First before you read about the worst car I ever had, let me tell you what I used to drive before making this horrible mistake.

My first real car I owned was a "Firefly". Some kind of "GEO Metro" but ran on 3 cylinders. This was the only thing I could afford just before I went to College. I liked it. It was bringing me around and getting 50 MPG. Cheap and good. Unfortunately, after 5 years, the car started to run out of juice. One cylinder failed, I could not repair it, no money. The car was running on 2 cylinders and dark fumes were coming out of his tail. I had to find a replacement car since the cost of repairing it was too high compared to buying another used one. My budget was quite low - in the range of 1 thousand dollars.

I found this immaculate Volkswagen Jetta in the paper classifieds. When I saw it, was impressive. The paint and interior was in top shape. I inspected it, drove it. Seemed to be all ok for the budget I had. The guy even gave me a couple of hundred for my "Firefly" so the deal was pretty good. I got the car and drove it for 6 months without any problems.

Strike 1:

Then in a 2 week span, everything happened all of a sudden. I was driving on a bridge called "Pont Pierre Lapporte" in Quebec City in the winter time, and my hood just opened up while I was driving at 60MPH. This was not a good place to stop the car, an icy road on the bridge. I had snow on my windshield and the hood was open. I don't have to tell you that my vision was obstructed. The spot I was seeing through was pretty much the size of a penny. I managed to pass over the bridge by slowing down a bit to give a chance to cars behind me to slow down and notice my little situation. I managed to stay alive.

Strike 2:

On the same bridge coming back 2 days later, I had to pass a car. The road was icy still. I accelerated to pass a few cars and the accelerator got stuck. I was accelarating towards the car in front of me and well beyond the cars I wanted to pass. I had about 3 seconds to react. I did not know what to do so I started braking and put the gears in neutral. The RPM of the engine went to the highest limit possible in the red markers and the engine just stopped. I was able to continue over the bridge in neutral and pull over. I saved my life once again and the car even re-started after an hour.

Strike 3:

One week later, I had to visit some friends in Quebec City. This time it was a nice day and the weather had cooled down. I was driving normally, turned and all the sudden felt a big bump. I didn’t think it was a big problem but was a little surprised since the road was clean and I did not see any holes. I looked out the mirror and saw fire. The same kind of fire you see when you sharpen your ice skates but on a larger scale. What was that? And then 1 sec later, I see a wheel passing me by. All this took about 3 seconds. I knew then that I had lost my back wheel completely and was driving on 3 wheels. The car was stable though; it was not life threatening. I fixed that problem and started to look for another car.