Not so funny... That is the rock that blew out 2 tires on my R here at wookie in the woods. Waiting at a hotel for my wife to bring wheels from the dealer.
I know that feel, bro.
Back in November 2004, less than 24 hours after I bought
my old girl, with 800-something miles on it as a dealer demo, I nailed a pothole and killed the right front tire. The wheel made it, but I don't know that the suspension or wheel bearing in that corner has been truly completely right since then. It's hard to really say, since I had all of one day's driving experience with the car before it happened. Other than that, she's mainly had an undramatic life, at least until my daughter got hold of it.
Last year I was coming down I-71 South into downtown Cincinnati, and drove through a big series of pavement chunks that had come loose. I saw two cars on the shoulder that had already lost tires, but I didn't realize why until I nailed a baseball-sized chunk myself. But, this was during my new girl's
86 day $14,300 odyssey so I nailed it with my
service loaner Beetle! She kept driving okay and I only had a mile to go, so I chanced it... found a huge sidewall bubble when I got there. Naturally that's the one day a year I'm wearing a suit, because I'm paying a visit on a stodgy old insurance company, and I had to change a tire in a parking garage to get home.
Best part: I almost made money off that last one.
I drove the service loaner back to the dealer on the spare, and paid up for the tire since it was obviously my responsibility. The way they handled it was to run the loaner through service as if I was the owner. I started getting a bunch of emails afterward, congratulating me on my new 2013 Turbo Beetle. Along with them came a coupon for 10% off my next service. My part of the odyssey was coming up on $4,500 and there was no wording on the coupon about it being restricted to a certain car. I mentioned the coupon to the service manager when I saw her next... she started looking a little queasy. I didn't hold her to it. I knew it would have come out of the tech's pocket, and I didn't want him to hate me and my car while he was working.
Jason