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The Ultimate OffRoad Vehicle: Oldsmobile Alero
While on a 4wd trip, we were seeing who could go up a steep hill and a passenger car drove past, on the way out. I thought that it was a bit strange, but did not think much about it, nor did I consider at the time what the "road" was like to get there.
On the way out, we encountered the vehicle again. It seems that the woman made a wrong turn and kept going. The dirt road with dips filled with water did not stop her. The sign which stated that the city is not responsible for any damage that will occur should you proceed down the road did not stop her, nor did the steep and rocky down hill section with a deep stream crossing. She followed the road for quite a ways and in retrospect it is quite amazing how far she got.
It turns out that the vehicle had stalled several times before we came across her. She would give it some time and start it again. I think that most people would have given up long before that.
I don't think she thought or knew what would happen if she got water in the engine. I told her to slow down on the stream crossings, but it did not work. She did offer to let me drive the car across :-). I did not want to walk back, although I suppose if she could drive the Alero through all that, she would have absolutely no problem driving a Land Cruiser over it. The damage to the car has to be quite a bit. I heard not so good noises as it hit rocks, but saw front damage to the air cond. condensor, which was bent up a bit.
The car was actually running with all the water in the intake, although I am not sure how. It was not running very well. When we took off the hose to the air box a lot of water came out. In looking in, we had to take the other end of the hose off and dump out about .5l of water and mud, all of this got past the air filter.
She did have a sense of humor about it though, when Miklos drove the car across one stream and then a rock section on the other side, she said that she felt sorry for the owner of the car. I asked her if it was a rental car and she said no, I then asked if it was someone else's car and she said no, that it was her's.
Here is a picture of the vehicle. I should have taken more pictures, but to be quite honest I was so suprised, as well as being concerned about being able to get out since this vehicle was in front of me, that I just did not think about taking pictures.
It should be mentioned that Miklos really did a lot of work getting her out and is really the person responsible for managing to get the car out, especially being willing to crawl under the car and managing to find a place to hook the strap when everyone else said there was no place to hook it too and then pulling it up the hill. He also was very impressive when he did the stream crossing and the rock ledge on the other side. I should have taken more pictures, but I was so shocked at what I was seeing I could not believe it!!! If it was not for him and his willingness to do anything, I am not sure that the car would have gotten out.
When we finally got to pavement, we became brave enough to check the "oil". It was a complete milkshake. What is amazing is how much water must have gotten into the engine, yet it still ran.
I think one of the most memorable comments was when Miklos was muddy after crawling under the Alero and I said something to him about not wanting to get into his Cruiser because he was so muddy and his response was "that is what leather seats are for".
The last I saw of the vehicle was as she drove down the road.
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