merc's quirks

Remember back in April when we bought the Mercury Mountaineer? We opted for an older car with higher miles to avoid having a car payment--we wanted only what we could pay cash for. Well, it has worked out pretty well so far, but as with any old car, it has its quirks. The most annoying?

power locks

In an ideal world, power locks make it very convenient to unlock all of the doors of the car by simply pushing one button. In a super ideal world, you can push that button on the remote and unlock all of the doors before you even get to the car. Whoever thought of something so amazing?

And whoever gets to live in an ideal world?

As I said, Merc has some quirks. In our less-ideal world, the magic unlock button doesn't work on the driver's side of the car. Well, fine. You can just reach over and push the button on the passenger side, right? Annoying, but do-able. Unless, of course, the locks don't work.

Instead of just unlocking the doors, the locks will bounce up and down. Locked, unlocked, locked, unlocked...

The only way to stop it is to open the driver's side door. Why? No idea. But it works. So when the locks wig out, we open the driver's door.

Unless, of course, the outside handle of the driver's door snaps in half, making it impossible to open from the outside.

Ok, so hit the button on the remote and unlock the doors? Wait...locked, unlocked, locked, unlocked...

And wait again! If you open the driver's door to stop the psycho locks, the alarm sets itself. So when you open the back door, the alarm goes off. And the remote only works half of the time (we even bought a new battery and everything). So the only way you can turn off the alarm is to start the car--all while keeping a firm grip on the toddler who is constantly looking for any opportunity to run. And, of course, waving at all the people who give you dirty looks for letting your alarm go.

my multi-daily car routine:

Hit the remote button with fingers crossed that it will work. When it doesn't, open the passenger door with the key (holding the key down while you pull the handle so it doesn't lock again after it's unlocked), stretch across the whole car (note: I'm short and pregnant--it's a long way) to open the driver's door from the inside. Walk back around, unlock the back door from inside. Open back door. Go back to driver's door and start car so the alarm will stop. Chase down Jane from wherever she has run to, assuming I wasn't holding her this whole time. Buckle her into her car seat. Get in the car, buckle me in, drive away.

then breathe

BUT!

My ideal world is creeping closer!
CHRIS REPLACED THE DOOR HANDLE!

The locks are still weird, the alarm still goes off, but I can open the door.

thanks, Chris :)