I never understood the obsession with cup holders in cars. About two is all I can imagine needing in most situations.
They have to be well-placed, of course. We had a station wagon a while back in which the cup holders were cleverly concealed in a retractable drawer in the middle of the dashboard. The problem with that was that if the cup holders were deployed, they hung over the radio. You couldn't adjust the radio at all if you had an iced coffee in there. Also, if your beverage spilled, it would soak the radio. Sub-optimal, to say the least.
My current car, a Saturn, has two cup holders. It could be that Saturn is not very concerned about your caffeine habit, or perhaps they don't consider cup holders to be a vital part of the mechanical functioning of your car.
That's what I thought, until this morning.
When I arrived at work and parked my car, I found that I could not get out. My car doors were locked. A feature of this car is that the doors lock when you start the car and stay locked until you turn off the car*.
Then I realized that I couldn't get the keys out of the ignition. Dang! I restarted the car, put it in reverse, backed out, put it in drive, slid back into my space and turned off the car. Nope, still stuck.
I could unlock the door manually and get out, but I really wanted to take my keys with me. Stymied for the moment, I decided to just relax and have a sip of my iced coffee. I took my cup out of the cup holder. As I did this, I heard a "click." The shift lever had been resting lightly against the cup, and the release switch had been depressed enough for the car to think it was not completely in "park." With the cup removed, the magical spell was broken and my keys released from captivity.
It was a very "Henry Jones" moment.
"I find, that if I just sit down to think… the solution presents itself!" - Henry Jones, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"
* You can change this behavior, but that is the default.
Posted by James at June 16, 2008 12:57 PM:-)
Posted by: Chuck S at June 16, 2008 3:09 PMYou were trapped in your car because of your cup holder.
Now I've heard everything.
Well, I'm glad you were able to get out. If you had been stuck, you at least had something to drink. Of course, if you had been stuck, you would have had a nice big cup of coffee.
My hazelnut-sized bladder would not have liked that one bitty bit.
Posted by: Patti M. at June 16, 2008 4:00 PMLOL, and very funny to me today because tomorrow I put my 95 Saturn up for sale and pick up my 2007 Saturn with the doors that lock when you put the car in drive and the two cupholders. The salesman made sure to show me the glow-in-the-dark lever to pull in case I ever get thrown into my own trunk, but he didn't mention the move-the-latte escape manuevre!
Posted by: mjfrombuffalo at June 16, 2008 9:46 PMHe must be new to the dealership. :)
Best of luck with your new car, I hope you like it as much as I like mine.
Posted by: James at June 16, 2008 10:50 PMSometimes my keys get stuck when my steering wheel is in a certain position, turned all the way to the left (or is it the right). Sometimes this happens when I've pulled into a parking space at a tight angle.
The idea is that you won't be able to turn the keys to start the car when the wheel is in that position (it's supposed to be a security feature), but it works the other way too, that you can't get the keys out when the steering wheel is locked either. Jiggling the wheel solves the problem, but I always panic a little bit when it happens.
Posted by: Julie at June 17, 2008 10:57 AMI originally had a sentence in here explaining about wheel lock, but when I have a post that tells a semi-humorous story (stress on the "semi") I try to edit heavily.
I find I am too wordy far too often, and my astute friends often fill in the blanks anyhow in the comments, if it turns out they are interested in related topics.
Savvy friends FTW!
Posted by: James at June 17, 2008 11:38 AM