>Last time I broke down, a guy in a *Jaguar* stopped to get out and help 
push
>the beast. Used to have a VW, he said.

Years ago (1989) I was driving a Sunbeam Alpine (what??) northward from
Denver on I-25. This is a little 2-seat British sports car, sort of like
an MG, and pretty rare even then since they broke down a LOT). Fan belt
broke and temperature gauge started heading quickly skyward (this belt
also drove the generator and the water pump), so I pulled over and shut
it down.

In the middle of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, I figured
nobody around had ever heard of British cars, much less my particular
one.

Ten minutes later, what should come tooling innocently along, but...
another Sunbeam Alpine, owned and driven by the president of the local
Sunbeam club, who was out for a spin with his wife. Normally you can go
for a month without seeing one of these on the road, especially in
Colorado.

He pulled over, cluck-clucked over the engine, apologized for not having
a spare belt, or two more seats for my wife and I. Let me ride shotgun
sitting sideways behind the seats to go to a phone, then brought me back,
where a tow truck shortly arrived...

If VWs have Karma Bat-Signals, then Alpines must have air raid sirens.
They need them.   :^)

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