Last Tuesday a couple of friends and I drove East to Yakima to purchase a car for myself. We took my MINI since it's comfortable and gets great gas mileage. The drive was pretty good as we left Redmond at around 2 p.m. and traffic was light except for the occasional annoying left lane hugger.

Once we were on higway 82 we felt like we heard a weird grinding noise as if a badly tuned motorcycle went right by us and the car slowed down as if it had hit very strong winds. It was really weird but we carried on.

Once we were close to our exit in Yakima I tried downshifting into 4th to pass a slow moving truck, well it turns out I couldn't! I tried with all my strength to pull the lever out of 6th where it had been the whole way to Yakima and I couldn't. My friends wouldn't believe me so I asked them to try, but they were also unable to take the car out of gear. I pulled one last time and the lever miracolously came to the center, but oddly enough the car was still accelerating! No other gear would engage!

We decided to pull over at the highway exit and I called MINI roadside assitance. One of my friends had to stay with the car as the new car was a 2-seater. I called Nathan Metz from Columbia Valley Luxury Cars whom I was buying the car from and asked him if he could pick us up at the exit and drive us to the BMW dealership where the car was getting inspected.

Everything checked out great on the car and by this time we were starving so Nathan and I took the M Roadster for a test-drive and met up with my friend and his assistant at a burger place called Miner's, where we'd go over the paperwork while having a "small" bite.

After going through all the paperwork Nathan finally asked me for the check my bank had given me. I was a bit surprised since the bank had only sent me an e-mail saying the loan was approved and I had thought that the money transfer happened automatically. Luckily Nathan knows a few of you folks and decided to let me take the car home, needless to say I was incredibly ashamed for being such a dumbass.

On our way back to Seattle, my friend who was riding in the tow truck calls us and says they'd been at Snoqualmie pass for over 30 mins because they were dynamiting some rocks and the road was closed; well, by the time we got to the pass we too had to wait for a couple of hours. When we got off the car to stretch our legs, my friend noticed a small puddle under the car and was shocked in disbelief "Now what?" she muttered. I told her it was water condensed from the A/C unit and that we'd be fine.

After quite a long wait, the traffic ahead of us started moving but the new car wouldn't turn on! The battery was dead. I pushed the car off the road when a police officer saw us. He said he'd come back to help us after he assited the truck driver next to us who was blocking the right lane.

I called BMW assist and they told me that help would only be 70 minutes away! By then it was 9:00 p.m. and we were both exhausted, depressed and ready to surrender to the tragic fortune the day had in hand for us. Just then, the police officer came by as a tow truck appeared from the on-ramp, it wasn't ours (it was looking for an Acura) but it helped us anyways. Finding the connectors for the jump starting required some research through the user's manual as the M Roadster has the battery in the trunk.

It was a rough day, but we made it safe and sound back home. The MINI was towed to Seattle MINI where it received a brand new transmission and clutch. The M Roadster hasn't had any problems since and I've also paid Nathan! It was quite the memorable adventure but in the end it was worth it, the M Roadster is great fun to drive, hopefully we'll have good weather so I can take it to E@RTC.

 

Wow crazy! Glad all turned out well. Congratulations!!!

 

Crazy story. I hope everything is better from now on out.

 

Great looking car. Watch that front bumper though. That's awfully close to the curb.....

 

That sucks! One more reason I don't believe in life time trans fluid.

At least you got a great car out of the deal!

FWIW, jump starting a BMW is easy, even if the battery is in the front end, there is a black cover with a + on it, remove it, there is a metal post, that is where you put the + jumper cable on, then you put the - on the car on any metal part.

You got to be very careful, a lot of modern cars do like to be jump started & can have computer issues after.

 

That really sucks! Glad that you eventually got home though.

I know what it's like to be stranded on the side of the road.

 

Wow that must have been painful. Next time you come to my neck of the woods you've got to take this road (and bypass hwy 82). One of the best roads on this side of the mountains.

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/54773/