When I left my apartment to go to softball practice the other night, I saw my parking permit sitting on the dash and decided I'd stow it in the little storage area in front of the shifter until I returned home. Imagine my surprise when I pulled back into my parking space a few hours later, reached for the permit, and it was nowhere to be found. Now, I'm a little more absent-minded than the average bloke, so I initially assumed that I had simply misplaced the thing. But after vainly searching all of the Jetta's nooks and crannies (I thought), I still couldn't find it. Weird, I mused. I could have sworn I left that thing right in front of the shifter!
This was a pressing problem, because my parking lot is policed by an aggressive towing company. If I didn't find that permit, the Jetta was going to be forcibly relocated, which I figured wouldn't go over too well back at the office. So I returned my focus to the area in front of the shifter, redoubled my efforts, and..."Hey," I exclaimed, "There's a crack under there!" Channeling Neo ("No way, no way, this is crazy!"), I ran and got a flashlight, and sure enough -- I could just make out the blue corner of my parking permit, trapped in the belly of the Jetta's center console.
After pulling off a couple trim panels by hand (yes, you can apparently do this in more than just American cars), I tried to squeeze my fingers in there, but I was like Elsa going for the holy grail at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. "I can reach it!" I gushed greedily, yet all I could do was brush the edge of the permit with my fingers -- there wasn't enough wriggling room to grab it.
Next I tried tweezers, but they were too short; in fact, the Jetta tried to eat those too. Then it hit me. Scissors! And that's what did the trick. I slid the scissors through the crack, managed to pinch the permit between the blades, and slowly pulled it from the Jetta's clutches. "Note to self," I muttered. "Not the best place to put things that could slip through a 1/8-inch gap."
Reenactment:
Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com @ 54,716 miles
sylvialegacy says:
09:39 PM, 04/ 4/08
Okay, I registered because this was funny enough to give kudos for presentation of this issue :)
And to post this.
prndlol says:
10:57 PM, 04/ 4/08
ROFLS
good_2_go says:
04:02 AM, 04/ 5/08
I'm thinking a piece of black electric tape will nicely cover that gap.
banhugh says:
04:39 AM, 04/ 5/08
The gap makes the car a nice piggy bank. You can teach your kids the value of saving while traveling :)
cx7lover says:
05:42 AM, 04/ 5/08
Just put a sticky mat or something of the sort.
tlcruz says:
06:13 AM, 04/ 5/08
LMAO @ sylvialegacy's picture!! thats how i imagined it too!
gabbo241 says:
07:17 AM, 04/ 5/08
LOLcats. I mean, LOLcars. I can has R8?
SubyTrojan says:
10:27 AM, 04/ 5/08
LOL, sylvialegacy! You should make a "I can has parking permit?" one, too.
LOLcat terminology hits the LT Road Test blogs. What is this blog coming to next (other than virtual blows over domestics versus imports)?
tlcruz says:
11:26 AM, 04/ 5/08
Here ya go, Suby!
SubyTrojan says:
08:04 PM, 04/ 5/08
Ha! Thanks, tlcruz! :o)
threem says:
02:49 PM, 04/ 6/08
Unfortunately, there is little you can do about that gap. It's to accommodate the sliding door for the power adapter and the change tray (what would have been the lighter/ashtray 10 years ago)
jriz says:
08:52 AM, 04/ 7/08
I actually had one of these cars 10 years ago -- technically 9 -- and it's always been a power outlet. Curiously, it was in fact an ashtray, though -- which I still have since I forgot to fork it over to the trade-in dealership.
speedingclass says:
11:55 PM, 04/ 7/08
Gaps are so annoying some times. We had a STS rental and there was a huge gap between the middle nav screen area and the shifting (bottom) area. Our parking ticket slipped under...but somehow we found it.