At my first internship my car's timing chain snapped on the bw parkway. Harrowing is... An accurate description of the wait for a tow.
It took weeks to get a new engine, luckily my dad was willing and able to pay for a used engine to be installed and I could use public transit to get to work from my newly acquired sublet.
I was doing the "subway to bus to half mile walk" thing for two months or so (almost the whole internship).
I mentioned that I needed to leave at 345 to catch the 4 o'clock bus to a senior coworker and he asked why. I explained the car situation and he said "why don't you just get a new car, they're much nicer."
It was the first time I realized that there were people who simply assumed that driving a 20 year old shitbox was an aesthetic choice or something.
Mind blowing.