Truck Trapped In a Car’s Body (December 17, 2011)

Since we bought this ’98 Honda Civic 4-door in 2003, it has run nearly 150,000 miles; carted all our possessions over short hauls twice; enabled my eBay chair habit by securely transporting half a dozen wingbacks, a dozen leather arm chairs, and a Chesterfield sofa to as far north as Connecticut and south to Virginia. The day we bought this 25-foot ladder, the store clerk smirked and walked off when we started strapping it to the roof—after we asked for some cardboard, to prevent scratching the ladder. We had the last laugh and made it home fine—if very slowly, on backroads. Now that we live near Cambridge we’ll have to call Car Talk for tips to keep poorlittlegood running til we finish construction.