Private for-sale ads for damaged cars are always fascinating. It seems almost expected that mangled, stolen, or vandalized cars get run through salvage auctions, so when one pops up on Facebook Marketplace by a private seller, it’s easy to get lost pondering what might’ve happened for a car to end up in such a state. Then again, sometimes you don’t have to wonder. This is one of the strangest used car ads I’ve seen in a while. It’s for a Subaru Outback that’s been in a predicament, and it’s a great public service announcement about the dangers behind sleeping at dangerous times.
My word, that’s a lot of water. Not exactly a common sight in the dry climate of Bakersfield, Calif., especially since it seems to be isolated solely to the vicinity of this Subaru. However, even though such dampness suggests the involvement of firefighting equipment, there aren’t any flames here. Instead, its seller’s been in a soggy situation. Here’s what the Facebook Marketplace listing says:
Spacer
I’m selling it because it was in a minor accident where I fell asleep at the wheel in the middle of the intersection at Columbus St and Manor Dr. next to Garces High School. I fell asleep in the middle of the left hand turn at the signal turning onto Columbus St from Manor Dr traveling south and going east onto Columbus. I was doing about 8 mph when I hit the fire hydrant damaging the sub frame and pushing the radiator fan into the engine block where the belts are located.
Well, that’s a lot to unpack, but props for the accountability. You don’t see many damaged cars for sale, on Marketplace or otherwise, with an explanation of how the damage happened, let alone the seller taking responsibility for the damage.
Secondly, this whole situation could’ve been a lot worse. Unsurprisingly, collisions where driving while tired are tracked by the government upon reporting, and the numbers really add up. As per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “NHTSA estimates that in 2017, 91,000 police-reported crashes involved drowsy drivers. These crashes led to an estimated 50,000 people injured and nearly 800 deaths.” While those casualty numbers seem disproportionately high, keep in mind that these are just the drowsy-driving crashes that were reported. How many weren’t reported? That’s anyone’s guess.
It’s safe to say that this is one of the more shocking Facebook Marketplace listings I’ve seen in a while, and while the story of how this Subaru ended up in its current state delivers psychic whiplash, the seller’s explainer of the damages is even more unusual.
The car will start but wont turn over due to the radiator needing to be reset. Nothing and I mean NOTHING else was broken inside the engine area. Everything is still in tact. There is some cosmetic damage to the bumper and the hood. My guess is that it could cost about 6-8k to fix. I’m not a mechanic that’s just the number my head came up with.
Possibly the most eyebrow-raising thing here is “will start but won’t turn over” because, well, I don’t think that’s how this works in a car with a continuously variable transmission. If it were a stick-shift Subaru, it could be push-started, but the owner’s manual for the 2015 Outback doesn’t say anything about push-starting. What, you thought it was “I’m not a mechanic that’s just the number my head came up with”? Around here, we wrench on our own cars not because it’s easy, but because we thought it would be easy.
An asking price of $7,500 does seem a little pricey for a crashed decade-old Subaru Outback, and the car being for sale in a damaged state under such circumstances suggests the seller might not have opted for the collision coverage when buying insurance or might’ve purchased it from insurance in the hope of a bigger payout. Anyway, don’t drive tired. You don’t want to hit a fire hydrant, let alone something worse.
Top graphic image: Facebook Marketplace; DepositPhotos.com
I have two questions
The price and method you paid initially is very important to potential buyers. They care very much about that, in fact.
Not if you crashed it
It looks like it’ll have the cleanest engine bay around.
He could have just advertised it as a great platform for a dirt track car, like this one that my Dad sent me yesterday.
https://www.facebook.com/share/16GFAfWRr7/
It should just buff right out.
“NO REAR END NO WHEELS AND TIRES” sounds a lot like they just want someone to come haul away their scrap metal. It might make an okay platform, if you don’t care if that platform is level and it’s not used to support anything important. But it’s certainly not the platform to build a car.
I like when they admit the suggested cost to fix is completely made up.
Oh yeah, just fix the radiator and ignore that the car was blasted with an endless gush of pressurized water! It’s fine!!!
As opposed to recent engine cleaning?
Yes I do have a marketing degree, two in fact
California dreaming
While trying to make a left
Back in college, I was working nights, going to class during the day, and generally making poor sleep choices. Never actually crashed, but I had a scary instance of sort of nodding off mid-curve and getting onto the shoulder. I lucked out. Sleep deprivation is no joke.
I also once went so long without sleep that I had some minor hallucinations–glad I wasn’t driving when that happened. Would have been really bad if I hallucinated a green light or something stupid like that.
LSD provided the hallucinations without being tired. Just saying
Yeah, that is a lot better way to have hallucinations. And better hallucinations. Mine were just stupid little things like seeing the lights on the equalizer move on the stereo…which was off, with no indicator lights or anything. Pretty dumb trip, 1/10, do not recommend.
Yak hunt! Anyone know what this was ?
Wait, where’s the water from? Too much to be coolant.
Fire hydrants have breakaway flanges and the valve is deep down low, like six feet down. When you hit one with a vehicle, the breakaway flange breaks away, the valve stem breaks, and you end up with a port cap poking a hole in your oil pan.
But the water doesn’t come out unless you open the valve, but that’s impossible because the stem is now broken off.
Unless this is some weird Cali thing?
It’s a “state that doesn’t have winters” thing. They bury the valves to get below the frost line. In places that the frost line is roughly 200 feet above ground it’s often in the hydrant itself.
Yeah, I got that, but I still think it’s crazy.
Falling asleep at the wheel sucks.
When I first started working night shift, I had an hour hwy commute home in the mornings.
One morning, about 8am. It’s sunny, I have the sunroof open, windows down, music up, and I fell asleep and put all 4 off in the gravel shoulder at 120km/h.
I’m just glad I was in my gencoupe, cause I pitched it right sideways coming back onto the highway. If I’d been in a truck, I probably would’ve rolled it.
From that day forward, I used a Park n’ Ride about 20mins into the drive as a judgement point. If I was struggling, I’d pull over and take a 30-45min nap in the Park n’ Ride.
I had a co-worker fall asleep on a motorcycle going home. Went off at a big curve. His face is half steel now.
Another co-worker talked about how he was so sleep-fucked that he sat at a stop sign for a few minutes waiting for it to turn green.
Shift workers beware, sleep deprivation is a killer.
Even a long boring drive after day shift can suck. My coworker got 90% of the way home, entered the exit ramp from the interstate, then conked out and ran into another car. He now microwaves a bag of popcorn to eat on the way home every evening.
Given the entertainment of other idiots on the road these days, popcorn is an excellent choice.
Good point!
We call leaving time “popcorn thirty” in the office.
“Everything is in tact”. Where is this large container of tact? Is civility and decency also packed within? I can’t seem to find much tact anywhere in modern society these days.
Beat me to it!
Ahh Facebook, basically a zoo full of idiots. Fun to watch from a distance.
So story time. i was having lots of scary nearly fall asleep at the wheel events. even in broad daylight. i would blame myself for not getting enough sleep. turned out to be sleep apnea. after finally getting treated i’m not having that problem anymore! I hope Subaru guy got evaluated and is in a better place now and i hope this is a warning / encouragement to get treatment!! i’m just glad i never hurt myself or others due to undiagnosed sleep apnea that would have been extremely horrifying
Running into the hydrant does not explain the foam everywhere though. After he crashed, did he get out and throw some bubble bath in?
I want to know where the spaghetti went.
That is gushing water from the broken fire hydrant (pictured under vehicle) absolutely blasting into the engine bay. Cellphone pic with delayed exposure to brighten a night time photo makes running water look weird, see examples of long exposure waterfall photography.
Fire hydrants don’t do that! At least, not modern ones.
Sure, but as other commenters pointed out, wet hydrants used in places with no risk of frost have no valve below the frost line and store water at pressure at the top of the hydrant. The intersection this occurred at is located in Bakersfield California which does use wet hydrants, which do indeed do that
That’s a terrible idea. Any hydrant hit would require you to pressure-test and re-chlorinate the entire main after you make the repair.
But think of the upfront cost savings!
Forget the Subaru for a second and let’s talk about the fact that police are such scumbags that instead of ENCOURAGING people to pull over to a safe spot and sleep for a little bit if they happen to have had something to drink or are very tired, they instead will ticket and probably tow your car away.
Think about how fucked up that is. Someone realizes that they might not be in the best state of mind to be driving, so they do the responsible thing and pull over. Along comes a cop who is more likely to harass, ticket and even arrest them, than just leave them alone till they are in a safe condition to drive again.
Look it up. This is a common occurrence. Maybe Autopian should do a story on this topic.
I remember learning that if you are sitting in the driver seat and have access to the key, you are considered to be “operating” the vehicle, even if it’s off and the key is out of the ignition. So imagine a situation where someone stumbles out of the bar, realizes they shouldn’t drive home, and decides to sleep it off in their car in the parking lot. An officer can still ticket them for a DUI. There was a civil rights youtube channel that showed an example of that actually happening to someone. A person in that situation is probably less likely to get caught driving themselves home than sleeping for several hours where they can be noticed. Crazy.
If you have had too much, toss your keys into the back seat.. Had a friend who learned this lesson the hard way after a party. 3 cars, 1 with the keys in the ignition, all in a row. He got a DUI even though the car wasn’t running.
What if it’s 10 below? You need heat.
Nothing to imagine – friend of mine got a DUI for being passed out in the back of his car in a bar parking lot. IMHO – if you are passing out drunk you have no business being anywhere NEAR a car. You could wake up, still drunk as a skunk and with impaired judgement, try to drive home. Get a ride home, get the car when you are sober. Or better yet, don’t get drunk in the first place.
I used to work at a little pub in the middle of the countryside where practically everyone would drink-drive home (no public transport, but also no cops). I remember one night when I was helping to lock up, and one regular customer was so plastered we practically had to carry him to his car. As we were about to leave him passed out in his car, my manager told me to shove his keys into his jeans pocket as, “by the time he’s sober enough to find them, there’ll be no one else on the road”.
Dealing with drunks and alcoholics every day when I was 16, probably helped put me off drinking to excess for the rest of my life.
There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to sleep in your car (with it OFF) if the car is parked in a safe place. Yeah, shoulda-woulda-coulda. Someone could state the person should of called an Uber or let someone else drive, but the reality is this person is clearly not thinking straight, but at least has the forethought to realize they shouldn’t be driving. Resting in their car for a couple of hours hurts absolutely no one. We should be encouraging people to take the responsible set of actions rather than punish them.
Yeah, that is the exact situation. Imagine having rules which essentially ENCOURAGE dangerous behavior. Insanity.
This might be too serious of a topic for Autopian to cover, but it does directly involve cars and drivers so it would be topical.
They arrest people for DUI for not driving.
I can maybe see the rationale here: say an officer sees someone stumble into their car. Officer approaches and the person says “I’m just going to sleep.” The officer leaves, the drunk drives, someone gets killed. I know I wouldn’t want to be the officer having to use discretion on who is sincere vs who is moments from committing a felony. Even if someone is sleeping — who’s to say they didn’t pass out and will hit the road again at any moment? I don’t know what the solution is, as it seems incredibly unjust to punish people for doing the responsible thing which no one would think was illegal unless they were told.
Is the job if the police to ticket people who might break the law? Aren’t you presumed innocent or something ?
Say you’re walking around a neighborhood where you don’t live and don’t know anybody holding a crowbar. You’re committing no crime by doing that. If a cop sees you, what happens? Say the cop asks what’s up and you say “I’m just out with my walkin’ crowbar, I’m not going to do anything bad.” Genuinely curious if any lawyers or LEO can chime in.
Well since you have no current use for the crowbar you are in possession of a weapon and tools for committing a crime. Also you can’t tell the cop give me your badge number and I refuse to identify myself. Save us from Karen cameraman.
I’m not sure about that one.
I suspect it’s usually applied to those habitually stealing from others.
I’m not aware of anyone I know even being charged for that.
Sounds like some of those gangster specific laws written to sweep up anyone they needed to arrest.
Lock picks might come under that with more success.
The problem is very few ppl know it’s illegal to be drunk in your own parked car. Why do we all know the legal limit is .08 BAC? Bc for some reason drivers Ed and DMV tests insist we know. If we all carried BAC meters that would make sense, but in the real world the only time that matters is when a cop is testing you. My point is, we’d all be better off if every dmv test replaced the BAC question with “T/F: it is ok to sit or sleep in the drivers seat of a parked car while intoxicated.”
It is legal to be drunk and asleep in your vehicle as long as you aren’t in possession of your keys. You want to sleep it off put your keys in the trunk.
Ok. I move to amend my hypothetical DMW test question to include reference to also having the key accessible.
Not in traffic Court
It comes down to bad laws and bad case law, very intentional in this case.
Part of the over reach achieved by Madd and embraced by cops for the insane amount of discretion they have.
Best case they take you in until you’re sober, don’t tow your car and don’t charge you.
Intent is always relevant, but many bad laws don’t refer to that or police and prosecutors can ignore it.
Bad laws are everywhere and poorly written good laws.
Breath tests are part of that abuse of law.
Using dogs as grounds for a search is another blatant abuse.
Dogs are 100% unreliable for grounds for a search and this has ALWAYS been known.
Besides the fact that it takes different amounts of drugs to affect each person, breath measurements have zero relevance to blood alcohol.
Easy to figure out how to make breath tests go up and down, which some lawyers do in court.
Even more egregious, Georgia has “certified” police as medically trained to identify anyone under the influence of a drug.
Their success rate is comparable to all other junk science.
Worse, navy testing has proven that some people can learn to compensate for alcohol and can be proficient under the influence, or at least cautious enough to be safe.
Those professionals that have pointed out thousands of lives could be saved by training people how to avoid crashes when impaired have been hounded out of work by the puritans.
Now, at least here, there is zero driver training offered.
The same training applies to fatigued driving, clearly more dangerous.
After traveling for weeks, I set off at night and immediately faced road hypnosis.
Pulled over and felt wide awake.
This was a warning to turn around and go home.
I’ve experienced microsleep, which is your body forcing you into a dream state.
I’ve learned to pull over and sleep every chance I get now, especially when I have no deadline.
I have a particularly hard time falling asleep at will, but you can train yourself to do it.
That’s probably why some jurisdictions call it “OWI”, I guess you’re “operating” your car if you’re sitting in it.
In a case mentioned above, I guess you’re operating the back seat cushions.
I’m having trouble understanding how someone falls asleep while turning at an intersection. When I think of the times I’ve felt the most tired, it’s driving on a straight highway. Never have I been navigating a suburban/urban area worried I was about to veer off into a Starbucks.
I guess it’s possible, and maybe he has a medical condition, but I suspect some substances were involved.
Night shift. I had one co-worker fall asleep in the turn lane test driving a bus. Techs all use the interlock to hold the bus in place at a light, cause you don’t have any passengers who could activate the door. He woke up, wondering how many light cycles he was sitting there for.
It happens bad employers
I fell asleep at the wheel once, but the weird thing was that I didn’t feel that tired. I pulled off the highway onto a road that went straight for a while and woke up with a start as the road was just about to bend. I drove perfectly straight probably close to a 1/4 mile completely out with no warning. Scared the hell out of me less for the near miss than the lack of warning—what if it happened again? Doctors said I was fine and that I must have simply been more tired than I thought. That was about 28 years ago and it hasn’t happened since, but I try to keep it in mind to pay attention to my state of tiredness.
I was awake but zoned out for ~150 miles one time driving overnight. I did not remember how I got to my destination. Strictly fatigue. Also almost died twice b/c a coworker/friend could fall asleep in the time it took to snap your fingers. Did that twice when I was riding with him. He wrecked my car in the second episode.
I have definitely had those drives where I realize I have zero recollection of the past X miles or time. Not necessarily due to fatigue, just the way my mind works sometimes. At least that is all I hope it is. Alzheimer’s definitely runs in my family. <eek> One of the first signs with my grandmother was she drove to a store she went to all the time for decades a couple towns away and called because she couldn’t remember how to get home. My grandfather and I had to go get her and the car. The last time she got behind the wheel of a thankfully.
The worst thing I do occasionally is get on “autopilot”. Example – for many years, I had the same commute to the office. Took the same exit from one highway to the other every day I was not on the road somewhere. That job was now 19 years ago. but I have a good friend who lives off the NEXT exit of that highway – I can’t tell you how many times I have been headed to my friend’s place and find myself on that first exit, heading to an office I haven’t worked at in almost two decades. And the annoying thing is there is no way to get off and turn around until all the way into town, so it’s about a 15 minute oops!
Same as when running errands and you start to take your work route. Augggh other way dangit! Yep.
I learned that lesson in 1982. Fortunately no wreck just drove off the Florida turnpike in my Valiant. Did the recovery myself. Couldn’t fall asleep again for 3 days. Apparently waking up at the wheel of a car going 60mph and not having a road in sight creates anxiety. Who knew?
Once in high school a friend and I tried to stay awake for 24 hours. I fell asleep around 9 AM and my friend’s mom woke me up around 9:20 to tell me my mom said I needed to come home. It was about a 20 mile drive. I was having a conversation with my friend who was sitting in the passenger seat. After about 10 miles I realized no one else was in the car. I had not taken any substances.
Sounds like my time in the military. Way too many 24+ hour work cycles and days with only 2-3 hours of sleep.
How terrifying 🙁
That’ll buff right out 😛
100% he was drunk when this happened
I hate to judge, but this IS the easiest explanation for why he didn’t go with the insurance payout route, which probably requires a police report.
Also, falling asleep in an active turn? I hadn’t heard of that one.
I propose “Innocent until proven guilty” vs “Occam’s Razor”. I’m on Team#2.
Occam’s Highball
He must’ve been a hell of a bartender.
The simplest cocktail is best one to consider. Would you like vodka or gin on the rocks?
I’ll take the bottle. No straw.
I can’t imagine that you can kill a fire hydrant without a police report being filed – and those things are EXPEN$IVE. I think the simpler explanation is no collision insurance on that aging Subaru. Liability would cover the hydrant, but the car’s on him, so he’s trying to get what he can out of it.
I find it amusing that he specified he paid cash for the thing two years ago. A bit of a flex, or a roundabout way of saying there is no lien on it?
I took out a parking meter, no drinking just really needed to pee. I had a bright yellow Vehicross running was not an option, the only one in the state. Told the store clerk who refused to let me use the restroom tell the cops I’m over on Adams, small town. The cops had to wait while I finished peeing. They never filled a claim on my insurance.
I was thinking stoned, but definitely some kind of substances.
“I fell asleep and hit a water bank pole, $7,500 plus a number I made up worth of repairs for damage I’m in no way qualified to actually assess.”
Haha you said ass
“Will start but won’t turn over” – so, the engine is seized, but it also still runs? I’m not sure how that works
In a strange twist of fate, everything except the head gaskets in this engine is blown.
It’s a Subaru. Of course it has blown gaskets. That was even before this accident happened.
I’m guessing by “start” he means all the electrics comes to life save for the starter motor (or, if it does, bad things happen). It’s vague, but that is a useful data point if you’re in the market for this sort of thing.
I’ll buy it for $1000.
I took this to mean he hears the starter trying, and that’s it.
If they hit a fire hydrant hard enough to damage it that car is well and truly fucked. Fire hydrants are very sturdy.
But they simply pop into the air all time on TV!
Is that true? I’d think they’d be designed to break-away to avoid causing catastrophic damage. Also aligns with the pop culture understanding of a 50 ft geyser appearing whenever someone hits one.
I did hit one once, so I’ve got first-hand experience.
They can’t really break away because they have to be strong enough to keep the water in. So they’re solid, held together by massive bolts. It’s also pretty dangerous to have that much water pressure get dislodged suddenly.
Movies lied.
Hydrants are strong, but brittle.
They are made of cast iron and have a collar holding the hydrant onto the pipe at ground level. The cast iron collar is designed to fracture when a car impacts the hydrant.
in places in the US where it freezes, the classic hydrant your dog pees on is bolted onto the pipe (you can see the bolts), and there’s a shaft going from the hydrant down to operate a valve below the freeze line (there’s also a draining mechanism). So if hit by a car hard enough (very hard!), the bolts and shaft break off, no geyser unless it’s a movie. The picture of the genius’s car shows lots of water flowing (I think? super blurry) so I’m guessing hydrants in california must be different.
Warm areas are more likely to have wet hydrants, that have water flowing through them all the time, since they don’t have to worry about frost lines
When I lived in LA someone hit a hydrant on my street. Definitely a geyser and I have a pic to prove it. But maybe that’s the rare exception.
yep, LA is warm enough to have the wet barrel hydrants Ranwhenparked mentions, so actually pretty normal there.
This reminds me of learning why in movies ppl hear a dial tone as soon as someone hangs up on them, whereas in real life that’s not how land-lines work. Apparently LA had some weird phone system back in the day where you really would hear a dial tone, so of course that’s how it was shown in films & tv. I wonder if the geyser cliche came from a similar phenomenon.
huh. never thought about that. Another local quirk someone pointed out to me that New York City doesn’t have alleys, but lots of movies set in NYC have scenes in alleys (LA does have alleys which may help explain it)
It does also serve a convenient storytelling purpose: the dial tone lets us know someone was just hung up on and is much more efficient and less awkward than actors having to repeat “hello? hello?” a bunch of times.
There is no way that there is not water damage to this car. Both interior and engine bay have way too much water at pressure being shoved at them to be “okay”.
That foamy picture says more about this being a severely water damaged car than anything his head could come up with.
Did you not read the listing?!? Nothing, NOTHING else is broken. He said it twice and even once in all caps so you know it’s true.
I’m also amazed they paid $24k for an 8 year old Subaru in 2023.
Good decisions seem to elude him, but he sure caught that fire hydrant.