My old car decided it had had enough of this cruel world, and demonstrated this by boiling its transmission.
Car is scrapped... was very very old and would have cost more to fix car than it was worth.
So, I am carless.
I have a 45 minute commute, which is tricky with no car and no bus. Housemate helps occassionally, but retail bows to no one's schedule, so there are still times housemate won't be able to drive me. In a weird "good things from bad" sort of way, my father loses his ability to drive, freeing up one of my parent's cars. A cute little pink Suzuki Sidekick (94). Part of deal is I will handle the upcoming oil change, registration renewal, and inspection whilst driving the rollerskate. Fair enough.
Take rollerskate to Sears in between work and parent's to get oil changed and windshield wipers replaced. Give information, told it'll be an hour. Wander around the mall, find a pet store, play with cute golden retriever puppy, get a pretzel, wander back. Ask for car.
"We didn't do the oil change."
"Oh, that's ok... do you have any idea how much longer it'll be?"
"No, I mean we can't change the oil."
"Excuse me?"
"We don't know how to open your hood. -brightly- But we did change the windshield wipers!"
"You... don't know how to open the hood?"
"Nope, can't find the release latch."
"Would you like me to show you?"
"Sure, but it's too late to do the change now."
So, we wander out to the garage, and I show them the hood release latch (to be fair, it's in an odd spot... it's actually in the glove compartment), pay for my wipers, and go.
Next garage, the first question I ask is "Do you know how to pop the hood on a 94 Suzuki Sidekick?"
Garage looks at me like I've grown an extra head, but says yes. They get the oil changed, and car is much happier. Amusing point, this was another Sears garage (closer to where I work).
OK, now, I can understand that a) the hood release was in a weird spot and b) even if they knew it was in the glove compartment, they may be reluctant to open it. However, if you work with cars for a living, and part of the daily routine for that work involves opening hoods, it would be a logical assumption that they would know how to at least FIND OUT how to pop the hood (or page me, which they said they didn't). If they found out it was in the glove compartment, the option exists for them to have me sign off that it's ok for them to open the glove compartment. I wasn't upset with them, just very amused and made sure to follow up on that for any other oil changes with that car.