I have a little old Oz built Ford Capri, a 2+2 soft top. A week or 2 after I bought it, before I had fully read the drivers manual, I took it to town. After buying a few things I returned to the car, unlocked the door, & put a some stuff on the seat.

I then went to the boot, & discovered you can only open it with a key, no push button. No problem, I unlocked the boot, & as my hands were full, dropped the keys in my shirt pocket. Packed everything in the boot, shut it, & got into the car, reaching for the keys. No keys.

Walked around the car 4 times, no keys. Then remembered a funny little "plop" noise while packing the boot. That was the keys, falling into the boot. No problem, I'll trip the internal boot catch. Where is the damn thing, they must have hidden it. Read the drivers manual, they never fitted one.

15 minutes in 104 F heat reading the manual, & I find there is a sky hatch into the boot. The whole seat back drops flat to give an 18" by 12" hatch, great.

Hang on, you need the damn key to unlock the bl##**@@**y hatch. I reach into the back & give a couple of half hearted pulls on the seat back. No it's locked.

Desperation sets in. I slide the front seats forward, climb into The back, grab the seat & heave. I nearly go through the windscreen, the thing was only half caught.

15 more, very uncomfortably hot minutes, lying half in the car, on the little back seat feeling around through the hatch I have my keys. I start the engine, & boy isn't that air-con nice.

That was last Christmas, hope Murphy stays away for this one.

MERRY CHRISTMAS every one, have a good one, but watch out for Murphys law.

Hasbeen

Lol Hasbeen!
I had to laugh at your misfortune, and I just can't believe you haven't got a boot latch in your car!

Here's hoping the new year brings you more luck.
Thanks for a good laugh before I go to work today.
Merry Christmas to you.

Cheers, Suze.

Hasbeen:

Thanks for a good laugh - however, I imagine it wasn't that funny for you at the time. I've got a story to share as well. Things seem to happen when you're the most vulnerable don't they? I had sprained my ankle and wasn't feeling the best when hubbie decided to take me out for dinner. All went well, enjoyed the meal,we got into the car, hubbie drove us home from the restaurant and I went to open my car door to get out - when my car door appeared to be stuck. It opened just a tiny bit, but not enough for me to be able to squeeze out. Hubbie went around and tried to get it open - with no luck. "You'll have to climb over the gear-shift and consule, slide into my seat and I'll open the door for you on the other side," hubbie tells me matter-of factly. "Are you nuts - with this leg, how am I going to be able to climg over anything?" says I, trying to stay calm.
"You're going to have to try," he said. "There's no other way for you to get out of the car." I told hubbie in no uncertain terms to go inside and leave me to figure things out. Which he does, grinning from ear to ear. After about ten minutes of sitting there I realized that the only thing to do was to do what my husband suggested. My car door would not budge wide enough for me to get out, and the only way I was going to get out was climbing over the gear-shift and into his seat and out the door on his side. You should have heard the moaning, groaning, heaving and puffing, but I finally made it! Of course the car had to be taken for repairs to have my door fixed (the lock had jammed and had to be replaced). I now have to explain to people - how come there's foot prints on the ceiling of our car?(joking).

Yes Lexi, I'm sure those foot prints on the ceiling of the car are there for an entirely different reason.

Nothing to do with climbing over the gear stick, were they? You don't drive a Honda Odyssey do you, by any chance?

My little key effort is one of those things that become funnier the longer ago they happened, fortunately.

Hasbeen:

I had one heck of a job getting out of that family car. A 1999 Holden Statesman Sedan, and with a sprained ankle it was no mean feat.

My ex and I learned an important lesson about not reading driver’s manuals and how sometimes owning an ancient vehicle is no fun at all. We’d heard rumours that the 1949 Hillman Minx does not have functioning breaks when at speed in reverse...

We discovered it to be true when the poor old much loved tank of a thing clapped out just as it approached the crest of a steep road in the middle of a city on a Friday night. It started rolling backwards, being in the passenger seat I saw my ex’s face go white as a sheet first, 10 seconds later the back seat passengers worked out something was very very wrong.

In a situation like that there is nothing for it; we all started screaming loudly as we rapidly picked up speed in reverse. We whizzed backwards through one small intersection, one large one - and the doozy were the red lights on the major intersection at the bottom of the hill.

Luck having let us down badly came through in the end and a taxi driver stopped and while still laughing his head off shook the drivers already shaking hand when we had coasted to a standstill.

Have a great Christmas guys. :)