Just Rolled In

March 10, 2023 11:58 AM

Just Rolled In is a short-form YouTube show in which mechanics submit clips of customers' unusual cars and complaints. Clips include bizarre manufacturing defects, unhinged homebrew wiring jobs, embarrassing customer misunderstandings of basic car functions, and nightmarishly unsafe vehicles that somehow drove to the shop (and occasionally decline repairs and drive away). Each episode is around 3 minutes of gentle comedy tinged with occasional horror.
posted by saladin (38 comments total)

And these people are on the road with the rest of us...
posted by Harald74 at 12:10 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

My favourite in the non-upsetting category is all the different functions neutered by the occasional stray pen or sunglasses in the exactly wrong spot.
posted by Harald74 at 12:11 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

When you make enough from your Youtube channel to quit your mechanic job but you can't quit your mechanic job because it feeds your Youtube channel.
posted by klanawa at 12:13 PM on March 10, 2023 [15 favorites]

My husband is addicted to this channel. I'll come in and he'll be chortling at someone who decided that wiring a car correctly was something any joe could do. I enjoy it sometimes, but a lot of times it's hard for me to see exactly what is going on.
posted by PussKillian at 12:25 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

And these people are on the road with the rest of us...

A similar comment I heard from a cabbie once, after some idiot had cut us off or did something stupid: "Sometimes I feel like there are some people who won their drivers' licenses in a poker game."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:35 PM on March 10, 2023 [16 favorites]

More here; r/justrolledintotheshop
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:35 PM on March 10, 2023 [14 favorites]

And these people are on the road with the rest of us...

The ones following this pattern are especially disturbing...

Technician: Your "car" is a death trap and you will die.
Customer: *refuses all repairs*
posted by Hairy Lobster at 1:03 PM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

That tire rack (last bit of the video) is a better driver than some people I've encountered.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:03 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

That power steering leak that shot in like 20 different directions, jfc.
posted by mhoye at 1:19 PM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

aaaagh the cars full of roaches aaaaaaagh
posted by mhoye at 1:49 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

In any given video there’s at least one where they go on to the next before I’ve even figured out what's going on with the current one.

That gives it a weird addictive edge, somehow.
posted by jamjam at 1:59 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

I had to stop after watching a handful of videos, it got too depressing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:12 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Technician: Your "car" is a death trap and you will die.
Customer: *refuses all repairs*

Never having been blatantly lied to by a mechanic is a position of privilege.
posted by LionIndex at 2:20 PM on March 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

i found this weirdly comforting as it's apparently pretty hard to make the wheels ACTUALLY fall off a car
posted by capnsue at 2:23 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

the problem seems to between the steering wheel and seat.
posted by clavdivs at 2:30 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

My stepmother once had a smell of rotten eggs in her car, which can be sign that gasoline has gotten into the catalytic converter. The shop found the cause: an actual rotten egg - an easter egg that had rolled beneath the seat.
posted by ShooBoo at 2:48 PM on March 10, 2023 [14 favorites]

I had a car that was sufficiently simple that I could work on it myself. I'm so pleased it never looked anything like this and that every rando mechanic that I let touch it was actually pretty damn good at their job. I did have some exciting wiring problems where my headlights would drop out and I could bring them back by honking my horn (which sounded like a dying goose because one of the two...boopers?...had gone out). And while I did once accidentally get the interior covered with mold (left it with a friend for a few months who promised she'd move it into her barn but...she did not...during winter in the Willamette Valley...soft top car means moisture inside), it all came out pretty easy with some white vinegar and elbow grease. And maybe I once had a small family of mice living next to the battery...they didn't get up to too much trouble. And even more luckily, any official mechanic I had taken it to for this kind of vehicle had seen worse...so much worse.
posted by amanda at 3:02 PM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

Customer: *refuses all repairs*

Being poor or broke is a bitch.
posted by Mitheral at 3:07 PM on March 10, 2023 [7 favorites]

Being poor or broke is a bitch.

I get that.
I just meant it's disturbing in terms of wondering what state the cars around you are in when you're driving.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 3:10 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of the clips diagnoses a stolen starter. I had that happen to me on a 76 Ford half ton with the 300/6. It was stolen while parked on the street over night on one of the main drags in town. There isn't much to match the WTFness of a no start condition being missing starter.
posted by Mitheral at 3:23 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

Let's be real tho: how many deadly accidents are caused by stuff like this, rather than the usual shit most people (including people in this thread) do all the time, like speeding, eating or looking at their phones?

Hint: the answer is "not very many" (pdf).
posted by klanawa at 3:40 PM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

(haven't watched the videos)

I'm afraid I'm probably the kind of person who gets to be the subject of videos like this.

For example the time I didn't realise that the reason our car wouldn't start was because the battery had been ripped out. Just this gap where it was supposed to be with cartoonish broken wires sticking up.

I'm actually pretty mechanicaly adept, but I have a blind spot when it comes to cars.
posted by Zumbador at 7:42 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best. Of. The. Web.

Thanks for posting!
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:14 PM on March 10, 2023

The compilations are a nice mix of very obvious ones and weird ones, for instance, (The Best of 2022), which includes:
“This vehicle came in as the radio wasn’t working. The technician removed some trim to access the fuse box and noticed that the interior of this vehicle was saturated with curry.”
And
“Customer complains of blue light on dash.” (It’s the high beams.)
posted by Glinn at 9:31 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

So I got into watching the "Best Of" playlists, and ... how the hell do so many cars come in with bullet holes??
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:51 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

My first car (well, technically my second car; my first car was one that my older brother gave me in alleged repayment of a debt--it was in such poor shape that I had difficulty putting the hood back down when I was attempting to get rid of it, I couldn't drive it anyway because I didn't have my license yet, and it took a few years after that to get the rest of what he owed me, but anyway) was one that I got because I needed a car to get to a particular job. This guy I knew said that he'd get me a good cheap car, and the next thing I know he is calling me and saying "I found a car for you for $400, bring the money this afternoon" and then got pissed at me because a) I didn't have the $400 at that precise point in time and b) I hadn't even seen the car in question and never authorized him to promise a purchase on my behalf.

Anyway. The car seemed adequate for the purpose, which was soon proven to be wrong as it was burning transmission fluid, which ended up costing me a ticket and a quick (although not extravagantly expensive) repair. Then I found out that it had, indeed, a "unhinged homebrew wiring job" that caused the headlights to burn out whenever I switched on the high beams. Or just after a while at random, since I of course tried not to use the high beams at all, but still had to replace the bulbs frequently. Eventually, I wrecked it and sold it to someone for $50, and that person restored it to (he said) driveable condition by hooking the front to a tree by a chain and putting it into reverse until it was partially uncrumpled. That car was like Christine in reverse; it seemed to ruin itself when you weren't looking.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:38 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

Oof, that one that had been towed behind an RV while in park. I can just imagine the sparks as it went down the highway.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:25 AM on March 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Get these mother*ing snakes out of my mother*ing radiator.

Seriously, how the hell does a snake get into your coolant, and apparently live?
posted by COD at 8:20 AM on March 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

When I was young I was seeing a girl in Tennessee. We were driving in a fairly good car given to her by her divorced Father when smoke started pouring out of the hood. Turns our she didn't know she was supposed to put oil in it.
posted by aleph at 9:15 AM on March 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I suppose someone has to step in now that Car Talk is off-the-air. I can almost hear them cackling in the background.

Ray Magliozzi's still around; I'd love for someone to record a "Reacts" video with him.
posted by cheshyre at 10:22 AM on March 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Just picked one out at random, and while I don't understand the more technical examples, I love the bowling ball--since it's a clear plastic one, and I can't see what's inside, I can imagine that it's Carmine the Bowler from Mystery Men. Also LOLing at the tracking device that had random bits of rust glued onto it in an attempt to make it not look like a tracking device, which is exactly what it looks like.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:55 AM on March 11, 2023

Last summer we stopped at a red light, & the Sienna van beside us had no tires on the front rims. Two angry-looking men were in the front seats, angrily not looking at each other. Then the light turned green, and they drove away. Possibly to this guy's shop.
posted by sneebler at 2:00 PM on March 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

“car was saturated with curry”

I also like the one where the guy’s friends zip-tied a cowbell to the underside of his car.
posted by bendy at 4:16 PM on March 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

"Customer states there is a weird noise while driving" from r/justrolledintotheshop
posted by Mitheral at 4:55 PM on March 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Got 5 generations of oil, gas and tyre in the family tree. my father had a good story as he worked weekends at a garage when I was very young. this was in Ann Arbor Michigan and a man pulled up in a Packard think a 53' and the tire was flat and the gentleman got out of the car and conferred with my father about what's wrong with his car. both of them walked around it and my father said go ahead and get inside and start up for me, he opened the hood, closed the hood and ask him to shut off the car and the gentleman said what's wrong.

you have a flat tyre.
doesn't end there. this is the day and age when Green stamps were like crack. so the guy starts his car and pulls over to the pump and orders gasoline. Dad tops the tank, wash the windows, check the oil, gave the Green stamps and the man drove away. ba-thump etc. all the way to the physics department parking lot where pop got a wrecker call an hour later.

You take on the run.

bout 1919, my grandmother, when she was 14, her father ordered a REO Speedwagon for the county. one man was assigned to drive and the rest were you know ladder crew and whatnot. One Summer Night there was a fire barn and the guy who drove was sick and my great grandfather wasn't home so grandmother drove the REO Speedwagon to the barn fire. They saved 2 horses and she drove an old electric (Metzger) to the fire house.

One mechanic, who started brake job was in the bay by himself, the rest of us were going over the next haul-ins. Boss said, "Hey Bob, whaz the milage on that F/o/r/d....

"they'll all laugh at you"

posted by clavdivs at 5:30 PM on March 11, 2023

Alternate title: “Thaaat ain’t good”
posted by bendy at 5:55 PM on March 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Alternate alternate: "Well there's your problem!"
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:42 PM on March 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of the clips diagnoses a stolen starter.

A friend of mine at University knocked on my door to see if I could help as her car had the clutch pedal on the floor when she went to drive to the shops and she couldn't get it in gear. I go up there, open the bonnet and stare at the clutch master cylinder area for quite a while before my brain computes that it was...... simply not there. Someone had stolen it. It was such a cheap part (Mini/Metro A series engine parts) that it was odd they'd need to steal it, and I put a new one on inside an hour.
posted by Brockles at 10:22 AM on March 13, 2023 [2 favorites]