human intelligence. I looked at my ruined car as my brother tried to bend the hood back with his hands and told me it would be safe to drive home if I could get him a hanger to hold the hood down.

After I called a tow truck and took the train home I decided everyone is insane.

Jami, 27
Lowell, MA

I drove the 1 1/2 hours from where I was going to school to my parent's house naked with the windows down and the girl I had a hugest crush on in the passenger seat. She fell asleep and rested her head in my lap.   Like her, I hope y'all hear where I'm comin' from.

Anthony, 25
Baton Rouge, LA

In high school and most of college I drove a 1973 Comet. It was red with a black vinyl roof. The roof was peeling. The car literally squeeked so loud you could hear me coming down the road. It was butt-ugly.

One day after classes, I walked up to my car on the Rutgers Univ. parking deck. Put the key in the door to unlock it and it wouldn't unlock. I tried again. And again. I started to panic. I don't know what made me do   it, but I looked at the license plate. It was some one else's car. My car was parked 2 down from this one. I couldn't believe someone else also drove the same beast.

Laura, 35
Lowell, MA

I have no pleasant car stories. A car is a very expensive suitcase on wheels.

Jill, 59
Saylorsburg, PA

I have so many car stories.  There's the one where my parent's '57 Cadillac ran out of gas an my friends had to push it to the nearest gas station (100 feet away) and it took us 45 minutes because the thing was so darn heavy.  Or the one where my high school friends would drive down a dirt road and the two in the front would switch place while the care was in motion. The passenger would go out of the window and crawl over the top of the car and back in the driver side window. Or the one where I drove cross country and slept in my car at truck stops, because it was cheaper.  Or the one where we fit 6 people, their luggage and one guitar int a Citron during a group trip to France and drove 7 hours from Nice to Paris stopping at many a winery on the way.  Or the one where my car was broken into after being in NYC for only one day.  The radio was stolen and the trip back upstate (an 8 hour drive) was like torture w/o tunes.  Or the one where my engine blew up and had to be replaced twice which was followed by 4-6 months of constant repairs and the spending of cash the equalled more than what I bought the car for.   Or the one where my oldest high school friend, Lita, was killed in fiery explosion when her bad driving landed her into the side of truck on a cross country trip back east.

Take your pick.  They range from the funny to the tragic.

Felicia, 34
Somerville, MA

Once upon a time, there was a little car named Bobo, who nobody liked. So Bobo decided to get a bunch of military modifications and destroy all the other cars. Then Bobo was happy, the end.

Socrates One
Lowell, MA

*laugh* Let's see, my first car was possessed by the devil, that's one story. Then there was that time when said car broke down in the middle of rush hour on one of the busiest streets in New Orleans. Once, an ex-boyfriend took his *ahem* out and I didn't notice for quite some time. When I finally did, I protested. He pretended like he didn't know what I was talking about (apparently, I told him he was acting like a child, so he said "children don't know when to hide their..." *ahems*. This was his revenge. Yeah, we didn't last long). But I guess the most memorable car story was when we drove to Baton Rouge to pick up my prom date. The biggest witch in the world was driving us... to this day, we don't understand why we were friends with her. Anyways, the car breaks down, she and her friend go to get help, and 20 minutes later, my friends and I leave the car on the interstate, walk 3 miles in the rain, and call a cab. Then, said witch had the audacity to call our parents and "see if we were okay." Of COURSE our parents didn't know we were on a road trip! We never spoke to her after that.

Amy, 23
Baton Rouge, LA

My husband bought a Ford Capri (dodgy 70's boy-racer car) which a few years later we used as a deposit on a newer car, getting £500 for it. I decided I still needed a car of my own and, a few days later went to a car auction. Lo-and-behold sitting in the line is our old Capri - it's asking price £300, so I promptly bought it back. The car had been sprayed/serviced and we made £200, now that's what I call a bargain!

Nikki, 27
Kirkham ENGLAND

I have lots of stories. . .but I am tooooo jet-lagged to tell them right now (this is probably the only time you'll ever hear me turn down a chance to tell a story).

Karen, 20
Marshelltown/Ames, IA

not really. . ..I currently don't own a car, but after my move to L.A. I hope to get one as soon as I can practically afford one. . .

mothmc, 35
Pensacola, FL

On day on my drive into NEwark, NJ my car just died. All the lights went on and it was not moving any where. Unfortunatelly I was going under an underpass that had 8 lanes of traffic from various highways merging into two lanes on a bridge. Not the place to be. People were quite upset honking horns, yelling but no one can over to help. I was pretty upset. I said a prayer to God to please let me get my car off the road and over to the side. The car started and I managed to crawl the car over to a side

Janet, 42
E. Brunswick, NJ

Yesterday / Tomorrow