First Gear All the Way

Good answer - driving that far in 1st gear might be deleterious to the transmission innards - although even that is doubtful - but it certainly would NOT cause that kind of damage. I could tell "engine fire" at first look.

Engine fire from a fuel leak is my guess.

Hello Yuval

It's an example of the old saying: "What goes around, comes around".

That old spam email is still circulating, several years after it first appeared, it seems.

Let's hope you didn't forward that spam email to all your friends.

Kind Regards....

No, I didn't forward it. I just had trouble believing it to start with

I mean, why should propagation in low gear produce such toasted engine block in the firs place. Even if someone told me it's possible, I would still doubt it, hence my original post.

Given some reason, low gear for long, would probably grind it to a halt after a while, and that's it. Right?

If it quacks like a duck and hops like a jay, it's probably neither

"If it quacks like a duck and hops like a jay, it's probably neither"

LOL!!!

Right, if you drove all that way in low gear, you'd overheat the transmission lubricant, and you'd hear it whining all the way at speed (which would never be as fast as you'd want, everyone would be zipping past). Worst case, you'd shell out the tranny, can't think it would get hot enough to start on fire.

My niece lives in Canada. She was 4 when they left Hungary. In the seventies she visited us. That time I had an East-German car "Trabant", that was - I think - the simplest car ever built. As she noticed the the gear-change lever she asked:"Is this a sport car?"...

got that email about 6 months ago. Was stated that a women collected her rental car from Johannesburg International airport-assumed it was an automatic and again drove in 1'st gear to a town approx. 150kms away. Only difference between the emails (spam) was that the car was a BMW.

NB. Watch out for the Gigantic crocodile hunting the waters in Saint Lucia catchment area (KZN coastal area)-things about 15M long and nasty-only problem is that the deer it has in its mouth is not native to southern africa!

There's always some dumb-ass changing email photos and their descriptions.

Insanity is not running into a brick wall repeatedly-Insanity is expecting a different outcome each time!

How did all these guys or girls manage to "drive" these cars in the first place? Did they not notice that these cars had Clutch pedals, which the Automatics do not have and without depressing these clutch pedals, they could not even shift to First gear, and the cars would not run or even move if one could not shift to any gear for that matter.

Vshwn7@aol.com

An excellent observation!

I drove half way across the state of Kentucky in second gear once. But it was due to freezing rain and the road was completely ice covered. A low speed white knuckle ride at about 15mph.

At the risk of starting a battle of the sexes, maybe women should only be allowed to drive automatics? but there are exceptions to every rule.

My wife took a car that I bought for my daughter to drive and drove to Wright State University and home again. When she got home she said that the car was not a good choice for my daughter as it used too much gas. I went out to check the car and it would not move. She had driven from our home in N. Ky to Dayton Ohio and back in second gear on the old Ford automatic. Disassembly of the transmission reviled everything inside fried and the center support plate was cracked in half from the heat. I don't remember the designation on the shift indicator now, but think it was something like P R N L D1 D2. She later drove a Yugo for the rest of the time she was in grad school and never had a problem. Seems she understood the clutch but not the automatic transmission. She has since moved on to greener pastures.

"...drove a Yugo for the rest of the time she was in grad school and never had a problem..."

Wot, all six months she remained in grad school? I had a friend drove one of those, that was about what they were good for...

Oh, and that "never - problem" part? There are things you just can't ask me to believe, neighbor!

When she finished the doctorate we got her a new car. The only thing I remember replacing on the Yugo was the drivers door inside latch handle. The rest of it just keep plugging away. Also was kind at the pumps. Gas was a lot cheaper then. Horn sounded a little funny when you blew it. Something you would expect to hear from the clowns car at the circus. She ran it about 100 miles a day for 2 - 1/2 years.

WOW! You should'a kept that Yugo! Must be the only one that ran that long from what I've ever known/heard about 'em! Concur on the horn - always made me think I should be hearing calliope music in the background!!!

I don't know if it is still running today. If I had it today it would not have cost me $51.97 to fill up this morning. I have a jeep wrangler now and it took just under 14 gallons to fill it up for the week driving. Too much for the distance traveled. (200 miles) The car I would love to have today was an old crosley I had in the early 60's. It was old then, but had a little 4 cylinder engine that seemed to run forever on a gallon of gas. We could get 10 of us in it to go to a basket ball game and would have been arrested if we tried it today. But then again we used to stuff the phone booths in my day also.

"But there are exceptions to every rule."

But then that's a rule too.

So there must be exceptions to it.

Which means there must be a rule with no exceptions.

But....there are exception to every rule.

Oh dear....

A guy I knew in Uni said he when he left Towoomba one night, it was cold so he used the old manual choke to start the car (old car apparently), then forgot about it. When he got back to Brisbane (~100km), he had burnt through a whole tank of petrol. Ouch!

A friend of mine once lent his 4wd Toyota 4cyl. truck to his cousin.

She said "Sure, I can drive a standard"

But, what she didn't know about was 4 wheel low........

She pulled the "short" lever, nothing happened so she tried the "long" lever...

She drove down the highway at 45 MPH for 30 miles, burned every bit of fluid out of the engine - no oil or coolant was left.

When he got the truck back, he filled the oil and the coolant, started it up, sounded like a diesel, but ran for 5 more years. (slightly decresed HP though....)

I read that Linda Ronstadt did the same thing in a Ferrari from Las Vegas to LA.

(Sorry, Googles not helping with this one.)